OpenMedia crafts plan to unshackle Internet with help of more than 250,000 Canadians

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      A Vancouver-based Internet-freedom group has unveiled a plan to combat Canada's "digital deficit".

      And it says that it was compiled after crowdsourcing opinions from more than 250,000 people across the country.

      OpenMedia's political platform opens with a mission statement: "Canadians pay some of the highest prices in the world for Internet service and we increasingly face online censorship and widespread surveillance."

      Entitled "Canada's Digital Future", it does not recommend any political party. Instead, it advances recommendations in three broad areas: privacy, access, and free expression.

      Under the "privacy" category, its first key recommendation is simply entitled "Get a Warrant".

      "Completely repeal Bill C-51, and forbid the government from spying on the private communications and activities of law-abiding residents of Canada, whether domestically or through international partners, without a warrant inssued by an open court," it states.

      OpenMedia's second key policy plank in this area is "End Mass Surveillance".

      "Put an end to blanket surveillance and the bulk collection of metadata," the platform states.

      The third key recommendation under privacy is "Embrace Accountability", which entails "stronger oversight for government spy agencies, and increased transparency for government surveillance activities".

      Under "access", it calls for more choice for consumers by opening up networks with "fair rules that ensure Canadians enjoy unrestrained choice from more affordable independent Internet providers".

      OpenMedia is also demanding expanded access, including "significant investments to ensure faster, cheaper next-generation Internet services across the country".

      There's also a call to promote innovation.

      "Embrace citizen-based oversight of telecom networks to ensure net neutrality (Internet openness) rules prevail on all platforms," the group states.

      OpenMedia relies on crowdsourcing to advance free expression.

      Under the "free expression" category, OpenMedia wants the next government to respect creators by empowering them to "remix, reuse, and recycle content into new works".

      In addition, it recommends adopting copyright and other digital policies that "promote access to knowledge and culture, enable online commerce and prevent censorship".

      "Copyright and other digital policies should be produced through participatory, democratic and transparent processes," OpenMedia states.

      OpenMedia was founded in Vancouver in 2008 by Steve Anderson, who studied communications at SFU.

      Comments

      2 Comments

      Regis Chapman

      Aug 28, 2015 at 10:20pm

      The world needs this solution to this zero-world problem. Technology has gone so far beyond the simple "because we can do a thing means we will do a thing". It's simple mind control.