Presentation given on 18 November 2010 at European Media Days in Luxembourg's CNA (national audiovisual centre)

1. Openness and innovation in the
information society
Dr Ian Brown
Oxford Internet Institute
University of Oxford

2. Outline
 Open licences and data: creativity, innovation and accountability
 Web blocking, three strikes and freedom of expression
 Network neutrality, appliances and generativity

3. Open Access licences
 Creative Commons (100m+ items on Flickr; 16m+
Wikipedia articles in 272 languages) and GNU
General Public Licence (Linux, Firefox…)
 OpenCourseWare: 1900+ courses so that
”everyone, everywhere is able to access
affordable, educationally and culturally
appropriate opportunities to gain whatever
knowledge or training they desire”
 Open access journals, textbooks, Shakespeare…

4. data.gov.uk

6. Web blocking and traffic management
 Article 12(1) Directive 2000/31/EC: “Member States shall ensure that the service
provider is not liable for the information transmitted”
 Ofcom: “it is widely accepted that the blocking of illegal content (such as images
of child abuse) is necessary and that steps taken to address issues such as online
copyright infringement would be viewed as acceptable traffic management.”
(Traffic Management and 'net neutrality’ §2.8, June 2010)
 “I want it out - blocking has never helped a single child”. “Lots of organizations
have been calling for deletion and furthermore there is no scientific evidence
that blocking is effective. With blocking the illegal content is still on the net” “we
run the risk of censorship on the Internet” and “we don’t want an infrastructure
in Europe which would lead to blocking other material” –P. Kammerevert MEP

7. Implications for freedom of expression
 “Calls on the Commission and the Member States to recognise that the
Internet is a vast platform for cultural expression, access to knowledge, and
democratic participation in European creativity, bringing generations
together through the information society; calls on the Commission and the
Member States, therefore, to avoid adopting measures conflicting with civil
liberties and human rights and with the principles of proportionality,
effectiveness and dissuasiveness, such as the interruption of Internet
access.” -European Parliament, 10 Apr 2008

8. The Internet as a platform for innovation
vs.

9. Net neutrality and competition regulation
 Is transparency from ISPs combined with low switching costs sufficient to
protect innovation?
 “In times of crisis and uncertainty, economic operators will cling to
situations and models that were profitable to them in the past. But
growth opportunities sometimes require change and it is for politicians
and regulators to accompany this change to the benefit of the citizens and
the economy as a whole.” –Commissioner Joaquin Almunia, 7/7/10

10. Democratic participation
 “I think it is really important to show the economic argument behind getting
people online. By being online there are massive savings for people
personally, rich rewards for their career prospects and also big savings for
the government… Eighty per cent of the government’s interaction with
people is with the deprived members of our society.” –Martha Lane Fox,
launching Race Online 2012 UK govt campaign
 MyBarackObama.com: 2 million profiles; 200,000 offline events were
planned, about 400,000 blog posts were written and more than 35,000
volunteer groups were created

11. Conclusions
 Open access licences can enable peer production of knowledge accessible
to the global population, and support greater government transparency
 Governments and industry stakeholders are keen for ISPs to be responsible
for blocking access to illegal content – but this has serious implications for
freedom of expression and innovation
 Absent network neutrality and open platforms, the Internet’s disruptive
potential may be reduced – along with citizens’ opportunities for
democratic participation

12. References
 Yochai Benkler (2006) The Wealth of Networks, Yale University Press
 Ian Brown (2008) Internet filtering — be careful what you ask for. In S. Kirca
and L. Hanson (eds.) Freedom and Prejudice: Approaches to Media and
Culture, Bahcesehir University Press, 74-91
 Christopher Marsden (2009) Net Neutrality: Towards a Co-Regulatory
Solution, Bloomsbury Academic Press
 Jonathan Zittrain (2008) The Future of the Internet: and how to stop it, Yale
University Press