아래와 같은 한국 시민사회의 WSIS에 대한 선언문을 
WSIS intersessional 회의장에 배포했습니다.

2003년 7월 18일
WSIS intersessional Paris 참가단


--------------------------------------------------
Statement of Korean Civil Society Network for WSIS

This statement has been prepared after diverse issues regarding 
information society were reviewed and discussed at Korean civil society 
workshop for the world summit on the information society (WSIS), and 
contains the common consensus of Korean civil societies to information 
society. The groups and individuals who signed at the bottom are those who 
support this statement. And this statement is open to criticism and will 
be updated continuously. 

I. Vision of Information Society

The information society should be based on human rights, peace, social 
justice, human development and sustainability.
Although information and communication technologies (ICTs) can be used as 
a useful tool for human development, cultural and economic development and 
progress of democracy, it itself does not guarantee these development. For 
these, there should be first legal and structural mechanisms that enable 
such development and progress, and also there should first be the right 
social mind and culture. 
The information society should continue in the efforts to address solution 
of poverty, abolition of discrimination, respect for human rights, 
maintenance of peace, protection of the environment and the progress of 
democracy while ICTs needs to be served for such purpose. 
Furthermore, ICTs does not always contain in itself positive aspects. In 
the process of the introduction of new technologies, inequality can 
accelerate and human rights can be violated, which is to be taken 
seriously. This is why it is important that the development and 
introduction of ICTs should be taken into consideration of social and 
cultural values and the aspects of human rights, not just zooming-in on 
productivity and efficiency. 

II. Principles

A. Respect for Human Rights 

1. Respect for Human Rights 
Respect for human rights should be one of the basic principles upheld by 
the people in the information society. In particular, the notion of human 
rights in the information society needs to be re-defined, and any effects 
that these processes of "informitization" have influenced on the human 
rights should be reviewed. 

2. Protection of the Socially Marginalized People
Special measures are required to protect the rights of such socially 
underprivileged people as women, children, disabled people, and 
irregular·migrant workers. 

B. Freedom of Expression 

3. The information society has expanded opportunities and areas for the 
general public to express themselves thanks to the emergence of various 
information and communication medium such as the Internet. The increased 
opportunities and various media for freedom of expression should be pro 
actively respected and perfectly guaranteed in the information society. 

4. The information society should be free from the government's 
censorship. Unfortunately, however, being exposed to open criticism 
through the Internet, the government and national authorities are trying 
to limit the freedom of expression on the Internet, saying that it is 
subversive or harmful to minors. The international laws and constitution 
dictate that the limitation of the freedom of expression must be kept to 
the minimum based on clear legal basis and such principle should continue 
to be upheld. On the Internet in particular, not only regulations as 
defined in dictionaries but also all activities that limit the freedom of 
expression must be prohibited.

5. Government should pro-actively protect the freedom with which people 
can express their opinions anonymously, which means freedom of anonymity, 
in the information society. The development of ICTs is increasing 
surveillance and censorship, and threatening the freedom of communication 
which is fully guaranteed by the international laws and the Constitution. 

6. It should be noted that the censorship and surveillance by the 
government and private sector which is rising with the advent of 
advanced ICTs can limit the freedom of expression and thoughts. All 
censorships and surveillance which limit the freedom of expression and 
thoughts must be banned.

7. As ICTs is being increasingly used for commercial purposes and 
intellectual property rights regimes on the Internet is getting strict, 
the cases in which the access to and utilization of the media for 
communication and expression is limited because of economic reasons and 
lack of education are increasingly seen. This leads to a rise in social 
and economic discrimination and therefore should be prevented through 
public efforts.

8. The statements that discriminate the socially marginalized people and 
social minorities should be regulated as an act of discrimination. The 
discriminatory statements of the people with vested rights in this society 
who have easier access to and utilization of the ICT media indirectly 
violate the freedom of expression of the socially marginalized and 
minorities.

C. Establishment of ICT Infrastructure and Sustainablity

9. ICT infrastructures should be established based on the principles of 
'Universal Service' and 'Public Access'. 

10. The government should guarantee that everybody can have access to 
information at low price through public access point. 

11. The principle of universal service should be continuously applied to 
such traditional media as TV, radio and moving video. 

12. Investment in Infrastructure and Universal Service
- The investment in infrastructures should expand in a way that the 
principles of fair market competition, public and universal service are 
respected. 
- The establishment of infrastructures must neither only rely on the free 
market nor ignore the principles of 'universal service'. Each nation can 
adopt their own mechanism suited to their own social and economic 
situations. For instance, a democratic institution can establish 
infrastructures with the participation and supervision of workers' unions 
and civil societies. 

13. Establishment of Infrastructures based on Sustainablity
- The development of ICTs should be based on sustainability. Environmental 
pollution must be minimized and efforts to make the information society 
environmentally friendly through the development that is not harmful to 
the health of the public are necessary. 
- When used computers are transported to the third world, the effects of 
electronic wastes on the environment must be considered. 
- Since environmental problems are not confined with the borders of one 
nation, international efforts are required across the borders to address 
such problems in the information society. 

