Centre for Internet and Society

December 2015 Bulletin

praskrishna — 2016-01-13T14:07:01Z

Our newsletter for the month of December 2015 is below.

The Centre for Internet & Society (CIS) is happy to share the twelfth issue of CIS newsletter (December 2015). Previous editions of the newsletter can be accessed at http://cis-india.org/about/newsletters.

Highlights
The 4th edition of the Global Congress themed around "Three Decades of Openness, Two Decades of TRIPS" was organized in New Delhi from December 15 - 17, 2015. The largest ever in Asia, the Congress was jointly organised by CIS, NLU-D, Open A.I.R., CREATe, Columbia University and American University. Nehaa Chaudhari summarized the developments of the 4th Global Congress on IP and the Public Interest in a blog post that was originally published on the Global Congress blog. Sunil Abraham wrote a blog entry stating the institutional position of CIS on the Net Neutrality discussion going on in India. Catch News interviewed Sunil Abraham about the recent advertisement by Facebook titled "What Net Neutrality Activists won't Tell You or, the Top 10 Facts about Free Basics" . Sunil argued against the validity of all the 'top 10 facts'. Odia author and cultural historian Jagannath Prasad Das has recently permitted 30 volumes of his notable works to be re-license under an open license (Creative Commons Share-Alike 4.0 or CC-BY-SA 4.0) . Subhashish Panigrahi wrote a blog post on this in Discover Bhubaneswar, a web portal in Odisha. CIS has established institutional partnerships with University of Mysore and Guru G Learning Labs for furthering Wikipedia growth. Tanveer Hasan analyses the developments and lists out the possible future plans in this regard. CIS along with Observer Research Foundation, Centre for Global Communication Studies, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania, and Internet Policy Observatory organized an event in New Delhi on Net Neutrality across South Asia . Today the quantity of data being generated is expanding at an exponential rate. From smartphones and televisions, trains and airplanes, sensor-equipped buildings and even the infrastructures of our cities, data now streams constantly from almost every sector and function of daily life, stated Scott Mason in a blog post. The Government of India is in the process of developing 100 smart cities in India which it sees as the key to the country's economic and social growth. Vanya Rakesh gave an overview of the Smart Cities project currently underway in India in a blog post. For the second part of the Smart City podcast series, Sruthi Krishnan and Harsha K from Fields of View spoke with Sumandro Chattapadhyay on data, people, and smart cities. Fields of View has produced and shared the recording. An extended survey of digital initiatives in arts and humanities practices in India was undertaken last year. The 'mapping digital humanities in India' enquiry began with the term 'digital humanities' itself, as a 'found' name for which one needs to excavate some meaning, context, and location in India at the present moment. P.P Sneha published the third,fourth, and fifth sections of the study this month. The RAW programme has initiated a new annual conference series titled Internet Researchers' Conference (IRC). The first edition of the Conference, organised around the theme of "studying internet in India" will be held in Delhi in February 2016

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Accessibility and Inclusion
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Under a grant from the Hans Foundation we are doing a project on developing text-to-speech software for 15 Indian languages. The progress made so far in the project can be accessed here.

►NVDA and eSpeak

Monthly Updates

● December 2015 Report (Suman Dogra; December 31, 2015).

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Access to Knowledge
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As part of the Access to Knowledge programme we are doing two projects. The first one (Pervasive Technologies) under a grant from the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) is for research on the complex interplay between pervasive technologies and intellectual property to support intellectual property norms that encourage the proliferation and development of such technologies as a social good. The second one (Wikipedia) under a grant from the Wikimedia Foundation is for the growth of Indic language communities and projects by designing community collaborations and partnerships that recruit and cultivate new editors and explore innovative approaches to building projects.

►Copyright and Patent

Blog Entries

Abuse of Dominant Position in Indian Competition Law: A Brief Guide (Sarthak Sood; December 9, 2015).
GCIP2015: Notes from the Inaugural Session (Spadika Jayaraj; SpicyIP; December 14, 2015).
GCIP Day 1 Session 3: Challenges in Re-Articulating Public Interest (Spadika Jayaraj; SpicyIP; December 17, 2015).
GCIP 15 Day 2: Discussions on Health Technology, Innovation and Access (Spadika Jayaraj; SpicyIP; December 17, 2015).
Guidelines for Examination of Computer Related Inventions in abeyance (Anubha Sinha; Anubha Sinha; December 21, 2015).
4th Global Congress on IP and the Public Interest: Statement of Conclusion for the IP and Development track (Nehaa Chaudhari; December 25, 2015). This was also published on the Global Congress Blog.

Event Organized

Global Congress on Intellectual Property and the Public Interest (Organized by National Law University, Delhi, American Assembly, Columbia University, Open A.I.R., American University, and CIS; New Delhi, December 15 - 17, 2015).

Participation in Event

CODE Session (Organized by IDRC; December 17, 2015; New Delhi). Nehaa Chaudhari and Anubha Sinha participated in the event.

Media Coverage

NLSIU Conference on Access to Copyrighted Works for Persons with Disability: An enriching experience (Abolee Vaidya and Nuhar Bansal; SINAPSE; December 14, 2015). This is an event report on a one-day national conference on the 'Access to Copyrighted Works for Persons with Disability' for which Pranesh Prakash was a speaker .

►Wikipedia

As part of the project grant from the Wikimedia Foundation we have reached out to more than 3500 people across India by organizing more than 100 outreach events and catalysed the release of encyclopaedic and other content under the Creative Commons (CC-BY-3.0) license in four Indian languages (21 books in Telugu, 13 in Odia, 4 volumes of encyclopaedia in Konkani and 6 volumes in Kannada, and 1 book on Odia language history in English).

Articles

30 Books of Odia Author and Historian Jagannath Prasad Das to Come Online on Odia Wikisource (Subhashish Panigrahi; Discover Bhubaneswar; December 4, 2015).
ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପାଠାଗାର (Subhashish Panigrahi; Sambad; December 6, 2015).

Blog Entries

Open access in the Marathi language expands by a thousand books (Subhashish Panigrahi and Abhinav Garule; December 3, 2015). This was published on Wikimedia Blog.
Guru-G Learning Labs and CIS A2K Institutional Partnership (Tanveer Hasan; December 3, 2015).
Community Prioritisation of Content Donation: Kannada Wikisource (Tanveer Hasan; December 5, 2015).
Analysis of Institutional Partnerships: University of Mysore and Guru G Learning Labs (Tanveer Hasan; December 5, 2015).
Touch Point Report: Department of Tourism Studies, Christ University and St. Aloysius College, Mangalore (Tanveer Hasan; December 5, 2015).
TTT 2015 (Tanveer Hasan; December 5, 2015).
Kannada Wikipedia Editathon at Mangaluru (Dr. U.B. Pavanaja; December 29, 2015).

