Centre for Internet and Society

ICT for Development

praskrishna — 2014-12-28T03:26:03Z

Dr. U.B. Pavanaja was a speaker at this event organized by Christ University on December 3, 2014 in Bangalore.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/news/ict-for-development

Article on Odia Wikipedia in Odiapua

praskrishna — 2014-12-27T02:38:11Z

The article was published in Odiapua on December 1, 2014.

ଭୁବନେଶ୍ୱର (୨୮ ନଭେମ୍ବର): ବିଶ୍ୱବ୍ୟାପୀ ସ୍ୱେଚ୍ଛାସେବୀଙ୍କ ଦ୍ୱାରା ବହୁଭାଷୀ ଜ୍ଞାନକୋଷ ନିର୍ମାଣରେ ଆନ୍ଦୋଳନ ସୃଷ୍ଟି କରିଥିବା ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆର ସହ-ପ୍ରକଳ୍ପ "ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପାଠାଗାର" ଆଜି ଭୁବନେଶ୍ୱର ଠାରେ ଉନ୍ମୋଚନ ହୋଇଯାଇଛି । ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟରେ or.wikisource.org ୱେବସାଇଟରେ ଉପଲବ୍ଧ ଏହି ପ୍ରକଳ୍ପ ଦୁଇବର୍ଷ ତଳେ ଆରମ୍ଭ ହୋଇ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଭାଗବତ ସମେତ ଭିନ୍ନ ଭିନ୍ନ କବି ଓ ଲେଖକଙ୍କ ଆହୁରି ୩୧ ଗୋଟି ରଚନାରେ ଭରା । ଆଜି ସ୍ଥାନୀୟ ଜୟଦେବ ଭବନରେ ଏକ "ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପାଠାଗାର ସଭା ୨୦୧୪"ରେ ଏହାକୁ ଉନ୍ମୋଚନ କରି ବରିଷ୍ଠ ଭାଷାବିଦ ଦେବୀପ୍ରସନ୍ନ ପଟ୍ଟନାୟକ ଏହା ଓଡ଼ିଶା ବାହାରେ ଥିବା କିମ୍ବା ପାଠାଗାର ଯାଇ ବହି ଆଣି ପଢ଼ିବାର ସୁଯୋଗ ପାଉନଥିବା ଓଡ଼ିଆଙ୍କ ପାଇଁ ଖୁବ ଉପଯୋଗୀ ହେବ ମତ ପ୍ରକାଶ କରିଥିଲେ । ଦୈନିକ "ସମ୍ବାଦ"ର ସମ୍ପାଦକ ସୌମ୍ୟରଞ୍ଜନ ପଟ୍ଟନାୟକ ଏଥିରେ ମୁଖ୍ୟ ଅତିଥି ଭାବେ ଯୋଗ ଦେଇ ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟକୁ ଆମ ଭାଷାର ମାରକ ନୁହେଁ, ବରଂ ମିତ କରି ଏହାକୁ ଆମ ଭାଷାର ଉନ୍ନତିରେ ବ୍ୟବହାର କରିବା ଉପରେ ଗୁରୁତ୍ୱାରୋପ କରିଥିଲେ । "ଆମ ଓଡ଼ିଶା" ଦ୍ୱାରା ପ୍ରକାଶିତ ବିଭିନ୍ନ ବିଷୟର ୧୯ ଖଣ୍ଡ ବହି ସେ ଏହି ପ୍ରକଳ୍ପ ଜରିଆରେ ଡିଜିଟାଲକରଣ କରିବା ପାଇଁ ବିତରଣ କରିଥିଲେ । ଆଗକୁ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ ସହ ମିଶି ସେ ସମ୍ବାଦ ତଥା ଆମ ଓଡ଼ିଶାର ବିଭିନ୍ନ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଭାଷା ଓ ସଂସ୍କୃତିଭିତ୍ତିକ କାର୍ଯ୍ୟକ୍ରମ କରିବା ବିଷୟରେ ମଧ୍ୟ ଉଲ୍ଲେଖ କରିଥିଲେ । ଏହି ସଭାର ସଭାପତିତ୍ୱ କରି ବିଶିଷ୍ଠ କବି ଓ ଚିନ୍ତକ ଡ ହରପ୍ରସାଦ ଦାସ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଭାଷାରେ ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟରେ ରହିଥିବା ଶୂନ୍ୟସ୍ଥାନ ପୂରଣ କରିବା ପାଇଁ ଯୁବପିଢ଼ିକୁ ଆହ୍ୱାନ ଦେଇଥିଲେ ।

ଓଡ଼ିଆ ବହିର ଅଭିଲେଖ କାମର ବିଶାଳ ଶ୍ରେୟ ସବୁବେଳେ ସୃଜନିକାକୁ ଯାଇଥାଏ । ସେମାନଙ୍କ ଉଦ୍ୟମରେ ୧୮୪୦-୧୯୪୦ ଭିତରେ ଛପା ଅନେକ ବହିର ଡିଜିଟାଲକରଣ ଭଳି ଐତିହାସିକ କାମଟିଏ ହୋଇଥିଲା । ଏ କାମକୁ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପାଠାଗାର ଆଉ ପାଦେ ଆଗେଇ ନେବ ବୋଲି ଆଶା ସଂଚାର ହୋଇଛି । ଏଥିରେ ବହିର ସ୍କାନ ସହିତ ଟାଇପ କରା ଲେଖା (typed text) ଇଉନିକୋଡ଼ ନାମକ ଏକ ବିଶ୍ୱସ୍ତରୀୟ ମାନକରେ ରହିଥାଏ ଯାହାଫଳରେ ଜଣେ ବହିଟିଏ କମ୍ପୁଟର, ଟାବଲେଟ କି ମୋବାଇଲରେ ପଢ଼ିପାରିବ, ସେଥିରେ ଲେଖା ନେଇ ଆଉ କେଉଁଠି ଉଦ୍ଧୃତି ଦେଇପାରିବ ବା ଛପାଇ ପାରିବ । ସ୍କାନ କରା ବହିଠାରୁ ଏଥିରେ ଉପଲବ୍ଧ ବହିସବୁ ଯଥେଷ୍ଟ ହାଲୁକା ଓ ଏଥିରୁ ପିଡିଏଫ କରି ଜଣେ ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟ ବିନା ମଧ୍ୟ ବହି ପଢ଼ିପାରିବ ବୋଲି ସେଣ୍ଟୃ । ଆଗକୁ ବହିର ଲେଖା ଶୁଣିବାର ବାଟ ମଧ୍ୟ ଆସୁଛି । କପିରାଇଟ ନଥିବା ଅନେକ ବିରଳ ବହି, ଭାଗବତ, ମହାଭାରତ ଭଳି ପୋଥିପୁରାଣଠୁ ଆରମ୍ଭ କରି ନୂଆ ଅନେକ ବହି ଏଥିରେ ସ୍ଥାନ ପାଇପାରିବ । ପଦ୍ମଶ୍ରୀ ଡ ଦେବୀପ୍ରସନ୍ନ ପଟ୍ଟନାୟକ, ରାମକୃଷ୍ଣ ନନ୍ଦ, ଡ ଜଗନ୍ନାଥ ମହାନ୍ତି, ଡ ସୁବ୍ରତ ପୃଷ୍ଟି ଓ ନିର୍ମଳା କୁମାରୀ ମହାନ୍ତି ଆଦି ଲେଖକଙ୍କ ଅନେକ ଗବେଷଣାଭିତ୍ତିକ ବହିରୁ ଆରମ୍ଭ କରି ବିନୟ ପଟ୍ଟନାୟକ, ଭାରତ ମାଝି ଓ ମନୋଜ ପଣ୍ଡାଙ୍କ ସାହିତ୍ୟ କୃତି ତଥା "ଆମ ଓଡ଼ିଶା" ଓ "ସମଦୃଷ୍ଟି" ଭଳି ପ୍ରକାଶନ ସଙ୍ଗଠନର ବହିମାନ ସତ୍ୱାଧୀକାରୀଙ୍କ ଉଦାର ଅନୁମତି କ୍ରମେ ଏଥିରେ ସ୍ଥାନୀତ । ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପାଠାଗାରରେ ସର୍ବାଧିକ ୧୨୦୦ରୁ ଅଧିକ ଥର ସମ୍ପାଦନା କରି ପାହାପାଖି ୪ ଖଣ୍ଡ ବହିକୁ ପୁନଟାଇପ କରିଥିବା ପଙ୍କଜବାଳା ଷଡ଼ଙ୍ଗୀ ଓଡ଼ିଶା ବାହାରେ ରହି ଓଡ଼ିଶାର ମହାନ କଳା-ଚଳଣି-ଭାଷା ସମ୍ବନ୍ଧରେ ଅଧିକ ଜାଣିବାର ଶ୍ରେଷ୍ଠ ବାଟ ବୋଲି ଅଭିହିତ କରନ୍ତି । ଭୁବନେଶ୍ୱରରେ ଥିବା ଉଇକିଆଳି ଓ ବେଙ୍ଗାଳୁରୁର ସେଣ୍ଟର ଫର ଇଣ୍ଟରନେଟ ଏଣ୍ଡ ସୋସାଇଟି ସହାୟତାରେ ଭୁବନେଶ୍ୱରର କିସ ଅନୁଷ୍ଠାନର ୯ ଜଣ ଶିକ୍ଷକ ଓ ପାଖାପାଖି ୫୦ ଜଣ ଛାତ୍ର ଏଯାବତ ୪ଟି ବହି ଟାଇପ କରିସାରିଲେଣି । ପିଲାମାନେ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଭାଷା ଓ ଏଥିରେ ଟାଇପ କରିବା ଶିଖିବା ଭବିଷ୍ୟତରେ ତାଙ୍କ ଚାକିରିରେ ସହାୟକ ହେବ ବୋଲି କହନ୍ତି ଏହାକୁ ପରିଚାଳନା କରୁଥିବା କିସର ଶିକ୍ଷକ ପ୍ରୀତିନନ୍ଦା ରାୟ । ଆଉ କେଉଁଠି ଇଉନିକୋଡ଼ରେ ଟାଇପ ହୋଇ ନଥିବା ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଭାଗବତକୁ odia.org ରୁ ଆଣି ତାକୁ ଇଉନିକୋଡ଼ରେ ରୂପାନ୍ତର ୭ ଜଣ ନୂଆ ଉଇକିଆଳି ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପାଠାଗାରରେ ସ୍ଥାନୀତ କରିବା ସତରେ ଏକ ଐତିହାସିକ ପଦକ୍ଷେପ । ଆଗକୁ ଆମେ ବିରଳ ପୋଥି ଦୁଷ୍ପ୍ରାପ୍ୟ ଓ ଛପାଯାଉନଥିବା ବହିମାନ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପାଠାଗାରରେ ଉପଲବ୍ଧ କରାଇବୁ ବୋଲି କହନ୍ତି ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆର ପରିଚାଳକ ମୃତ୍ୟଞ୍ଜୟ କର ।