14. ICTs and Environment Protection
ICTs can be used as a tool for the protection of the environment. For 
instance, the destruction of environment can be prevented when information 
on environment-related technology and others is shared. 

D. Solution to 'Information Inequality' and Guarantee Access to 
Information

15. The issue of how to reduce digital divide is becoming a great 
challenge to the information society. 'digital divide' should be 
understood in broad sense. This refers not only to the inequality between 
the advanced countries and developing countries but also to the inequality 
caused by sexual, physical, regional, economic, social, political and 
cultural discrimination. 

16. Addressing the problem of 'digital devide' means more than just 'equal 
access to networks'. It means equal access to information in reality. It 
includes access to infrastructures, increase of skills and intellectual 
abilities (capacity building) to utilize such infrastructures, access to 
basic softwares and contents and production of contents the communities 
need. 
In this context, the lack of infrastructures or their high price, poor 
educational infrastructures, lack of systems to make public information, 
limited access to basic softwares and contents due to the protection of 
intellectual property rights, all types of social discrimination, economic 
structures that worsen economic hardships, ownership and control of the 
media can be reasons for broadening digital divide and should be 
recognized as obstacles to equal access to information and communication. 

17. The rights of equal Access to Information 
Equal and free access to information should be recognized as one of the 
basic human rights. 

18. Protection of the Disableds' Access to Information
- Studies have shown that access to information is affected by social and 
economic status. Disabled people usually suffer from poor, social and 
economic situations and therefore the gaps (digital divide) between these 
people and non-disabled people are enlarging as ICTs is progressing. This 
requires fundamental solutions. 
- The ability to use ICTs should not have direct relationship with one's 
economic and social status. Information policies and measures should be 
prepared in a way to make sure that everybody including the disabled 
people can use ICTs freely and without discrimination. 

19. Nobody should be, in any case, prohibited from communicating with 
others and accessing all information and communication media. 
- The development of ICTs should take place in a way to overcome physical 
obstacles of equipments, hardwares and softwares. For this, the government 
should make every efforts to provide full support with policies and 
finance. 
- While the development of ICTs should consider universal services for the 
disabled, the difficulties that the disabled with specific handicaps such 
as hearing problems and blindness experience in using hardwares and 
softwares need to be investigated for appropriate measures. 

20. Such disparity is not a problem that is only confined to South Korea. 
It is a global problem caused by fast informitization all around the 
world. This shows an urgent need for the global community to come up with 
a global solution to the problem.. 

E. Production, Distribution and Sharing of Knowledge in the Information 
Society and Intellectual Property Rights

21. Information and knowledge in Information Society
- Information and knowledge are common assets and public properties shared 
by all mankind without any restriction in production and utilization. 
Therefore, information and knowledge are not 'privately held asset' but 
'social environment' which everybody can enjoy. 
- The intellectual property rights regime should recognize the historic 
and social obligation and the communities' contribution to production of 
information.
- Rather than 'the principles of market', policy support should be applied 
in the production of knowledge to make sure that unique values and 
operating principles are respected in each of knowledge areas. A lot more 
support should be provided to the public production of knowledge by 
educational and research institutions and voluntary production areas of 
civil societies such as CopyLeft Movement. In addition, such knowledge as 
traditional medicine which is shared by the whole community should be 
protected.

22. The Rights of Public Access to Information and Intellectual Property 
Rights
- Public Domain is the most effective way to reduce digital divide within 
the nation and among different countries. Public domain means information 
which everybody can access and use equally and freely as an intellectual 
infrastructure. As a solution to such digital divide, the production of 
public information should be encouraged, and measures to improve the 
access to such public information should be sought out. 
- Academic studies and research results from public institutions should be 
included in public domain.
- Open source and free software are themselves part of public domain and 
should be encouraged as a way to enhance the production of and access to 
major public information.
- Intellectual property rights must not prevail over the right to access 
information. Overly protected intellectual property rights infringe upon 
the right to access information thereby broadening digital divide.

23. The balance must be restored between intellectual property rights and 
users' rights & public interests. 
- The current trend of overly protected intellectual property rights 
seriously infringes on the rights of users stated in Article 27-1 of 
Universal Declaration of Human Rights(the right of citizens to participate 
in cultural activities, the right to enjoy benefits of development and 
application of science - Everyone has the right freely to participate in 
the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in 
scientific advancement and its benefits.). For the purpose of finding the 
suitable balance between intellectual property rights and the rights of 
users, the existing regimes of intellectual property rights should be 
reviewed comprehensively. 
- Fair use must be guaranteed. In the case of digital contents in 
particular, individuals' use for non-commercial and personal purposes 
should be considered to be as fair use.
- The use of the Internet by individuals and communities should not be 
restricted by intellectual property rights.
- Each nation or autonomous communities should have the right to make 
decision freely without any outside pressure regarding intellectual 
property rights law and other regulations and policies to ensure progress 
in knowledge base and culture. For this, WTO's TRIPS and other 
international regulations should be made more lenient. 