Events Organized

Talk on bringing 1000 books about the culture of Maharashtra on Marathi Wikipedia (The Energy and Resources Institute; Bangalore; December 1, 2015). Avinash Chaphekar, Joint Secretary, Maharashtra Granthottejak Sanstha gave a talk.
Odia Wikimedia community meetup (Organized by Odia Wikipedia Community and CIS; Cuttack; December 3, 2015).
Sau Dhuni Teen Project: December Edit-a-thon (Women's Studies Centre, University of Pune; December 3, 2015).

Participation in Events

Telugu Wikipedia Day 2015, Photo Walk (Organized by Telugu Wikipedians; Dr. YSR State Archaeological Museum, Hyderabad; December 13, 2015). Pavan Santhosh attended the event. One of the popular Telugu news channel TV9 covered the event and telecasted the same. Eenadu published a special item on photo walk on December 13, 2015.
English Wikipedia and the Telugu Wikipedia joint meetup and edit-a-thon (Organized by Wikipedia community; Golden Threshold, Hyderabad; December 20, 2015). The event was covered inSakshi and Andhra Jyoti.

Media Coverage

CIS gave its inputs to the following media coverage:

Post More Articles on Kannada Wikipedia (Indian Express; Mangaluru edition; December 12, 2015).

A Kannada Wikipedia Editathon was conducted in Mangalore on December 10, 2015. The following are the media coverage for the same:

Kannada Wikipedia Editathon (Udayavani; December 7, 2015).
Kannada Wikipedia Editathon (Vijayavani; December 11, 2015).
Kannada Wikipedia Editathon (Vijaya Karnataka; December 11, 2015).
Kannada Wikipedia Editathon (Udayavani; December 11, 2015).
Kannada Wikipedia Editathon (Prajavani; December 10, 2015).
Kannada Wikipedia Editathon (Prajavani; December 13, 2015).

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Internet Governance
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As part of its research on privacy and free speech, CIS is engaged with two different projects. The first one (under a grant from Privacy International and International Development Research Centre (IDRC)) is on surveillance and freedom of expression (SAFEGUARDS). The second one (under a grant from MacArthur Foundation) is on studying the restrictions placed on freedom of expression online by the Indian government.

►Free Speech and Expression

Interview

Facebook shares 10 key facts about Free Basics. Here's what's wrong with all 10 of them (Shweta Sengar; Catch News; December 24, 2015).

Blog Entry

CIS's Position on Net Neutrality (Sunil Abraham; December 4, 2015).

Event Organized

Net Neutrality across South Asia (Organized by Observer Research Foundation, Centre for Global Communication Studies, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania, Internet Policy Observatory and CIS; New Delhi; December 12, 2015).

Participation in Event

Consultation on "Understanding the Freedom of Expression Online and Offline" (Organized by Digital Empowerment Foundation and Association for Progressive Communications; YMCA, New Delhi; December 10, 2015). Jyoti Panday was a speaker at this event.

►Big Data

Blog Entry

Benefits and Harms of "Big Data" (Scott Mason; December 30, 2015).

►Cyber Security

Blog Entry

Ground Zero Summit (Amber Sinha; December 22, 2015).

Participation in Events

Second Regional Conference on Connectivity for All: Future Technologies, Markets and Regulation (Organized by International Telecommunications Society, IIMA IDEA Telecom Centre of Excellence and Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad; New Delhi; December 13 - 15, 2015). Sunil Abraham was a panelist.

Event Organized

Bangalore Chapter Meet - DSCI (CIS, Bangalore; December 1, 2015). CIS hosted the Bangalore Chapter Meet of DSCI. Pronab Mohanty, Inspector General of Police gave a talk on Cybercrimes. Sunil Abraham presented the outcome of his study "Anonymity in Cyberspace".

►Privacy

Blog Entries

UID Research (Vanya Rakesh; December 2, 2015).
DNA Research (Vanya Rakesh; December 2, 2015).
Privacy Policy Research (Vanya Rakesh; December 2, 2015).
Sectoral Privacy Research (Vanya Rakesh; December 2, 2015).
Security Research (Vanya Rakesh; December 3, 2015).
Eight Key Privacy Events in India in the Year 2015 (Amber Sinha; December 31, 2015).

Participation in Events

Kick Off Meeting for the Politics of Data Project (Organized by Tactical Tech; Phnom Penh; December 7-8, 2015). Amber Sinha participated in the event.
Unbundling Issues of Privacy, Data Security, Identity Matrics, for Financial Inclusion (Organized by Indicus Foundation and MicroSave; December 10, 2015; Metropolitan Hotel and Spa, New Delhi). Sunil Abraham was a speaker.

►Miscellaneous

Blog Entry

Smart Cities in India: An Overview (Vanya Rakesh; December 21, 2015).

Participation in Event

Elite Capture of Governance (Organized by Forum for Urban Governance and Commons; December 16, 2015; Bangalore). Vanya Rakesh participated in the event.

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Telecom
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CIS is involved in promoting access and accessibility to telecommunications services and resources and has provided inputs to ongoing policy discussions and consultation papers published by TRAI. It has prepared reports on unlicensed spectrum and accessibility of mobile phones for persons with disabilities and also works with the USOF to include funding projects for persons with disabilities in its mandate:

Articles

The Free Basics debate: Trai has a point in imposing temporary ban on net neutrality (Sunil Abraham; FirstPost; December 24, 2015).
Millions of Indians Slam Facebook's 'Free Basics' App (Subhashish Panigrahi; December 29, 2015).

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Researchers at Work
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The Researchers at Work (RAW) programme is an interdisciplinary research initiative driven by contemporary concerns to understand the reconfigurations of social practices and structures through the Internet and digital media technologies, and vice versa. It is interested in producing local and contextual accounts of interactions, negotiations, and resolutions between the Internet, and socio-material and geo-political processes:

Upcoming Events

A.I. Hype Cycles and Artistic Subversions (CIS, Bangalore; January 22, 2016). Gene Kogan will give a talk.
First Edition of Internet Researchers' Conference (IRC) 2016 - Studying Internet in India: Call for Sessions (Organized by CIS; New Delhi; February 25 - 27, 2016).

Blog Entries

RAW Lecture #01: Nishant Shah on 'Stories and Histories of Internet in India' - Video (P.P. Sneha; December 1, 2015).
FOV Podcast - Data, People, and Smart Cities (Sumandro Chattapadhyay; December 2, 2015).
Reading from a Distance - Data as Text (P.P. Sneha; December 7, 2015).
The Infrastructure Turn in the Humanities (P.P. Sneha; December 7, 2015).
Living in the Archival Moment (P.P. Sneha; December 14, 2015).

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News & Media Coverage
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CIS gave its inputs to the following media coverage:

India's net neutrality debate is unique and complex (Pratap Vikram Singh; Governance Now; December 14, 2015).
Start-up India turns the heat on Facebook Free Basics (Anita Babu; Business Standard; December 22, 2015).
A Scam Masquerading as Santa (Apurva Venkat & Vandana Kamath; Bangalore Mirror; December 25, 2015).
Facebook goes out all guns blazing in push for Free Basics, Net neutrality advocates cry foul (IBN Live; December 29, 2015).
Foreign Media on Zuckerberg's India Backlash (Bhuma Shrivastava; NDTV; December 30, 2015).
Mark Zuckerberg's India backlash imperils vision for free global web (Bhuma Shrivastava; Livemint; December 30, 2015).

