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    <item rdf:about="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/dark-fibre-files">
    <title>The 'Dark Fibre' Files: Interview with Jamie King and Peter Mann</title>
    <link>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/dark-fibre-files</link>
    <description>
        &lt;b&gt;Film-makers Jamie King (producer/director of the 'Steal This Film' series) and Peter Mann, in conversation with Siddharth Chadha, on 'Dark Fibre', their latest production, being filmed in Bangalore&lt;/b&gt;
        &lt;p&gt;'Dark Fibre' is a documentary/fiction hybrid by J. J. King, producer/director of the 'Steal This Film' series, which has already reached over six million people online and is working towards achieving international television distribution, and Peter Mann, a British film-maker whose most recent work is titled 'Sargy Mann'.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;'Dark Fibre' is set amongst the cablewallahs of Bangalore, and uses the device of cabling to traverse different aspects of informational life in the city. It follows the lives of real cablewallahs and examines the political status of their activities.The fictional elements arrive in the form of a young apprentice cablewallah who attempts to unite the disparate home-brew networks in the city into a grassroots, horizontal 'people's network'. Some support the activity and some vehemently oppose it -- but what no one expects is the emergence of a seditious, unlicensed and anonymous new channel which begins to transform people's imaginations in the city. Our young cable apprentice is tasked with tracking down the channel, as powerful political forces array themselves against it. Not only the 'security' of the city, but his own wellbeing depend on whether he finds it, and whether it proves possible to stop its distribution. Meanwhile, mysterious elements from outside India -- possibly emissaries of a still-greater power -- are appearing on the scene. This quest for the unknown channel is reminiscent of a modern-day 'Moby Dick', with the city of Bangalore as the high seas and our cable apprentice a reluctant Ahab. The action is a combination of verite, improvisation and scripted action.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;In conversation with Jamie and Peter in Bangalore&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Q: How did you get the idea to make Dark Fibre, a fiction film?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Peter: &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;
&lt;p&gt;We first met through BritDoc--British Documentary--and they run Channel 4 which is a Film Foundation. They have been good to us. They funded both Steal This Film and 'Sargy Mann'--a film on my father who is a blind man. They organised a meeting of all the directors they had funded and we met there. We were both thinking about what to do next and felt frustrated because we were making documentaries but really wanted to make fiction. We both shared the same ideas, with regard to shooting something completely as it is but presenting it in a fictional context.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Jamie:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;
&lt;p&gt;And furthermore, we agreed that documentaries are not really real life. Because at the end of the day, I will keep only what I like, make you look at the way I want you to, I would cut you out of the picture if I don't agree with you. This happens even with the most worthy of the films. And you can be more truthful in fiction because its always a subjective truth. Fiction allows things to remain more real. I don't need an argument in the film. If I can just say, here is one guy's story and this is his story, then you can see the city with no bullshit. The story would allow you to look at things as they are; it's partly that idea behind Dark Fibre.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;Peter:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;
&lt;p&gt;This is in some way related to the concept of the artistic truth. You use all the tools at your disposal to tell a story, not just literal facts. This is about presenting things within an atmosphere, presenting things in a context. This then adds up to someone understanding something about the world, and I think fiction serves that better than documentary.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Q: What brings you to India to make Dark Fibre?&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;Jamie:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I think the cablewallah networks are unique. I have never seen anything like this anywhere else myself. India is also in a very, very interesting time and place. The idea of information as a commodity is alive here as it isn't in many other places. The value of information is very high here. There is a western imaginary of Bangalore which is immediately fascinating. It's the place where our information is processed. This is where our credit card and our phone data goes. And it enters a weird black market that we don't understand. This is the cliché. We already have cliché films about Bombay and call centers. We do not want to put a call center into the film because that is already the imagined cliché vision of Bangalore. It is obviously far more sophisticated than that. And in some ways it is far patchier than