Our Digital Future / OpenMedia.ca / CC BY-NC-SA
OpenMedia.ca have recently released Our Digital Future: A Crowdsourced Agenda for Free Expression, a guide to help change existing copyright laws into something more sensible. OpenMedia developed the publication through direct consultation with citizens around the world. 40,079 participants, coming from an impressive 155 countries around the world, used a crowdsourcing tool to help craft a plan for a fair deal for users and creators. Aided by many organizations that care about free expression on the internet, these participants proposed a new approach to sensible copyright laws organized around three principles: respect for creators, the primacy of free expression, and accessible democratic processes.
OpenMedia’s report makes a clear and compelling case for a better copyright framework: one that is authored by citizens, developed in the open, and for the benefit of everyone. Too often monied interests and secret negotiations like the TPP work against the commons, and against the important sharing of knowledge. As a result, real citizens lose not only their rights but also their incentives to do right.
We at the Star encourage our readers to help OpenMedia to make its thoughtful recommendations a reality, and we hope that this report inspires many more to join the movement.