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About CIS
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The Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) is a non-profit organisation that undertakes interdisciplinary research on internet and digital technologies from policy and academic perspectives. The areas of focus include digital accessibility for persons with diverse abilities, access to knowledge, intellectual property rights, openness (including open data, free and open source software, open standards, open access, open educational resources, and open video), internet governance, telecommunication reform, digital privacy, and cyber-security. The academic research at CIS seeks to understand the reconfigurations of social and cultural processes and structures as mediated through the internet and digital media technologies.

► Offices

Bengaluru - No. 194, 2nd 'C' Cross, Domlur, 2nd Stage, Bengaluru, 560071. Location on Google Map .

Delhi - First floor, B 1/8, Hauz Khas, near G Block market, after Crunch, New Delhi, 110016. Location on Google Map.

► Follow Us

Twitter: http://twitter.com/cis_india
Twitter - Access to Knowledge: https://twitter.com/CISA2K
Facebook - Access to Knowledge: https://www.facebook.com/cisa2k
E-Mail - Access to Knowledge: a2k@cis-india.org
E-Mail - Researchers at Work: raw@cis-india.org
List - Researchers at Work: https://lists.ghserv.net/mailman/listinfo/researchers

► Support Us

Please help us defend consumer / citizen rights on the Internet! Write a cheque in favour of 'The Centre for Internet and Society' and mail it to us at No. 194, 2nd 'C' Cross, Domlur, 2nd Stage, Bengaluru, 560 071.

► Request for Collaboration

We invite researchers, practitioners, artists, and theoreticians, both organisationally and as individuals, to engage with us on topics related internet and society, and improve our collective understanding of this field. To discuss such possibilities, please write to Sunil Abraham, Executive Director, at sunil@cis-india.org (for policy research), or Sumandro Chattapadhyay, Research Director, at sumandro@cis-india.org (for academic research), with an indication of the form and the content of the collaboration you might be interested in. To discuss collaborations on Indic language Wikipedia projects, write to Tanveer Hasan, Programme Officer, at tanveer@cis-india.org.

CIS is grateful to its primary donor the Kusuma Trust founded by Anurag Dikshit and Soma Pujari, philanthropists of Indian origin for its core funding and support for most of its projects. CIS is also grateful to its other donors, Wikimedia Foundation, Ford Foundation, Privacy International, UK, Hans Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, and IDRC for funding its various projects.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/december-2015-bulletin

ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପାଠାଗାର

subha — 2016-01-05T06:30:35Z

Odia newspaper Sambad carried this featured column of mine yesterday in their Sunday supplement "Sambada Rabibara" on December 6, 2015.

It sheds light on how important it is to digitize published work and make them available in open standard. Odia Wikisource, a sister project of Odia Wikipedia and a free and open online library, is growing up with more and more Odia books every day. With a vast majority of the native language speakers seeking knowledge online, useful content like available online is going to pay a very crucial role. Be it popular literature or popular science writings, Odia Wikisource is growing up with books of various genre and helping preserve old published works.

ଭାଷାଟିଏ ବଢ଼ିଲେ ବଢ଼ନ୍ତି ବ୍ୟବହାରୀ । ବଢ଼େ ସେ ଭାଷାର ଅଭିଲେଖ । ଆଉ ଆମ ଭାଷାଟି କେଇ ଶହ-ହଜାର ବର୍ଷ ଭିତରେ ଶାଖା ପ୍ରଶାଖା ମେଲି ଯେ କେଡ଼େ ବିଶାଳ ହୋଇଛି ତାହା ଆମେ ଜାଣୁ । ଭାଷା ନଈଟି ବହୁ ଜାଗା ଦେଇ ବହୁ ବହୁ ଅନେକ ବହି ମଧ୍ୟ ଉତୁରିଉଠିଛି । ସେ ବହିମାନଙ୍କ ଭିତରୁ ଜଣାଶୁଣା ଲେଖକଙ୍କ ବହିଗୁଡ଼ିକ ଭଲ ଭାବେ ସଂରକ୍ଷିତ ହୋଇ ପୁନମୁଦ୍ରଣ ହେବା ସହିତ ପିଢ଼ି ପିଢ଼ି ଧରି ପଢ଼ାହେଉଛି। ହେଲେ ଗୁରୁତ୍ଵପୂର୍ଣ୍ଣ ତଥ୍ୟ ଥାଇ ମଧ୍ୟ ଅନେକ ବଣମଲ୍ଲୀ ସମ ଉପାଦେୟ ବହି ପ୍ରଚାର ପ୍ରସାର ଅଭାବରୁ ଲୋକଲୋଚନକୁ ଆସିପାରିନାହିଁ। ତା’ଛଡ଼ା ଅନେକ ବହି ପ୍ରକାଶକ ଓ ଲେଖକଙ୍କ ସମ୍ବଳ ଅଭାବ ହେତୁ, ପାଠକଙ୍କ ଅନାଗ୍ରହ ଯୋଗୁ ସାରା ଓଡ଼ିଶା ବା ଓଡ଼ିଶା ବାହାରକୁ ଯାଇପାରନ୍ତି ନାହିଁ । ଏମିତି ଅବସ୍ଥାରେ ଆମ ଭବିଷ୍ୟତ ସବୁଯାକ ବହି ନ ହେଲେ ମଧ୍ୟ କିଛି ପାଇବେ ତ?