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/news/odiapua-december-1-2014-article-on-odia-wikipedia

A Seminar on E-publishing of Odia Books

praskrishna — 2014-12-07T02:41:26Z

A seminar was organized by Molybtech Technology Solutions on November 30, 2014 for the betterment of Odia language and writers at Bhanja Kala Mandap.

Subhashish Panigrahi participated in the seminar as a speaker and shared his knowledge with the audience.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/news/seminar-e-publishing-odia-books

National IPR Policy Series : Comments on the Proposed Intellectual Property Rights Policy to the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion

nehaa — 2015-04-12T11:39:16Z

On 13 November, 2014, the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion had released a Call for Suggestions for India's proposed National IPR Policy. This is the Centre for Internet and Society's (CIS) submission for the same.

Submitted by CIS with inputs from Pranesh Prakash, Director, Nehaa Chaudhari, Programme Officer, Anubha Sinha, Programme Officer and Amulya P., Intern. Click to view the PDF.

I. Preliminary

I.1. This submission presents comments from the Centre for Internet and Society ("CIS")[1] on the proposed National Intellectual Property Rights Policy ("National IPR policy") to the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India. ("DIPP").

I.2. CIS commends the DIPP for this initiative, and appreciates the opportunity to provide comments on the National IPR Policy. CIS' comments are as stated hereafter.

II. Principles

II.1.1. The characterization of intellectual property rights may be two- fold- first, at their core, intellectual property rights, are temporary monopolies granted to inter alia, authors and inventors; and second, they are a tool to ensure innovation, social, scientific and cultural progress and further access to knowledge. This dual nature and purpose of intellectual property protection is particularly critical in developing economies such as India. Excessive intellectual property protection could result in stunted innovation and negatively impact various stakeholders. [2] It is therefore our submission that the development of the IPR Policy be informed by broader principles of fairness and equity, balancing intellectual property protections with limitations and exceptions/user rights such as those for research, education and access to medicines.

II.1.2. These comments will evaluate the recent developments in the intellectual property regime in India and point out instances for possible reform.

II.1.3. These comments have been divided into five sections, dealing with patents, openness, open access to scholarly works, copyright, and negotiating free trade agreements in that order.

III. Detailed Comments

III.1. Patents

III.1.1. Key Issues Regarding Patents

III.1.1.1. The key issues involving patents in India include compulsory licensing, uncertainty in software patenting, slow pace of examination of patent applications, inter alia.

III.1.1.2. CIS submits that the Indian intellectual property regime contains numerous safeguards to ensure that monopolies of intellectual property are not exercised to the detriment of the public and that the National IPR Policy should continue to reflect these ideals.

III.1.2. Software Patents and Dual Monopoly

III.1.2.1. Presently, software in India may be copyrighted and computer related inventions are patentable. CIS is of the opinion that this results in an ambiguity that could potentially result in a dual monopoly over the same subject matter. This ambiguity around the legality of software patents and the scope of patents on computer related inventions has existed since the Parliament introduced the term "per se" to section 3(k) through the Patent (Amendment) Act, 2002, persisting despite repeated attempts[3] to bring about clarity in the law (the most recent one being the Draft Guidelines on Computer Related Inventions, released in 2013 by the Indian patent office).

III.1.2.2. CIS believes that software is currently adequately protected under copyright, and does not merit patent protection. The software industry in its infancy grew by leaps and bounds in the absence of patents, and imposing twenty year monopolies is stunting the development of software, especially, in an industry where technology changes every two to five years.

III.1.2.3. Therefore, CIS is of the opinion that the National IPR Policy should recognise the danger of software patenting, and encourage the adoption of and development of alternatives to a strict intellectual property regime, for instance, Free/Open Source/Libre Software.

III.1.3. Compulsory Licensing of Patents

III.1.3.1. CIS believes that the current regime allowing for compulsory licensing of patents in India helps achieve a balance between the two concerns of rewarding inventions and making them available to the public during times of need, of the rights of the patent holder with his obligations to ensure availability of products at a reasonable price by allowing third parties who do not own the patent to license the use of the patent during the term of protection.[4] CIS believes that such a balance cannot be arrived at merely by market mechanisms. CIS further believes that achieving such a balance is important for a developing country like India as we have special concerns regarding access to healthcare and access to technologies that will protect our national interest.[5]

III.1.3.2. Therefore CIS submits that the National IPR policy should continue to make positive allowances for government involvement in this space, through the compulsory licensing of patents in certain situations.

III.1.4. Alternative Licensing Mechanisms

III.1.4.1. CIS believes that government participation in the patenting regime ensures that all interests are taken on board and the social costs of patents are kept in mind. CIS is of the opinion that the National IPR policy should be formed after careful consideration of alternative patent licensing mechanisms that could help achieve a balance between the interests of different stakeholders particularly because as a developing economy we have greater needs for access to medicines and technologies to ensure economic development.[6]

III.1.4.2. On patent pools: In the interests of ensuring development of technology and innovation while balancing the social costs of patents, CIS submits that the National IPR Policy should consider alternative licensing mechanisms such as patent pools which present an efficient legal arrangement to the different problems that arise when companies have complementary intellectual property rights and these rights are essential to new technologies being used and employed[7]. Such a licensing could be done with government participation to ensure standard royalty rates and standard agreements.

III.1.4.3. On tailoring patent strengths: Our patent system provides for a one size first all approach to patent terms. CIS believes that the National IPR Policy could suggest the adoption of a more studied approach to differential patent strengths that properly balances out the benefits of the innovation against social costs of patents both in the form of monopoly pricing and threats to subsequent pricing is required to ensure that our patent system is fair equitable and in our national interest.[8]

III.1.4.4. On royalty caps: CIS believes that the National IPR policy could encourage bringing back royalty caps for certain sectors as a means of regulating the market and ensuring that access to technologies is unharmed. CIS believes that this will serve the larger national interest and ensure technological development.[9]

III.2. Openness

III.2.1. Free and Open Source Software

III.2.1.1. Free and Open Source Software ("FOSS") has emerged as a key agent in information technology policy making in India. There has been an increased importance of free and open source software in education, governmental agencies, as recently demonstrated by the Indian Government's decision to shift to open source software, in sync with the Digital India initiative.[10]

III.2.1.2. CIS believes that the IPR policy should encourage free and open software in education, governmental agencies etc. CIS believes that this shift in open source software is necessary to keep our IPR policy in sync with developments in the digital world.

