"First Internet Commons Congress Gives Voice to Internet Freedom Advocates"

Grant Gross, IDG News Service, March 31, 2004

The politically minded group of people meeting last week near Washington,
D.C., weren't wearing enough navy suits and power ties to be confused with
the U.S. Congress, but there was a much deeper concern for the Internet than
most congressmen can muster.In a city that rewards big lobbying budgets and high-power connections, the
150 attendees of the Internet Commons Congress, which met last week in
Rockville, Maryland, were mostly Washington outsiders working on grassroots
campaigns often focused on changing the status quo.

This first Internet Commons Congress (ICC), organized by telecommunications
analyst Daniel Berninger and New Yorkers for Fair Use, brought together
several Internet communities, including members of free speech groups, the
free software movement and privacy activists.

The idea for the event came from "the observation that there's only one
Internet, but there are hundreds of campaigns to save the Internet,"
Berninger said. "There haven't been many victories among the grassroots and
open Internet. If the leaders of these campaigns communicate ... we can be a
more effective force."

Berninger gave the closing of the first version of Napster as a defeat for
open Internet advocates, even though more than 60 million people used the
download service. "That's enough people to elect a president, but not enough
to stop Napster from shutting down," he said.

Berninger, who cofounded the VON Coalition and a handful of voice over
Internet Protocol (VOIP) companies, hopes to organize similar events every
couple of months, in an effort to organize the free Internet troops. A
second event, focusing on an Internet commons treaty, is scheduled for May
in Washington.

ICC participants debated issues ranging from Internet architecture to media
concentration, from VOIP regulation to e-voting. Richard Stallman, leader of
the free software movement, called in from a hospital bed and called for all
encyclopedias, dictionaries and learning materials to be distributed for
free.

"If they aren't free, we should make (alternatives) and make the cost ones
obsolete," Stallman said.

Stallman also railed against the current state of democracy in the U.S.,
saying public opinion takes a back seat to lobbying in all but a few major
issues. "We are in an era when democracy exists in form but not in
substance," he added. "The sickness of democracy takes away the legitimacy
of government and its actions."

While not all participants went as far as Stallman -- there were even some
suit-wearers in the audience -- organizers of the ICC did send out this
notice before the event:

"The attack is wide and pervasive. Even our right to own and use computers
inside our homes and offices, is under attack. The time has come to assemble
and declare our rights. We call upon advocates and organizers, authors and
coworkers, readers and singers, politicians and students, grandmothers and
children of all ages ... to join us."

Ian Peter, an Australian Internet pioneer, had a choice whether to attend
the Internet Commons Congress or attend a United Nations summit on Internet
governance in New York. "What goes on in this room is far more important to
the future of the Internet than what's going on in New York," Peter told ICC
attendees.

The first ICC was a big success in getting Internet activists who'd never
met to talk to each other and take the first steps toward presenting a
united front, said Jay Sulzberger, who helped organize the ICC event and is
a member of New Yorkers for Fair Use. "They are fighting on different
fronts, but it's all the same war," he said of attendees. "There are a lot
of agencies and a lot of senators and congressmen who'd be glad to hear from
a lot of groups at once."

Sulzberger believes ICC will be the first step into organizing a more
effective voice for Internet freedom advocates, he said. "I think that
things have changed," he said of the event's effect. "There's cooperation,
there's the hard line, and there's going on the offensive."