24. Integrity of Life and Basic Human Rights should be put first before 
intellectual property rights.
- Intellectual property rights for intellectual products must not be 
overly protected so that basic human rights (right to access information, 
privacy, freedom of expression, etc) is infringed. 
- Intellectual property rights which are related to discoveries and human 
inventions should not hurt the integrity of life and human and environment 
and health. 
-Intellectual property rights must not be abused as a way to oppress 
people with different political views, the socially underprivileged and 
minorities.

F. Protect People's Privacy 

25. The value of privacy should be guaranteed in general. It should be 
fully considered first to expand the field of individual privacy; to 
guarantee the right to unite and struggle against surveillance authorities 
such as government and company; to establish the social system to weaken 
the surveillance powers; and to develop technical and intellectual 
capacity building to protect the invasion of privacy.

26. The Right to Anonymity
The right to anonymity should be guaranteed as a justifiable means not 
only to protect individual privacy, but also to guarantee the freedom of 
expression of social minorities. The right to anonymity should not be 
fundamentally-limited in any case. Whether to adopt real name policy or 
anonymity policy should depend on each community's decision. It is 
desirable to develop socially-tolerant attitude to expressions by 
anonymity. Even if there is any ill-intentioned expressions by anonymity, 
it is desirable to try to make down the public confidence of that 
expressions. 

27. Expand the capacity of individual to control over one's own personal 
information: All people should have the capacity to control over their' 
own personal information. Anyone who is going to collect and use others' 
personal information should fully respect their rights to control over 
their own personal information. 

① Privacy principles in accordance with at lease OECD (Organization 
for Economic Cooperation and Development) guidelines on privacy (1. 
Collection Limitation Principle / 2. Data Quality Principle / 3. Purpose 
Specification Principle / 4. Use Limitation Principle / 5. Security 
Safeguards Principle / 6. Openness Principle / 7. Individual Participation 
Principle / 8. Accountability Principle) should be generally applied to 
any surveillance case regardless of public or private field, inner or 
outer area of organization etc. 

② The government should make efforts to raise citizens' mind and 
consciousness for their privacy by training system and technology, and 
also enforce the system and policy to protect people's privacy.

28. Reform existing social system to expand the capacity to control one's 
own private information: Structural powers of government and market tend 
to prevent from realizing the capacity to control people's own personal 
information. Social efforts to reform existing social system should be 
enforced to expand the capacity to control one's own personal information. 

① Between the surveillance subject and object, there are imbalance of 
authority and inequality of information. This makes the object's capacity 
against surveillance weakened. Surveillance objects should be able to 
collectively participate in the surveillance conduct and to recover their 
capacity to control their' own personal information. 
② Sensitive personal information such as somatic information should be 
absolutely protected. 
③ It is difficult to distinguish whether the surveillance conduct is 
indispensable to develop the human dignity of surveillance object because 
of the information imbalance between the surveillance subject and object. 
Liberty of choice to avoid the surveillance conduct should be given to the 
surveillance object, as far as there is any other way not or lower to 
infringe the privacy for achieving the purpose of surveillance. 
④ To recover the capacity to control one's own personal information, 
imbalance of authority between surveillance subject and object should be 
dissolved. The surveillance authorities should be decentralized as 
possible. 

29. Article 12 in UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights prescribes that 
privacy is one of basic human rights. (No one shall be subjected to 
arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, 
nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to 
the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.) Privacy 
should be equally guaranteed regardless of nationality.

G. Security

30. Each government should establish security management system of public 
sectors to ensure network security. Also they should promote to develop 
such models as to establish self-regulation security order of private 
sectors and to encourage the cooperation between the government and 
private sectors by carrying out the following activities; to raise the 
mind for security of private sectors and civil societies; to encourage 
exchange and distribution of security information, research and 
investment, and providing incentives for these activities.

31. Even in security measures, personal information should be rigidly 
protected in accordance with the judicial procedure and institution. 

32. In cyber-crime, standard to judge the intention and physical damage 
should be strictly limited. 

H. Democratic Governance

33. Just the Development of ICTs itself cannot bring E-democracy. It is 
necessary to decentralize the political authorities, for example, to 
delegate decision making authority to pertinent communities so that 
members of society can actually participate in the policy and decision 
making processes. 

34. All the policy and decision making processes in the information 
society should be open, transparent, democratic and participatory. 
- Not government's unilateral announcement on the policies or formal 
consensus structure of people's opinion, but all members of society 
including women, disabled, youth and migrant workers should be able to 
actually participate in the policy and decision making process 
- It should be open enough to allow all stakeholders' participation in all 
levels of planning, decision making, implementation, monitoring and 
evaluation processes. 

35. To guarantee the transparency in the policy and decision making 
process, all of the national and governmental information should be opened 
to the public in principle. It can be helpful to use ICTs for this 
purpose. 

36. E-government should be aimed to realize democracy in the information 
society by transparently opening the administrative affairs and 
information to the public and guaranteeing people's participation in the 
policy and decision making processes, as well as just cutting down the 
expenses for the service and providing convenient services. Also these 
should be adopted to the process in establishing e-government. 