III.3. Open Access to Scholarly Works

III.3.1. Open Access Policies and Scientific and Scholarly Works

III.3.1.1. The benefits of implementing an open access policy with regard to scientific and scholarly works are manifold. Providing open access to scholarly research will ensure percolation of cutting edge research into the society. It has been often argued that restricted access to government funded research is unethical, since scientific research conducted by government agencies is partly, if not entirely, funded by the taxpayers' money.

III.3.1.2. Government Initiatives Towards Open Access

III.3.1.2.1. CIS believes that the steps taken in this regard by the Department of Biotechnology and Department of Science to make scientific research publicly available by developing an open access policy are laudable, especially from the view of increasing access to research undertaken at these institutions.

III.3.1.2.2. There are several other government agencies which have implemented open access policies, namely, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, Indian Council of Agricultural Research and Institute of Mathematical Sciences. CIS believes that this is step in the right direction

III.3.1.2.3. Copyright is the key instrument to effect open access policies. CIS believes that the work should be appropriately copyrighted to allow for free and open access to any interested person.

III.4. Copyright

III.4.1. Exceptions for Fair Dealings

III.4.1.1. The 2012, Amendment Act extended fair dealing exceptions in several ways; to sound recordings, videos, to the making of three dimensional works from two dimensional works,[11] to storing of electronic copies at non-commercial public libraries, [12] to rights of commercial rental.[13] While the Act touched upon some of the burning issues with regard to limitations and exceptions to copyright, CIS believes that it did miss out on laying down clear rules for issues like exceptions for educational institutions, libraries and archives which is currently being negotiated at the standing committee of the WIPO as an international instrument,[14] parallel importation of books for non-commercial libraries, and extending the current exceptions for education to distance education and digital education. CIS is of the opinion that while this was a step in the right direction the IPR policy should continue the trend of extending exceptions for fair dealing and should encourage forming general guidelines for fair dealings as it would help achieve goals of education and scientific and cultural progress.

III.4.1.2. CIS believes that it would be beneficial if general guidelines for fair dealing were provided for. These guidelines must not take away from existing fair dealing exceptions under the law, but should act as a framework to understand what constitutes fair dealing. CIS submits that this coupled with support for the International Treaty for Limitations and Exceptions for Libraries and Archives[15] and for International Treaty for Limitations and Exceptions for Educational and Research Institutions [16]would help serve national interest as it would help reduce the freezing effect by reducing the costs of using copyrighted work legitimately and ensure social and cultural progress. CIS submits that the National IPR policy should encourage the international instruments aimed at providing for exceptions and limitations for fair dealings.

III.4.2. Exceptions for Government Produced Works

III.4.2.1. CIS believes that the current exceptions for use of government produced works are far too limited and taxpayers must be free to use the works that they have paid for.[17] CIS submits that the National IPR policy should encourage the broadening of exceptions with regard to government produced works.

III.4.3. Compulsory Licensing

III.4.3.1. The Act allowed for compulsory licensing of foreign works[18] and put in place statutory licenses for broadcasters[19] CIS believes that this was a positive step that will encourage cultural and scientific education in India. CIS submits that compulsory licenses for copyrighted works help achieve goals of education, of scientific and cultural progress. CIS submits that the National IPR policy should encourage compulsory licensing of copyrighted works in certain situations for the promotion of access to knowledge and information.

III.4.4. Protection of Authors/ Performers Rights

III.4.4.1. The Act allowed for protection of author's rights regarding storing of their work in electronic medium[20] and for protection of rights of performers both commercial [21] and moral.[22] CIS believes that while this is in itself a positive step, there is need to ensure that such moral rights are not abused by authors or rights holders to stop discourse or to stop fair use and adequate measures to ensure the same must be put in place to avoid excessive intellectual property rights. CIS submits that the National IPR policy should discuss limitations to moral rights of authors and performers to make room for fair dealings.

III.4.5. Users Rights Regarding Cover Versions Of Songs

III.4.5.1. The Act allows for users to make cover versions of a sound recording required provided they comply with rules regarding notices and royalties. CIS believes that this is potentially problematic as even recording companies have acknowledged that the non-commercial cover versions help in increasing the popularity of the original and therefore help in the growth of the film and music industry and this new law could possibly stop individuals from making such cover versions due to fear of violating the law and therefore harm the film and music industry. Therefore, CIS believes that the National IPR policy should consider measures to provide more rights to the users in order to ensure development of the music and film industry; CIS believes that this is an instance of excessive intellectual property and is harmful to all stakeholders involved.

III.4.6. Relinquishment of Copyright and Creative Commons

III.4.6.1. The amended Section 21 of the Act now only requires a simply public notice from the author to relinquish his copyright as opposed to an application to the registrar of copyrights. CIS believes that this is a positive step as now the requirement under the rules can easily be satisfied by using a Creative Commons Zero license.[23] CIS submits that the National IPR policy should undertake similar steps to encourage the usage of creative commons licenses and thereby facilitate access to knowledge.

III.4.7. Term of Protection of Copyrights

III.4.7.1. The Act provided for an extension of term of copyright for photographs to almost double its earlier duration, [24] CIS believes that this is possibly harmful as it could lead to copyrighted works not entering the public domain for unnecessarily long periods of time and thereby harm progress in science and culture. In this regard CIS further believes that since the term of protections provided under our copyright law for all works extends beyond our international obligations, The National IPR policy should try to ensure that scientific and cultural development are not hindered by excessive terms of protection that go beyond the minimum owed under our international obligations.

III.4.8. Protection Of Rights Management Information

III.4.8.1. The amendment Act provided for protection of rights management information (RMI) and provided for both criminal and civil remedies in instances of unauthorised alteration or removal of RMIs.[25] CIS believes that these provisions are unnecessary as India does not have obligations to do so under international treaties and there is no actual demand for these rights as it is yet unclear how these rights help authors or performers. CIS submits that these provisions increase the costs for users who want to legitimately break these digital locks to obtain accessible formats for the information and that so long as the rights holder does not have an obligation to ensure that their works are accessible, provisions such as these cripple creativity and stunt industry growth.[26] Therefore CIS submits that the National IPR policy should help achieve a balance of concerns of users who want to legitimately break these digital locks on the one hand and the need to prevent digital piracy on the other.

III.4.9. Intermediary Liability

III.4.9.1. CIS submits that due to the IT (Intermediary Guidelines) Rules, 2011, there is a freezing effect on free speech on the internet as these rules are procedurally flawed and go against the principles of natural justice.[27] CIS believes that such a restraint on free speech harms creativity and innovation, to this end CIS submits that the National IPR policy should ensure free speech is not unfairly hindered by rules regarding copyright infringement.

III.4.10. Criminalization of Copyright Infringement

III.4.10.1. Individual non-commercial infringement of copyright is a crime under Section 63A of the Copyright Act [28] and is punishable by imprisonment which can extend to three years or a fine that can extend up to rs. 2,00,000/- CIS believes that this is an instance of excessive intellectual property protection; CIS is of the opinion that the civil remedies available for copyright enforcement are enough for copyright protection and that the criminal remedies under the Copyright Act, 1957 function only to ensure that there are obstacles to free and legitimate use of copyrighted material. CIS believes that such provisions are harmful for innovation within India and impose unnecessary costs on users.[29] Therefore CIS believes the National IPR policy should reconsider the question of criminalisation of copyright infringement and should ensure that any penal consequences are proportional to the act committed.

III.4.11. Concluding Remarks on Copyrights

III.4.11.1. In conclusion while India has what some call the most balanced approach to intellectual property law in the world today, [30] one that balances both the interests of the author and the copyrights holder as well as the end user and the overall public interest, there is room for improvement as far as adapting to the internet age is concerned, especially considering the easy appeal of forming an intellectual property regime that is excessive and in the end harms all the concerned stakeholders.

III.5. Free Trade Agreements (FTAs)

III.5.1. Need for Transparency Regarding FTA Negotiations

III.5.1.1. India has lately been negotiating Free Trade Agreements with several developed nations, these are closed door negotiations and the texts of the meetings are not available to the public. CIS believes that these texts should be made available to the public to ensure transparency and to ensure all stakeholders know of any developments, CIS believes that public knowledge of the positions of various actors in any negotiation process will help ensure that such positions are taken keeping in mind the interests of all stakeholders and will ensure that any outcome from such negotiations will be in national interest.[31] CIS therefore submits that the National IPR policy should encourage transparency with regards to negotiations for free trade agreements.

