This document is not meant to be a static work, but rather is intended to evolve over time as circumstances and developments warrant. We hope it will serve to help advance discussion and debate regarding these crucial issues which are increasingly affecting all of us around the world.

Lauren Weinstein (lauren@pfir.org)
Peter G. Neumann (neumann@pfir.org)
Co-Founders
PFIR - People For Internet Responsibility
http://www.pfir.org

BASIC PRINCIPLES
• The Internet is a global resource for which the goals of maximum compatibility, interoperability, and open communications need to be vigorously encouraged and defended. Applications, business plans and schemes, or other projects or firms that detract from these goals should be discouraged and shunned.

• While the ultimate control over their own countries' Internet operations should always be maintained by individual domestic governments, and existing Internet technical and other organizations have important and continuing responsibilities, there is a need for a new international, formally representative organization to specifically help frame operational recommendations and suggested standards for dealing with the many policy, societal, and other issues that relate to the Internet on an international basis.

• The Internet should not be used in manners that compromise the medical, financial, or other personal information of any persons or that otherwise detract from their well-being. The Internet must not become an excuse for all manner of prying into individuals' personal affairs -- especially that which would be unacceptable in a non-Internet environment.

• Decisions regarding the present and future of the Internet should take into account not only the developed countries of the world that currently make up most of the Net's usage, but also should encompass the current and future needs of developing countries and persons who have yet to share these resources in an effective manner.

MONITORING
• Users of the Internet should be able to avail themselves of the resources of the Net without being routinely tracked or monitored without their explicit permission and awareness. Any commercial tracking or monitoring of users should be wholly on an opt-in basis without financial or other coercion of any kind. Any government-based tracking or monitoring of users should occur only in clearly defined circumstances under appropriate court orders.

CONTENT FILTERING, E-MAIL ISSUES
• Content-filtering systems (for e-mail, Web, etc.), due to their serious deficiencies relating to inappropriate blocking of materials, should not be mandated by governments or otherwise imposed on a non-voluntary basis on public or private facilities. Filtering or blocking systems that prevent public disclosure of the entire contents of their filtering/blocking lists should not be used under any circumstances.

• Unsolicited bulk e-mail ("spam") in any form is unacceptable. Systems that attempt to obscure the origin of ads or other solicitations in Web or e-mail materials are also not acceptable. However, systems to block such materials or laws to criminalize such activities must be very carefully defined so as not to trample on legitimate speech concerns and queries.

SECURITY, INTEGRITY, AUTHENTICATION, PRIVACY, HACKING
• Electronic signatures which have the force of law, in the absence of clearly mandated, vetted, and agreed-upon technical standards and procedures for resolution of disputes relating to the use of such signatures are highly risky and subject to a range of frauds and other problems. Nobody should be coerced into using electronic signatures by financial incentives or other means.

• Voting or voter registration over the Internet, given currently available or visualized technology, would be an invitation to fraud and other serious problems. Such systems should be strongly discouraged at this time.

• Attacks against Internet systems are becoming major problems. Such attacks may be aimed at criminal exploitation and theft, denial of service, exploration, defacement, or a variety of other purposes, and can in some cases be increasingly disruptive of important services and infrastructures. It is crucial that sites take responsibility to help assure their own maximal security whenever possible. It is also important that criminal penalties associated with such attacks take into account the specifics of particular offenses and the nature of the offenders in any given case in a realistic and balanced manner.

• Use of the Internet requires responsibility. A balance should be sought regarding "anonymous" Internet speech to enhance its positive uses for legitimate purposes, but discourage its ability to be used for fraud, libel, or other criminal activities.

• All programs downloaded or otherwise obtained by users of the Internet should be required to clearly and directly explain their full functionality before final installation. Programs that create "surreptitious" back-channels of information flow regarding which the user is not fully and clearly informed are unacceptable under all circumstances.

• Systems that alter the appearance of displayed Web sites or Web site materials without the explicit permission of the sites' authors, in such a manner as to confuse, obscure, or complicate issues of authorship, responsibility, and/or affiliations related to such materials, are not acceptable.

• In the absence of other evidence, direct relationships, or specific violations of law, the mere presence of a Web link to another unaffiliated site should not imply agreement nor affiliation with the destination sites' materials, nor in such a circumstance should such a Web link subject the original site to sanctions based on the destination sites' materials.

GOVERNMENT ISSUES
• Users of the Internet should be free to employ encryption of their choice on any of their communications, as they see fit. Use of encryption should not be considered to be evidence of illicit behavior in and of itself, but rather should be viewed as a necessity to help attain a reasonable level of security on the the distributed, global, public network which is the Internet.

• Attempts by specific governments or jurisdictions (even with the most laudable of motives) to extend their individual influence and/or control to Internet materials based in other locations -- via lawsuits, criminal prosecutions, or international treaties, are misguided, impractical, and potentially highly disruptive to Internet communications and free speech around the world.

• Any facets of laws (e.g., the Digital Millennium Copyright Act) that attempt to criminalize the mere act of describing the technical deficiencies in computing or other technical systems carry high and potentially dangerous risks and are unacceptable abridgements of free speech.

COMMERCIAL CONSIDERATIONS
• The needs and concerns of ordinary individuals and non-profit-making entities are at least as important as the needs and concerns of those entities in the for-profit world. Decisions regarding the Internet should allow individuals, and both the non-profit and for-profit arenas, to participate equally without "costs of entry" that effectively bar other than for-profit participation.

• While the concerns, rights, and needs of legitimate "intellectual property" holders need to be appropriately respected within the Internet environment, it must also be realized that there needs to be balance in a fair manner with the concerns, rights, and needs of individuals and the community at large, and that purely financial considerations should not necessarily win out in all conflicts and circumstances relating to the Internet.

• Patent applications and patents related to simple Internet activities are often inappropriate. Such patents and patent applications should be viewed with considerable skepticism and are frequently deserving of being overturned or denied.

CONCLUDING CAVEAT ("You knew the job was dangerous when you took it!")
• Given the very broad range of Internet concerns and our modern societies, many of the issues described in the preceding text could be categorized differently and will interact in complex and sometimes contradictory ways. Nobody said that this would be easy!