A congress looking to save the Internet

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."