The Global Chokepoints Project launches

Electronic Frontier Foundation Media Release

For Immediate Release: Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Contact:

Rainey Reitman
   Activist
   Electronic Frontier Foundation
   rainey@eff.org
   +1 415 436-9333 x140

New Global Chokepoints Project Tracks Censorship Around the
World

Site Will Document Copyright Enforcement's Effects on
Freedom of Expression Worldwide

San Francisco - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF),
in collaboration with over a dozen civil society
organizations worldwide, today launched Global Chokepoints
at www.globalchokepoints.org to document how copyright
enforcement is being used to censor online free expression
in countries around the world.

Global Chokepoints, funded in part through a grant by the
Open Society Foundation, is an online resource created to
document and monitor proposals from around the world to
turn Internet intermediaries into copyright police.  These
proposals harm Internet users' rights of privacy, due
process and freedom of expression, as well as endanger the
future of the free and open Internet.  Global Chokepoints
is designed to provide empirical information to digital
activists and policymakers and to help coordinate
international opposition to attempts to cut off free
expression through misguided copyright laws and
transnational agreements, like the Anti Counterfeiting
Trade Agreement (ACTA).

Global Chokepoints will document the escalating global
efforts to turn Internet intermediaries into chokepoints
for online free expression.  Internet intermediaries all
over the world--from Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to
community-driven sites like Twitter and YouTube to online
payment processors--are increasingly facing demands by IP
rightsholders and governments to remove, filter, or block
allegedly infringing or illegal content, as well as to
collect and disclose their users' personal data.

At the same time, it's unclear whether and under what
circumstances Internet intermediaries have liability for
content posted by their users.  Hotly contested court cases
in Europe, Australia, and elsewhere are considering how
copyright law fits with obligations to protect Internet
users' rights of privacy, due process, and freedom of
expression.

Global Chokepoints analyzes global trends in four types of
copyright censorship: 1) three-strikes policies and laws
that require Internet intermediaries to terminate their
users' Internet access on repeat allegations of copyright
infringement; 2) requirements for Internet intermediaries
to filter all Internet communications for potentially
copyright-infringing material; 3) ISP obligations to block
access to websites that allegedly infringe or facilitate
copyright infringement; and 4) efforts to force
intermediaries to disclose the identities of their
customers to IP rightsholders upon allegations of copyright
infringement.  The site includes links to digital rights
organizations, consumer groups, law school clinics, and
technology industry groups that are opposing the spread of
overbroad copyright policing efforts, as well as national
advocacy campaigns to protect the free and open Internet
and citizens' fundamental rights.

"IP rightsholders are attempting to choke-off online free
expression through overbroad laws, litigation, and coercive
agreements that require Internet intermediaries to filter,
block and disconnect their customers," said EFF
International Intellectual Property Director Gwen Hinze.
"As both the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Opinion
and Expression and the European Court of Justice have
recently recognized, these initiatives harm Internet users'
rights of privacy, due process and freedom of expression,
and endanger the future of the free and open Internet."

Global Chokepoints is launching with in-depth analysis of
ten regions: Chile, Columbia, the European Union, France,
Ireland, New Zealand, Spain, South Korea, the United
Kingdom and the United States of America.  The website will
expand to include additional regions and countries in the
coming months and will be updated as new copyright
proposals and agreements are introduced.

"Laws around the world are forcing service providers like
ISPs to act as judges for what's valid speech on the
Internet, using copyright as an excuse to cut off speech
and infringe on the privacy rights of users," EFF Activism
Director Rainey Reitman said.  "For example, in the United
States, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) could undermine
long-standing legal protections for intermediaries and
could potentially 'blacklist' many popular websites-like
Etsy, Flickr, and Vimeo.  The Global Chokepoints project
will help concerned citizens fight dangerous legislation
around the world."

For the Global Chokepoints website:
www.globalchokepoints.org

For this release:
https://www.eff.org/press/releases/new-global-chokepoints...

About EFF

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is the leading
organization protecting civil liberties in the digital
world. Founded in 1990, we defend free speech online, fight
illegal surveillance, promote the rights of digital
innovators, and work to ensure that the rights and freedoms
we enjoy are enhanced, rather than eroded, as our use of
technology grows. EFF is a member-supported organization.
Find out more at https://www.eff.org.


     -end-

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