Consumer Rights IS THE NEW Civil Rights(or Why international trade agreements will override our Constitutions and we should extend the concept of consumer rights to cover civil and political rights in this very age of mobility and digitality if we want to fight back and yes I know this is a very long title)

@bact @thainetizenArthit SuriyawongkulThai Netizen Network

International Conference: Consumer Rightsin the Digital AgeChiang Mai, 3 April 2014

First Things First

● Trans-Pacific Partnership is more than Intellectual Property. Investment Chapter is also worrisome, for example.

● Transparency: I'm not a lawyer. My background is artificial intelligence and anthropology. You have been warned :)

● Not Transparency: TPP "facts" here can be over-exaggerated and extremely outdated. Can't help. We rely on leaked documents. All negotiations are behind the closed doors.

Lead to Summary

● “If Facebook was a country, it’d be larger than China in three years” – DigitalTrends.com 6 Feb 2013

● State is no longer the biggest holder of citizen’ data – Corporate is.● There’s no real public space on the Internet

– Sidewalks online? A piece of land that doesn’t owned by anyone on the Internet.

– Internet physical infrastructure are always owned by someone, mostly by corporations

● These digital spaces are governed by trade laws (many levels).● Data goes more across borders. Different jurisdictions, different

protections.– Stored in one place, processed in another place, to be used in yet another place.

– The strongest protection you can get is from the country that has weakest protection.

Summary

● The more our life goes online, the more our life governed by trade laws (copyright, etc).

● International trade agreements can override local laws.● Membership of one country in a trade agreement can has

vast effect on countries around the world, including countries outside the agreement.

● Consumer rights is now at the center of the fight.● Consumer rights is the new civil/political/human rights. ● Violations goes across border, so should consumer

rights.

Update from Thailand

● Latest draft of Copyright Act Amendment (Dec 2013)

● Adds sections on Technological Protection Measures (digital lock)

● Adds exceptions for the content conversion for the use of the blind

● More analysis of this Bill in Thai Netizen Report 2013 (Chapter “Commons”)

Issues of Concerns

● Digital Locks– Circumvention

● Temporary copies– “Time shift” in TV set-top boxes ← Attn: Broadcasting regulators!

● Content transformation restriction– Blind and deaf – Closed Caption ← Attn: Broadcasting regulators!

● Criminalization of small copyright infringement– Everybody will be criminals

● Parallel imports restriction– Monopoly of knowledge

ShiftingPower-Relations

Pre-Digital DigitalInfrastructure

providersState Companies

Contract Social contract Terms of services

National regulatory frameworks

Bill of Rights, Constitution

Trade and consumer laws

International reg. frameworks

ICCPR, UN mechanisms

International trade agreements

Intent expression Voting Buying(or selling out yourself*)

Population records by Census(every 5-10 years)

Sensor(Real-time)

Population activities space

Within Nation-State border

Cross-border

Types of space Public and Private Almost All Private

Relationship Citizens Consumers(or products*)

What’s that mean?

● We live more and more in private space, owned by some companies. Many time multinational companies.

● Our activities, and the data about them, go more and more across borders.

● International trade agreements are no longer only about trade, they’re more and more about harmonization of different other laws, including civil and criminal laws.

● To protect our civil rights, we need to deal with these “trade” laws and agreements too.

● Consumer rights movement is very important for civil and political rights and it should realized itself about that.

Global Effects

Example: Asian Chat Apps

● “Line, WeChat: Asian social networks move to conquer Europe” – AFP (29 Sep 2013)

● “How WeChat, Line plan to taken on Facebook, Skype” – The Times of India (30 Sep 2013)

● “Asian Messaging Apps WeChat and Line Challenge Silicon Valley. China’s WeChat and Japan’s Line Are Threatening the Global Growth of WhatsApp and Facebook.” – The Wall Street Journal (9 Oct 2013)

Change in Japanese Law Affects More People Outside Japan

MobileChat App

Country of Origin

Number of Users

WhatsApp US 400M

Line Japan 300M(50M in Japan)

WeChat China 300M(200M in China)

KakaoTalk Korea 130M

ChatON Korea 100M

Japan

join TPP?

Summary

● The more our life goes online, the more our life governed by trade laws (copyright, etc).

● International trade agreements can override local laws.

● Membership of one country in a trade agreement can has vast effect on countries around the world, including countries outside the agreement.

● Consumer rights is now at the center of the fight.

Consumer Rights is the New Civil Rights.

Consumer Rights movement in the Digital Age should goes across borders.

International Principles on the Application of Human Rights to Communications Surveillance

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@bact Arthit Suriyawongkularthit@thainetizen.org