ଆଗରୁ ଆମର କୋଠକାଠିଆ ସମାଜ ଥିଲା। ଏକାଠି ବହୁଲୋକ ବସି ଆଳାପ ଆଲୋଚନା କରୁଥିଲେ। ବହି ପଢ଼ାଠୁ ଆରମ୍ଭ କରି ନ୍ୟାୟ ବିଚାର ଯାଏ ସବୁ ହେଉଥିଲା ସେଇଠି । ଆମ ବଡ଼ବଡ଼ୁଆମାନେ ସବୁ ଗୁରୁତ୍ଵପୂର୍ଣ୍ଣ ସିଦ୍ଧାନ୍ତ ସେଇଠି ନେଉଥିଲେ । ଅନେକ ସ୍ଥାନରେ ବୁଦ୍ଧଙ୍କ ଛବି ଖୋଜିଲେ ଏବେ ବି ଗଛ ତଳେ ଚଉକି ଉପରେ ଏକାଠି ହୋଇ ଲୋକେ ବିଚାର କରୁଥିବା ଦେଖିବାକୁ ମିଳେ । ଏକଦା ଭାଗବତ ଟୁଙ୍ଗିରେ ଭାଗବତ ପଢ଼ାହେବା ଆରମ୍ଭ ହୋଇଥିଲା । ସେ ଥିଲା କେଇଘଣ୍ଟା ପାଇଁ ପାଠାଗାର ଆଉ ବେଳ ପାଇଁ ଚଳଣି ଆଉ ନ୍ୟାୟଘରା ପରେ ବହିର ଆଲୋଚନାଠାରୁ ସଂଗ୍ରହ ଓ ସଂରକ୍ଷଣ ଲୋଡ଼ା ପଡ଼ିବାରୁ ପାଠାଗାର ଆରମ୍ଭ ହେଲା । ତେବେ ଧୀରେ ଧୀରେ ଲୋକେ ବହି ପଢ଼ାଠାରୁ ଦୂରେଇ ଯିବାରୁ ପାଠାଗାର ବଣମଲ୍ଲୀ ସମାନ ହୋଇପଡ଼ିଲାଣି । ଆଜିର ପିଢ଼ି ଯେବେ ପୂରାପୂରି ଡିଜିଟାଲ୍ ମୁହାଁ ହୋଇସାରିଲେଣି, ଆମକୁ ବିଚାରିବାକୁ ହେବ ଏ ରାଶି ରାଶି ପୋଥି କାହା ପାଇଁ । ସମାଜଟିଏ ତା’ର ଆଗାମୀ ଭବିଷ୍ୟତର ଆଖିରେ ସପନ ଦେଖେ । ତେଣୁ ବର୍ତ୍ତମାନ ପିଢ଼ିର ଆବଶ୍ୟକତାକୁ ଅଣଦେଖା କରି କେବଳ ବହି ଛାପିଲେ ପାଠାଗାର ଯେ ଅଳିଆଗଦାରେ ପରିଣତ ନ ହେବ କିଏ କହିବ? ଆଗାମା ପିଢ଼ି ପାଇଁ କ’ଣ ଲେଖାହେବ, କ’ଣା ଲେଖା ନ ହେବ ଆଉ କିପରି ଲେଖା ହେବ ତାହା ଏକ ଜଟିଳ ବିଷୟ । ଭାଷା କହିଲେ ଖାଲି ସାହିତ୍ୟକୁ ବୁଝାଏ ନାହିଁ ବରଂ ସାହିତ୍ୟ ଭାଷାର ଏକ ଅଂଶ ବୋଲି ଅନେକଙ୍କୁ ବୁଝିବାକୁ ପଡ଼ିବ । ବିଭିନ୍ନ ଧରଣର ରଚନା ଓ ସେସବୁ ସାଇତା ହେବାର ଆବଶ୍ୟକତା ବହୁ ଭାବେ ରହିଛି । ଆମେ ଆଗକୁ ବଢ଼ିବା ବେଳେ ଆଉ ନୂଆ ଭାବିବା ବେଳେ ଆଗରୁ ଘଟିଥିବ ଘଟଣା ଆମ ପାଦ ତଳର ନିଅଁ ଭଳି କାମ କରେ । ତେଣୁ ନୂଆ ପିଢ଼ି ବହିଠାରୁ ଦୂରେଇ ଯାଉଛନ୍ତି ବୋଲି ଭାବିଲେ ଚୋରକୁ ମାନ ମାରି ଖପରାରେ ଖାଇବା ଭଳି ଦେବାକାମି ହେବା କାଗଜ ଉପରେ ଛପା ବହି ଯେତେ ନିଜର ଲାଗିଲେ ମଧ୍ୟ ଦିନେ ନା ଦିନେ ଚିରିବ କି ଉଇଙ୍କ ଆହାର ହେବା ଆଉ ଆଗତ ଦିନ ପାଇଁ ତାକୁ ସାଇତି ରଖିବାର ସଳଖ ବାଟଟିଏ ହେଲା ତା’ର ଡିଜିଟାଲ୍ କପି ତିଆରିବା । ଇଂରାଜି, ଫ୍ରେଞ୍ଚ, ସ୍ଥାନିସ୍, ଜର୍ମାନ, ଜାପାନୀ ଆଦି ଭାଷାରେ ଲେଖା ପୋଥିପତର ସବୁ ସେଠାର ପାଠକ ଆଜି ବି ଆମ ଭଳି ବହିଧରି ପଢ଼ିବାକୁ ଭଲପାଆନ୍ତି । ଲଣ୍ଡନରେ କିଛି ଦିନର ରହଣି କାଳରେ ଦେଖି ଅଭିଭୂତ ହେଲି ସେଠା ଲୋକଙ୍କ ବହି ପଢ଼ାର ସଉକ । ଟ୍ରେନ୍ ଷ୍ଟେସନ୍ ବାଡ଼ାକୁ ଆଉଜି କିଏ ପଢୁଛି ତ କିଏ ଜନଗହଳି ଥାନରେ କଣଟିଏ ବାଛି ଫରଦ ପରେ ଫରଦ ଲେଉଟଉଛି । କିନ୍ତୁ ସେଠାର ପାଖାପାଖି ସବୁ ନୂଆ ବହି ଉଭୟ ଛପା ଓ ଇ-ବହି ବିକ୍ରି ହେଉଛି। ନୂଆ ଟେକ୍ନୋଲୋଜି ଆସିଗଲା ବୋଲି ପୁରୁଣା, ପୂରା ଫୋପାଡ଼ିଦେବା କେବଳ ମଝିମଝିଆ ସମାଜର ଲକ୍ଷଣ । ହେଲେ ଉଚ୍ଚତର ସମାଜରେ ପୁରୁଣା ଓ ନୂଆର ବିଭା ସବୁଠି ଦେଖିବାକୁ ମିଳେ। ତେଣୁ ଆମ ବହିମାନଙ୍କ ବିକ୍ରି କମିଯିବ ବୋଲି ହାଉଳି ଖାଇ ଆମେ ନୂଆପିଢ଼ିକୁ ଆମ ବହିର ବାସନାପାଣିରୁ ବଞ୍ଚିତ କରୁନୁ ତ ? ଯଦି ସତରେ ଆମ ପର ପିଢ଼ି ଆମ ବହିଯାକ ନ ପଢ଼ନ୍ତି ତା’ହେଲେ ଏ ଜାତିର ଇତିହାସରେ ଆମେ ଲାଙ୍ଗୁଡ଼ଜକା ଆଉ ଚିରକାଳ ଦୋଷୀ ହୋଇ ରହିଯିବୁ ।

