1TWEETING FROM TARHRIR SQUARE:

COPYRIGHT IN EMERGENCE CASES ;

Dr. Yassin EL SHAZLY,

Ph.D in Law, Lyon Law School, France

Senior Lecturer of Business Law,Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt

Legal Expert,National Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (NTRA)

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Agenda

The social and economic importance of

internet in Egypt

Cyberspace and freedom of expression

role of internet in Egyptian mobilization

The emergence of Parody as a legal and a

political arm

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The social and economic importance of internet in Egypt

In 1998, the Telecom Law 19/1998 made Telecom Egypt a joint stock company 100 percent owned by the Government of Egypt.

The Government of Egypt established the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) in 1999 to lead Egypt’s transition into an Information Society.

4The social and economic importance of internet in Egypt In February 2003, the Telecom Act (Law 10/2003) was

issued and ratified. The law regulates all types of telecommunications in Egypt through eighty-seven articles included in seven chapters

The law empowered NTRA and defined its role in the ICT sector.

Article 3 of the Telecommunication law of 2003: “A national authority managing the Telecommunication utility shall be established and named “The National Telecommunication Regulatory Authority”. The Authority shall have a public juristic personality; it shall be subordinated to the Minister Concerned and shall have its head quarters in Cairo and Giza. The NTRA shall have the right to establish branches all over the Arab Republic of Egypt.

5The social and economic importance of internet in EgyptThe number of fixed lines subscribers reached 9.93 million, the fixed line penetration (12.72%), mobile subscribers (58.97 million),mobile penetration (76.16%), number of Internet users (19.84 million)

Internet penetration (25.6%), ADSL penetration (1.6%), Broadband users (85.79% of total internet users), mobile Internet users (14 % of total mobile subscribers), International Internet bandwidth (118369 mbps).

6The social and economic importance of internet in EgyptOn the economic level, the ICT GDP at fixed prices

(6.3 billion US$) which represents an annual growth rate of (12%) 2009/2010. The ICT sector contribution to real GDP is (4%) in 2009/2010. ICT expenditure (5.7 billion US$) and the ICT total issued capital (8.18 billion US$).

The Average annual FDI flows into ICT sector reached (1, 2010 billion US$). Moreover, the number of of ICT companies in July 2010 was 3758 with (193.3 thousands) employees in the ICT sector. The estimation of the ICT contribution to the treasury is (1.8, 2009 billion US$).

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Connective technologies are a growing force in Egypt

Internet use in Egypt increased from less than 1 percent to 21 percent of the population during the past decade.

30% of Egypt’s 17 million Internet users now subscribe to Facebook, an increase of 10 percent since just May 2010.

The Egyptian government reports 60 million mobile phone subscribers out of 83 million people, although smartphone penetration in the country is still low.

8The social and economic importance of internet in Egypt

9The social and economic importance of internet in Egypt

10The social and economic importance of internet in Egypt

11The social and economic importance of internet in Egypt

12Freedom of expression “local view”article 45 of the Constitution says that citizen privacy is

legally protected as well as mailing and telephone wire and other means of communication. Such liberty could not be prohibited or controlled except by judicial order, issued for a fixed period in accordance with the provisions of the Law.

Same to article 47 which protects the freedom of expression for everyone to express and publish his opinion it by saying or writing or photography or other means of expression in the expression within the law and safeguard national construction.

Furthermore, article 48 assures the freedom of press, printing, publishing and media is guaranteed, except in cases of emergency and for the reasons of public safety or national security.

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Freedom of expression The law also raised article 19 of the Civil and political rights convention, adopted by UN General Assembly resolution of 16 December 1966, which provides that freedom of expression should be exercised with respect to national security or public order.

This is confirmed in article 4, paragraph 2, of the Telecommunication law which says that the regulation to telecommunication sector should be done in the frame of “Protecting National Security and the State top interests”.

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Freedom of expression From all the above, it could be deduced that the free

access to the Internet is guaranteed by the Constitution, however, its exercise should be restricted by the respect of the society morals and values, taking into account the public interest of the State.

In other words, the free access to the Internet as a private right should be subordinated to the public interest requirements.

the free access of porn web sites- The supreme administrative court decision on 21/12/2008

15Emergency law

Emergency law in Egypt was firstly enacted in 1958, and has remained in effect since 1967, except for an 18-month break in 1980.

Under this law, police powers are extended, constitutional rights are suspended, and censorship is legalized. The law sharply circumscribes any non-governmental political activity, and street demonstrations, non-approved political organizations, and unregistered financial donations are formally banned.

Under state of emergency, the government has the right to imprison individuals for any period of time, and for virtually no reason, thus keeping them in prisons without trials for any period.

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Egypt Telecommunication Regulation LawLaw No. 10 of 2003

ARTICLE 1 : 19. National Security

All related to the Armed Forces, Military Production, Ministry of Interior and Public Security, National Security Authority, the Presidency and all Authorities related to these entities.

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Egypt Telecommunication Regulation LawLaw No. 10 of 2003

Article 67 - The Call for General MobilizationThe State competent authorities shall have the power to subject to their administration all Telecommunication Services and networks of any Operator or Service Provider and call operation and maintenance employees of such services and networks in with the provisions of Law No. 87 of 1960 or any other cases concerning National Security.

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19The blogosphere

Since early 2007, the government has been reinforcing Web surveillance under the iron fist of a special department of Egypt’s Ministry of Interior.

Facebook has been placed under surveillance, rather than blocked, so that activists can be observed and arrested.

Authorities are monitoring emails and telephone calls without any court order.

Since 2008, cell phone companies are required to obtain their customers’ personal data before selling them their services.