that. Who are these information workers? What are they doing and at which level are they doing it? Are they the street workers putting cables into walls or is it the guy at Infosys who is hiring people and teaching them to fake English accents? Which is the real information worker? That variegation of information life in Bangalore is interesting, not just to us, but, I think, to everybody. Information dexterity is perceived as the signature of Northern dominance. The ability to manipulate information, to move intellectual property, to transform an idea into a product, to transform someone else's idea into your property. That kind of dexterity is seen as the keynote of western dominance. And watching a developing country transform into an information dextrous economy, seeing information dextrous people is amazing. And then there is the patchiness of it--who gets left behind? Who gets included? Whats missed out and what is added in that vision? How is it manipulated in favor of big businesses? And all of this is fascinating not only from an orientalist's point of view but from a general economic-socio-political point of view.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Q: What is the underlying concept that brought about Dark Fibre?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Jamie:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;While making 'Steal This Film' we spent a year on a 36 minute film trying to make an argument that would be staunch, impactful, and radical. What we learned is that it's very difficult to set out to argue your way to the truth. It's relatively easier to let the world itself speak and in the meanwhile observe it in detail. The kind of issues we are engaging with in Dark Fibre are around people's relationships with information and their relationship with freedom. These are very, very hard to nail down and speak about in a radical way. These are things left to the Intellectual Property lawyers, it's already happening, it's already cliché. All the arguments are already written. And even after a year of Steal This Film, it's shown in liberal universities – Wait! Liberal universities? I was supposed to be an anarchist! We want to go further. We want to tell people things through an image.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Peter:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Our idea of relationships is exploring the parallel physical communications networks and the virtual networks. In a city like Bangalore you see it. The traffic here is chaotic but it works. How? There is no answer to that. But it provokes questions. Through Dark Fibre, we are trying to say that there is a potential network in the city (cablewallahs) which is currently being unused and asking what it would take to unlock that potential and where would it take us if that really happens.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Q: Why the cablewallahs? What is so fascinating about them?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Jamie: &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;Yes, we are interested in the cablewallah network and I think it's quite perverse that it makes people from around here laugh. You see cablewallahs as a fact of life, probably a mundane fact of life. Westerners, Europeans, who are used to orderly deployments of information technology are completely blown away when you tell them that this is how it works in India. Ad hoc, grassroots, messy, out of control.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Peter:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;
&lt;p&gt;To the West, it is just unthinkable that the government would allow something like these networks, which supply 24 hours television. To not have these under government control is unthinkable.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;Jamie:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;
&lt;p&gt;So, obviously, we are at a point of transition where it's unthinkable to the Global North and it would become unthinkable here too. We are in the middle of that shift and thats one of the things we are trying to document; the network form, which is horizontal, ad hoc and on the street, becomes not only regulated but seditious.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;Q: Why would you call it seditious?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Jamie: &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Because it begins to be seen as almost dangerous. As the regulators move in, they take Direct to Home control of all the deployments of their intellectual properties. The older networks start to look not only like intellectual property right infringements, but their disorder is also seen to be terrorist.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;Q: What is the film trying to propose through linking these cablewallah networks?&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;Jamie:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Our proposal in this film is - "What if instead of just dying peacefully, someone had the idea of transforming these networks that used to deliver international and local content, by connecting them together, and turning them in to massive local media networks which are used for media sharing, file sharing, your own local channel?" There is a potential because the network is already there.