ଅବଶ୍ୟ ବହି କିଣି ହାତରେ ଧରି ପଢୁଥିବା ଲୋକଟି କେବେ ହେଁ ମୋବାଇଲ: ଟାବଲେଟ୍-କିଣ୍ଡିଲ୍-କମ୍ପ୍ୟୁଟରରେ ପଢ଼ିବାକୁ ସୁଖ ମଣିବ ନାହିଁ । କିନ୍ତୁ ବିମାନରେ ଯିବା ବେଳେ ଲୋଡ଼ା ପଡ଼ିଲେ ଡିଜିଟାଲ ମାଧମରେ ପଢ଼ିବା ଆଉ ବିଶାଳ ଗ୍ରନ୍ଥର କେଉଁ କୋଣରେ ଲେଖାଟିଏ ଖୋଜିବାକୁ ଚାହିଲେ, ସବୁ ପୃଷ୍ଠା ନ ଖୋଜି ପାଠକଟିଏ ସଳଖେ ସଳଖେ ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟରେ ଖୋଜିପାରିବା ବହିର ଡିଜିଟାଲ ରୂପ ତିଆରିବାରେ ‘ସୃଜନିକା’ ନାମକ ଅନୁଷ୍ଠାନର ଅବଦାନ କାହିଁରେ କେତେ ପାଖାପାଖି ଦେଢ଼ ଲକ୍ଷ ପୃଷ୍ଠା ସ୍କାନ୍ କରି ସେମାନେ ଅନେକ ଇ-ବହି ତିଆରି କରିସାରିଲେଣି। ୧୮୫୦-୧୯୫୦ ଭିତରେ ଛପା ଓଡ଼ିଆ ପତ୍ରପତ୍ରିକାସବୁ ପ୍ରାୟ ଏଥିରେ ସାମିଲ । odia.org ନାମକ ଆଉ ଏକ ୱେବସାଇଟ୍ କିଛି ନିଜ ଉଦ୍ୟମରେ ଆଉ କିଛି ବାକିମାନଙ୍କ ସହଯୋଗରେ କିଛି ଓଡ଼ିଆ ବହି ଇଣ୍ଟର୍ନେଟରେ ଉପଲବ୍ଧ କରାଇଛନ୍ତି । ଇଣ୍ଟର୍‌ନେଟ୍ ଆର୍‌କାଇଭ୍ (archive.org) ସାଇଟରେ ବହିସବୁ ପିଡିଏଫ୍ ଭାବେ ଅପ୍‌ଲୋଡ କଲେ ତାହା ମୋବାଇଲ୍ ଓ ଅନ୍ୟାନ୍ୟ ଆକାରରେ ଦେଖିବାକୁ ସୁବିଧା । ହେଲେ ଲୋଡ଼ାଥିଲା ଇଣ୍ଟର୍‌ନେଟରେ ପାଠାଗାରଟିଏ । ହେଲେ ଇଣ୍ଟର୍‌ନେଟ୍ ଯେତେବେଳେ ଖାଲି ପାଠକ ରହିଲେ କି ମଉଜ? ଦିଆ-ନିଆ ନ ଥାଇ ସେ କି ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟ୍? ପାଠକ ଯଦି କେଉଁଠି ଭୁଲ୍‌ଟିଏ ଦେଖିଲେ ତାକୁ ବଦଳାଇ ପାରୁଥିବେ, ତା’ହେଲେ ସିନା । ଅନେକ ହୁଏତ ଜାଣି ନ ଥିବେ ସମାଧାନର ବାଟଟିଏ ରହିଛି । ଉଇକିପିଡିଆ (Wikipedia)ର ଓଡ଼ିଆ ସଂସ୍କରଣ or.wikipedia.org ୨୦୦୨ରୁ ସକ୍ରିୟ ଆଉ ଏଥିରେ ୧୦,୦୦୦ ପ୍ରସଙ୍ଗ ରହିଛି । ଏହାର ଆଉ ଏକ ସହ-ପ୍ରକଳ୍ପ ହେଲା ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପାଠାଗାର । ଇଣ୍ଟର୍‌ନେଟ୍‌ରେ or wikisource. orgରେ ଖୋଲାରେ ଉପଲବ୍ଧ ଏହି ଅନ୍‌ଲାଇନ୍ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ପାଠାଗାରଟି କେବଳ ପଠନ ପାଇଁ ନୁହେଁ ବରଂ ସମ୍ପାଦନା ଓ ବହିର ଡିଜିଟାଲ୍ ରୂପ ତିଆରି ପାଇଁ । ପ୍ରତିଟି ପାଠକର ବହି ପାଇଁ ଟିକେ ହେଉ ପଛେ, କିଛି ଅବଦାନ ରହିବା ଉଚିତ । ଆଉ ସେ ଅବଦାନ ଯଦି ପୁରୁଣା ବିରଳ ବହିର ଲେଖାତକ ଆଉଥରେ ଟାଇପ୍ କରିହୁଏ କି ଆଉ କାହା ଦେଇ ଟାଇପ୍ ହୋଇଥିବା ବହିରେ ଭୁଲଭଟକା ସୁଧାରିବା ହୁଏ, ତା’ହେଲେ ପ୍ରତିଟି ପାଠକ ଜଣେ ଜଣେ ସମ୍ପାଦକ ହେବ । ଆଜିଯାଏ ଭାଷା କ୍ଷେତ୍ରରେ ହେଉ କିମ୍ବା ଆଉ କେଉଁ କ୍ଷେତ୍ରରେ ହେଉ ବିଶାଳତମ କୃତିସବୁ କେବେ ଜଣଙ୍କ ଦେଇ ନୁହେଁ ବରଂ ଗଣଙ୍କ ଦେଇ ହୋଇଛି । ଏଇ ଆଗରୁ ଯେଉଁ ଉଇକିପିଡିଆ କଥା କୁହାଗଲା, ସେ ବି ୨୦-୨୫ ପାଖାପାଖି ସକ୍ରିୟ ଉଇକିଆଳିଙ୍କ ଦେଇ ଲିଖିତ ଓ ସମ୍ପାଦିତ । ସେଇଭଳି ଏ ଉଇକିପାଠାଗାର ପାଇଁ ପାଖାପାଖି ୮-୯ ଜଣ ସକ୍ରିୟ ସଭ୍ୟ । ଆଉ ଆନନ୍ଦର କଥା ହେଲା, ଏଥିରେ ନାରୀ-ପୁରୁଷଙ୍କ ଯୋଗଦାନ ପାଖାପାଖି ଏକା । ବହୁଲୋକ ଏକାଠି ମିଳିମିଶି କାମ କଲେ ଆଉ ବିଭିନ୍ନ ବର୍ଗର, ଲିଙ୍ଗର ସମାନତା ରହିଲେ ଯାଇ କାମଟି ଯେ ପରିପୁଷ୍ଟ ହୁଏ । ଏ ବିଚାର ଥାଇ ମଧ୍ୟ ଅନେକ ସ୍ଥାନରେ ପାଳନ ହୋଇପାରେନା । ଉଇକିପାଠାଗାରରେ ଏଯାବତ୍ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଭାଗବତ ଭଳି ବିଶାଳ କୃତିକୁ ଛାଡ଼ି ପୁରାତନ ଓ ଆଧୁନିକ ପଞ୍ଚସଖା, ସାଲବେଗ, ଭୀମଭୋଇ, ଭଞ୍ଜଙ୍କଠାରୁ ଆରମ୍ଭ ଏ ଯୁଗର କେତେକ ଲେଖକଙ୍କ କୃତି ରହିଛି । ୨୦୧୨ରେ ଆରମ୍ଭ ହୋଇ ପ୍ରକଳ୍ପଟଫ ଦୁଇବର୍ଷ ଧର ସଜବାଜ ହୋଇ ଶେଷରେ ୨୦୧୪ରେ ଜନ୍ମନେଲା । ଆଉ ଏଇ ମାସ ୨୦ରେ ପଢୁଆଁ ଜନ୍ମତିଥି ପାଳିଥିବା ଏ ପାଠାଗାରରେ ଏବେ ମାତ୍ର ୨୦୬ ଖଣ୍ଡ ବହି । ଆମ ବିଶାଳ ଭାଷାର ବହି-ଦରିଆକୁ ସେ ଶଂଖେ । କପିରାଇଟ୍ ବାହାରେ ଥିବା ଓଡ଼ିଆ ବହିମାନ ଏଥିରେ ଆଣିବା ପାଇଁ ଲୋଡ଼ା ଆହୁରି କେତେ ହାତ । ଏବେ ଗୁଗୁଲ୍ ତିଆରି "ଅପ୍ଟିକାଲ୍ କ୍ୟାରେକ୍ଟର୍ ରେକଗନିସନ୍" ବଳରେ ଅନେକ ବହିର ଛବିରୁ ଲେଖା ବାହାର କରିହେଉଛି । ତାକୁ ସଂଶୋଧନ କରିପାରିଲେ ଅନେକ ବହିକୁ ପୂରା ଟାଇପ୍ କରିବାକୁ ପଡ଼ିବ ନାହିଁ । ଏକଥା ଆମେ ହେଜିଲେ ଆମ ଆଗାମୀ ପିଢ଼ିରେ ଓଡ଼ିଆହୀନତା ପାଇଁ ଆମକୁ ବେଶି ଭାବିବାକୁ ପଡ଼ିବ ନାହିଁ। ପିଲେ ତାଙ୍କ ମୋବାଇଲ୍ ଟାବଲେଟ୍ କିଣ୍ଡିଲ୍ ଖୋଲି ବଳେ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ପଢ଼ିବା ଆରମ୍ଭ କରିବେ।

