Charter for Innovation, Creativity and Access to Knowledge

Submitted by Jeremy Malcolm on Wed, 11/11/2009 - 11:21

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Responding to the pressures of the culture industry lobby, a huge international coalition has come together to urge respect for the civil rights of citizens and artists in the digital era.

Today we are disseminating throughout the world the Charter of the Culture Forum of Barcelona for Innovation, Creativity and Access to Knowledge.

More than 100 specialists from 20 different countries participated last week in the Culture Forum of Barcelona and created an international coalition to urge respect for the civil rights of citizens and artists in the digital era.

This encounter constitutes the beginning of an unprecedented offensive of civil society in defense of fundamental rights in the digital era, including the right to freedom of expression, the right of access to culture and knowledge, the right to a just division of authors' rights, the inviolability of communications and of privacy and the neutrality of access to the Internet, all needed for the transformation of economic, political and social relations in the digital era.

After three days of intense work, the Charter of the Culture Forum of Barcelona for Innovation, Creativity and Access to Knowledge was produced.

This Charter, which invites citizens to take it as theirs and use it in their requests and demands, will be disseminated worldwide through formal presentations to governments and also through individuals' actions.

The Charter will be presented to more than 1000 political institutions and governments, including WIPO, the Obama administration, the European Commission and many national governments. Some of these organizations have already shown an interest in listening to the demands. Representatives of the European Commission and official observers from the Brazilian Ministry of Culture, among others, were present during the approval of the Charter.