III.5.2. FTAs with Developed Nations and TRIPS Plus Standards

III.5.2.1. Leaked drafts of the European Union- India FTA negotiations have revealed that provisions on intellectual property protection were extensive and affected the pharmaceuticals sector, these provisions, if agreed upon, could go well beyond India's obligations under the WTO and under the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) Agreement. In fact, developed countries including the US [32] and EU[33] have tried time again and again to encourage developing countries to adopt standards of IP protection in bilateral or regional trade investment agreements that go beyond TRIPS [34]

India has repeatedly indicated to the WTO that it was not willing to commit to an agreement beyond TRIPS.[35] These commitments could include data exclusivity protection measures, ever-greening of patents etc. [36]

CIS believes that despite the growing pressure from developed nations regarding various FTAs,[37] India must hold its ground and ensure that concerns about India's national interest and the difference in the development levels of the European Union or other developed countries and developing countries like India are kept in mind while negotiating obligations under international agreements. Therefore CIS believes that the National IPR policy should ensure that TRIPS plus standards are not acceptable to India as they will undermine our national interest and hinder development at the national level.[38]

III.5.3. Shift from Multilateral Forums to Bilateral FTA negotiations

III.5.3.1. CIS believes that the trend of shift in negotiations from a multilateral forum such as the WIPO or the WTO to a bilateral or a regional forum [39] is harmful as certain flexibilities are built into the TRIPS and therefore multilateral negotiations based on TRIPS will help pursue India's interests better. And therefore when possible, India must prefer negotiations at multilateral forums as opposed to bilateral or regional treaties, CIS believes that the National IPR policy should reflect the same preferences. [40]

IV. Concluding observations

IV.1. On patents, CIS submits that the National IPR policy reconsider software patenting, that encourage open source software, continue and strengthen that compulsory licensing and consider and study alternative licensing mechanisms as means to achieve a balancing of the interests of different stakeholders.

IV.2. On openness, CIS submits that the IPR policy should encourage free and open software in education, governmental agencies etc.

IV.3. On open access to scholarly work, CIS commends the work done by government agencies so far and submits that the IPR policy should encourage open access to scholarly works.

IV.4. On copyright, CIS submits that the IPR policy work toward strengthening and extending fair dealings provisions, supporting international instruments that strengthen fair dealing, encourage compulsory licensing. CIS submits that the IPR policy should work towards ensuring that protections for copyright such as terms of protection, intermediary liability, protection of rights management information, criminalisation of copyright infringement etc., do not harm other legitimate interests of users or unnecessarily restrict free speech.

IV.5. On FTAs, CIS submits that the IPR policy encourage transparency with regard to FTA negotiations, ensure that TRIPS plus standards are not accepted as they would harm national interest and to encourage multilateral negotiations over bilateral free trade agreements.

IV.6. CIS welcomes the initiative of the DIPP to form a National IPR policy, CIS believes that it is essential that such an IPR policy avoid excessive intellectual property rights protection and is formed keeping in mind goals of development and national interest.

IV.7. CIS is thankful to the DIPP for the opportunity to provide comments on the National IPR policy and would be privileged to work with the government on this and other matters in these areas.

[1] www.cis-india.org (Last Accessed: 30/11/14).

[2] The Washington Declaration on Intellectual Property and Public Interest concluded after the Global Congress on Intellectual property and Public Interest in August 2011 attended by over 180 experts from 32 countries articulate this position perfectly. Available at: http://infojustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Washington-Declaration.pdf (Last Accessed:29/11/14)

[3] Shashank Singh, Guidelines for Examination of Computer Related Inventions: Mapping the Stakeholders' Response, Available at: http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/guidelines-for-examination-of-computer-related-inventions (Last Accessed: 30/11/14).

[4] N.S. Gopalakrishnan, Compulsory License Under Indian Patent Law, MPI Studies on Intellectual Property and Competition Law, Vol.22, 2015, pp.11-42.

[5] Raadhika Gupta, Compulsory Licensing under TRIPS: How Far it Addresses Public Health Concerns in Developing Nations, Journal of Intellectual Property Rights, Vol.15, September 2010, pp.357-363. Available at: http://nopr.niscair.res.in/bitstream/123456789/10211/1/JIPR%2015(5)%20357-363.pdf (Last Accessed: 30/11/14).

[6] Id.

[7] Nehaa Chaudhari, Pervasive Technologies: Patent Pools, Available at: http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/patent-pools (Last Accessed: 30/11/14).

[8] One of the measures along which we could have differential patent strengths could be the time for the invention to reach the market, see, Benjamin N Roin, The case for Tailoring Patent Awards Based on the Time-to-Market of Inventions, UCLA Law Review, Vol.61, 2013, Available at: http://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/10612849/Case%20for%20Tailoring%20Patent%20Awards%203-15-13.pdf?sequence=1 (Last Accessed: 30/11/14).

[9] Sunil Abraham, Patented Games, Available at: http://cis-india.org/a2k/patented-games (Last Accessed: 30/11/14.

[10] See Nabi Hasan, Issues and Challenges in Open Source Software Environment with Special Reference to India, Available at: http://crl.du.ac.in/ical09/papers/index_files/ical-43_144_317_1_RV.pdf (Last Accessed: 30/11/14).

[11] Section 52(1), the Copyright (Amendment) Act, 2012.

[12] Section 52(1) (n), the Copyright (Amendment) Act, 2012.

[13] Zakir Thomas, Overview of Changes to the Indian Copyright Law, Journal of Intellectual Property Rights, Vo.17, July 2012, pp.324-334.

[14] See conclusions of the chair at the 23^rd session of the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights at the WIPO, Available at: http://www.eifl.net/wipo-sccr23-conclusions (Last Accessed: 30/11/14).

[15] For draft proposal of the treaty see IFLA, Treaty proposal on Limitations and Exceptions for Libraries and Archives, Available at: http://www.wipo.int/edocs/mdocs/copyright/en/sccr_27/sccr_27_2_rev.pdf (Last Accessed: 30/11/14).

[16] See The Draft WIPO Treaty on Exceptions and Limitations for the Persons with Disabilities, Educational and Research Institutions, Libraries and Archives, proposal by the African Group (document SCCR/22/12).Available at: http://www.wipo.int/edocs/mdocs/copyright/en/sccr_22/sccr_22_12.pdf (Last Accessed: 30/11/14).

[17] See Section 52(q) of the Copyright Act, 1957.

[18] Section 31 and 31A, the Copyright (Amendment) Act, 2012.

[19] Section 31D, the Copyright (Amendment) Act, 2012.

[20] Section 14(1), the Copyright (Amendment) Act, 2012.

[21] Id.

[22] Section 38B, the Copyright (Amendment) Act, 2012.

[23] CIS, Comments on Draft Copyright Rules, 2012, available at: http://cis-india.org/a2k/feedback-to-draft-copyright-rules-2012 (Last Accessed: 29/11/14).

[24] See Pranesh Prakash, Analysis of the Copyright (Amendment) Bill, 2012, Available at: http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/analysis-copyright-amendment-bill-2012

[25] Section 65B, The Copyright (Amendment) Act, 2012.

[26] Pranesh Prakash, Technological Protection Measures in the Copyright (Amendment) Bill, 2010, Available at: http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/tpm-copyright-amendment (Last Accessed: 29/11/14).

[27] Rishabh Dara, Intermediary Liability in India: Chilling Effects on Free Expression on the Internet, 2011, Available at: http://cis-india.org/internet-governance/intermediary-liability-in-india.pdf (Last Accessed: 30/11/14).

[28] Section 63A, Copyright Act 1957.

[29] See Right to Share: Principles on Freedom of Expression and Copyright in the Digital Age, Article19, Available at: http://www.article19.org/resources.php/resource/3716/en/ (Last Accessed: 29/11/14).

[30] V Premanath, S Sivaram, Intellectual Property Systems in India: Progressing towards Greater Maturity and Diversity, Available at: http://iimahd.ernet.in/users/anilg/files/Articles/Emerging%20IPR%20Consciousness,%20vikalpa.pdf (Last Accessed: 29/11/14).

[31] Jan Wouters, Idesbald Goddeeries, Bregt Natens etc, Some Critical Issues in the EU -India Free Trade Agreement Negotiation, Working Paper No.102,KU Leuven Centre for Global Governance Studies, https://ghum.kuleuven.be/ggs/publications/working_papers/new_series/wp101-110/wp102-wouters-goddeeris-natens.pdf , February 2013, p.16.

Monika Ermert, Lack of Transparency in EU-India FTA Talks Spurs Requests for Halt, ip-watch, Available at: http://www.ip-watch.org/2010/09/03/lack-of-transparency-in-eu-india-fta-talks-spurs-requests-for-halt/ .

[32] The current policy of the US Trade Representative is seen to be reflected in the 2002 Trade Act available here: http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/BILLS-107hr3009enr/pdf/BILLS-107hr3009enr.pdf See HR3009.

[33] The current trade strategy for the EU can be found here http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/docs/2014/july/tradoc_152643.pdf .

[34] Commission on Intellectual Property Rights, Integrating Intellectual Property Rights and Development Policy, Available at: http://www.iprcommission.org/papers/pdfs/final_report/ciprfullfinal.pdf , p.174.