- ଶୁଭାଶିଷ ପାଣିଗ୍ରାହୀ

ସେଣ୍ଟର୍ ଫର୍ ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟ୍ ଆଣ୍ଡ ସୋସାଇଟି, ବେଙ୍ଗାଲୁରୁ

A scanned version of the article below:

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/sambada-rabibara-subhashish-panigrahi-december-6-2015-odia-wikisource

Telugu Wikipedia Day 2015, Photo Walk

praskrishna — 2016-01-05T06:27:08Z

On December 13, 2015, Telugu Wikipedians conducted a historical photowalk in Dr.YSR state archeological museum to celebrate Telugu Wikipedia Day 2015. Pavan Santhosh attended the event as a CIS-A2K representative and facilitated media coverage for the programme.

One of the popular telugu news channel TV9 covered the event and telecasted the same. Eenadu published a special item on photowalk on December 13, 2015.

Andhra Jyoti published an article on photowalk on December 18:

Eenadu news report on photowalk on December 18:

Namaste Telangana on Photowalk on December 18:

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/telugu-wikipedia-day-2015-photo-walk

English Wikipedia and the Telugu Wikipedia joint meetup and edit-a-thon: Sakshi

praskrishna — 2016-01-05T06:31:25Z

The article was published in Sakshi on December 20, 2015. A scanned version of the article is given below.

On December 20, 2015 English Wikipedia and the Telugu Wikipedia joint meetup and edit-a-thon were conducted on Golden Threshold, Hyderabad.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/english-wikipedia-and-the-telugu-wikipedia-joint-meetup-and-edit-a-thon-sakshi

English Wikipedia and the Telugu Wikipedia joint meetup and edit-a-thon: Andhra Jyoti

praskrishna — 2016-01-05T06:33:09Z

The article was published in Andhra Jyoti on December 20, 2015. A scanned version of the article is below.

On December 20, 2015 English Wikipedia and the Telugu Wikipedia joint meetup and edit-a-thon were conducted on Golden Threshold, Hyderabad. Andhra Jyoti covered the programme.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/english-wikipedia-and-the-telugu-wikipedia-joint-meetup-and-edit-a-thon-andhra-jyoti

Telugu Wikipedia Day 2015: Eenadu Coverage

praskrishna — 2016-01-05T06:33:51Z

Telugu Wikipedians conducted history photowalk in Dr. YSR state archaeological museum to celebrate Telugu Wikipedia Day 2015 on December 13, 2015. Pavan Santosh supported the community as a representative from CIS-A2K

Below is the media coverage of the event published by leading newspaper Eenadu (Hyderabad edition) on December 13, 2015.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/telugu-wikipedia-day-2015-eenadu-coverage

Kannada Wikipedia Editathon: Vijayavani

praskrishna — 2016-01-05T06:34:46Z

The article was published in Vijayavani on December 11, 2015. A scanned version of the article is given below.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/kannada-wikipedia-editathon-vijayavani

Kannada Wikipedia Editathon: Vijaya Karnataka

praskrishna — 2016-01-05T06:35:13Z

The article was published in Vijaya Karnataka on December 11, 2015. A scanned version of the article is below.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/kannada-wikipedia-editathon-vijaya-karnataka

Kannada Wikipedia Editathon in Mangalore: Udayavani

praskrishna — 2016-01-05T06:36:24Z

The article was published in Udayavani on December 11, 2015. A scanned version of the article is given below.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/kannada-wikipedia-editathon-in-mangalore-udayavani

Kannada Wikipedia Editathon: Udayavani Coverage

praskrishna — 2016-01-05T06:36:53Z

The article was published in Udayavani on December 7, 2015. A scanned version of the article is below.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/kannada-wikipedia-editathon-udayavani-coverage

Kannada Wikipedia Editathon in Prajavani

praskrishna — 2016-01-05T06:39:56Z

The article was published in Prajavani on December 13, 2015. A scanned version of the article is below.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/kannada-wikipedia-editathon-in-prajavani

Kannada Wikipedia Editathon: Prajavani

praskrishna — 2016-01-05T06:40:23Z

The article was published in Prajavani Mangal on December 11, 2015. A scanned version of the article is given below.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/kannada-wikipedia-editathon-prajavani-mangal

Kannada Wikipedia Editathon Coverage in Prajavani

praskrishna — 2016-01-05T06:40:52Z

The article was published in Prajavani Mangal on December 10, 2015. A scanned version of the article is below.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/kannada-wikipedia-prajavani-mangal

Post More Articles on Kannada Wikipedia

praskrishna — 2016-01-05T06:38:06Z

The article was published in Indian Express, Mangaluru edition on December 12, 2015. Dr. U.B. Pavanaja was quoted. A scanned version of the article is given below.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/post-more-articles-on-kannada-wikipedia

NLSIU Conference on Access to Copyrighted Works for Persons with Disability: An enriching experience

praskrishna — 2015-12-27T16:01:44Z

National Law School of India University, Bangalore hosted a one-day national conference on the ‘Access to Copyrighted Works for Persons with Disability’, on the 26th of November, 2015 to discuss the provisions and implications of the Marrakesh Treaty as signed on the 27th of June, 2013.

