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- Open Letter to PM Modi on Intellectual Property Rights issues on His Visit to the United States of America in September, 2015 — by Pranesh Prakash and Nehaa Chaudhari — last modified Sep 25, 2015 06:43 AM
- This is an open letter by CIS to the Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi in light of his impending visit to the USA. This letter asks the Prime Minister to urge the USA to ratify the Marrakesh Treaty; and asks that India not be a party to TPP negotiations, in light of recent reports on a study encouraging India to join the TPP.
- Security: Privacy, Transparency and Technology — by Sunil Abraham — last modified Sep 15, 2015 10:53 AM
- The Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) has been involved in privacy and data protection research for the last five years. It has participated as a member of the Justice A.P. Shah Committee, which has influenced the draft Privacy Bill being authored by the Department of Personnel and Training. It has organised 11 multistakeholder roundtables across India over the last two years to discuss a shadow Privacy Bill drafted by CIS with the participation of privacy commissioners and data protection authorities from Europe and Canada.
- Konkani Wikipedia Goes Live After 'Nine Years' of Incubation — by Subhashish Panigrahi — last modified Jun 18, 2016 06:15 PM
- Konkani Wikipedia is the second Wikimedia project after Odia Wikisource that has gone live out of incubation. The project stayed in the incubation for nine long years and the community has gone through a long debate to have a Wikipedia of their own. Here is a blog highlighting three Konkani Wikimedians and an advocate of the Wikipedia movement whose efforts finally paid off.
- DesiSec: Cybersecurity and Civil Society in India — by Laird Brown — last modified Jun 29, 2015 04:25 PM
- As part of its project on mapping cyber security actors in South Asia and South East Asia, the Centre for Internet & Society conducted a series of interviews with cyber security actors. The interviews were compiled and edited into one documentary. The film produced by Purba Sarkar, edited by Aaron Joseph, and directed by Oxblood Ruffin features Malavika Jayaram, Nitin Pai, Namita Malhotra, Saikat Datta, Nishant Shah, Lawrence Liang, Anja Kovacs, Sikyong Lobsang Sangay and, Ravi Sharada Prasad.
- Inclusive Financial Services - Global Trends in Accessibility Requirements — by Nirmita Narasimhan — last modified May 03, 2015 06:55 AM
- Inclusive Financial Services is a G3ict White Paper researched in cooperation with the Centre for Internet and Society. The research paper comprises a Foreword and Introduction, four chapters — Barriers to Access for Persons with Disabilities and Diverse Abilities, International Framework, Integrating Accessibility into the System, and State of Practice - Impact of the Convention on Inclusive Finance and Accessibility Efforts around the Globe.
- DeitY says 143 URLs have been Blocked in 2015; Procedure for Blocking Content Remains Opaque and in Urgent Need of Transparency Measures — by Jyoti Panday — last modified Apr 30, 2015 07:37 AM
- Across India on 30 December 2014, following an order issued by the Department of Telecom (DOT), Internet Service Providers (ISPs) blocked 32 websites including Vimeo, Dailymotion, GitHub and Pastebin.
- National IPR Policy Series: RTI Requests by CIS to DIPP + DIPP Responses — by Nehaa Chaudhari — last modified Apr 26, 2015 08:47 AM
- In earlier blog posts, we have discussed the development of India’s National IPR Policy (“the Policy”); comments by the Centre for Internet and Society (“CIS”) to the IPR Think Tank before the release of the first draft of the Policy and CIS’ comments to the IPR Think Tank in response to the first draft of the Policy. Continuing our National IPR Policy Series, this article documents our requests to the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (“DIPP” / “the Department”) under the Right to Information (“RTI”) Act, 2005 and the responses of the Department.
- No more 66A! — by Geetha Hariharan — last modified Mar 26, 2015 02:01 AM
- In a landmark decision, the Supreme Court has struck down Section 66A. Today was a great day for freedom of speech on the Internet! When Section 66A was in operation, if you made a statement that led to offence, you could be prosecuted. We are an offence-friendly nation, judging by media reports in the last year. It was a year of book-bans, website blocking and takedown requests. Facebook’s Transparency Report showed that next to the US, India made the most requests for information about user accounts. A complaint under Section 66A would be a ground for such requests.
- Intellectual Property Rights — Open Access for Researchers — by Nehaa Chaudhari — last modified Mar 24, 2015 01:22 AM
- In the year 2013, Nehaa Chaudhari had worked on a module on Intellectual Property Rights for United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)'s Open Access Curriculum (Curriculum for Researchers) as part of a project for the Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia. UNESCO published the module this year. Nehaa Chaudhari and Varun Baliga were among the Module preparation team. Nehaa Chaudhari was the writer for Units 1, 2 and 3: Understanding Intellectual Property Rights, Copyright and Alternative to a Strict Copyright Regime.
