Centre for Internet & Society

Can Bitcoin Be Banned by the Indian Government?

Posted by Vipul Kharbanda at Dec 24, 2013 10:10 PM |

The paper analyses the laws and regulations that apply to Bitcoin in India, and comes to the conclusion that the government has wide powers that it can exercise, if it wishes, to regulate Bitcoin. Given the lack of existing legal and regulatory analysis on this issue in India, we greatly welcome comments on this issue.

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Digital Native

Posted by Nishant Shah at Dec 22, 2013 06:00 PM |

The end of the year is supposed to be a happy, feel-good space for families, friends, societies and communities to come together and count our blessings. It is the time to look at things that have gone by and look forward to what the New Year will bring.

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CIS Statement on Limitations and Exceptions for Education, Teaching and Research Institutions and Persons with Other Disabilities

Posted by Nehaa Chaudhari at Dec 20, 2013 09:10 PM |
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Nehaa Chaudhari on behalf of the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) made this statement at the WIPO-SCCR on December 20, 2013.

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CIS Statement on the proposed treaty for Limitations and Exceptions for Libraries and Archives

Posted by Nehaa Chaudhari at Dec 19, 2013 01:00 PM |

Nehaa Chaudhari on behalf of the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) made the statement at the WIPO-SCCR on December 18, 2013.

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Brochures from Expos on Smart Cards, e-Security, RFID & Biometrics in India

Posted by Maria Xynou at Dec 18, 2013 01:45 PM |

Electronics Today organised a series of expos on smart cards, e-security, RFID and biometric technology in Delhi on 16-18 October 2013. The Centre for Internet and Society is sharing the brochures it collected from these public expos for research purposes.

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WIPO Broadcast Treaty- SCCR 26 : Proposals Introduced

Posted by Nehaa Chaudhari at Dec 17, 2013 10:00 PM |
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India and the United States introduced proposals for discussion at the ongoing session of the SCCR.

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Pooja Tople on Wikimedia Projects

Posted by Nitika Tandon at Dec 17, 2013 10:00 AM |

The Centre for Internet and Society's Access to Knowledge team (CIS-A2K) in collaboration with the Goa University is working to build Konkani Wikipedia. As part of this program it organised the Konkani Vishwakosh Digitization Program recently.

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The Conflict of Konigsberg

Posted by Anirudh Sridhar at Dec 17, 2013 05:57 AM |

Immanuel Kant’s “Conflict of the Faculties”, written in Konigsberg was a daring publication under the censorious watch of the Prussian totalitarian state. In it, he argues for open argument and mutual respect among the state endorsed and free reigning faculties in the University. This blog will explore a modern day conflict among the faculties under the clutches of a different kind of regime. Although the organization has radically shifted, the conflict has escalated to a battle (much like the one that tore Konigsberg apart during World War II) and the regime overseeing it may be more insidious than before.

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Darshana Mandrekar speaks on Konkani Wikipedia

Posted by Nitika Tandon at Dec 16, 2013 09:00 AM |

The Centre for Internet and Society's Access to Knowledge team (CIS-A2K) in collaboration with the Goa University is working to build Konkani Wikipedia. As part of this program it organised the Konkani Vishwakosh Digitization Program recently.

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Darshan Kandolkar on Konkani Vishwakosh Digitization Process

Posted by Nitika Tandon at Dec 13, 2013 05:00 AM |

The Centre for Internet and Society's Access to Knowledge team (CIS-A2K) in collaboration with the Goa University is working to build Konkani Wikipedia. As part of this program it organised the Konkani Vishwakosh Digitization Program recently.

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Varsha Kavlekar on Konkani Wikipedia Incubator

Posted by Nitika Tandon at Dec 12, 2013 03:00 PM |

The Centre for Internet and Society's Access to Knowledge team (CIS-A2K) in collaboration with the Goa University is working to build Konkani Wikipedia. As part of this program it organised the Konkani Vishwakosh Digitization Program recently.

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Konkani Vishwakosh Encyclopedia released under Free License

Posted by Nitika Tandon at Dec 08, 2013 07:00 PM |

Upon Centre for Internet & Society’s Access to Knowledge Programme (CIS-A2K)‘s explicit request, Goa University has approved the re-release of Vishwakosh under Creative Commons License (CC-BY-SA 3.0) to make it freely available to public, giving them the right to share, use and even build upon the work that has already been done. This is a huge step to help preserve Konkani language and culture in the digital era.

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CIS Comments to the Ministry of Human Resource Development on the Proposed WIPO Treaty for the Protection of Broadcasting Organizations

Posted by Nehaa Chaudhari at Dec 07, 2013 04:45 AM |
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As a follow up to a stakeholder meeting called by the MHRD on the WIPO Broadcast Treaty, CIS provided written comments on the Working Document for a Treaty on the Protection of Broadcasting Organizations adopted by the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) at its twenty-fourth session, Geneva, July 16 to 25, 2012.

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For a Telecom Revival

Posted by Shyam Ponappa at Dec 06, 2013 01:00 PM |
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The government announced momentous decisions, subject to Cabinet approval, on telecom policy on December 3.

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Misuse of Surveillance Powers in India (Case 1)

Posted by Pranesh Prakash at Dec 06, 2013 09:37 AM |
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In this series of blog posts, Pranesh Prakash looks at a brief history of misuse of surveillance powers in India. He notes that the government's surveillance powers have been freqently misused, very often without any kind of judicial or political redressal. This, he argues, should lead us as concerned citizens to demand a scaling down of the government's surveillance powers and pass laws to put it place more robust oversight mechanisms.

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First ever Train-the-Trainer Program in India

Posted by Nitika Tandon at Dec 05, 2013 03:00 PM |

Access to Knowledge Programme at the Centre for Internet & Society (CIS-A2K) organized the first ever Train the Trainer Program in India. 20 Wikimedians from 8 different language communities and 10 different cities across India attended CIS-A2K’s Train the Trainer (TTT).

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National Resource Kit: The Chhattisgarh Chapter (Revised)

Posted by Anandhi Viswanathan at Nov 30, 2013 10:10 AM |
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The National Resource Kit team is pleased to bring you its research on the state of laws, policies and programmes for persons with disabilities in the state of Chhattisgarh.

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How Can We Make Open Education Truly Open?

How Can We Make Open Education Truly Open?

Posted by Nishant Shah at Nov 30, 2013 08:45 AM |

I have spent the last month being unpopular. I have been in conversation with many ‘Open Everything’ activists and practitioners. At each instance, we got stuck because I insisted that we begin by defining what ‘Open’ means in the easy abuse that it is subject to.

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I Just Pinged to Say Hello

Posted by Nishant Shah at Nov 30, 2013 08:36 AM |

A host of social networks find us more connected than ever before, but leave us groping for words in the digital space.

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CIS Supports the UN Resolution on “The Right to Privacy in the Digital age”.

Posted by Elonnai Hickok at Nov 30, 2013 07:25 AM |

The United Nations adopted the resolution on the right to privacy recently. It recognised privacy as a human right, integral to the right to free expression, and also declared that mass surveillance could have negative impacts on human rights.

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