The blog post authored by Abolee Vaidya and Nuhar Bansal was published in SINAPSE on December 14, 2015. Pranesh Prakash was a speaker at this event.

The Chief Guest of the conference was Ms. Aparna Sharma, who is the Joint Secretary and Registrar of Copyrights, MHRD. She pointed out at the very onset that it was very opportune for the conference to be hosted on the Constitution Day as what could have been a better day to talk about equal opportunity and non-discrimination.

The conference was roughly divided into three sessions which covered the following perspectives: a brief overview of the treaty, the Indian Copyright Law provisions and the implications of the both of them on stakeholders and beneficiaries in India. Mr. G. R. Raghavender, Director IPR, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, GoI, chaired the first two sessions and told us about how ‘Sparsh’, the 1980 film starring Naseeruddin Shah as a blind teacher, triggered his conscience.

World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) conducted a study in 2006 on the extent of execution of Copyright provisions with regard to limitations and exceptions to Copyright for people with disability. The concluding observations were quite disappointing, which is how the talks about the Marrakesh Treaty commenced. He then gave us insights into the negotiations that went into finalizing the treaty, how the World Blind Union played an extremely instrumental role in getting the treaty through and also how Brazil recently became the 12^th country to ratify the treaty.

Mr. Raghavender further shed some light on the basic scope of the treaty:

Addressing the book famine by introducing limitations and exceptions to the rights of the Copyright holder. In this context, most states wanted to restrict the definition of ‘works’ under the treaty to ‘physical books’ and not artistic or audiovisual works. Although, that was not agreed to as audio description is crucial to modern online education in all ways. The international publishing community opposed most of the provisions during negotiation. They argued that publishing accessible copies of their published work would increase the cost of production and subsequently the market price of the work, due to which, majority of the disabled population wouldn’t be able to afford it anyway. Besides, whether the commercial want for the existent printed material in the market would be affected or the sighted consumers would take advantage of the accessible versions in the market are other issues that were brought up.
What kind of limitations and exceptions should be imposed? The developed countries opposed liberal interpretations and exceptions to the treaty. Owing to political influences, translation and public redistribution rights were also proposed to be limited and to be granted only to developing and least developed countries under compulsory Licensing, and in no other circumstances. The proposal allowed for reproduction, distribution and access to all content except audiovisual, excluding translation and public performance rights from the exception ambit. The Vienna Convention for Law of Treaties was referred to quite often for a thorough understanding.
Easier cross border exchange of works- Bigger nations wanted tie-ups with certain commercially available entities across nations for particular exchange purposes thus resulting in it becoming just a business and curbing accessibility. This was negotiated upon and dismissed.
Technological Protection Measures- Mr. Raghavendra spoke about extending the Berne Convention to digital works too so that re-encrypting digital works for the disabled does not qualify as infringement. He also stated how there needs to be more clarity as to the usage and breaking of digital locks.

Prof. T. Ramakrishna, MHRD Chair Professor on IPR , NLSIU launched their website iprindia.law.org, which is a one-stop place to find research material on Indian Intellectual Property law.

It was then followed by a presentation by the students of NLSIU on the basics of Marrakesh Treaty where it was concisely presented as to what the treaty means to the countries ratifying it.

Only 1-7% of the world’s books are available in accessible formats, largely due to Copyright hurdles and Marrakesh treaty intends to help in 2 ways:

Exception in domestic law of every ratifying country to ensure that they allow the print disabled and blind to convert texts into accessible formats without having to first take permission from the Copyright holder.
Cross border exchange of accessible version of books without permission. This will help avoid illegal duplication of transcripts and also allow countries with larger collection of such works to share it with other nations in need.
Specific articles that enable a relatively wide interpretation of the provisions to help make the texts more easily accessible.

Dr. Kalyan. C. Kankanala (Managing Partner BananaIP Counsels, visiting faculty NLSIU and guest faculty IIMB) was the first speaker of the session and he started with a recommendation for the government to make all government documents accessible as a first step of implementing the Marrakesh Treaty. He then went on to tell us how he lost vision in 1998 and found it very hard to access the curriculum related texts. Despite the best of efforts that he could muster, he was able to access barely 10% of the total material. He said that irrespective of how able you are, if your ability cannot access the fodder it is supposed to thrive on then there can be no scope for development. Today, information is available at the click of a button and your ability to succeed and not be discriminated against depends on how fast you access this information. Keeping this in mind, if there is no provision to make other more technologically advanced forms of information also accessible, it is not going to be a sustainable option. Most of the information today is in a non-literary format and to access that, a lot of other barriers have to be broken, which can result in simultaneous Copyright, Trademark and Patent infringement, which the Marrakesh Treaty cannot protect you against. To enable equal opportunity in reality, exceptions should flow under a bunch of laws and not just Copyright. What we face today is an information famine and not just a book famine. The solution lies with the publishing community. Because, the technological tools that the laws can equip us with, will fall short of some or the other parameter at some time and that defeats the aim of equal opportunity. So if the publishing community itself releases accessible versions along side their publications for the sighted consumers, we would have a sustainable solution. Also, the number of authorized entities should be made significantly high because greater the number of authorized entities, greater the chances of the publishers sensing competition and realizing that a commercial model around making accessible books available would be better for their business. He further said that the scope of definitions of terms used in the treaty are not as problematic as certain other areas like what kind of works are covered, what kind of disabilities are covered, what rights are covered and mandated. Nevertheless, the treaty has been negotiated and signed and going to bring out some sort of a positive change if not a revolution, so to say.

Dr. S. Elumalai, Assistant Professor, Dr. Ambedkar Law University, Tamil Nadu, was the next speaker and he had some wonderful insights to offer. He said that the PWD Act qualifies a person as disabled only if he has more than 40% disability. Whereas, the Marrakesh Treaty addresses reading disability on the whole, which is very important. In fact, it also enables the caretaker and caregiver of the so disabled to claim accessibility rights under the treaty unlike any Indian legislation. He pointed out how our own government machinery is not disabled friendly, to the extent that disabled people are denied higher secondary education and professional education in government institutes. He stated that the government should help the disabled people help themselves and that can be achieved by training the authorized entities to be technologically up to date. The RTI Act talks about accessible formats of texts but the government has done little more than talking in that regard. Understanding that the disabled people are a minority and hence not a force influential enough to manipulate the demand-supply cycle of the market, it becomes all the more important for strong regulatory mechanisms to interfere. The government needs to step in and step up, the stakeholders need to be pro active, the authorized entities and the publishers should know their rights and duties and the disabled people should be made a part of the decision making process from scratch to resolve any moral right conflict that might arise between the above listed parties.