- Open Letter to Prime Minister Modi — by Rohini Lakshané — last modified Feb 14, 2016 04:39 AM
- After the government introduced the "Make in India" and "Digital India" programmes, the air is thick with the promise of reduced imports, new jobs, and goods for the domestic market. In light of the patent wars in India, the government can ill-afford to overlook the patent implications in indigenously manufactured mobile phones. CIS proposes that the Government of India initiate the formation of a patent pool of critical mobile technologies and a five percent compulsory license.
- National IPR Policy Series : CIS Comments to the First Draft of the National IP Policy — by Nehaa Chaudhari — last modified Feb 09, 2015 12:59 AM
- The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, Government of India invited comments on the First Draft of India's National IPR Policy. The Centre for Internet & Society (CIS) made this submission. The comments were prepared by Nehaa Chaudhari, Pranesh Prakash and Anubha Sinha. We also thank our intern, Varnika Chawla for her assistance.
- Locating Constructs of Privacy within Classical Hindu Law — by Ashna Ashesh and Bhairav Acharya — last modified Jan 01, 2015 01:56 PM
- This white paper seeks to locate privacy in Classical Hindu Law, and by doing so, displace the notion that privacy is an inherently ‘Western’ concept that is the product of a modernist legal system.
- Availability and Accessibility of Government Information in Public Domain — by Sunil Abraham — last modified Dec 30, 2014 01:25 AM
- The information provided on most Government websites such as Acts, notifications, rules, orders, minutes of meetings and consultations, etc. is usually in the form of electronic documents. However, these lack authenticity and accessibility and cannot be (text) searched., This policy brief identifies the problem areas with the current work flow being used to publish documents and proposes suitable modifications to make them easy to locate, authentic and accessible.
- White Paper on RTI and Privacy V1.2 — by Vipul Kharbanda — last modified Nov 09, 2014 02:53 AM
- This white paper explores the relationship between privacy and transparency in the context of the right to information in India. Analysing pertinent case law and legislation - the paper highlights how the courts and the law in India address questions of transparency vs. privacy.
- Guidelines for Examination of Computer Related Inventions: Mapping the Stakeholders' Response — by Nehaa Chaudhari — last modified Jan 05, 2015 05:01 PM
- The procedure and tests surrounding software patenting in India have remained ambiguous since the Parliament introduced the term “per se” through the Patent (Amendment) Act, 2002. In 2013, the Indian Patent Office released Draft Guidelines for the Examination of Computer Related Inventions, in an effort to clarify some of the ambiguity. Through this post, CIS intern, Shashank Singh, analyses the various responses by the stakeholders to these Guidelines and highlights the various issues put forth in the responses.
- Big Data and Positive Social Change in the Developing World: A White Paper for Practitioners and Researchers — by Nishant Shah — last modified Oct 01, 2014 03:52 AM
- I was a part of a working group writing a white paper on big data and social change, over the last six months. This white paper was produced by a group of activists, researchers and data experts who met at the Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Centre to discuss the question of whether, and how, big data is becoming a resource for positive social change in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).
- Expanding the World of Telugu Wikipedia – CIS-A2K and ALC join hands — by T Vishnu Vardhan and Rahmanuddin Shaik — last modified Sep 30, 2014 05:11 AM
- Students and faculty of Andhra Loyola College in Vijayawada aim to enhance Telugu Wikipedia through increased contributions to Wikipedia and make it available under free license.
- NIE Steps in to Grow Konkani Wikipedia — by T. Vishnu Vardhan — last modified Oct 10, 2014 11:26 AM
- The Centre for Internet & Society's Access to Knowledge team (CIS-A2K) signed a memorandum of agreement (MoU) with Nirmala Institute of Education, Goa to enhance digital literacy in Konkani in the education sector across Goa.
- Privacy in Healthcare: Policy Guide — by Tanvi Mani — last modified Aug 31, 2014 03:18 PM
- The Health Policy Guide seeks to understand what are the legal regulations governing data flow in the health sector — particularly hospitals, and how are these regulations implemented. Towards this objective, the research reviews data practices in a variety of public and private hospitals and diagnostics labs. The research is based on legislation, case law, publicly available documents, and anonymous interviews.
- University of Mysore Re-releases Kannada Vishwakosha (Encyclopaedia) under Creative Commons Free License — by U.B.Pavanaja — last modified Jul 24, 2014 07:03 AM
- The University of Mysore and the Centre for Internet and Society co-organized the Open Knowledge Day in Mysore on July 15, 2014. On this occasion Mysore University released six volumes of Kannada Vishwakosha under the Creative Commons (CC) license.
