Crowdsourcing a Magna Carta for the Web at the Internet Governance Forum by Harry Halpin.
From the post:
At the Internet Governance Forum this week in Istanbul, we’ve been discussing how to answer the question posed by Tim Berners-Lee and the World Wide Web Foundation at the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Web: What is the Web Web Want? How can a “Magna Carta” for Web rights be crowd-sourced directly from the users of the Web itself?
A session on the Magna Carta (panel and Q&A) is part of the agenda this week at IGF on Thursday [4] September at 10:00 CET in Room 4 and folks can participate remotely over WebEx, IRC, and Twitter. Please tweet your questions about the Magna Carta with #webwewant to Twitter or join the channel #webwewant at irc.freenode.org. The session will be livestreamed.
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Before you get too excited about a Magna Carta for Web rights, recall some of the major events in history of the Magna Carta. Or see: Treasures in Full: Magna Carta (British Library) which includes the ability to read an image of the Magna Carta.
First, the agreement was an attempt to limit the powers of King John by a group of feudal barons, who wanted to protect their rights and property, not those of all subjects of King John. Moreover, both the king and the barons were willing to use force against the other in order to prevail.
The Magna Carta was renounced by King John and there ensued the First Baron’s War (after about three months).
I welcome the conversation but for a Magna Carta for the Web to succeed, sovereign states (read nations) must agree to enforceable limits on their power, much as King John did.
Twenty-five feudal barons, under article 61 of the Magna Carta (originally unnumbered) could enforce the Magna Carta:
Since, moreover, we have conceded all the above things (from reverence) for God, for the reform of our kingdom and the better quieting of the discord that has sprung up between us and our barons, and since we wish these things to flourish unimpaired and unshaken for ever, we constitute and concede to them the following guarantee:- namely, that the barons shall choose any twenty-five barons of the kingdom they wish, who with all their might are to observe, maintain and secure the observance of the peace and rights which we have conceded and confirmed to them by this present charter of ours; in this manner, that if we or our chief Justiciar or our bailiffs or any of our servants in any way do wrong to anyone, or transgress any of the articles of peace or security, and the wrong doing has been demonstrated to four of the aforesaid twenty-five barons, those four barons shall come to us or our chief Justiciar, (if we are out of the kingdom), and laying before us the grievance, shall ask that we will have it redressed without delay. And if we, or our chief Justiciar (should we be out of the kingdom) do not redress the grievance within forty days of the time when it was brought to the notice of us or our chief Justiciar (should we be out of the kingdom), the aforesaid four barons shall refer the case to the rest of the twenty-five barons and those twenty-five barons with the whole community of the land shall distrain and distress us in every way they can, namely by taking of castles, estates and possessions, and in such other ways as they can, excepting (attack on) our person and those of our queen and of our children until, in their judgment, satisfaction has been secured; and when satisfaction has been secured let them behave towards us as they did before. And let anyone in the country who wishes to do so take an oath to obey the orders of the said twenty-five barons in the execution of all the aforesaid matters and with them to oppress us to the best of his ability, and we publicly and freely give permission for the taking the oath to anyone who wishes to take it, and we will never prohibit anyone from taking it. [source: http://www.iamm.com/magnaarticles.htm]
To cut to the chase, the King in Article 61 agrees the twenty-five barons could seize his castles, estates and possessions, excepting they cannot attack the king, queen, and their children, in order to force the king to follow the terms of the Magna Carta.
In modern terms, the barons could seize the Treasury Department, Congress, etc., but not take the President and his family hostage.
Do we have twenty-five feudal barons, by that I mean the global IT companies, willing to join together to enforce a Magna Carta for the Web on nations and principalities?
Without enforcers, a modern Magna Carta for the Web will be a pale imitation of its inspiration.