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;Peter:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In a way, if you think about the microcosm idea of the Internet as a whole, that essentially is what our plot is. On a certain level you would say that it's just a network but then the internet is the most important driving force of the world today.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Jamie:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The point is that once this idea is out, we can create the infrastructure to connect the entire city, infrastructure we can all use. Everyone starts to have a stake in it, be it the newspapers, TV channels, pirate markets (they will say, "No one is buying our shit anymore because they can share it over the network"), the computer manufacturers, the importer of Chinese routers, a gangster who thinks he can advertise on the network, the intellectual property lawyer... different people start getting the idea that they might have something to do with this network. Basically this is a chaos scenario, from which arises the plot. It is a fictional scenario but is set in the reality of information sharing here today.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Q: What is the technique you use to make the plot hybrid fictional?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Jamie:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The main character is played by an actor and he will be an embedded actor, working with the real cablewallah. Parts of it will be documentary, seeing how the cablewallah works and the viewer, through watching this actor, will understand how the network works. We have already spoken to some cablewallahs. And they have been very happy about all this. We see this as sort of embedded journalism, where the embedded actor takes the place of an interviewer. The film is not going to be historical. The characters will have a background and the film is going to have a background, but what we are trying to do is show the 'now'. We want to make it speak about the past and speak about the future. About our future.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Q: 'Steal This Film' was a critique of the international intellectual property regimes. Would this film also be similarly advocative?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Jamie:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;We are going to the next level from 'Steal This Film', and this is more of my argument than Peter's -- that the conversation about Intellectual Propery is over or the film is the last word at all. But I personally need to go somewhere else to say more. I am interested in information in general. And how information affects what we can think, what we can dream, what we can be, how it forms all of us -- that is what we are working on in 'Dark Fibre' and the question of intellectual property is a subset of that question. We spend a lot of time talking about ideas and that's one of the things that connects us. We want to articulate a lot of the philosophical, abstract ideas in this film. And we will see if we can manage to do it in a new context. 'Steal This Film' interested a few people and this will be the next point of departure for discussion.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Q: Peter, do you share Jamie's passion for Intellectual Property?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Peter:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Not in the same way. I am very interested in the subject. Anybody who creates work is interested in it. In my last film, there is a constant commentary of a test match going on and as a result of it, it is almost impossible to sell it to television; people who own the rights to the cricket say that we have to pay them thousands of pounds! I am interested in documenting the world as it is and not what is cleaned up for TV. I am interested in the specifics. If you get on a bus in London, the ringtone everyone has on a mobile phone is not a ringtone but a particular song. But you can't put that on film because Mick Jagger, or whoever the artiste is, will want ten thousand pounds for it. The frustration that I face is that it is impossible to put the world that I see in front of me on film. I used to work with TV commercials and you would never see anything in commercials that is not the product being sold. I was once working on a Coca Cola commercial in New York and there was a person who was appointed by Coca Cola to go around the whole set to ensure that no one is drinking anything that is not made by Coca Cola, whether that is water or juice. Anything. And I think all that is about creating a creased world that we don't live in. I am interested in the world, through documentaries or fiction, that we live in. And it is bits of music, it is referenced films, we reference music, we reference sport. Just because people have rights over these, you never see them on film. That is my main area of interest, more than what is happening on the legal front.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img class="image-inline image-inline" src="uploads/stf.jpg/image_preview" alt="stf" height="400" width="284" /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; &lt;img class="image-inline image-inline" src="uploads/copy_of_steal_this_film_2.jpg/image_preview" alt="steal this film" height="400" width="280" /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