37. Market Environment
- Government should make efforts to establish fair, confidential and 
transparent market environment, and regulate private monopoly. 
- Government should promote to spread open source and open standard for 
transparent and fair competition of market. 
- Corporate information should be opened to the public for fair market 
competition.

38. Open standard
Technology standard cannot be unilaterally fixed by specific company or 
government. The standard should be fixed on the basis of open and full 
participation of all stakeholders from the first step to prepare and make. 

I. Roles of government and civil society

39. Roles of government
- Government should manage separately following the two; the policy to 
develop technology and promote industry, and the policy to guarantee the 
citizens' freedom and rights and to keep the public accountability.
- Government should make efforts to establish fair, confidential and 
transparent market environment, and regulate private monopoly. 
- Government should provide training system to understand human rights in 
the information society and make efforts to create proper culture for 
human rights.
- Government should not play the role of regulators of information flow 
and content on the internet arbitrarily.
- National decision-maker for information and communication policies 
should be free from any private interest relationship which can influence 
on specific policy. 

40. Roles of civil society
- Civil society should make efforts to establish self governance system of 
each community and to create and activate autonomous policies and 
cultures. 
- Civil society has a rights to participate in the policy and decision 
making processes at national and international levels as a stakeholer. 
Civil society should play a role to protect human rights and public values 
from government's arbitrary authorities and market interests.

J. Education on Human Rights and Educational Informatization

41. Human being should not be considered as a mere human resource, and 
education should not focus on just developing human resources. Education 
should be the process to understand society and people, to make social 
relationship, and to realize one's abilities and ambitions.

42. ICTs can contribute to better education through using multi-media and 
intensifying educational information in quantity and quality. All people 
should be able to make practical implications of ICTs without any 
discrimination. In order to do that, education which can enhance the 
capacity to use ICTs should be included in the curriculum of public 
education and social re-training system. 

43. An information society is not attained just by the development of 
technology itself, and it needs to switchover people's mind. Entire 
education procedures including public education and social re-training 
system should hold the curriculum of 'human rights in the information 
society'. Also, the management of education should be based on the human 
rights in principle. 

44. Inequality in education has the danger to cause social discrimination. 
Thus, government should make efforts to minimize the information 
inequality of students.

K. Strengthening Public Value and Diversity of Culture

45. Culture should be based on the public value and diversity, and 
developed in the principle of cultural democracy. Culture should be a 
subject to approach on the views of human development, creativity, social 
support, diversities & differences, and usage & enjoyment.

46. Culture should be understood on the basis of identity, tradition and 
particularity of the corresponding country and its communities. The 
progress of ICTs should contribute to developing quality of lives through 
coexistence and exchange between various cultures. 

47. Government should reinforce the principle of cultural democracy 
through the development of ICTs for harmony among the cultural, social, 
ethical, productive, political and economical functions in the society. 

48. Culture is not a tool or means for economy, nor can it be limited to a 
commercial product. Culture is a process of forming the identities of 
every individual and group belonging to its society, which preconditions 
maintaining variety of life. As ICTs progress, culture should also be 
newly understood as a function for coexistence and cultural exchange from 
that of old industries and trades. 

49. In the field of health and education, in particular, a public 
investment is needed to promote easy-access to confidential contents on 
the internet. 

L. Safe Labor Environment and Securing Workers' Rights 

50. Workers' Rights of Having Access to information
- Workers' rights of unhindered access to communication media and 
information sources in their workplaces should be protected as one of 
workers' basic rights. 
- Special attention and effort for marginalized people such as irregular 
workers, women, disabled people, and migrant workers are necessary to 
guarantee their equal access to information. 

51. Banning Surveillance on workers
- Workers' privacy and dignity should be secured in any workplaces and 
they have the rights to be treated fairly in workplace. As ICTs is getting 
developed, it becomes difficult to distinguish between official work and 
private life, by the hour or space. Currently, surveillance equipment and 
system have also become more developed. The conduct of companies to 
supervise its workers is definitely controlling workers and infringing 
their privacy.
- When a company collects private information on a worker, consent from 
the worker should be mandatory. Whenever collecting the approved 
information, it should be carried out on the basis of principle which 
follows at lease OECD guidelines on privacy. 
- When a company is going to implement a machine or a policy that can 
infringe workers' privacy, a prior notice should be clearly delivered to 
the workers or the representative of the union, and workers or 
representative should have the rights to participate in the decision 
making process. 
- Articles that can regulate or restrict surveillance on workers should be 
added to the privacy protection act or labor standard act.

52. Education on Workers
When the environment of workplace changes due to the implementation of new 
ICTs, workers have the right to learn the new system.

M. Global Cooperation and Support on the Least Developing Countries (LDCs)

53. International system in the information society should be not 
subordinated to unilateralism, militarism and each country's economic 
interests. Each country should develope an equal, cooperative 
relationship. It is important to considerate more of the needs of the 
developing countries than the advanced countries. This means technical and 
financial support from the advanced countries should be extended upon the 
developing countries. Developing countries should be able to participate 
in the decision making process for global policy in principle.

