Free network definition

ideas to think about, make better, hack on, from venessa miemis:

- access to a global communication infrastructure should be a human right

- i should be able to exchange value directly with a peer without third party involvement

- i should have control over the data that i generate

- it is my right to know how third parties are using my personal data

- i should have the capacity to allow or deny access to aspects of my data

almost there:

You do not yet realize it, but even as you read this, a battle rages in our midst. It is a battle for freedom, for sovereignty, and for our collective future. The fundamental dialectic of our struggle is this: will we be enslaved by our technology, or liberated by it?

The question is as old as civilization itself, and speaks directly to the trajectory of history's arc. Still, as the pace of innovation acceleartes, it becomes increasingly clear that something new and still unnervving approaches. Take a long enough view of the processes that surround us, and you'll begin to recognize the singular gravity of the here-and-now. This very moment is the dawn of a new age - information moves the world now, and there's no going back.

It was in full cognizance of this notion, and in service to our collective freedom that Richard Stallman started the Free Software Foundation. The newly formed Free Network Foundation continues that tradition, and seeks to intensify the struggle for our freedom as we enter this most critical hour.

The free software movement has thrived in part because they have made it exceedingly easy to differentiate between free and unfree code. They have done so through the definition of free software embodied in the GNU project's 'four freedoms.' It is in this spirit that we aim here to define exactly what it means to say that a network is free. We hope that the existence of such a definition will highlight the ways in which our current network, the Internet, is unfree, and help illuminate the path to a freer world.

We specify five freedoms. In a word each, they are access, transmission, storage, authentication, and consignment. Let's go through them now, one by one, understand what they mean, and measure the ways in which they do or do not exist today.

Freedom 0) The freedom to access the network without tariff.

Tariff here means price above cost. In today's world, internet service providers and telecommunications firms charge heavy fees to gain access to the network. Our right to peacably assemble in cyberspace is being restricted - we must not allow this erosing. The Free Network Foundation aims to combat this practice by assisting in the formation of network access cooperatives on the local and regional level. We envision a world where the only cost that one pays to access the network is the cost of operating a network node.

Freedom 1) The freedom to transmit bits from peer to peer without the prospect of interference, interception or censorship.

Today's Internet exhibits an architecture of centralized command and control. This makes the network far too succeptible to breakdowns, both accidental and intentional. The truth of this sentiment is manifest, from the recent outage of Amazon Web Services to the network shutdown during the Egyptian uprising. Moreover, choke points make it far too easy for bit movers to look inside the packets they are transporting. So called 'traffic shaping' is already an accepted practice, even in the United States. The ability of governments and powerful corporations to look at the messages we send to one another and determine their fitness for transmission is nothing less than censorship. We demand our right to free speech, and view the construction of mesh networks as avenue to the restoration of that freedom.

Freedom 2) The freedom to determine where one's bits are stored.

Freedom 3) The freedom to maintain a trusted network identity, and to represent oneself.

Freedom 4) The freedom to share or not share one's own bits as one sees fit.