        &lt;p&gt;
        For more details visit &lt;a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/dark-fibre-files'&gt;https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/dark-fibre-files&lt;/a&gt;
        &lt;/p&gt;
    </description>
    <dc:publisher>No publisher</dc:publisher>
    <dc:creator>siddharth</dc:creator>
    <dc:rights></dc:rights>

    
        <dc:subject>histories of internet in India</dc:subject>
    
    
        <dc:subject>internet and society</dc:subject>
    
    
        <dc:subject>Digital Access</dc:subject>
    
    
        <dc:subject>Intellectual Property Rights</dc:subject>
    
    
        <dc:subject>YouTube</dc:subject>
    
    
        <dc:subject>art and intervention</dc:subject>
    
    
        <dc:subject>Piracy</dc:subject>
    
    
        <dc:subject>Open Access</dc:subject>
    
    
        <dc:subject>innovation</dc:subject>
    
    
        <dc:subject>digital artists</dc:subject>
    

   <dc:date>2011-08-04T04:41:31Z</dc:date>
   <dc:type>Blog Entry</dc:type>
   </item>


    <item rdf:about="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/of-my-struggle-with-a-broadband-connection">
    <title>Of my struggle with a Broadband Connection</title>
    <link>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/of-my-struggle-with-a-broadband-connection</link>
    <description>
        &lt;b&gt;This is a reflection on my experiences with installing a broadband Internet connection at home. 
The closing post of an interview is delayed since Jamie and Peter are traveling. 
 &lt;/b&gt;
        &lt;p align="left"&gt;While you read this article, it is
likely that I am sitting at my home/workspace, relishing a Kirostami
film, cooking, cleaning, reading, or maybe out in the market. All but
surfing the cloud. Until last year, Weather and  Broadband Internet
were the two best things about living in Bangalore. Especially the
later. A stable fast always on Internet connection is what many of my
friends in Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai wish for on Christmas. When I
first applied for a 384 Kbps Connection with Airtel in my Aga
Abdullah Street house in Richmond Town, Airtel became my Santa and
obliged. The engineers came the same day and changed my life. The
world of  Cinema came begging to my feet with Bit Torrent technology.
Streaming became an everyday affair on Internet that was the best I
had ever had. In my bliss of downloading bytes upon bytes, I forgot
the lesson that experienced souls like Lord Krishna in Gita and
Gautam Buddha  tell: Nothing in the world is Permanent.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;
It was at the end of March that I
called up Airtel and requested for my connection to be transferred to
8&lt;sup&gt;th&lt;/sup&gt; Main Road on Vasant Nagar. Assured with a time frame
of 10 days, I waited patiently. After two weeks of waiting, I was
inclined to call and see when I would get my internet bliss back. The
process was delayed and at the end of the week, I was informed that
due to a fault in their line, they could not provide me with a new
connection. Furious, I called up TATA and asked their people to fit
their 512 Kbps Wimax technology in my house. The installation charges
were to be waived off if I payed for 4 months in advance. I agreed
and the Internet was back. It did not take me long to realize that
the new TATA Wimax connection was anywhere close to my old Airtel
Broadband. Every couple of hours I would be disconnected from the
network when I would have to call the customer care and reset my
account. Alas, I had paid for 4 months in advance and this would have
to be a long wait. Soon enough, I found myself proficient enough to
log into the Tata Indicom server and solve the problem myself. In the
meanwhile, an engineer from Airtel called me to check if I still
needed to old connection and I asked him to wait for a couple of
months. To cut down my ordeal, I decided to upgrade my connection for
a Night booster plan, which would mean a full 1 Mbps speed at night.
A little too much to expect as things barely boosted on any of the
nights that followed. At the end of the third month, I requested them
to disconnect the connection, and pledged never to go back to them
again.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p align="left"&gt;As I once more, cheerfully walked
inside the Airtel office at Cunningham Road, my dream Internet
connection flashed in front of my eyes. I played out the procedure of
the next couple of hours in front of my eyes, expecting the engineers
to be home, creating a mess while drilling wires. And when it is all
done, I would go back and spend the night catching up with all the
episodes of my favorite shows that I had missed over the past 3
months. The executive informed me that this would take a little
longer than expected, 3 days on the max! I looked up for more
patience within myself and went back home. The paper work was
completed the next day and the payment of Rs. 2000 was made. A week
later, I was still waiting for the engineers to come. Expectantly, I
would call the local executive who would promise to be at my service
in a couple of hours and not turn up. The game went for a couple of
days before he finally turned up. In the next 20 minutes of him
jumping on the terrace, exploring the outside of the house, he came
to break the news to me. “Sorry Sir, we cannot put a connection
here. There is a fault in the line coming this side and it will take
at least a month to fix it.” I was almost in tears. His words broke
my heart and all he could do to console me was promise a refund in 3
days. The cheque came a couple of weeks later. And I still call him
to check every three days, if the fault has been repaired and I can
get my dream Internet back!&lt;/p&gt;

        &lt;p&gt;
        For more details visit &lt;a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/of-my-struggle-with-a-broadband-connection'&gt;https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/of-my-struggle-with-a-broadband-connection&lt;/a&gt;
        &lt;/p&gt;
    </description>
    <dc:publisher>No publisher</dc:publisher>
    <dc:creator>siddharth</dc:creator>
    <dc:rights></dc:rights>

    
        <dc:subject>Consumer Rights</dc:subject>
    
    
        <dc:subject>IT Cities</dc:subject>
    
    
        <dc:subject>internet and society</dc:subject>
    

   <dc:date>2011-08-04T04:44:37Z</dc:date>
   <dc:type>Blog Entry</dc:type>
   </item>


    <item rdf:about="https://cis-india.org/a2k/publications/gaming%203.jpg">
    <title>Gaming Hands</title>
    <link>https://cis-india.org/a2k/publications/gaming%203.jpg</link>
    <description>
        &lt;b&gt;Photo Link : http://www.flickr.com/photos/13723647@N07/3528906247/sizes/m/&lt;/b&gt;
        