III. Action Plan

A. Freedom of Expression

1. No Censorship by the Government
- Contents regulation system conducted by the government with its 
arbitrary judgement is to infringe the freedom of expression, and 
governmental institute to regulate internet contents such as Information 
and Communication Ethics Committee in South Korea should be abolished. 
- To restrict the contents regulation of Administrative Branches, any 
internet contents which is the subject to regulate should be clearly 
prescribed by the law at a minimum level. 
- Regulation of illegal conducts on the internet should be enforced 
according to the fair judgement and process by the existing law system. 
- When new act and system are introduced, it should be first assessed what 
influence shall they potentially effect to freedom of expression and human 
rights. 
- However it needs to regulate the contents on the internet, it should be 
conducted transparently and freely on the basis of the democratic 
governance structure with the full participation of stakeholders including 
civil society, users and consumers. It shall not be caused to absolutely 
cut off the common people's access to any internet contents due to such 
reason of protecting minors and youth. 

2. Guarantee the free expression by anonymity and no surveillance
- The expression by anonymity is to protect the expression of social 
minorities and marginalized people. It can make the interior discloser 
more active. Anonymity should be fully guaranteed. The system to disclose 
the users' identity on the internet which is conducted by the government 
shall not be approved. 
- Any lawful, systematic and technical conducts to monitor the expression 
on the internet such as the system to disclose the users' identity or 
network monitoring & surveillance system shall not be approved. 

3. Protect socially marginalized people and social minorities
- It should be necessary to promote the social and cultural policy to 
loosen the violence and discrimination on social minorities and 
marginalized people in internet. 
- It should be necessary to promote the fair participation of social 
minorities and marginalized peopleincluding women in the decision making 
process for the media and international communication system. 
- The education to respect others' expression and human rights, and to 
express sensibly should be included in the system of public education and 
re-training program. 

B. To Establish the Information and Communication Infrastructure and 
Sustainable Development

4. The government should enforce regulation policies on key 
telecommunication business not to abuse their monopolistic position. To 
the key business, a policy of sharing the circuit lines should be based 
thoroughtly on the principle of fair competition, public and universal 
service. 

5. Public Access Point : The government should promote to establish the 
public access points so that local residents can easily use the internet 
with low price. Public institutions such as public libraries and schools 
can be the public access points. And the governments should support to 
establish multi-media center in public. It should be promoted to expand 
public service zone even in wireless services. 

6. ICTs should be used to develop a global early warning system so as to 
avoid natural disaster.

7. International cooperation, and expansion and dispersion of 
environmental information
- Since environmental problems are not confined with the borders of one 
nation, international efforts are required across the borders to address 
such problems in the information society. To offer the right environmental 
information to the third world can be the means to solve the significant 
environmental problems.
- Experience, technique, and information of environment should be expanded 
and dispersed globally so that energy policies such as nuclear industry 
can be converted into reproducible energy policy.
- It should be promoted to establish the online service to provide the 
diverse environmental information for practical uses. 
- It needs to make domestic and global networks in order to immediately 
cope with environmental issues in each country. To solve environmental 
problems ultimately, it should be dealt at a global level.

8. ICT Waste Treatment
- The exact statistical treatment for ICT waste should be developed, for 
example, how much ICT waste is usually generated from all the process of 
production, and they managed.
- It is urgent to develop techniques to recycle ICT waste. 

9. New products should ensure the backward compatibility.

10. Hardware or software companies should continue the after-service for 
the existing products, even if they does not produce them any more.

C. Solve the information inequality and guarantee the right of access to 
information

11. Lawful amendment and systematic improvement to solve the information 
inequality
The rights of disabled's access to information should be concretely 
described in the law. And the ordinance and principles for enforcement 
should be amended concretely.

12. To bridge the digital divide, it should be expanded to provide all 
sorts of information and communication facilities for the low-earning 
disabled people.

13. To promote the disabled's access to ICTs, it needs to develop and 
provide facilities and softwares following as the types of each 
difficulty, and to strengthen the education of ICTs for the disabled.

① Visual handicap
: hardware - phonetic composition facility, braille printer, CCTV
: software - audio output program
② Auditory handicap
: communication field - special phone, interpretation by the finger 
language, subtitle broadcasting, communication based on the text, hearing 
aid etc.
: software - voice■text and interpretation program by the finger language 
③ Difficulties of limb and body, and brain disease 
: solution of the barrier of physical spaces - to expand the digital 
library and guarantee easy use
: hardware - to promote the development of diverse in&output equipments 
for the disabled who is not comfortable with both hands(glasses mouse 
etc.)
: software - to promote the development of diverse programs to provide in 
& output equipments including substitutional communication program to help 
brain disease people to understand each other, and guarantee the 
compatibility with the OS of each program

14. The rights of disabled's access to information should be guaranteed, 
and it needs to carefully try not to hamper existing social relationship.

