Tim Berners-Lee, the British inventor who filed a proposal 25 years ago for what would later lead to the creation of the world wide web, is calling for an Internet bill of rights in order to ensure that medium remains as it was intended--an open space where information and ideas can be freely exchanged without having to worry that Big Brother is watching them at every digital move.

Speaking to the Guardian, Berners-Lee said an online Magna Carta is necessary to protect its users from government surveillance, an issue that has become more prominent in wake of revelations made by whistleblower Edward Snowden regarding National Security Agency (News - Alert)'s surveillance programs.

"Unless we have an open, neutral internet we can rely on without worrying about what's happening at the back door, we can't have open government, good democracy, good healthcare, connected communities and diversity of culture," he told the paper. "It's not naive to think we can have that, but it is naive to think we can just sit back and get it."

While a global Internet bill of rights may be hard to come by due to regional and cultural differences, Berners-Lee nonetheless advocates for a shared document of principle as it can offer an international standard for the protection of the web.

The online bill of rights should examine issues of privacy, free speech, responsible anonymity, and copyright laws. Berners-Lee said the latter has largely been put in place to offer protection for movie producers and not "to preserve the day to day discourse between individuals and the day to day democracy that we need to run the country."

The Magna Carter proposal by Berners-Lee is part of an initiative known as The Web We Want, a campaign that is encouraging people around the world to stand up for their right to a truly free and open world wide web by drafting an Internet Users Bill of Rights for their country and then proposing it to their respective government.