Surveillance is also commonplace in cybercafés, which are frequently visited by the population. The authorities often pressure café managers to gain access to the personal data of Internet users that interest them.

20Bloggers: Mobilized but also harassed

In 2008, over 500 of bloggers were arrested for “endangering state security” mainly by virtue of the State of Emergency Law.

The crackdown continued in 2009 and prisoners were often ill-treated.

Most have been released since then, yet two bloggers are still behind bars.

Since January 2009, an average of one complaint per day is lodged against a journalist or a blogger.

21Abuse of power

During the Egyptian parliamentary election, 2010, opposition groups complained of harassment and fraud perpetrated by the government.

Opposition and civil society activists have called for changes to a number of legal and constitutional provisions which affect elections.

The perceptions of corruption and its beneficiaries being limited to businessmen with ties to the National Democratic Party have created a picture “where wealth fuels political power and political power buys wealth”.

22The Use of Social Networks in Egypt’s Revolution

Social networks have been used to produce films, videos and photos to show the whole world how things were going in Egypt.

In addition, networks like Facebook were used as a mean of communication between protesters.

Twitter was used to share logistics between protesters. Social networks were used to gather information about the

manifestations

and observe in

real time the status of

these manifestations in the

whole country.

23We are all Khaled Said

24Lead-up to the protests

On June 6, 2010, a young Egyptian man (Khaled Saeed) had been sitting on the second floor of a cybercafé in Alexandra. Two detectives from the police entered the premises and arrested him, allegedly beating him and smashing him against objects as he was led outside to their police car.

Multiple witnesses have testified that Saeed was beaten to death by the police.

Human Rights Watch released a press report about the photo that stated, "Photos of Said's battered and deformed face show a fractured skull, dislocated jaw, broken nose, and numerous other signs of trauma" and also that the image clearly showed "strong evidence that plainclothes security officers beat him in a vicious and public manner.

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The Cyber Revolution

The revolution in Egypt was started by a young Google executive that organized a protest via Facebook. He was released from prison after being detained for 12 days.

A Facebook page was set up in his name by Google executive Wael Ghonim, and Khaled's name and face became a rallying point for protesters.

The Facebook page, We Are All Khaled Said, attracted huge attention - tens of thousands of people joined the site, and his plight became a rallying point for Egyptians in the recent popular uprising.

26We are all Khaled Said

Number of members on Facebook: 365,000 just before the revolution.

Increased to 680,000 members on 10th Feb., 2011. Number of contributions: 13 on 11th Jan., increased to

916 on 10th Feb. (one day before the departure of the president).

127 Links to Facebook.116 Links to YouTube.5 Links to Twitter.

276th April Youth Movement

According to their Web site:

“ This movement was established, because its members

do believe that Egypt deserves an advanced place in the

world, and that the Egyptian people deserve a better life

as well! Members of this group started together to

encourage people to express their opinion about the

previous regime, to break their own fears and negativity!

and to elevate their awareness about the importance of

participation in the political life!”

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306th April Youth Movement

Number of members on Facebook: 60,000 (just before the revolution).

Number of contributions: 1272 on 10th Feb. 90 Links to Facebook. 43 Links to YouTube. 7 Links to Twitter. 7 Links to blogs 48 mobile numbers have been submitted on the site for direct

contact with the protesters.

31Twitter

Twitter was used as a force serving for good:

- Giving protesters a powerful tool for organizing

- Creating the story day after day

- Maintaining the flow of information

- Supply details on escape routes and ways to avoid

checkpoints

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34YouTube

As a video sharing application, YouTube demonstrators were able to document the events and share it with the world through video proofs and evidence about what is really happening out there. Although the press was covering the events in depth, the people’s video contribution showed us events that could not be covered by the press reporters.

35 YouTube Usage Facts

Day Videos uploaded to YouTube Views

Jan. 16 7 377,987

17 – 20 Jan. 9 392,382

21 Jan. 10 208,174

22 Jan. 15 320,163

23 Jan. 19 73,323

24 Jan. 18 364,953

25 Jan. 327 3,390,927

26 Jan. 112 509,427

27 – 29 Jan. Internet shut down Internet shut down

30 Jan. 11 111,264

YouTube was the number one video site on the Internet.

The site also was the 3rd largest Internet destination after Google & FaceBook.

People submitted 1064 videos of 5700 min.

36Videos uploaded by geographical zone (outside Cairo)

Governorate No. of Videos

Alexandria 19

Asyut 1

Beheria 5

Beni Suef 4

Dakahlia 34

Damietta 12

Ismailia 10

Port Said 2

Suez 17

Tanta 9

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LAW ON THE PROTECTION OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS

Article 171 Without prejudice to the moral rights of the author under this Law, the author may not, after the publication of the work, prevent third parties from carrying out any of the following acts:

(4) Make an analysis of the work, or excerpts or quotations therefrom, for the purpose of criticism, discussion or information.

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PARADOY AS A POLITCAL TOOL

40PARADOY AS A POLITCAL TOOL

41PARADOY AS A POLITCAL TOOL

42PARADOY AND THE NEW ELECTTED PRESIDET

43PARADOY AND THE NEW ELECTTED PRESIDET

44PARADOY AS A POLITCAL TOOL

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Future challenge

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Requiring a popular consent to the renewal of the State

of emergency: according to Article 148 the state of

emergency must be only for the period of six months and

must be approved by a majority of the members of the

People's Assembly.

The renewal of such status must be proved by a general

the referendum of the people. This is deemed to

prevent the unlimited application of the state of

emergency.

Future challenge

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“When the Government fears the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny”

Thomas Jefferson