15. Guarantee the rights of disabled's participation in the decision 
making process of ICT policies for disableds. 

D. Creation, Distribution and Sharing of Knowledge in Information Society 
and Intellectual Property Rights 

16. Governments should provide proactively policy and financial support to 
civil societies organizations which are working to promote, for instance, 
open source softwares and free softwares and Copyleft Movement with a 
strong belief in creation of public domain and information sharing. 

17. Knowledge created by national universities and research institutes 
that receive public financial support should not be kept by individuals 
but shared by the public as public domain.

18. Public information, academic findings, medical and educational 
knowledge, legal information, and corporation information related to 
public interests are considered to belong to public domain by their very 
nature, and for this reason, access to and utilization of these 
information should not be restricted by the intellectual property rights 
including copyrights.


19. Open Source Software and Free Software
- In order to facilitate the development of such open source softwares and 
free softwares as Gunu/Linux System, UN and other international 
organizations and each nation need to provide aggressively financial and 
policy support. 
- For such reasons as escape from powerful vendor ownership, information 
security, cost savings, governments and public organizations should 
introduce open source softwares and free softwares and come up with legal 
and institutional framework. 

20. Open Access
- Financial support is required to encourage non-commercial open access 
journals and publications. 
- Studies and academic findings which have been accomplished with the 
public support should be made public. 
- Efforts should be made at international level to promote open access 
archive movements which are aimed at facilitating search for and access to 
public information. 
- Public organizations need to strive to establish open archives for 
public information and relevant public knowledge. 

21. Database, regardless of creativity, should be excluded from the realms 
of protection by intellectual property rights as it is not the result of 
artistic creations but the functional outputs. The database is the output 
centered around data collection and rather than creativity. 

22. Various technological protection measures designed to protect 
copyrights of digital information should be nullified once they expire 
after a certain period and are no longer effective. 

23. Internet domains are not just another form of 'trademarks' but are 
being used among diverse groups for political, economic and personal 
purposes. Therefore, these values should not be disregarded by trademarks 
in internet-related domains. 

24. Web-sites of all public organizations should be designed in a way that 
free access is available through all types of browsers including free 
software browser. 

25. Computer programs considered to belong to public domain such as 
on-line banking program, public organizations' internet service program, 
softwares for accessing public information database should be made to 
allow free use and installation in all types of operating systems and 
browsers.

26. Internet service providers (ISPs) and other third parties should not 
be held responsible for violating copyrights in a effort to protect 
copyrights. ISPs are not the right parties to make legal judgements and if 
they are held responsible for violating copyrights, it would cause the 
daily surveillance and controls on information users. 

27. Digital libraries are an important tool to reduce information gaps. 
Public information in the digital libraries should be accessed first on 
line. And the right of readers( downloading and print out) to access other 
information should not be limited. However, technological and financial 
solutions can be found not to excessively limit originators' rights. 

28. Supports from governments in the form of new business model 
development and public policy are necessary for helping creators continue 
their creation activities without relying on intellectual property rights. 

29. Non-commercial use of digital contents and individual reproduction 
should be regarded as fair use and thus be protected. In this context, 
Non-commercial exchanges among individuals of files on the internet 
through the utilization of P2P technology must be protected.

30. In the event that the domain names and URL of original websites on the 
internet, hyperlink, frame link, mirroring and other rights should not be 
restricted.

31. International conventions governing copyrights, patents and trademarks 
should keep to minimum their restrictions regarding effective periods and 
contents to allow each nation to have freedom with which they can take 
steps suited to their own situations. WTO's TRIPS and WIPO, which impose 
intellectual property rights system on each nation, should be reviewed or 
scrapped to give the nations more freedom. Furthermore, advanced nations 
should not exert pressure on developing countries or the least developing 
countries.

32. Such policies as the restriction of patent holders, for examples, 
compulsory license and parallel import, which is intended to serve public 
interests should be implemented without interference of other nations.

33. Effective periods of patent and copyright should be decided in a way 
to find the right balance between patent and copyright holders' interest 
and public interests.. Given fast technological developments, the 
reduction of effective patent and copyright periods need to be considered, 
and international conventions should reduce their roles in order to allow 
each nation to freely decide the effective patent and copyright periods. 

34. Computer programs are different from other cultural and artistic 
creations(They are more functional and modifications are required for 
different user environments. And the computer programs require steady 
upgrades and there is no benefits returned to society after patents expire 
due to fast technological developments). Therefore, the computer programs 
should not be protected in the same way as other creations are protected, 
and should be excluded from the realms of patents or the protection period 
should be reduce in reality. 

35. Attempts to make the realm of patents go beyond all human activities 
including abstract ideas should stop and the patents already issued to the 
aforementioned areas should be made nullified. For instance, software 
algorithm, business model and medical treatment should not be protected 
with patents. 

36. Legal frameworks are needed for the protection of local knowledge and 
intellectual properties and in this, the contribution of local communities 
should be acknowledged. 

37. Living organisms existing in nature should be excluded from patents 
whether they are separated and verified. They are the common assets of the 
mankind and for this reason, the separation and verification of the living 
organisms should not be the subject of patents.

