The Charter of the Internet
Daniel Hind is the author of The Threat to Reason and The Return of the Public. In March, exactly twenty-five years after he first outlined his proposal for a “world-wide web”, Tim Berners-Lee called for “a global constitution – a bill of rights” to protect the “neutral, open internet”. This appeal for a “Magna Carta”, a single document that enshrines certain fundamental rights and protections for citizens in the digital age, comes after a series of revelations about the extent of state surveillance online. But if we are looking for inspiration from medieval English charters, we would benefit greatly from taking another look at Magna Carta’s less famous companion, Carta de Foresta, the Charter of the Forests. Powers to initiate and fund inquiry, powers to address our fellow citizens, powers to oversee the operations of the state and their partners in the corporate sector become the modern equivalents of the ancient rights to graze pigs and gather firewood in the forest and – pannage and estover, according to Wikipedia, in case you were wondering.
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