Draft


                   Interdoc Statement of Principles


     Interdoc is a network of like-minded individuals which considers
itself part of a larger stream of social movements that advocate
reforms in favor of the underprivileged, to attain development by
empowering instead of exploiting the weak, working for the
distribution instead of concentration of wealth, and harmonizing with
instead of destroying the environment. Interdoc's principal area of
concern is the information sector, which includes such areas as
scientific and technological knowledge, culture, indigenous knowledge
and traditional practices, the information and entertainment media,
publishing, computers and communications, databases, genetic
information, and other areas whose end-products are non-material
goods. Rapid changes in this sector, brought about by new
technologies, are creating new concerns such as:
   - the right to information
   - equitable access to tools and infrastructure
   - concentration of information
   - information monopolies, and
   - preserving and enriching cultural diversity.
Interdoc aims to address these concerns.


     The following set of principles binds Interdoc members together:

     1. THE RIGHT TO INFORMATION. Humanity's vast storehouse of
knowledge, experience and information is a public commons that must be
accessible to everybody. Information is food for the mind. Access to
information is an essential factor for human survival and social
progress. It is a fundamental right of peoples to:
     - communicate freely,
     - to inform themselves; and
     - to exchange information with each other.
     - to keep information to themselves

Democratizing access to information and communication tools helps
democratize society. Sharing useful information multiplies its social
utility. 

However, sharing must be on voluntary basis; it is
unacceptable to use force or the threat of force to either prevent
people from sharing information or to cause people to share
information.

     Interdoc will work to apply communication and information
technologies towards empowering the weak, and enhancing the control by
the marginalized over their own economic, political and social life.

     2. ACCESS TO TOOLS AND INFRASTRUCTURE. The right to information
includes the right to use tools of communication and to access
infrastructures for information exchange. Inequitable access to these
tools and infrastructures due to cost or restrictions by corporate or
government control, in effect denies the people the full exercise of
their right to information.

     Interdoc will work towards:
     - preventing monopoly control;
     - democratizing access to such tools and infrastructures.
     - developing technologies which are lower-cost, simpler and
therefore more manageable, and smaller-scale; and
     - making large-scale information infrastructures, where they are
necessary, a public commons.

     3. AGAINST CONCENTRATION OF INFORMATION.

     There is already a marked disparity in access to information
resources between developed and developing countries. Within each
country, there is also a similar disparity between the privileged and
the underprivileged sectors. This disparity, in turn, is leading to
the further concentration of information resources in advanced
countries, and among privileged sectors. Concentration of information
leads to concentration of power. Such concentration in the hands of
government or corporate institutions [is particularly] becomes even
more dangerous in cases where the information impinges on the privacy
of individuals. The tendency towards concentration is stronger where
the tools and infrastructures themselves are concentrated in the hands
of a few. In some cases, this has in fact resulted in the rise of
information monopolies.

     Interdoc stands for: - the desirable social practice of
information sharing; - distributed, decentralized, and democratized
popular access to information and tools of communication; and -
protecting individual privacy against government and corporate
intrusion.

     4. AGAINST INFORMATION MONOPOLIES. The commodification of
information leads to a very strong desire to control and claim
ownership over it. Property rights over information are exercised by
curtailing the people's right to share it, and claiming exclusive
rights over information. These exclusive rights are, in effect,
information monopolies. Intellectual property rights such as patents
and copyrights, which were society's concession to
intellectuals to encourage creative activity, have been
twisted to completely privatize information. This is leading towards
the concentration and monopolization of information.

     Interdoc stands against the commodification of information and
the use of the monopolistic concept of intellectual property rights to
justify restrictions to the people's right to exchange information
among themselves. Interdoc supports the search for alternatives to
monopolistic remunerations for intellectual activity.

     5. FOR CULTURAL DIVERSITY. Human societies have developed a wide
diversity of cultures whose information content represent a rich
treasure trove of lessons for survival, social interaction, and
harmonizing with nature. Unfortunately, these priceless legacies of
the past are being displaced by a junk culture of material consumption
without limit, pushed by corporate advertising whose main motive is
private profit. Corporate and government control of much of the tools
of communication enables junk culture to spread unchecked through the
mass media at the global level. The emerging global monoculture is
erasing those basic lessons of the past, threatening cultural
diversity, the environment, and human survival.

     Interdoc will work to apply information technologies towards
enhancing cultural diversity, preserving and enriching the best
lessons of the past and present generations, and freely sharing these
with the coming generations.

     We welcome those who want to share with us the responsibilies of
shaping the emerging social structures according to the principles set
forth above. The individuals who share these principles and who agree
to keep in close touch with each other, inform each other of their
activities in pursuit of these principles, support each others'
efforts, and to work jointly are considered members of Interdoc.