Re: [GNU/consensus] [RFC][SH] User Data Manifesto

[Hugo Roy]

Hi everyone,

Le samedi 05 janvier 2013 à 21:18 -0500, Richard Stallman a écrit :
> That statement is not clear.  What does it mean?
> Are you talking about that person, or his manifesto?
> 
> GNU consensus cannot support that manifesto in its current form,
> because it conflicts with ideas of the GNU Project. 

To me, it is pretty clear that we welcome Frank in the discussion.
Frank's initiative does not conflict with ideas of the GNU project, it
is about laying down a set of rights related to users of social
networks/"cloud" services. I do not see a conflict in that goal with the
GNU project that aims at liberating computer users, quite the contrary.

Now, I also share your concern with some of the words. This is why I did
not sign the manifesto as an individual either. I do not believe for
instance that anything created by a person "belongs" to that person.
Rather, it depends very much on your definitions of "belonging" and
"owning". 

I guess the confusion comes from the philosophy that "people own
themselves" which is actually another way of saying that a person is a
free self. If you're free, you can think for yourself and do things with
your body, so you "own" your body and you "own" things you make with
your hands. But I do think that the formulation is too problematic,
especially because "own" often goes hand in hand with property. And if
we talk about ideas, then it is nonsense, even if that "idea" is
formulated in data.

I think the crucial point should not be about "owning" but really about
privacy/publicity.

The act of publishing something is very important. People should not
publish things without thinking through what that means. For instance,
we are responsible for things we say (legally responsible, with libel
law; or even socially responsible, with our reputation). But worse,
people should not be forced into publishing things. I see the subsequent
changes of Facebook's privacy policy and designs, with their
opt-in/opt-out changes, as a tendency towards forcing people to share
"stuff". This is wrong. Of course, that problem goes away if people have
their own server and decide for themselves (then we only need to take
care of the software and interface designs). 

But until that architecture is there and working for everybody, I
definitely see a need for initiatives such as this manifesto: to help
bring people to websites which adhere to safeguarding these rights. That
can also be legally enforced in their Terms of service; so that it is
not only a promise but also a legal contract.

So I definitely think we should improve this manifesto and come up with
a better definition of the basic rights that every user should have on
these websites, and also a set of practical requirements that help
safeguarding these rights.
-- 
Hugo Roy 
  French Coordinator, FSFE      chat: address@hidden
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