Around the Net
Congressmen Draft "Digital Bill Of Rights"
- The Verge, Wednesday, June 13, 2012 12:20 PM
To prevent piecemeal laws like SOPA and CISPA from over-regulating the Web, some industrious U.S. Congressmen have started work on a crowd-sourced digital bill of rights. Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Representative Darrell Issa (R-CA) have created a Web site called keeptheweb#open, where everyone is encouraged to contribute.
“In its current from, the digital bill of rights would mandate first and foremost that ‘digital citizens have a right to a free, uncensored Internet,” The Verge reports. The second item on the list says that “digital citizens have a right to an open, unobstructed Internet," which, as The Verge notes, reads very similarly to the first rule. “In fact, limited government regulation of the internet is a common theme across most items in the legislation.” Unfortunately, the bill of rights doesn't include specific legal language that would protect copyright owners, i.e., the central issue that SOPA intended to address.
Instead, the bill puts forth that: "Digital citizens have a right to benefit from what they create, and be secure in their intellectual property on the internet." As The Verge points out, “This statement doesn't address how copyright infringement will be enforced or prevented -- both of which are crucial elements needed to satisfy the enormous influence of commercial entities.”
