PDC: Digital liberties policy

This Working Group (WG) was established by the Policy Development Committee (PDC) on 20 February 2013. The working group was tasked with developing policy related to the protection of digital liberties. It was chaired by Ben McGinnes and has prepared the following policy text for potential adoption by PPAU.

Platform amendment
The grassroots nature of the Internet is causing considerable disruption to traditional power structures.[1] Unsurprisingly, this is leading to push-back: corporate and government entities have been trying for years to increase control over the Internet through a range of measures including censorship, reduction of access, treaties to reduce the rights of Internet users, and ever-broader surveillance and monitoring powers.[2]

Attempts to control the Internet take different forms over time, but all are justified through references to crime and other undesirable activities. They also all share one critical flaw: they are easily evaded by those with technical knowledge. They ultimately reduce the freedoms of the public while doing nothing to curb criminal behaviour. The Pirate Party will always defend the founding principles of the Internet, and resist any and all attempts to control it. A fast and free Internet, open to all, is a safeguard not just for our economy and culture, but for our basic rights.

Net Neutrality
Net Neutrality is a fundamental principle behind the development of the internet. It ensures that the internet is free and open to all by preventing gatekeepers from blocking, speeding up, or slowing down content based on the source, destination or owner. Net Neutrality guarantees that even the smallest entrepreneurs have the same access standards as established firms.[3] The absence of such a guarantee would represent a perpetual threat to generations of new entrants.

Content providers and ISPs have undermined Net Neutrality by seeking to differentiate among different forms of information and data flow, and impose priorities.[4] Abandoning Net Neutrality and subjecting internet traffic to a commercial veto will hurt competition and innovation, and allow service providers to preference or block protocols and force consumers to use less desirable options.

Free, open and non-discriminatory access to the Internet is essential for our democracy and for our economic well-being and the Pirate Party will seek the adoption of clear Net Neutrality principles to protect the internet from the introduction of any discriminatory practices.

Data retention
Surveillance of the public is expanding constantly, and has reached a point which threatens essential trust between the state and the citizen.

Plans have been tabled to expand surveillance further which would force ISPs to retain telephone and internet data for 2 years, and force people to reveal their passwords on demand. This is a gross invasion of privacy and will create a vast database of material. Ultimately this database could become accessible through many channels not mentioned in the legislation, including subpoenas. The database will pose little threat to criminal activity, since many technical avenues currently exist through which data retention can be avoided.

Censorship
Internet censorship proposals create a permanent infrastructure for web blocking, and connect it to a permanently shifting category of banned content. The RC classification has been altered frequently by parliament and has become patchwork and inconsistent.[6] We believe that the government should look to adequately funding law enforcement, removing illegal content and prosecuting those responsible for the manufacture of the material, rather than funding a filter that slows connection speeds, is liable to wrongly block websites and is easily circumvented.

Households may choose censorship programs for their own use, but that is the prerogative of parents: they must be permitted to make decisions for their own families, and the government should trust them to do so responsibly.

Policy text
Provide universal access to a fast, neutral Internet
 * Institute a common carriage agreement and legal protection for Net Neutrality, and ban the practice of screening, or prioritizing traffic based on packet sources or destinations, unless
 * 1) The default package offered to the user of an ISP contains no such screening or prioritising; and
 * 2) The user can opt-in to a package that will prioritise certain types of traffic by protocol or destination.
 * Allow exceptions in the case of a court order.
 * Allow generic prioritisation of traffic based on protocol types defined by the IETF.
 * Support the installation of fibre-to-the-home Internet connections wherever possible.

Prevent the institution of a state-mandated data retention regime
 * Oppose and repeal any legal mechanisms enacted to create records of Internet use among the general public.
 * Securely delete any data collected though such a regime.

Prevent the institution of Internet censorship
 * Oppose and repeal any mandatory censorship architecture.
 * Linking should not be a crime.

Reform the classification system
 * Remove the catch-all "Refused Classification" category from any classification systems.