Internet access is 'a fundamental right' Options

[Gertie Keddle]

Internet access is 'a fundamental right'
BBC
Excerpt:


Almost four in five people around the world believe that access to the internet is a fundamental right, a poll for the BBC World Service suggests.

The survey - of more than 27,000 adults across 26 countries - found strong support for net access on both sides of the digital divide.

Countries such as Finland and Estonia have already ruled that access is a human right for their citizens.

International bodies such as the UN are also pushing for universal net access.

"The right to communicate cannot be ignored," Dr Hamadoun Toure, secretary-general of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), told BBC News.

"The internet is the most powerful potential source of enlightenment ever created."

He said that governments must "regard the internet as basic infrastructure - just like roads, waste and water".

"We have entered the knowledge society and everyone must have access to participate."

Article



So, where's my free iPhone so I can have full expression of this right to connectivity?

[UnderSurveillanc...]

Complaining about movie casting, politics and surfing porn online are fundamental rights?

[SARGE]

Internet access is 'a fundamental right'
BBC
Excerpt:


Almost four in five people around the world believe that access to the internet is a fundamental right, a poll for the BBC World Service suggests.

The survey - of more than 27,000 adults across 26 countries - found strong support for net access on both sides of the digital divide.

Countries such as Finland and Estonia have already ruled that access is a human right for their citizens.

International bodies such as the UN are also pushing for universal net access.

"The right to communicate cannot be ignored," Dr Hamadoun Toure, secretary-general of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), told BBC News.

"The internet is the most powerful potential source of enlightenment ever created."

He said that governments must "regard the internet as basic infrastructure - just like roads, waste and water".

"We have entered the knowledge society and everyone must have access to participate."

Article



So, where's my free iPhone so I can have full expression of this right to connectivity?

Sure.

You have the right to BUY Internet access if it's available.

[Kelev]

I'm calling B.S.

Use it for terrorist activities or other illegal activities and you LOSE it...

ergo Internet is NOT a "fundamental right"

[xtremeright]

Internet access is 'a fundamental right'
BBC
Excerpt:


Almost four in five people around the world believe that access to the internet is a fundamental right, a poll for the BBC World Service suggests.

The survey - of more than 27,000 adults across 26 countries - found strong support for net access on both sides of the digital divide.

Countries such as Finland and Estonia have already ruled that access is a human right for their citizens.

International bodies such as the UN are also pushing for universal net access.

"The right to communicate cannot be ignored," Dr Hamadoun Toure, secretary-general of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), told BBC News.

"The internet is the most powerful potential source of enlightenment ever created."

He said that governments must "regard the internet as basic infrastructure - just like roads, waste and water".

"We have entered the knowledge society and everyone must have access to participate."

Article



So, where's my free iPhone so I can have full expression of this right to connectivity?

(IMG:http://www.rightnation.us/forums/style_emoticons/default/headbang.gif)

[Whitey]

Internet access is 'a fundamental right'
BBC
Excerpt:


Almost four in five people around the world believe that access to the internet is a fundamental right, a poll for the BBC World Service suggests.

The survey - of more than 27,000 adults across 26 countries - found strong support for net access on both sides of the digital divide.

Countries such as Finland and Estonia have already ruled that access is a human right for their citizens.

International bodies such as the UN are also pushing for universal net access.

"The right to communicate cannot be ignored," Dr Hamadoun Toure, secretary-general of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), told BBC News.

"The internet is the most powerful potential source of enlightenment ever created."

He said that governments must "regard the internet as basic infrastructure - just like roads, waste and water".

"We have entered the knowledge society and everyone must have access to participate."

Article



So, where's my free iPhone so I can have full expression of this right to connectivity?

I keep telling this to QWEST when they send me a bill but they are not listening. They are trampling on my rights! (IMG:http://www.rightnation.us/forums/style_emoticons/default/rant.gif)

This post has been edited by Whitey: Mar 8 2010, 05:09 PM

[Stevonidas]

I keep telling this to QWEST when they send me a bill but they are not listening. They are trampling on my rights! (IMG:http://www.rightnation.us/forums/style_emoticons/default/rant.gif)

(IMG:http://www.rightnation.us/forums/style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

[Magic Rat]

Anything that needs someone to pay for it can't be a "right". Like PJ O'Rourke said: "You have the right to own guns, you don't have the right to take one without paying for it."