[35] C. Correa, 'Negotiation of a Free Trade Agreement European Union-India: Will India Accept Trips-Plus

Protection?', (2009) Oxfam Deutschland and Evangelischer Entwicklungsdienst Analysis,

http://www.oxfam.de/files/20090609_negotiationofafreetradeaggrementeuindia_218kb.pdf .

[36] S. Sharma, 'the EU-India FTA: Critical Considerations in a Time of Crisis', (2009) Centad Working Paper.

[37] Asit Ranjan Mishra, India to negotiate FTAs with emerging market nations, Livemint, Available at: http://www.livemint.com/Politics/RlJNxUXovjNVaRzQt9KXmO/India-to-negotiate-FTAs-with-emerging-market-nations.html .

[38] Sisule F Musungu and Graham Dutfield, Commission Multilateral Agreements and a TRIPS -Plus Word: the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), Available at: http://www.iprsonline.org/ictsd/docs/WIPO_Musungu_Dutfield.pdf.

[39] For Trends, See Beginda Pakpahan, Deadlock in the WTO: What is next? Available at: http://www.wto.org/english/forums_e/public_forum12_e/art_pf12_e/art19.htm .

[40] See Amit Sengupta, Do not trade away our lives, Vo.9, No.2, Indian Journal of Medical Ethics, 2012, Available at: http://www.issuesinmedicalethics.org/index.php/ijme/article/view/88/1047 .

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/comments-on-proposed-ip-rights-policy-to-dipp

Odia books now available online

praskrishna — 2014-12-27T02:16:19Z

Book lovers can now read Odia books online with the launching of the Odia Wikisource, a sister project of Odia Wikipedia, here on Friday.

The article was published in the Pioneer on November 30, 2014

The Odia Wikimedia community, a volunteer community that contributes to Odia Wikipedia and its sister projects, in collaboration with the Bangalore-based Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) formally launched the facility.

Odia Wikisource houses scores of Odia language books online and is available for free at https://or.wikisource.org. It is not just an online library but it focuses on bringing rare and old books that are out of copyright. Notably, the CIS-A2K, a domain of the CIS, has been instrumental in encouraging many notable authors in the State to change their license terms to Creative Commons Share-Alike (CC-by-SA) license, a license that allows public access and ability to reuse the content to expand the knowledge base in Odia language on internet.

Besides, a discussion on setting of a roadmap for Odia book digitization was held on the occasion. Later, a documentary on ‘Odia: Silalekharu Mobile’ was screened followed by an award ceremony.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/news/the-pioneer-november-30-2014-odia-books-now-available-online

November 2014 Bulletin

praskrishna — 2014-12-15T13:27:04Z

We at the Centre for Internet & Society (CIS) welcome you to the eleventh issue of the newsletter (November 2014).

Highlights

On 13 November, 2014, the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion had released a Call for Suggestions for India's proposed National IPR Policy. CIS sent its comments.
As part of the Pervasive Technologies we published four methodology documents: Rohini Lakshané wrote on Patent Landscaping for the Indian Mobile Device market ; Anubha Sinha wrote on Intellectual Property in Mobile Application Development in India ; Maggie Huang wrote on Access to Music through the Mobile; and Nehaa Chaudhari wrote on Sub Hundred Dollar Mobile Devices and Competition Law .
Odisha's most circulated newspaper Sambad has collaborated with CIS-A2K to relicense 19 books published by its sister concern "Ama Odisha".
Vipul Kharbanda in a blog entry examines the relationship between privacy and transparency in the context of the right to information in India .
Geetha Hariharan in a blog entry explores what India's ITU proposal means for Internet Governance.
Pranesh Prakash wrote an article in the Economic Times exploring net neutrality.
In her final blog post on the mapping exercise undertaken by CIS-RAW, P.P.Sneha summarises some of the key concepts and terms that emerged as significant in the discourse around Digital Humanities in India.

►Job

Programme Officer (Access to Knowledge - Institutional Partnerships): CIS is seeking applications for the post of Programme Officer for its Access to Knowledge (A2K) Programme. The position will be based in its Bangalore office. Programme Officer will collaboratively work with the A2K Team and would report to the Programme Director, Access to Knowledge at CIS.

Accessibility and Inclusion

Under a grant from the Hans Foundation we are doing two projects. The first project is on creating a national resource kit of state-wise laws, policies and programmes on issues relating to persons with disabilities in India. CIS in partnership with CLPR (Centre for Law and Policy Research) compiled the National Compendium of Policies, Programmes and Schemes for Persons with Disabilities (29 states and 6 union territories). The publication has been finalised and is currently in the process of being printed. The draft chapters and the quarterly reports can be accessed on the project page. The second project is 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 Update

November 2014 Report (Suman Dogra; November 30, 2014).

Upcoming Event

Training in Use of eSpeak with Malayalam (co-organized by CIS, DAISY Forum of India and Chakshumathi Assistive Technology Centre; Trivandrum; January 24 - 25, 2015, Trivandrum).

►Other

Blog Entry

Central Guidelines and Schemes (Anandhi Viswanathan; November 6, 2014).

Access to Knowledge

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.

Submission

Comments on the Proposed Intellectual Property Rights Policy to the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (Pranesh Prakash, Nehaa Chaudhari, Anubha Sinha and Amulya P.; November 30, 2014).

Blog Entries

MHRD IPR Chairs - Underutilization of Funds and Lack of Information Regarding Expenditures (Amulya Purushothama, November 19, 2014).

Participation in Events

Ubiquity, Mobility, Globality: Charting Directions in Mobile Phone Studies (Organized by Center for Global Communication Studies at the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia; November 6 - 7, 2014). Nehaa Chaudhari made a presentation on Pervasive Technologies: Access to Knowledge in the Marketplace.
Countering US pressures on India's IP regime (Organized by Lawyer's Collective; November 16, 2014). Anubha Sinha attended the event.
Technology and Gender Based Violence (Organized by the Bachchao Project; November 24, 2014). Rohini Lakshané was a speaker at the event. She spoke about various strategies that women use to respond to online harassment, such as reporting the abuser, and enlisting support from online followers, or friends or family in order to deal with the abuser.

►Pervasive Technology

Blog Entries

Methodology: Patent Landscaping (Rohini Lakshané; November 10, 2014).
Methodology: Intellectual Property in Mobile Application Development in India (Anubha Sinha; November 17, 2014).
Methodology: Access to Music through the Mobile (Maggie Huang; November 18, 2014).
Methodology: Sub Hundred Dollar Mobile Devices and Competition Law (Nehaa Chaudhari; November 25, 2014).

►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).

Op-Ed

Odia Wikisource, its Potential (Subhashish Panigrahi, The Samaja, November 17, 2014).

Blog Entries

55 Works of Iconic Indian writer released under Free Licence to benefit Wikisource (T. Vishnu Vardhan, November 13, 2014).
Odia author Nirmala Kumari Mohapatra's 21 books relicensed under CC-by-SA 4.0 (Subhashish Panigrahi, November 17, 2014).
Nineteen Books Published by Ama Odisha Relicensed under CC-by-SA 4.0 (Subhashish Panigrahi, November 25, 2014).

News and Media Coverage

CIS-A2K team gave its inputs to the following media coverage:

ಭಾಷಣದಿಂದ ಭಾಷೆ ಉಳಿಯಲ್ಲ, ಕನ್ನಡದಲ್ಲೇ ಮಾಹಿತಿ ಸಿಗುವುದು ಅಗತ್ಯ: ಪವನಜ (Just Kannada; November 23, 2014).
Kannada Wikipedia Presentation in Mysuru (Prajavani; November 24, 2014).
Now, Tulu set to be promoted through Wikipedia articles (Hindu; November 24, 2014).
'Tulu Wikipedia' in incubation stage, 600 articles uploaded, says U.B. Pavanaja (Ravi Prasad Kamila; Hindu; November 26, 2014).
Odia Wikisource launched in Odisha capital (Odisha Sun Times; November 28, 2014).
Odia Wikisource aims to bring valuable and rare books on the Internet (Odisha Diary; November 28, 2014).

Event Co-organized

Odia Wikisource Sabha 2014 (Co-organized by CIS-A2K and Odia Wikimedia Community; November 28, 2014). Subhashish Panigrahi participated in the event.

Participation in Event

A Seminar on E-publishing of Odia Books (Organized by Molybtech Technology Solutions; November 30, 2014). Subhashish Panigrahi was a speaker.

►Openness

Blog Entry

Privacy vs. Transparency: An Attempt at Resolving the Dichotomy (Sunil Abraham with feedback and inputs from Sumandro Chattapadhyay, Elonnai Hickok, Bhairav Acharya and Geetha Hariharan; November 14, 2014).

News and Media Coverage

Getting Strategic about Openness and Privacy (Tim Davies; Open Data Research Lead at Web Foundation; November 3, 2014).