38. 'Supervision Technology' which could enables automatic transmission of 
internet protocol address, supervision of users' activities, accessing 
private information through mailbox should not be used.

39. Alterations and revision of webpages for non-commercial use should be 
acknowledged as freedom of expression.

40. Knowledge and technologies should be transferred to developing 
countries to help them be quipped with better technological capabilities 
and competitiveness in global markets in the form of assistance and 
special treatment. However technologies whose safety has not be verified 
should not be transferred. 

E. Guarantee People's Privacy 

41. Privacy protection act (or resolution whose effects are equivalent to 
laws), which at least follows the OECD Guidelines on Privacy, should be 
enacted. In addition, all laws and international treaties concerning 
privacy protection should be examined for the review of compliance with 
the above guidelines. 

42. In case of permitting the third party's use of one's personal 
information, selective consent right should be ensured for each question 
of what item is to be used, who will use it, which purpose it is to be 
used.

43. A system should be established to make sure that the details of 
supervision activities are disclosed regularly to those subject in 
surveillance.

44. National database project for personal information should be assessed 
in considering the risks of governmental surveillance. These databases 
should be reviewed in terms of public interest as well as human rights and 
democracy

45. Personal information databases run by the government should be set up 
for each individual purposes and should not be integrated. 

46. Single, unique personal identifier which enables the profiling of 
different kind of personal information databases should not be used.

47. Opt-in policy should be used for the collection and processing of bio 
information like personal DNA or disease record.

48. Mandatory training program should be introduced to schools and 
workplaces to teach people about the right to have their privacy 
protected.

49. Independent privacy commission should be established and alternative 
dispute resolution rights must be protected for privacy protection 
policies and system, supervision of their implementation, investigation of 
privacy violation cases, suggestion of improvements and resolution of 
privacy violation cases. 

50. The right of the Privacy Commission to suggest its opinions 
concerning the enactment and revision of privacy laws and regulations 
should be protected. 

51. Privacy audit system should be introduced to guarantee consumers' 
collective participation in companies. 

52. The right of organisations' members to collectively agree on such 
matters as company' surveillance of workers should be protected.

53. Privacy impact assessment should be introduced at the planning stage 
of all privacy related public polices. And this assessment should be also 
applied to private company's service practice which deals with 
considerable number of customer's personal information or employ a certain 
number of workers.

54. The central government affairs of personal information should reviewed 
and transferred to municipal government offices. 

55. International Cooperation
- UN should review laws and policies that infringe upon foreigners' 
privacy and take measures to correct violations, for example, 
SEVIS(Students and Exchange and Visitor Information System) in USA.
- UN should strive to review each nation's procedures for approving 
foreigners' entry into the nation and correct the violation of foreigners' 
privacy.
- The international civil society should be able to control the activities 
of each nation's intelligence agencies including Echelon.

F. Security

56. The government should establish privacy violation investigation notice 
system, additional service and security breach incident notice system over 
such regulatory systems as security authentification system so that 
security can be maintained according to market competition mechanism. And 
damage claim systems should be established for security breach incidents. 

57. Since ISPs have concerns about their technological investments and 
development and provision of additional services as far as back up data 
storage and maintenance period for personal information log record is 
concerned, the principle of best practice should apply rather than binding 
legal systems. 

58. To ensure the stability of internet network, intergovernmental 
management system that could share the responsibility and cooperate 
together for the stable operation of hidden primary root server and its 
copies should be put in place.

59. In relation to cyber crimes, a third party service providers should 
hold users responsible for their activities. The service providers do not 
have the right to make legal judgement regarding users' activities. 

60. The programs to develop capacity building to use information systems 
should include programs designed to develop security capabilities. 

G. Democratic Governance

61. If public hearings for the government's laws and policies serve their 
intended purposes, rightful feedback for the suggestions and opinions 
should be communicated back to people. Before such policies are 
implemented, sufficient public discourse and discussion should take place. 

62. For transparent decision making, all public and national information 
should be disclosed with the exception of such minimum information as 
national security-related confidential information and the revision of 
relevant laws should take place for this. Disclosed information should be 
available through public agencies' websites. 

63. Public institutions' websites and all services of E-government should 
not exclude people using specific softwares and should be designed to 
enable access by anyone. Furthermore, softwares used by the public 
institutions should be open source and free softwares so that they do not 
belong to specific vendors. 

64. In establishing e-government, the effects of it on human rights and 
democracy should be discussed. In this process, the position of 
stakeholders should be as much respected as possible. 

65. When databases containing administrative, medical, educational and 
driver's license information are established, the prior evaluation of 
their impacts on the public's right to control personal information and 
human rights should be done. And in this process, the participation of 
stakeholders in the policy and decision making process should be fully 
guaranteed. 

66. Personal information databases such as medical information database 
and resident information database should not be integrated for the purpose 
of convenience. 

67. E-government means more than just electronic process of documents. 
E-government should be deigned in a way to encourage democratic 
participation and prevent human rights violation. 