[Hercules]

PAY FOR IT AND IT IS YOURS!

I am NOT going to pay for 'YOURS'!

[leftcoast, right...]

Hmmm... Most of the Fundamentalists bible thumpers I've met think it's a tool of Satan. (IMG:http://www.rightnation.us/forums/style_emoticons/default/devil-smiley-073.gif)

[alamanni]

Liberal Dictionary definition:

"fundamental right" = government freebie

[SARGE]

Hmmm... Most of the Fundamentalists bible thumpers I've met think it's a tool of Satan. (IMG:http://www.rightnation.us/forums/style_emoticons/default/devil-smiley-073.gif)

(IMG:http://www.rightnation.us/forums/style_emoticons/default/holysheep.gif) (IMG:http://www.rightnation.us/forums/style_emoticons/default/sm12.gif)

[cobalt-blue]

Nobody has a right to anything that requires taking the fruits of another person's labor or requires another person to act.

[USNJIMRET]

While I completely disagree that it is any kind of "right", it will be soon enough.
Or it will be treated that way.
Don't believe it?
Think there is something that can be done to stop it?
Look at you next phone bill, and notice how many little, as in a small percent, fees and taxes are in that thing to pay for all manner of free, or reduced cost, telephone access to under privileged and others who can't or won't pay their own way. Devices for the hard of hearing, universal access charges, and a bunch of other little bitty fees that don't amount to much on any one bill, but multiply across the entire telephone using systems....it's billions. All to pay for the "right" that everyone has to telephone access.
Bet your butt that there will soon enough be a call for some tiny little fee or tax or access charge for INTERNET usage, to pay for others who can't, or won't, pay their own way.
Guarantee.

[laziter]

If it's a fundamental right why do they think that they then have the right to tax it?

[Martin]

Absolutely right, USNJIMRET. Last time I checked, one-fourth of my cell phone bill was taxes, including those passed off as "user fees" for services other people use.

[horseman]

I would say that internet access is one of those "happynesses" you are supposed to pursue on your own.

ETA: Or "happinesses" even.

This post has been edited by horseman: Mar 9 2010, 01:03 PM

[Noclevermoniker]

Complaining about movie casting, politics and surfing porn online are fundamental rights?

What are you? New????

(IMG:http://www.rightnation.us/forums/style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

[random_stuff]

Almost four in five people around the world believe that access to the internet is a fundamental right, a poll for the BBC World Service suggests.

"Almost four in five" are wrong.

[Adam Smithee]

... He said that governments must "regard the internet as basic infrastructure - just like roads, waste and water".

"We have entered the knowledge society and everyone must have access to participate."

Article

So, where's my free iPhone so I can have full expression of this right to connectivity?

I do agree with the author's comparison of internet to infrastructure. And as such, I think certain fundamental 'rights' - but ONLY certain rights - do attach in at least a limited way.

Comparing it to roads, I have as much 'right' to use the road as anyone else. Of course, the government's not going to buy me a new Cadillac or pay for my fuel, but the 'right' to use that road exists nonetheless. That is to say, once I've bought the car and the fuel, paid the tolls and licensing fees etc, I can use that road as much as I wish and go wherever I want whenever I want withoiut anyone's permission whatsoever. I do not have to file a trip report with anyone.

As Americans, we take this right for granted. Let's not forget that the rest of the world hasn't always seen it this way. Take, for instance, being in Germany in the 1930s, or the Soviet Union even more recently, where to use the road you had to have the right 'papers' giving you permission to go from point A to point B.

Or take the right to Free Speech. I'm entitled to free speech, but I'm not entitled to a free typewriter. However once I buy a typewriter I may use it any way I wish as long as I don't interfere with anyone else's rights. Far cry from the soviet union where one needed government permission to own a typewriter and all typewriters were registered.

To this extent - and ONLY to this extent - I think the 'right' to use the internet does exist. So if others who know firsthand that such rights can't always be taken for granted wish to define it as a 'right', then I have no quarrel with the concept.