Mr. Pranesh Prakash, Policy Director CIS, was up next on the panel and brought a refreshingly dramatic change to the proceedings of the conference. He said that talks about the formation of this treaty began around 1982 and were initiated by UNESCO and WIPO. Countries such as Brazil, Ecuador, India etc. saw this treaty as an instrument that would lead to global accessibility. He then pointed out that the super nations trying so hard to restrict the scope of the treaty and exercising the power imbalance in the international arena, reminded him of colonialism. Besides that, the treaty advocates free cross border exchange of accessible information which is in principle against the colonial centralization of international relations. Therefore, the ratification of this treaty comes to him as a tiny war victory and which is why none of the major publishing countries in the world have ratified the treaty. He is strongly of the opinion that making books of any kind available to any kind of people is always good for the publishing industry. The publishers need to understand that the treaty is now providing for legal access to the converted materials as against pirated ones which was the only option until now. However, the Technological Protection Measures are not sufficient under the treaty. They do not provide for circumventing the digital lock on electronic data, as pointed out by Mr. Raghavender earlier. He further clarified that making books available in different formats does not amount to infringement as then books available in the library would also amount to Copyright infringement. Legal provisions should be present which would allow disabled people to access materials because if these provisions were absent then people would try to obtain the same materials by infringing copyrights. As of now, there are organizations that give access to readable software like Jaws. It is not a difficult task to make any work digital, the only problem arises when the work has to be made accessible and the manner in which such accessible material is to be used. It is extremely important to create awareness as how to use the accessible material by the physically disabled. When a book is published, its copy is deposited in all the 4 national libraries and when such a book is deposited, an easier way would be to convert it into electronic medium and convert that into accessible formats. Converting print into accessible medium is extremely difficult and will be much easier once it is electronic medium. He also gave an example of publishing books under the Creative Comments License that would make copies available in the accessible format. Not only should literary works be made accessible but all websites should also be redesigned and made accessible.

At this point, Dr. Kalyan brought up an interesting technicality when he asked Mr. Prakash to clarify that although making copies of any literary work is permitted under this treaty, whether the authenticity of the so called literary work would be in question or not. Because there are a number of pirated materials doing to the rounds of the market for sighted people already, and whether converting one such pirated work in an accessible version would still stand good in law. Mr. Prakash admitted that there is ambiguity in the language of the legislation in this regard, however, a liberal interpretation of the relevant provisions of TRIPS indicates that such minor discrepancies in execution can be exempted at the outset. Something, which Mr. Raghavender, in his dutiful government responsibility, disagreed with and said that all conversions should be made from authentic documents to discourage piracy.

This culminated the first two sessions of the conference and proved to be extremely informative for the participants and audience. The post lunch session of the conference exclusively dealt with the implications of the Marrakesh treaty and Domestic Copyright Law on the Stakeholders and Beneficiaries in India. Prof. Dr. T. Ramakrishna, MHRD Chair Professor on IPR, NLSIU, was the chair/moderator. The first speaker of the afternoon session, Mr. G. Marippan, Asst. Director, Dept. for the Empowerment of Differently Abled and Senior Citizens, Bangalore, gave us all a very bare text understanding of the various provisions under the Karnataka State Government Laws along with the different schemes in place for the benefit of the stakeholders and beneficiaries of the Copyright legislations.

Mr. Gautam Agarwal from the National Federation of the Blind pointed out that less than 1% of the total published print material in the world is available in accessible format as per NFB’s records. With the help of the Marrakesh treaty, countries will overcome legal hurdles to make things accessible and enable cross border exchange. But, he did raise questions as to how efficiently can these provisions be executed to actually help the ones in need. “Law can only facilitate us and show us the path, it is us who will have to do the walking”, he said. Conversion being permitted is merely the preliminary step. But who will do the conversion? What all texts will be converted first and what later? How exactly will they be converted? How will they be circulated? These are all the greater issues that we need to address now. Over 90% of the websites that exist are not accessible and this treaty does not provide for anything to be done about that. Which essentially makes all the online information inaccessible to the disabled. To ensure the right to read to every disabled person at the same time and at a rate as available to the other people, is the simple understanding of the concept of Equal Opportunity in this regard. He reinstated that we are 8 countries short of ratifying the Treaty to make in enforceable and suggested that Indian Government should enter in a dialogue with other nations and encourage and convince them to ratify.

The next speaker was Ms. Madhu Singhal, Managing Trustee, Mitra Jyothi, Bangalore. Their NGO usually provides materials in Braille and large print for persons with disability. She very passionately spoke about sensitization of the publishers as being a very strong influential force in efficient execution of the provisions of the Marrakesh Treaty. She said that merely telling them what to do is not a one step solution. Instead, it is a long procedure which should ideally end in them being mandated into publishing the accessible copies. She also suggested that one database of accessible materials should be created for efficient usage of resources. This way, people across geographical boundaries will know what materials already exist and how to access them, thus reducing the cost of conversion.

Mr. Elumalai was the last speaker for the session and he had a handful of suggestions to make to authorities carrying out the execution of the treaty provisions. He suggested that, for example, if a soft copy of any material is provided to the NIC, then it should be their duty to make it into an accessible format. He also suggested that there could be a reward system in place for the publishing houses that publish accessible formats of their publications or giving tax benefits to people who help in conversion, distribution and access to the accessible formats. He said that disability is as disabling as you let it be. Not having functional body parts is not disability but not wanting to use the existent body parts is.

At the end of the discussion, Mr. Panesh Prakash just brought back some perspective when he asked how many people in the room had ever pirated or bought a pirated version of an accessible format of information. When no one raised their hand, he then pointed out that this is why the publishing community cannot hold ‘exploitation of accessible format by sighted people’ as a valid argument. The treaty might have other flaws but this defense does not apply. He said that there are close to 12 methods as to how a person can apply to the Ministry for obtaining accessible material and all of them are available on the official website, only, not in an accessible format. He let the irony sink in before concluding the session.

That marked the end of the conference, which at the end of the day had being enriching, to say the least. Listening to all the different stakeholders and policy makers and beneficiaries give their perspective over one piece of legislation only makes you realize the multi dimensional impact that laws have on people’s lives.

The Marrakesh treaty stood debated, discussed, dissed and devoured.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/news/nlsiu-conference-on-access-to-copyrighted-works-for-persons-with-disability-an-enriching-experience

Centre for Internet and Society

December 2015 Bulletin

Highlights

ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପାଠାଗାର

Telugu Wikipedia Day 2015, Photo Walk

English Wikipedia and the Telugu Wikipedia joint meetup and edit-a-thon: Sakshi

English Wikipedia and the Telugu Wikipedia joint meetup and edit-a-thon: Andhra Jyoti

Telugu Wikipedia Day 2015: Eenadu Coverage

Kannada Wikipedia Editathon: Vijayavani

Kannada Wikipedia Editathon: Vijaya Karnataka

Kannada Wikipedia Editathon in Mangalore: Udayavani

Kannada Wikipedia Editathon: Udayavani Coverage

Kannada Wikipedia Editathon in Prajavani

Kannada Wikipedia Editathon: Prajavani

Kannada Wikipedia Editathon Coverage in Prajavani

Post More Articles on Kannada Wikipedia

NLSIU Conference on Access to Copyrighted Works for Persons with Disability: An enriching experience