Participation in Event

Content co-ordination for the Panel Discussion on Crypto-Currencies (organized by the Law and Technology Society; November 15, 2014). Sharath Chandra Ram was a panelist and made a presentation Scalability and Security Issues in Distributed Trust based Cryto-Currency Systems like BITCOIN

Internet Governance

►Privacy

As part of our Surveillance and Freedom: Global Understandings and Rights Development (SAFEGUARD) project with Privacy International we are engaged in enhancing respect for the right to privacy in developing countries. During the month we published the following blog entries:

Blog Entries

White Paper on RTI and Privacy V1.2 (Vipul Kharbanda; November 9, 2014).
Introduction: About the Privacy and Surveillance Roundtables (Manoj Kurbet; November 27, 2014).

Event Organized

IOCOSE's talk at CIS (CIS, Bangalore; November 27, 2014). There was a presentation of the work of the artists group IOCOSE, current artists in residence at T.A.J./SKE Residency.

Upcoming Event

CPDP 2015 : The eighth international conference on computers, privacy and data protection will be held in Brussels from January 21 to 23, 2015. CIS is a moral supporter of CPDP.

Participation in Events

E-Consultation on Cyber Security, Justice, and Governance Begins! (Organized by the Hague Institute for Global Justice; November 4, 2014). Sunil Abraham facilitated the e-consultation on "Internet access, the freedom of expression online, and development in the Global South".
Learning Forum: Transparency and Human Rights in the Digital Age (Organized by Global Network Initiative; November 6, 2014). Pranesh Prakash gave a talk on transparency reports and their use and abuse in India; the Intermediary Liability Rules in India (and its non-provision of any transparency mechanism); and the need for transparency in private speech regulation, not just governmental speech regulation.
Fourth Discussion Meeting of the Expert Committee to Discuss the Draft Human DNA Profiling Bill (Organized by the Department of Biotechnology; New Delhi; November 10, 2014). Sunil Abraham was unable to participate because of technical problems.
Ground Zero Summit 2014 (Organized by India Infosec Consortium; November 13-14, 2014). Geetha Hariharan participated in this event.
Privacy, security and surveillance: tackling international dilemmas and dangers in the digital realm (Organized by Wilton Park; November 17-19, 2014). Pranesh Prakash was a panelist in the session "Beyond the familiar: how do other countries deal with security and surveillance oversight?"

►Free Speech

Under a grant from the MacArthur Foundation, CIS is doing research on the restrictions placed on freedom of expression online by the Indian government and contribute studies, reports and policy briefs to feed into the ongoing debates at the national as well as international level. As part of the project we bring you the following outputs:

Blog Entries

Good Intentions, Recalcitrant Text - II: What India's ITU Proposal May Mean for Internet Governance (Geetha Hariharan; November 1, 2014).
India's Statement at ITU Plenipotentiary Conference, 2014 (Geetha Hariharan; November 4, 2014).

Newspaper Article

The Socratic debate: Whose internet is it anyway? (Pranesh Prakash; Economic Times; November 18, 2014).

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

Twitter users find several accounts suspended for unknown reasons (Vasudha Venugopal; Economic Times; November 2, 2014).
Several Indian Twitter users' accounts suspended due to tech glitch (Silky Malhotra; digit; November 3, 2014).
Game release cancelled over gay character (Jaison Lewis; Mumbai Mirror; November 19, 2014).
Leave the Net Alone (Businessworld; November 25, 2014).

Digital Humanities

CIS is building research clusters in the field of Digital Humanities. The Digital will be used as a way of unpacking the debates in humanities and social sciences and look at the new frameworks, concepts and ideas that emerge in our engagement with the digital. The clusters aim to produce and document new conversations and debates that shape the contours of Digital Humanities in Asia:

Blog Entry

Mapping Digital Humanities in India - Concluding Thoughts (P.P.Sneha; November 30, 2014).

About CIS

The Centre for Internet and Society is a non-profit research organization that works on policy issues relating to freedom of expression, privacy, accessibility for persons with disabilities, access to knowledge and IPR reform, and openness (including open government, FOSS, open standards, etc.), and engages in academic research on digital natives and digital humanities.

► Follow us elsewhere

Twitter: https://twitter.com/CISA2K
Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/cisa2k
Visit us at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/India_Access_To_Knowledge
E-mail: a2k@cis-india.org

► 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 - 5600 71.

► Request for Collaboration:

We invite researchers, practitioners, and theoreticians, both organisationally and as individuals, to collaboratively engage with Internet and society and improve our understanding of this new field. To discuss the research collaborations, write to Sunil Abraham, Executive Director, atsunil@cis-india.org or Nishant Shah, Director - Research, at nishant@cis-india.org. To discuss collaborations on Indic language Wikipedia, write to T. Vishnu Vardhan, Programme Director, A2K, at vishnu@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/november-2014-bulletin

Access to Medicines: Petition to the US Government to Stop Pressure on India

nehaa — 2014-12-10T13:02:59Z

There is growing pressure on India from the US Government to change its intellectual property system. Bending to US pressure will put medicines out of reach for millions of patients in India and other developing countries.

Medicines are affordable for millions of poor patients across the world, thanks to India’s progressive intellectual property system. Now, transnational pharmaceutical companies and the US Government are putting pressure on the Indian Government to change India’s laws which will make medicines unaffordable. Peoples' groups, patients’ networks and civil society organizations have come together in one voice to ask the US government to stop pressuring India against use of its legitimate rights to protect public health. The Indian Government must hold its ground and not give in to the pressure.

For more details log on to Oxfam India website.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/oxfam-india-november-29-2014-access-to-medicines

Odia Wikisource launched in Odisha capital

praskrishna — 2014-12-07T02:53:32Z

After the success of Odia Wikipedia, it is now the turn of Odia Wikisource to bring the best of Odia literature to the people of Odisha in the language they speak.

The article was published in Odisha Sun Times on November 28, 2014.

Having gone through a rigorous assessment process by the Wikimedia language committee and Wikimedia Foundation’s board before being released last month, the Odia Wikisource was formally launched at Jayadev Bhawan on Friday.

Launching the Odia Wikisource, eminent linguist Padhma Shree Dr Debiprasanna

Pattanayak emphasized the importance of such a project in Odia language to make the best of Odia writing available on computer, mobile and tablet to ensure that youngsters take interest in Odia.

“e-books are the key to take Odia to the masses, especially those who are outside Odisha and have no access to libraries,” he said.

Speaking on the occasion, Soumya Ranjan Patnaik, Editor of leading Odia daily ‘Sambad’ said; “Internet should be treated as a friend of our language rather than as an enemy.”

He announced the relicensing of 19 books published by Ama Odisha under a Creative Commons Share Alike license that will be digitized on Wikisource.

Patnaik evinced keen interest in collaborating with the Odia Wikimedia community in the future for such language and cultural work.

Presiding over the function, noted poet and thinker Dr Haraprasad Das advised the youth for filling the gaps in the Odia language using internet.

“Odia Wikisource is connecting me with my roots, my language and culture”, said Pankajbala Sarangi, who has made the highest of 1200 edits on Odia Wikisource.

The credit for the most extensive work on Odia book digitization, however, goes to Bhubaneswar based non-profit Srujanika that digitized about 740 books.

Started two years ago as an incubator project, the Odia Wikisource is now live on the internet at or.wikisource.org.

The project now houses many precious books including writings of noted authors like Fakir Mohan Senapati, Upendra Bhanj and the entire Odia Bhagabata.

It includes most periodicals that were published between1850-1950. Odia Wikisource will further this work by going one step ahead in digitizing books in the form of text in Unicode so that they appear in a search engine search in Odia language.

It allows readers to read books from computers, mobiles and tablets, even permitting them to print and use the content elsewhere. These books are way lighter than the scanned books. This is making a way for audio books.

Books for which copyright has lapsed and many rare books could be digitized and preserved for the future.

Apart from old and valuable books, books by renowned and contemporary authors like Padma Shree Debiprasanna Pattanayak, Ramakrushna Nanda, Dr Jagannath Mohanty, Dr Subrat Prusty, Bharat Majhi and Nirmala Kumari Mohapata, and many other authors have been taken by the Odia Wikisource team to digitize.

In collaboration with Wikimedians from Bhubaneswar, Bangalore based non-profit Centre for Internet and Society’s Access To Knowledge program was instrumental in training the faculty of Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS). “50 students from KISS have digitized 4 books and are continuing to contribute more”, says Preetinanda Roy.

Wikimedians also converted Odia Bhagabata to Unicode by using the source text from Odia.org. “We are aiming to bring more rare books and manuscripts in Odia in the near future,” said Odia Wikimedian Mrutyunjaya Kar.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/news/odisha-sun-times-november-28-2014-odia-wikisource-launched-in-odisha-capital

‘Tulu Wikipedia’ in incubation stage, 600 articles uploaded, says U.B. Pavanaja

praskrishna — 2014-12-07T03:21:11Z

In all, 600 articles have been uploaded to the Tulu Wikipedia which is still in its incubation stage, according to U.B. Pavanaja, Wikipedia representative and Programme Officer, The Centre for Internet and Society, Bengaluru.

