1 00:00:06,860 --> 00:00:09,352 Text: Gurb in Spain, 1002 km to Brussels 2 00:00:10,228 --> 00:00:14,733 The NSA scandal almost makes us laugh 3 00:00:14,733 --> 00:00:16,149 I started Guifi.net 4 00:00:16,149 --> 00:00:19,491 so we can provide ourselves with Internet connection. 5 00:00:20,306 --> 00:00:25,178 Here in the middle of the Catalan nowhere a digital revolution started 10 years ago. 6 00:00:25,178 --> 00:00:29,596 Ramon and his neighbors have built their own broadband network, 7 00:00:29,596 --> 00:00:33,781 because the big commercial providers had no interest in connecting villages and their vicinity. 8 00:00:33,781 --> 00:00:39,046 Today, Guifi.net is one of the greatest alternative networks worldwide. 9 00:00:39,046 --> 00:00:43,772 I want to show you where the cables merge together: 10 00:00:43,772 --> 00:00:45,374 right here. 11 00:00:45,374 --> 00:00:47,773 This rack is the equivalent of 12 00:00:47,773 --> 00:00:51,277 a telephone switchboard in a village. 13 00:00:51,277 --> 00:00:54,903 It is a bit dirty because this is actually my garden shed. 14 00:00:54,903 --> 00:00:58,904 What it can do is impressing. 15 00:00:58,904 --> 00:01:01,483 I can't say it precisely now, 16 00:01:01,483 --> 00:01:06,989 but these are the routers of some 5000 households. 17 00:01:07,419 --> 00:01:08,711 In a free wireless network, 18 00:01:08,711 --> 00:01:13,062 the participants are connecting among each other and not via Internet providers. 19 00:01:13,062 --> 00:01:16,753 They can directly share data with each other, chat, write e-mails 20 00:01:16,753 --> 00:01:20,124 - a decentralized network that the users control themselves. 21 00:01:20,124 --> 00:01:23,348 Thereby their data is secured from access by strangers. 22 00:01:23,348 --> 00:01:27,500 Meanwhile, the "Internet guerillas" are even able to roll out their own fiberlines. 23 00:01:27,500 --> 00:01:31,462 Today, Ramon's colleagues are working since 3 AM. 24 00:01:33,882 --> 00:01:36,306 We all know that the government operates slowly. 25 00:01:36,306 --> 00:01:40,528 We can't wait until laws solve everything. 26 00:01:40,528 --> 00:01:45,530 In any case this is also comfortable for us. 27 00:01:45,530 --> 00:01:49,491 With regards to communication, we can do or not do whatever we like. 28 00:01:50,045 --> 00:01:52,995 The builders of Guifi are financing their network themselves. 29 00:01:52,995 --> 00:01:57,832 The users, like here the hospital of Vic, are buying once the connections to the fiberline, 30 00:01:57,832 --> 00:02:01,879 after that, they can use the infrastructure free of charge. 31 00:02:04,274 --> 00:02:08,671 So far there was no provider available, that was able to deliver broadband network access, 32 00:02:08,671 --> 00:02:11,306 like we need it in the three hospitals. 33 00:02:11,306 --> 00:02:14,142 This is the advantage of Guifi. 34 00:02:14,142 --> 00:02:16,598 Also the services they provide. 35 00:02:16,598 --> 00:02:18,834 And it is also cheaper. 36 00:02:18,834 --> 00:02:21,104 It's true, this is quite important. 37 00:02:24,264 --> 00:02:27,361 Even more important, Ramon and the Catalan free network people 38 00:02:27,361 --> 00:02:31,915 are protected in their Internet against the surveillance of NSA & Co. 39 00:02:33,375 --> 00:02:35,719 Text: Catalan free network meeting [guifilab] 40 00:02:35,719 --> 00:02:38,699 But on EU-level, free networks like this are no subject of interest. 41 00:02:38,699 --> 00:02:41,569 There they missed the connection a long time ago: 42 00:02:41,569 --> 00:02:43,061 the laws are from the 90s, 43 00:02:43,061 --> 00:02:46,383 And aand the planned reform of data protection laws does not take off. 44 00:02:46,383 --> 00:02:48,715 Anyway we have to 45 00:02:48,715 --> 00:02:54,328 tie the European laws and the interests of citizens together. 46 00:02:54,328 --> 00:02:57,696 This makes our structures more robust 47 00:02:57,696 --> 00:03:00,880 thus strengthening our freedom. 48 00:03:02,312 --> 00:03:04,971 At least the European parliament is pressing to finally pass the reform of data protection laws. 49 00:03:10,290 --> 00:03:14,280 They should unify the laws in EU. But a merely technical reform is not enough for Ramon. 50 00:03:14,280 --> 00:03:16,574 Important is not the laws, 51 00:03:16,574 --> 00:03:22,772 important is the spirit behind those laws and that here people works together and most important: 52 00:03:22,772 --> 00:03:26,290 we have to act against the big economic interests.