        &lt;p&gt;
        For more details visit &lt;a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/publications/gaming%203.jpg'&gt;https://cis-india.org/a2k/publications/gaming%203.jpg&lt;/a&gt;
        &lt;/p&gt;
    </description>
    <dc:publisher>No publisher</dc:publisher>
    <dc:creator>siddharth</dc:creator>
    <dc:rights></dc:rights>


   <dc:date>2009-10-13T07:47:09Z</dc:date>
   <dc:type>Image</dc:type>
   </item>


    <item rdf:about="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/emerging-bit-torrrent-trends-in-india">
    <title>Emerging Bit Torrent Trends in India</title>
    <link>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/emerging-bit-torrrent-trends-in-india</link>
    <description>
        &lt;b&gt;Internet has been a revelation ever since its introduction. The writer in this blog examines how the progress made by Internet based technologies could never be reversed.&lt;/b&gt;
        &lt;h2&gt;From Kazaa to The Pirate Bay&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Little did the world of the VHS era realize in its time where the future of pirate technologies were heading to. The world's favourite music and films were quickly transferred onto optical discs as magnetic tapes went obsolete a few years before the end of the last century. Internet was soon to become the nemesis of discs, which were bulky to store and scratched easily. The first tryst with peer to peer technologies on networks sent shivers down the spine of Jack Valenti and the Motion Pictures Association of America. The speed of dissemination and distribution of content over the Internet was something the world had never seen before. The lawsuits against peer to peer networks such as Kaaza and Limewire ran into millions of dollars. Websites were shut down, but time and progress of technology could never be reversed.  BitTorrent soon became the most common protocol to transfer content over the Internet.  BitTorrent metafiles themselves do not store copyrighted data. Hence, BitTorrent itself is not illegal. However, its use to make copies of copyrighted material that contravenes laws in many countries has created many controversies, including the now famous Pirate Bay Trial in Sweden. The popularity of torrents though
is not specific to the Western world. The strength of the Internet lies in its ability to generate content from any corner of the world
which is then spread across the world through a web of distribution reaching many computers and granting them access to the content simultaneously.&lt;strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Desi content on Torrent Networks&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Desi : A term derived from Sanskrit, meaning region, province or country. It now refers to the people and culture of South Asian Diaspora.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;On the most popular BitTorrent search engines, &lt;a href="http://torrentz.com/" target="_blank"&gt;torrentz.com&lt;/a&gt;, Hindi and Hindi movies are permanent search tags. Often, one would even see the names of popular Bollywood releases such as Dev D, or at the time of writing this blog entry, Telegu Films, prominently displayed on the site. Bollywood and other content created in India and the rest of the subcontinent is driving the cyberspace. With a huge diaspora spread across every part of the world and increasing Internet penetration alongside rising broadband speeds in urban India, the demand for desi content on torrent networks is on the rise. Websites such as &lt;a href="http://desitorrents.com/" target="_blank"&gt;desitorrents.com&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href="http://dctorrent.com/" target="_blank"&gt;dctorrent.com&lt;/a&gt; are two torrent search engines that are popular amongst Internet users and cater exclusively to desi content. A closer look at the content on these sites reveal that the most popular content on these torrent networks are television shows, cricket matches, Bollywood movies, music and regional cinema. Torrent scenes such as aXXo are not unique to Hollywood uploads alone.  Desi content has its own torrent scenes, responsible for uploading torrent trackers, as soon as the content is out in the public. Users identifying themselves as Jay, Captain Jack or Gunga Din are busy uploading these files on the desi networks. 
&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Online since January 2004 and an Internet traffic rank of 7,302, an average visitor spends 8.3 minutes on the Desi Torrents site everyday. Relative to the general Internet population, the website has the highest number of male visitors in the age group of 18 to 34.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Most users are college graduates who prefer to access the website from home. In comparison, Desi Club Torrents, which is a free website has
a younger representative web demographic with males between 18 to 24 years of age being the most prominent visitors. According to the
data, it is also revealed that the website has a higher ratio of visitors who have not attended Graduate School but still have attended some college for education&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h2&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Impact on the Traditional Markets&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;strong&gt;
&lt;/strong&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;In most cases, the popularity of Bollywood films in cinema halls and
on torrent sites seems to be linked. For example, the most successful
Bollywood film of 2008, Ghajini, which ended up raking Rs. 200 crores
on the box office, is also one of the most downloaded films on Bit
Torrent Networks. However, for the Pirate selling DVD's of latest
films, this is not great news.&amp;nbsp;A majority of their customers have migrated to
downloading films on the Internet using Peer to Peer technologies.
The upper middle-class niche film watching audiences, have been the
fastest to acquire computers and get on the Internet. Increasing
broadband speeds have ensured that this segment of consumer
transitions away from the traditional 'on the corner' pirate shop. &lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