The article by Ravi Prasad Kamila was published in the Hindu on November 26, 2014. Dr. U.B.Pavanaja gave his inputs.

Speaking at a workshop on writing articles in Tulu, using Kannada script, for Wikipedia at Sahyadri College of Engineering and Management here on Wednesday, he said that since 2007 till this January there were 135 Tulu articles. The remaining 465 articles were added in the last over nine months.

Workshops on writing articles in Tulu for Wikipedia organised in Udupi and Mangaluru had helped in adding more articles.

Mr. Pavananja, originally hailing from Sullia in Dakshina Kannada, said that if Tulu Wikipedia was to be kept alive at least 50 to 60 articles would have to be uploaded a month and it required at least 10 dedicated writers.

If one wants to write articles in Tulu, he or she would have to log on to bilty.com/tuluwiki and later register there like registering while creating a new e-mail id. Later one can write, edit or read articles written in Tulu using Kannada script.

Karnataka Tulu Sahitya Academy had organised the workshop as a prelude to the three-day ‘Vishwa Tuluvere Parba’ (Global Tulu Festival) scheduled at the college from December 12.

President of the academy M. Janaki Brahmavar requested the participants to write articles about Tulu language and culture and about the coming festival and upload.

One can contact Mr. Pavanaja through pavanaja@gmail.com.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/news/the-hindu-november-26-2014-ravi-prasad-kamila-tulu-wikipedia-in-incubation-stage

Nineteen Books Published by Ama Odisha Relicensed under CC-by-SA 4.0

subha — 2014-12-07T03:35:46Z

Odisha's most circulated newspaper Sambad has collaborated with CIS-A2K to relicense 19 books published by its sister concern "Ama Odisha".

These books consists of books starting from biographies of notable personalities to historical research. Yesterday Sambad's chairman-editor Soumya Ranjan Patnaik signed a copyright migration document to help the Odia Wikisource community to enrich the project. In an interview to me he expresses, "technology should be used as a tool to take our language to masses". Mr Patnaik is joining "Odia Wikisource Sabha 2014", a launching event of Odia Wikisource co-organized by Odia Wikimedia community and CIS-A2K on November 28, as chief guest.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/nineteen-books-by-ama-odisha-relicensed

PERVASIVE TECHNOLOGIES PROJECT WORKING DOCUMENT SERIES: DOCUMENT 1 - RESEARCH METHODOLOGY FOR A PAPER ON COMPETITION LAW + IPR + ACCESS TO < $100 MOBILE DEVICES

nehaa — 2015-10-04T02:51:06Z

This blog post is the research methodology for my research paper under the Pervasive Technologies Project. This is a work in progress and is likely to be modified from time to time.

See a subsequent version titled Pervasive Technologies: Working Document Series - Research Questions and a Literature Review on the Actor-Network Theory

Preliminary

The realization of the promise of the sub hundred dollar mobile device as a facilitator of access to knowledge is contingent inter alia on its availability in the market place. In turn, the market availability of the sub hundred dollar mobile device is influenced by the existence of an enabling environment for producers to produce, and consumers to consume. From a regulatory perspective, the enabling environment itself is a function of existing laws and policies, and the 'developmental effects' of certain laws and policies (Saraswati, 2012).

This research paper under the Pervasive Technologies: Access to Knowledge in the Market Place Project ("PT Project") examines one such legal and policy lever and the role of a regulator in the development of an enabling environment for access to sub hundred dollar mobile devices. This paper is founded on four assumptions: first, that access to sub hundred dollar mobile devices is influenced by their price; second, that the question of access necessitates conversation between the intellectual property regime and several other actors, sites and tools; third, that one of the fundamental goals of regulatory reform is the creation of a 'stable, open and future- proof environment' (Guermazi and Satola, 2005) that encourages access to these devices; and fourth, that there exist public law implications of intellectual property that justify the involvement of State actors and regulators in matters that may arise out of private transactions.

Research Questions

This research paper will examine whether there is a role to be played by one regulator, that is, the Competition Commission of India (“CCI”), in this narrative of innovation, intellectual property and access to sub hundred dollar mobile devices. Specifically, the following research questions will be addressed:

First, what is the relationship between intellectual property and competition law? Second, what are the competition law/antitrust concerns that arise around the licensing of intellectual property (standard essential patents)? Third, can existing mechanisms in competition law address concerns around the licensing of standard essential patents on sub hundred dollar devices, and is competition law a viable solution to address this issue? If so, which ones? Fourth, given the frequency of these litigations, is there a role to be played by an ex-post regulator, such as the CCI, or is there a need for ex-ante regulation?

Research Objects

In an attempt to address these research questions, this paper will examine the role of the Competition Commission of India and the Indian Judiciary. This paper will also examine the role of similarly placed institutions in the United States of America as well as some member states of the European Union.

This research paper will also examine select tools and sites sought to be used to create an enabling environment to facilitate access to these sub hundred dollar mobile devices: first, principles, legal frameworks and provisions of competition law/antitrust law; second, all relevant judicial decisions.

Research Method

First , this research paper will begin with establishing the case for the intervention of the regulator and/or the judiciary in the sub hundred dollar mobile device market by undertaking a review of primary and secondary literature [1]("literature"). Second, also through a literature review, the research will be contextualized to India in terms of the market, the actors involved and the legal framework. Third, a cross jurisdictional comparative legal search will be undertaken to understand the potential areas of intervention for the judiciary and the Competition Commission of India based on existing legal disputes in other jurisdictions; and the possible challenges that might ensue. Fourth, in a scenario building exercise, an attempt will be made to outline the role that the judiciary and the regulator might play in India, in order to ensure access to sub hundred dollar mobile devices is not impeded by litigation around standard essential patents.

Generally, in the writing of this paper, inputs will be sought from experts including MHRD Chair Professors, legal practitioners in India, academics in India and abroad and members of relevant departments of the Indian Government.

Research Communication

This research will be communicated through a series of blog posts- one every month from December, 2014 to December, 2015. A preliminary draft of a research paper will be produced by December, 2015, tentatively to be presented at the 4th Global Congress on Intellectual Property and the Public Interest, New Delhi. The final output will be a research paper.

References

Bouthenia Guermazi and David Satola, Creating the "Right" Enabling Environment for ICT, in Robert Schware (ed.), E-development: From Excitement to Effectiveness (2005, World Bank Publications).
Jyoti Saraswati, Dot. Compradors- Power and Policy in the Development of the Indian Software Industry (2012, Pluto Press)

[1] Unless otherwise specified, for the purposes of this document, primary and secondary literature includes academic articles and books, newspaper articles and opinion pieces, blog posts, case law and other legal provisions.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/methodology-sub-hundred-dollar-mobile-devices-and-competition-law

ಭಾಷಣದಿಂದ ಭಾಷೆ ಉಳಿಯಲ್ಲ, ಕನ್ನಡದಲ್ಲೇ ಮಾಹಿತಿ ಸಿಗುವುದು ಅಗತ್ಯ: ಪವನಜ

praskrishna — 2014-12-06T02:30:29Z

Media coverage of Kannada Wikipedia presentation at Mysuru on November 23, 2014.

The article was published in Just Kannada on November 23, 2014.

ಮೈಸೂರು, ನ.23 : ಧ್ವಜ ಹಾರಿಸಿ ಭಾಷಣ ಮಾಡಿದರೆ ಕನ್ನಡ ಭಾಷೆ ಉಳಿಯುವುದಿಲ್ಲ. ಬದಲಿಗೆ ಕನ್ನಡಲ್ಲೇ ಎಲ್ಲಾ ಮಾಹಿತಿಗಳು ಸಿಗುವಂತೆ ಮಾಡುವುದು ಅಗತ್ಯವಿದೆ ಎಂದು ಬೆಂಗಳೂರಿನ ಭಾರತೀಯ ಭಾಷೆಗಳು, ಸಮಾಜ ಮತ್ತು ಅಂತರ್ಜಾಲ ಕೇಂದ್ರದ ಕಾರ್ಯಕ್ರಮ ವ್ಯವಸ್ಥಾಪಕ ಡಾ.ಯು.ಬಿ.ಪವನಜ ತಿಳಿಸಿದರು.