H. Education on Human Rights and Informatization in Education 

68. Education in public education course should not be limited just to the 
utilization of information technology. For better understanding of 
information-oriented society and media literacy education and basic human 
rights education should be included in regular education course and 
re-education course. And through such education, a certain set of values 
should not be forced upon students and instead free discussion should be 
encouraged since value system is being just formed now. For this, teachers 
should first receive education on human rights. 

69. Teachers and students alike should be better informed of their rights 
to information not just through regular course but also school activities 
and cultures. For instance, they should know that their rights are 
violated when their personal information is gathered and their posessions 
are searched without their consents and that they have a right to reject 
them. 

70. Open and free softwares should be actively introduced for the purposes 
of education and research at schools. 

71. Infrastructures should be provided by the government so that students 
can access the internet at schools. 

72. In addition to regular education courses, members in society, 
housewives, the elderly and unemployed should be able to receive education 
on the utilization of information-related tools and technology. And for 
such education, not only technological aspects but also basic features of 
information based society and human rights should be taught to these 
unpriviledged people. 

I. Public Nature of Culture and Reinforcement of Diversity 

73. As we need bio-diversity in nature, we need diverse cultures. 
Therefore the policies designed to encourage cultural diversity should be 
considered as an essential element for the sustainable development of 
information society, and each nation should have a right to choose freely 
their own cultural policies and organizations.
- Production, distribution and protection of local contents including 
minority culture and local culture should take place in a supportive 
environment and diverse thoughts and opinions should be freely produced 
and suggested through diverse sources.
- They should be protected through education on importance of creative 
contents and digitization of scientific and cultural heritage.

74. In formation society, each nation should establish the principles of 
diverse languages and adopt polices for using various languages which 
prevents a certain language from growing too powerful. International 
organization and agencies should put emphasis on the importance of 
language diversity and raise strong objections to policies favoring 
certain languages.
- Each nation should support development of on-line translation tools 
which will enable access to contents written in foreign languages. 
- Such tools as standardized language table and code, dictionary and 
general and application softwares should be developed to create contents 
written in local languages.
- Non-written languages should be preserved through audio support.

75. Libraries, museums and other public facilities are a very critical 
element for society as cultural infrastructures. The government should try 
to make sure that everybody can have fair and free access to cultural, 
knowledge and information services through cultural infrastructures.

76. Mass-media plays an important role in protecting cultural diversity, 
democratic discourse, media pluralism and people's rights to access 
quality information and knowledge. Each nation should adopt and implement 
policies to reinforce the public nature of mass media services. 
- Mass media services should be provided by more than one organization.

77. Production and distribution of culturally diverse contents should be 
guaranteed. For this, concentrated ownership of the media should be 
avoided and a legal framework should be established to support local media 
and non-commercial media.

J. Safe Labor Environment and Protection of Rights of Workers 

78. Such public information infrastructures as independent media center, 
public channels(satellite channels, broadcasting networks, cable and 
frequency) should be aggressively established in order to reduce gaps in 
formation benefits for workers and facilitate communications. 

79. Workers have a right to use intranet without any supervision of the 
company to freely communicate with one another and do union activities. 

80. Women·migrant·disabled·irregular workers need special support to 
access information and communicate with one another. 
- Measures should be taken for female workers not to be sexually 
discriminated against and projects should be undertaken for the creation 
of communities for female workers. 
- Measures should be taken to guarantee language diversity of migrant 
workers and protect the right to access information. 

81. Labor union websites should be made in a way to allow anyone to easily 
access information and have free communication and websites and bulletin 
board operation rules should be freely decided without any intervention. 
The websites should be open for criticism and run in a way to protect 
privacy. 

82. Banning of Surveillance on workers 
- What is provided for by international standards set forth by ILO should 
be reflected in collective bargaining agreements. 
- When the company seeks consents from workers for gathering of personal 
information, workers should be able to choose freely based on the 
understanding of its impacts on themselves. They should be able to take 
back their consents without any disadvantages when the consents are not 
sought under circumstances described above. 
- Even if a system has been established with the consents of workers to 
gather information, requests can be made for the abolition of such system 
if it is found that such gathering of information is not necessary. And 
workers can make requests to the company for information regarding the 
purpose of information collection, commencement date of collection and 
supervision period, collection system and record details and persons and 
department in charge. 
- The company should not use gathered information for purposes other than 
the ones agreed upon by the workers and should not use such information as 
a basis to discriminate workers. 

July, 2003
Korean Civil Society Network for WSIS

Endorsement:
Korean Progressive Network (Jinbonet), PeaceNet, Labor News Production, 
Korean Federation for Environment Movement, Korean Labor Net, People's 
Solidarity for the Participatory Democracy, IPLeft, Korean Confederation 
of Trade Unions, Korean Christian Network, Media Center, Civil Network for 
Cultural Reform, Korea Women's Association United , Citizens'Action 
Network, Korea Contingent Workers Center, Asia Pacific Workers Solidarity, 
Research Institute for the Disables' Rights and Interest, Kangwon Branch 
of the Korean People's Artists Federation