        &lt;p&gt;
        For more details visit &lt;a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/emerging-bit-torrrent-trends-in-india'&gt;https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/emerging-bit-torrrent-trends-in-india&lt;/a&gt;
        &lt;/p&gt;
    </description>
    <dc:publisher>No publisher</dc:publisher>
    <dc:creator>siddharth</dc:creator>
    <dc:rights></dc:rights>

    
        <dc:subject>Cyberspace</dc:subject>
    
    
        <dc:subject>internet and society</dc:subject>
    
    
        <dc:subject>Piracy</dc:subject>
    
    
        <dc:subject>Intellectual Property Rights</dc:subject>
    
    
        <dc:subject>cybercultures</dc:subject>
    
    
        <dc:subject>cyberspaces</dc:subject>
    

   <dc:date>2011-08-04T04:44:48Z</dc:date>
   <dc:type>Blog Entry</dc:type>
   </item>


    <item rdf:about="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/at-the-end-of-the-niche-optical-pirate">
    <title>At the end of the niche optical pirate</title>
    <link>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/at-the-end-of-the-niche-optical-pirate</link>
    <description>
        &lt;b&gt;In this blog post, Siddharth Chaddha goes enquiring into the modus operandi of a video pirate / film lover / businessman in Bangalore's famed National Market.&lt;/b&gt;
        &lt;h3&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Getting to the National Market&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Wading through Majestic Bus Stand,
Flea Markets, Private Bus Stops and vehicles going around in circles,
you could almost miss this board outside one of the shopping plazas.
NATIONAL MARKET, the famed "pirate market" at the heart of
the city. Most of the business here is illegal and the local police
raid the thirty odd shops selling goods, which within the purview of
any multilateral agreement under WIPO or TRIPS regime would be an
infringement of copyright, at least once a
month. The shops run shutter to shutter, each one five by four feet.
Crowded with sellers and customers, all pirate markets typically
smell the same. Pirated DVDs, DVD players, Chinese mobile phones and
PDAs, even VHS players of the yore, smuggled MP3 music systems, fake
Ray-Bans and Police sunglasses, gaming consoles. You name it, and
National Market has it.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Meet the Pirate&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Tall and sporting a stubble, Sooraj
(name changed) is a Malayali who has been in the trade for over 8
years. "Earlier, I used to have the best English Movie
collection ever. But now, its all going away. Most people have
shifted from DVD's to Digital Storage and Bit Torrents", says
Sooraj.  A family comes across the counter. A middle aged man
accompanied by two women in a burqua, one of them carrying a young
baby boy in their hand. "Tom and Jerry!", says the man and
Sooraj's helper brings out a carton full of animated Hollywood films.
Finding Nemo, The Lion King, Madagascar, its all there. "No Tom
and Jerry. This doesn't have Tom and Jerry", growls the stout
customer. Sooraj jumps into the action, hunts out a DVD from a stack
and puts it on the table. "Tom and Jerry Tales - 13 episodes",
reads the the outside with a classic Tom chasing Jerry picture on the
cover. Satisfied, the family puts it aside and goes on to explore
other popular cartoon series. In the end, the man calls for
Maharathi, a recent Bollywood flick. He looks at the cover
intriguingly and I decide to butt in, "Amazing movie. Just saw
it last week. Great plot." The deal is seized and after a bout
of bargaining over the price. As the family dissolves into the market,
Sooraj turns back and says to me, "A lot of customers bargain. I
get a headache. And my shop is the first one in the market, inside
people operate on margins of 5-10 rupees. That just ruins everything
for us. They don't think of the amount of the risk involved."&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;The Business of Piracy&lt;strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Sooraj explains to me how Chennai is the biggest market of
the South. "Chennai is a sea. You will get everything there.
Once you take a dive in that ocean, it's all there." When I ask
him of the chain of distribution, he says, "No one will say that
I print the covers of fake DVDs or I copy prints. For me, I just
call my distributor and everything comes from Chennai. I don't ask
beyond that. The stock comes in the price range of 25-35-40 Rupees.
Now, there is only one quality of stock. The market is dying. No one
has good stock. Earlier, we used to sell DVDs for Rs.70-80. Now,
there is no demand. Even the wholesale business is at a low.'' I ask
him, "So what are you going to do, now that soon DVDs will be
gone?" Sooraj is not flustered. "We will shut this and start
a new business," he says. I quietly step back, as another
customer comes asking for audio CDs. He doesn't deal in those.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Enforcement Threat&lt;strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;When the customer is gone, I ask him,
"How often does the police raid this market?" He smiles and
replies, "Not often anymore. The business is almost dead. But
yes, they come sometimes. Then you are taken away and a case ensues."
I decide to ask him candidly, "How many times have you been
booked?" He smiles again. "5-7 times. I have a few cases
pending, dates that I have to go and visit the court. They arrest you
for a day but that's all they can do. After all this is not a big
crime." He continues dealing with customers who have various
demands for music and films. Some he sells to, he guides others to
the inside shops. "I sell about a 1000 DVDs everyday. Earlier,
the figure used to be much higher. Mostly English. Hindi, Tamil and
Telugu too. No Kannada," he volunteers. I probe further, "Why
no Kannada?" He says that that he supports protection for their
own industry. "And the market price for Kannada films is
appropriate. Some are Rupees 60, 90, 110. That's reasonable. We do not
need to pirate it."&lt;/p&gt;
I ask him for Tamil titles. He asked if
I wanted &lt;em&gt;Ghajani&lt;/em&gt;. “I saw it when it released. Give me something
that's worth watching.” He picks out two. &lt;em&gt;Saroja&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Subramaniya
Puram&lt;/em&gt;. He doesn't make a profit in this deal but something tells me
that he is happy to spread the love of good films. "Can I click
a picture?" He refuses, saying it would not be a good idea. I
shake his hand. Until next time.


