Date post: | 28-Jan-2015 |
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Consumer Rights IS THE NEW Civil Rights(or Why international trade agreements will override our Constitutions and we should extend the concept of consumer rights to cover civil and political rights in this very age of mobility and digitality if we want to fight back and yes I know this is a very long title)
@bact @thainetizenArthit SuriyawongkulThai Netizen Network
International Conference: Consumer Rightsin the Digital AgeChiang Mai, 3 April 2014
First Things First
● Trans-Pacific Partnership is more than Intellectual Property. Investment Chapter is also worrisome, for example.
● Transparency: I'm not a lawyer. My background is artificial intelligence and anthropology. You have been warned :)
● Not Transparency: TPP "facts" here can be over-exaggerated and extremely outdated. Can't help. We rely on leaked documents. All negotiations are behind the closed doors.
Lead to Summary
● “If Facebook was a country, it’d be larger than China in three years” – DigitalTrends.com 6 Feb 2013
● State is no longer the biggest holder of citizen’ data – Corporate is.● There’s no real public space on the Internet
– Sidewalks online? A piece of land that doesn’t owned by anyone on the Internet.
– Internet physical infrastructure are always owned by someone, mostly by corporations
● These digital spaces are governed by trade laws (many levels).● Data goes more across borders. Different jurisdictions, different
protections.– Stored in one place, processed in another place, to be used in yet another place.
– The strongest protection you can get is from the country that has weakest protection.
Summary
● The more our life goes online, the more our life governed by trade laws (copyright, etc).
● International trade agreements can override local laws.● Membership of one country in a trade agreement can has
vast effect on countries around the world, including countries outside the agreement.
● Consumer rights is now at the center of the fight.● Consumer rights is the new civil/political/human rights. ● Violations goes across border, so should consumer
rights.
Update from Thailand
● Latest draft of Copyright Act Amendment (Dec 2013)
● Adds sections on Technological Protection Measures (digital lock)
● Adds exceptions for the content conversion for the use of the blind
● More analysis of this Bill in Thai Netizen Report 2013 (Chapter “Commons”)
Issues of Concerns
● Digital Locks– Circumvention
● Temporary copies– “Time shift” in TV set-top boxes ← Attn: Broadcasting regulators!
● Content transformation restriction– Blind and deaf – Closed Caption ← Attn: Broadcasting regulators!
● Criminalization of small copyright infringement– Everybody will be criminals
● Parallel imports restriction– Monopoly of knowledge
ShiftingPower-Relations
Pre-Digital DigitalInfrastructure
providersState Companies
Contract Social contract Terms of services
National regulatory frameworks
Bill of Rights, Constitution
Trade and consumer laws
International reg. frameworks
ICCPR, UN mechanisms
International trade agreements
Intent expression Voting Buying(or selling out yourself*)
Population records by Census(every 5-10 years)
Sensor(Real-time)
Population activities space
Within Nation-State border
Cross-border
Types of space Public and Private Almost All Private
Relationship Citizens Consumers(or products*)
What’s that mean?
● We live more and more in private space, owned by some companies. Many time multinational companies.
● Our activities, and the data about them, go more and more across borders.
● International trade agreements are no longer only about trade, they’re more and more about harmonization of different other laws, including civil and criminal laws.
● To protect our civil rights, we need to deal with these “trade” laws and agreements too.
● Consumer rights movement is very important for civil and political rights and it should realized itself about that.
Global Effects
Example: Asian Chat Apps
● “Line, WeChat: Asian social networks move to conquer Europe” – AFP (29 Sep 2013)
● “How WeChat, Line plan to taken on Facebook, Skype” – The Times of India (30 Sep 2013)
● “Asian Messaging Apps WeChat and Line Challenge Silicon Valley. China’s WeChat and Japan’s Line Are Threatening the Global Growth of WhatsApp and Facebook.” – The Wall Street Journal (9 Oct 2013)
Change in Japanese Law Affects More People Outside Japan
MobileChat App
Country of Origin
Number of Users
WhatsApp US 400M
Line Japan 300M(50M in Japan)
WeChat China 300M(200M in China)
KakaoTalk Korea 130M
ChatON Korea 100M
Japan
join TPP?
Summary
● The more our life goes online, the more our life governed by trade laws (copyright, etc).
● International trade agreements can override local laws.
● Membership of one country in a trade agreement can has vast effect on countries around the world, including countries outside the agreement.
● Consumer rights is now at the center of the fight.
Consumer Rights is the New Civil Rights.
Consumer Rights movement in the Digital Age should goes across borders.
International Principles on the Application of Human Rights to Communications Surveillance
necessaryandproportionate.org