Activists' impromptu press conference at the EG8 conference

After Sarkozy's "EG8" conference last week -- an event that brought together government leaders and Internet execs to legitimize an effort to censor and surveil the net -- a group of civil society people and activists threw an impromptu press-conference to explain what Sarko and company missed by treating the net as simply an engine for big business.

And so, yesterday, in Paris, civil society threw together an impromptu press conference, featuring Harvard's Larry Lessig, La Quadrature du Net's Jérémie Zimmermann, CUNY's Jeff Jarvis, former ICANN board member/former White House advisor Susan Crawford, Reporters Without Borders' Jean-François Julliard, and Harvard's Yochai Benkler. The spirt of the event was captured by Lessig. Business is important, the professor argued. But there are more than the interests of just business at stake when it comes to the future of the global network.

At E-G8, Civil Society Groups Restake Their Claim on the 'Net

• [NickD]

  Cory, you should have been there.

• [turn_self_off]

  The basic fear in the world leaders is the same that gave rise to Freudian marketing back in the 1900s. Basically, the world have run out of tangible investment opportunities, yet the neoclassical growth curve require some 3 billion dollars to be invested pr year right now.

  So they need a way to force the investments to go into intangibles, that can be created and recreated as needed to keep the engines of commerce spinning.

  but the ease of replication that the net provides throws a very big wrench into this. But the same ease of replication allows a “nobody” to reach like-minded people globally at virtually zero cost. Now how do one square that circle?

• [Jake0748]

  “…to explain what Sarko and company missed by treating the net as simply an engine for big business…”

  If you have to explain that… then I guess (again), we’re all doomed.

  I mean bravo for these folks for trying. But…

  Why do I always feel like my testicles are being crushed these days?

• [ill lich]

  “treating the net as simply an engine for big business. ”

  I drove up the east coast of the US this weekend, and was thinking about the US interstate system created by Eisenhower, and thought about how none of it would be possible if created by private businesses (ignoring actually building it, the real estate value alone of all that interstate road and median would be cost prohibitive)– those roads benefit the public good, both solitary citizens looking to travel, and businesses using the same roads to haul goods.

  The internet exists for everyone.

• [pKp]

  Jérémie Zimmerman is a fucking hero.

  Anyone reading this in Europe should take 5 minutes and make a donation to La Quadrature. They are strapped for cash and might not have enough to continue once their Soros grant is over. Donation link : http://www.laquadrature.net/soutien

• [Anonymous]

  This link might work for those of you (like me) for whom the embedded video here doesn’t:
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tP5K0Ifvizs
  Not sure if it’s the same video as I can’t see this one, but it’s the same press conference.

• [Anonymous]

  probably the most important press conference of the free/neutral internet? sad that these days lol and huggy cats posts get more comments than important stuff like this. guess politics are “boring”.