        &lt;p&gt;
        For more details visit &lt;a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/at-the-end-of-the-niche-optical-pirate'&gt;https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/at-the-end-of-the-niche-optical-pirate&lt;/a&gt;
        &lt;/p&gt;
    </description>
    <dc:publisher>No publisher</dc:publisher>
    <dc:creator>siddharth</dc:creator>
    <dc:rights></dc:rights>

    
        <dc:subject>IT Act</dc:subject>
    
    
        <dc:subject>Consumer Rights</dc:subject>
    
    
        <dc:subject>Piracy</dc:subject>
    
    
        <dc:subject>Intellectual Property Rights</dc:subject>
    
    
        <dc:subject>internet and society</dc:subject>
    

   <dc:date>2011-08-04T04:44:58Z</dc:date>
   <dc:type>Blog Entry</dc:type>
   </item>


    <item rdf:about="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/are-you-game">
    <title>Are you Game?</title>
    <link>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/are-you-game</link>
    <description>
        &lt;b&gt;In a preview on the rise and expectations in the Gaming industry, this post looks at emerging trends in India. &lt;/b&gt;
        &lt;h3&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Grey Markets&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At
the
grey markets of Bangalore, aka SJ Road and National Market,
smuggled Sony Playstation 3 and XBOX 360's sit pretty on the shelves
of vendors, willing to bargain up to 2/3rd the price offered at the
showroom, to the interested customer. Alongside, you would find a
huge range of pirated discs of games to play on your console.
According to Vishwa (name changed), a grey market dealer, these
smuggled consoles make their way to the markets via South East Asia.
“ The games are often procured locally using Internet to download
files and burn them en mass on cheap DVD's, or sourced from the
biggest pirate market in this part of the world, Chennai. Youngsters
come and purchase them because they are hooked and we give it to them
for cheap,” says the burly dealer who makes a living on the
increasing appetite for games among the city youngsters. While
customers use pirated discs to load the game, piracy also helps the
game become rampantly popular. They often need to go online and pay to
play these games beyond a certain difficulty level. The more the game
is pirated on disc, more the players paying for it online. Online
Gaming portals, such as Zappak offer scratch cards and coupons
starting from Rs. 100. These can be used for gaming online from home
or used at Cyber Cafe's, a popular haunt for gamers.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Size of the Gaming Market&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;It
is not only the grey market, but the sale of gaming consoles by Sony,
Microsoft 360 and Nintendo Wii, have all been on the rise in the past
2-3 years. In the month of August 2009, the price of a Playstation 3
was pegged under $300 in US and UK. Consequently it was made
available for under Rs.20,000 in the Indian market. There are  4.5
Lakh PS2 users, 1.35 Lakh PSP users and over 50,000 PS3 users in
country. Sony now holds 85% share in the console market in India.
According to Jacob Cherian, Editor of Skoar, India's only gaming
magazine, the only way for this youth driven market is to go up.
“While there is no estimate to assess how big the gaming industry
in India is, with falling prices of consoles and games, there is a
