Post Tagged with: "OECD"

Civil Society Groups Reject OECD Internet Policy Principles

The OECD is meeting this week in Paris for a meeting on the Internet economy. The meeting features many government leaders and is expected to conclude with a Communiqu̩ on Principles for Internet Policy-Making. This builds on the June 2008 OECD meeting in Seoul, Korea that not only placed the spotlight on Internet economy issues, but opened the door to participation of civil society groups in OECD policy making. That was a big step forward, but today there was a major step back as the civil society groups Рnow representing over 80 organizations from around the world under the name CSISAC Рannounced that it was withdrawing its name from support of the draft OECD communique.

A detailed explanation behind the decision can be found here, but a shorter release explains significant concerns behind language that would encourage steps toward filtering and blocking online content as well as the adoption of graduated response systems that could result in terminating Internet access.  As CSISAC notes:

The final Communiqué advises OECD countries to adopt policy and legal frameworks that make Internet intermediaries responsible for taking lawful steps to deter copyright infringement. This approach could create incentives for Internet intermediaries to delete or block contested content, and lead to network filtering, which would harm online expression. In addition, as has already happened in at least one country, Internet intermediaries could voluntarily adopt “graduated response” policies under which Internet users’ access could be terminated based solely on repeated allegations of infringement. CSISAC believes that these measures contradict international and European human rights law.

The release concludes:

Read more ›

June 28, 2011 3 comments News

OECD Report Ranks Canada Among Most Expensive Broadband Countries

The OECD has released its latest round of data on broadband services in 33 of the world’s most developed countries [update: While today’s release is new and incorporates this information into the OECD Communications Outlook 2011, a reader points out the broadband data was first released two months ago]. While […]

Read more ›

June 23, 2011 19 comments News

OECD Releases Report on National Broadband Plans

The OECD has released a new study on national broadband plans that finds that Canada is one of the few countries without government-backed targets for broadband access and speeds.

Read more ›

June 22, 2011 Comments are Disabled News

Telus: “We Absolutely Agree with the OECD’s Findings”

Telus has come out strongly in support of the OECD report on the high data roaming costs Canadians face. The company notes that there was no data roaming competition in Canada until 2009 since Rogers was the only GSM provider. Telus says it plans to slash its roaming pricing by […]

Read more ›

June 9, 2011 4 comments News

Report Finds Canada Most Expensive Data Roaming Country in the OECD

Surprise cellphone roaming bills are a frequent occurrence in Canada as consumers are often shocked to find bills in the thousands of dollars for data roaming when they travel outside the country. A new OECD report  helps the explain the reason why – Canadians face the highest data roaming costs […]

Read more ›

June 8, 2011 15 comments News