Here I discussed about the shifting power-relations of people and the State and the companies. And why the consumer rights movement is now very crucial to protect our civil and political rights. In the Digital Age, we're living more and more in private spaces, owned by some companies, and we're more and more governed by trade laws, many times international ones. Our civil and political rights are very much, in this Digital Age, framed by these trade laws. Because of this, the consumer rights movement, which is the movement to balance the power-relation in trade laws, should also be at the center of the fight to protect our civil and political rights -- and the consumer rights movement itself should realized about this. Also, because our digital activities are by nature go across borders, so the violations will, and we must ensure that the protections will go across borders too. Presented at "International Conference: Consumer Rights in the Digital Age". The Empress Hotel, Chiang Mai, Thailand, 3 April 2014 Hosted by National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission, Foundation for Consumers, and Consumers International. Find more about the Conference and other topics/speakers at https://www.facebook.com/DigitalConsumerRights

1. Consumer Rights IS
THE NEW Civil Rights
(or Why international trade agreements will override our Constitutions
and we should extend the concept of consumer rights to cover civil and
political rights in this very age of mobility and digitality if we want to
fight back and yes I know this is a very long title)
@bact @thainetizen
Arthit Suriyawongkul
Thai Netizen Network
International Conference:
Consumer Rights
in the Digital Age
Chiang Mai, 3 April 2014

2. First Things First
●
Trans-Pacific Partnership is more than Intellectual
Property. Investment Chapter is also worrisome, for
example.
●
Transparency: I'm not a lawyer. My background is
artificial intelligence and anthropology. You have been
warned :)
●
Not Transparency: TPP "facts" here can be over-
exaggerated and extremely outdated. Can't help. We
rely on leaked documents. All negotiations are behind
the closed doors.

3. Lead to Summary
●
“If Facebook was a country, it’d be larger than China in three years”
– DigitalTrends.com 6 Feb 2013
●
State is no longer the biggest holder of citizen’ data – Corporate is.
●
There’s no real public space on the Internet
– Sidewalks online? A piece of land that doesn’t owned by anyone on the Internet.
– Internet physical infrastructure are always owned by someone, mostly by corporations
●
These digital spaces are governed by trade laws (many levels).
●
Data goes more across borders. Different jurisdictions, different
protections.
– Stored in one place, processed in another place, to be used in yet another place.
– The strongest protection you can get is from the country that has weakest protection.

4. Summary
●
The more our life goes online, the more our life governed by
trade laws (copyright, etc).
●
International trade agreements can override local laws.
●
Membership of one country in a trade agreement can has
vast effect on countries around the world, including
countries outside the agreement.
●
Consumer rights is now at the center of the fight.
●
Consumer rights is the new civil/political/human rights.
●
Violations goes across border, so should consumer
rights.

5. Update from Thailand
●
Latest draft of Copyright Act Amendment
(Dec 2013)
●
Adds sections on Technological Protection
Measures (digital lock)
●
Adds exceptions for the content conversion
for the use of the blind
●
More analysis of this Bill in Thai Netizen
Report 2013 (Chapter “Commons”)

6. Issues of Concerns
●
Digital Locks
– Circumvention
●
Temporary copies
– “Time shift” in TV set-top boxes ← Attn: Broadcasting regulators!
●
Content transformation restriction
– Blind and deaf – Closed Caption ← Attn: Broadcasting regulators!
●
Criminalization of small copyright infringement
– Everybody will be criminals
●
Parallel imports restriction
– Monopoly of knowledge

7. Shifting
Power-Relations

8. Pre-Digital Digital
Infrastructure
providers
State Companies
Contract Social contract Terms of services
National regulatory
frameworks
Bill of Rights,
Constitution
Trade and consumer
laws
International reg.
frameworks
ICCPR, UN
mechanisms
International trade
agreements
Intent expression Voting Buying
(or selling out yourself*)
Population records by Census
(every 5-10 years)
Sensor
(Real-time)
Population activities
space
Within Nation-State
border
Cross-border
Types of space Public and Private Almost All Private
Relationship Citizens Consumers
(or products*)

9. What’s that mean?
●
We live more and more in private space, owned by some
companies. Many time multinational companies.
●
Our activities, and the data about them, go more and more
across borders.
●
International trade agreements are no longer only about trade,
they’re more and more about harmonization of different other
laws, including civil and criminal laws.
●
To protect our civil rights, we need to deal with these “trade”
laws and agreements too.
●
Consumer rights movement is very important for civil and
political rights and it should realized itself about that.

10. Global Effects

11. Example: Asian Chat Apps
●
“Line, WeChat: Asian social networks move to
conquer Europe” – AFP (29 Sep 2013)
●
“How WeChat, Line plan to taken on Facebook,
Skype” – The Times of India (30 Sep 2013)
●
“Asian Messaging Apps WeChat and Line
Challenge Silicon Valley. China’s WeChat and
Japan’s Line Are Threatening the Global
Growth of WhatsApp and Facebook.” – The Wall
Street Journal (9 Oct 2013)

12. Change in Japanese Law Affects
More People Outside Japan
Mobile
Chat App
Country of
Origin
Number of
Users
WhatsApp US 400M
Line Japan 300M
(50M in Japan)
WeChat China 300M
(200M in China)
KakaoTalk Korea 130M
ChatON Korea 100M
Japan
join TPP?

13. Summary
●
The more our life goes online, the more our life
governed by trade laws (copyright, etc).
●
International trade agreements can override local
laws.
●
Membership of one country in a trade agreement
can has vast effect on countries around the
world, including countries outside the agreement.
●
Consumer rights is now at the center of the fight.

14. Consumer Rights is the New Civil Rights.
Consumer Rights movement in the
Digital Age should goes across borders.

15. International Principles on the Application of
Human Rights to Communications Surveillance
necessaryandproportionate.org

16. Creative Commons Attribution License.
@bact Arthit Suriyawongkul
arthit@thainetizen.org