definite scope of growth and consolidation in the Industry. If the
distributors of games can counter piracy and maintain their profits,
the gaming culture will explode.” Plagued by losses due to grey
markets and piracy, the distributors are using competitive pricing to
increase volumes. The release of Grand Auto Theft 4 in 2008 has been
a striking example. The hugely anticipated game was released in India
for Rs. 500 and went on to sell 100,000 copies. This is believed to
be the most sold disc in the gaming industry in India. Increasing
popularity of online real time gaming is also increasing the scope of
expansion of the formal market.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;Stepping Stone to Digital Ecosystem&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Microsoft's
Bill Gates sees the Xbox console at the center of the future digital
ecosystem, rather than at its periphery. The gaming console is a
general purpose computer and not just a gaming device. For the
manufactures at Microsoft and Sony, it is about strategically being
in the living room. The ability of the consoles is to make wireless
connections with the PC, serve as an Internet browsing machine and
also, as a Blu Ray or High Definition disc player, all in the comfort
of your living room. But before this is realized there are bigger
challenges ahead for the gaming market. Piracy and Intellectual
Property issues are looming large for manufactures and distributors, 
Manufactures are already working to create games for the Indian
consumers that adhere to the local culture and cater to the
unfamiliar local gaming habits. The innovative publishers with the
right approach towards Indian youth will end up yielding great
results.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;LINKS&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;a class="external-link" href="http://www.techtree.com/India/News/Sony_announces_PS3_Slim_for_299/551-105648-585.html"&gt;http://www.techtree.com/India/News/Sony_announces_PS3_Slim_for_299/551-105648-585.html&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;a class="external-link" href="http://www.accessmylibrary.com/article-1G1-135681324/mobile-gaming-enthusiasts-view.html"&gt;http://www.accessmylibrary.com/article-1G1-135681324/mobile-gaming-enthusiasts-view.html&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

        &lt;p&gt;
        For more details visit &lt;a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/are-you-game'&gt;https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/are-you-game&lt;/a&gt;
        &lt;/p&gt;
    </description>
    <dc:publisher>No publisher</dc:publisher>
    <dc:creator>siddharth</dc:creator>
    <dc:rights></dc:rights>


   <dc:date>2011-08-04T04:44:44Z</dc:date>
   <dc:type>Blog Entry</dc:type>
   </item>


    <item rdf:about="https://cis-india.org/a2k/publications/broadband.png">
    <title>Airtel Broadband</title>
    <link>https://cis-india.org/a2k/publications/broadband.png</link>
    <description>
        &lt;b&gt;&lt;/b&gt;
        
        &lt;p&gt;
        For more details visit &lt;a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/publications/broadband.png'&gt;https://cis-india.org/a2k/publications/broadband.png&lt;/a&gt;
        &lt;/p&gt;
    </description>
    <dc:publisher>No publisher</dc:publisher>
    <dc:creator>siddharth</dc:creator>
    <dc:rights></dc:rights>


   <dc:date>2009-10-12T09:30:06Z</dc:date>
   <dc:type>Image</dc:type>
   </item>




</rdf:RDF>