ವಿಸ್ಮಯ ಫೌಂಡೇಶನ್ ಭಾನುವಾರ ಕುವೆಂಪುನಗರದ ಉದಯರವಿ ರಸ್ತೆ ಕಲಾಸುರುಚಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ಆಯೋಜಿಸಿದ್ದ ಕನ್ನಡ ರಾಜ್ಯೋತ್ಸವ ಕಾರ್ಯಕ್ರಮದಲ್ಲಿ `ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಕಿಪಿಡಿಯ: ಒಂದು ಪರಿಚಯ’ ಕುರಿತು ಮಾತನಾಡಿದರು.
ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿನಾಶದ ಹಾದಿಯತ್ತ ಸಾಗುತ್ತಿದೆ. ಇಂದು ಕೇವಲ ಕಥೆ, ಕಾದಂಬರಿಗಳಿಂದ ಮಾತ್ರ ಕನ್ನಡ ಉಳಿಯುವುದಿಲ್ಲ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯದಂತಹ ತಂತ್ರಜ್ಞಾನಗಳನ್ನು ಬಳಸಿಕೊಳ್ಳಬೇಕು. ಕನ್ನಡ ರಾಜ್ಯೋತ್ಸವ, ಸ್ವಾತಂತ್ರ್ಯ ದಿನಾಚರಣೆಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಧ್ವಜ ಹಾರಿಸಿ, ಭಾಷಣ ಮಾಡಿದರೆ ಕನ್ನಡ ಉಳಿಯುವುದಿಲ್ಲ. ಬದಲಾಗಿ ಅಗತ್ಯ ಮಾಹಿತಿಗಳು ಕನ್ನಡದಲ್ಲೇ ಸಿಕ್ಕಿದರೆ ಕನ್ನಡ ಉಳಿಯುತ್ತದೆ ಎಂದರು. ದೇಶ-ವಿದೇಶಗಳ ಭಾಷೆ, ಸಂಸ್ಕೃತಿಗಳ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ತಿಳಿದು ಕೊಳ್ಳುತ್ತಿದ್ದಾರೆ. ನಮ್ಮಲ್ಲಿ ಕನ್ನಡ ಮಾಹಿತಿ ಸಾಹಿತ್ಯ ಕಡಿಮೆ ಇದೆ. ಕನ್ನಡಿಗರು ಕನ್ನಡ ಮಾಹಿತಿಗಾಗಿ ಹುಡುಕಾಟ ನಡೆಸುತ್ತಿದ್ದಾರೆ. ಹುಡುಕುವ ಮುನ್ನವೇ ಅಗತ್ಯ ಮಾಹಿತಿ ಒದಗಿಸಿದರೆ ಕನ್ನಡ ಉಳಿಸಲು ಸಾಧ್ಯವಾಗುತ್ತದೆ ಎಂದು ತಿಳಿಸಿದರು.

ಭಾರತೀಯ ವಿಕಿಪಿಡಿಯದಲ್ಲಿ 20ಕ್ಕೂ ಹೆಚ್ಚು ಭಾಷೆಗಳಿವೆ. ತಿಂಗಳಿಗೆ 50 ಕೋಟಿ ಹೊಸ ವೀಕ್ಷಕರು ಭೇಟಿ ನೀಡುತ್ತಾರೆ. ಇದರಲ್ಲಿ ಏಳು ಸಾವಿರ ಸಂಪಾದಕರಿದ್ದಾರೆ. ಜೊತೆಗೆ ಇದೇ ಮಾದರಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ಜೂ.2003ರಲ್ಲಿ ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಕಿಪಿಡಿಯ ಆರಂಭಗೊಂಡಿದ್ದು, ಅಲ್ಲಿಂದ ಇಲ್ಲಿಯವರೆಗೆ 18 ಸಾವಿರ ಲೇಖನಗಳು, 622 ಸಂಪಾದಕರು ಇದ್ದಾರೆ. ಅದರಲ್ಲಿ 22 ಮಂದಿ ಸಕ್ರಿಯ ಸಂಪಾದಕರು ಹಾಗೂ ನಾಲ್ಕು ಮಂದಿ ಅತಿ ಸಕ್ರಿಯ ಸಂಪಾದಕರಿದ್ದಾರೆ. ತಿಂಗಳಿಗೆ 18.50 ಲಕ್ಷ ಜನ ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಕಿಪಿಡಿಯ ಪುಟ ವೀಕ್ಷಣೆ ಮಾಡುತ್ತಾರೆ ಎಂದು ಮಾಹಿತಿ ನೀಡಿದರು.

ನಾವಷ್ಟೇ ಅಲ್ಲ ಲಕ್ಷಾಂತರ ಮಂದಿ ತಂತ್ರಜ್ಞಾನ(ವಿಕಿಪಿಡಿಯ, ಅಂತರ್ಜಾಲ)ಕ್ಕೆ ಹೊಂದಿಕೊಂಡಿದ್ದಾರೆ. ಕನ್ನಡ ಕಲಿಯುವವರಿಗೆ, ಭಾಷಾಭಿಮಾನಿಗಳಿಗೆ ಹಾಗೂ ಅಗತ್ಯ ಮಾಹಿತಿ ಹುಡುಕುವವರಿಗೆ ವಿಕಿಪಿಡಿಯದಲ್ಲಿ ಕನ್ನಡ ಸಾಹಿತ್ಯ ಸೃಷ್ಟಿ ಮಾಡಬೇಕು. ಜನರಿಂದ ಜನರಿಗಾಗಿ ಜನರೇ ನಡೆಸುವ ವಿಶ್ವಕೋಶಕ್ಕೆ ಅಗತ್ಯ ಮಾಹಿತಿಗಳನ್ನು ಅಳವಡಿಕೆ ಮಾಡಬೇಕು ಎಂದ ಅವರು, ಕನ್ನಡ ಭಾಷೆ ಹಾಗೂ ಸಂಸ್ಕೃತಿ, ಸಂಸ್ಕಾರಗಳನ್ನು ಅನ್ಯರಿಗೂ ಪರಿಚಯಿಸುವ ನಿಟ್ಟಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಕನ್ನಡ ವಿಕಿಪೀಡಿಯವನ್ನು ಬಳಸಿಕೊಳ್ಳಿ ಎಂದು ಸಲಹೆ ನೀಡಿದರು.

ಮೈಸೂರು ವಿವಿ ಕುವೆಂಪು ಕನ್ನಡ ಅಧ್ಯಯನ ಸಂಸ್ಥೆ ನಿವೃತ್ತ ಪ್ರಾಧ್ಯಾಪಕ ಪ್ರೊ.ಆರ್ವಿಯಸ್ ಸುಂದರಂ ಮಾತನಾಡಿ, ಒಂದು ಸಾವಿರ ವರ್ಷಗಳಿಂದ ಒಂದು ವರ್ಷವೂ ಎಡಬಿಡದೆ ಬರೆಯುತ್ತಿರುವ, ಕಲಿಯುತ್ತಿರುವ ಭಾಷೆ ಕನ್ನಡ. ಕನ್ನಡ ಭಾಷೆಗೆ ತನ್ನದೇ ಆದ ಇತಿಹಾಸ, ಪರಂಪರೆ ಇದೆ. ಒಂದೊಂದು ಶತಮಾನದವರೆಗೂ ಕನ್ನಡ ಸಾಹಿತ್ಯ ಅವಿಚ್ಛಿನ್ನವಾಗಿ ಇದೆ. ಇಂತಹ ಭಾಷೆಯ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ನಿರಂತರವಾಗಿ ಪ್ರಚಾರ ಮಾಡಬೇಕು. ಹಾಗೆಯೇ ಆಯಾಯ ಪ್ರದೇಶದಲ್ಲಿ ನೆಲೆಸಿರುವವರು ಅಲ್ಲಿನ ಸ್ಥಳೀಯ ಭಾಷೆಗಳನ್ನು ಕಲಿತುಕೊಳ್ಳಬೇಕು ಎಂದು ಮನವಿ ಮಾಡಿದರು.

ಮೈಸೂರು ವಿಶ್ವವಿದ್ಯಾನಿಲಯ ವಿಶ್ವಕೋಶ ನಿವೃತ್ತ ಕಾರ್ಯನಿರ್ವಾಹಕ ಸಂಪಾದಕ ಡಾ.ಹಾ.ತಿ.ಕೃಷ್ಣೇಗೌಡ ಅಧ್ಯಕ್ಷತೆ ವಹಿಸಿದ್ದರು. ವಿಸ್ಮಯ ಫೌಂಡೇಶನ್ ಸಂಸ್ಥಾಪಕ ಸೋಮಶೇಖರ್ ಇದ್ದರು.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/news/just-kannada-november-23-2014-kannada-wikipedia-presentation-coverage

Technology and Gender Based Violence

praskrishna — 2014-12-09T16:32:34Z

Rohini Lakshane was a speaker at this event organized by the Bachchao Project on November 24, 2014. Rohini spoke about various strategies that women use to respond to online harassment, such as reporting the abuser, and enlisting support from online followers, or friends or family in order to deal with the abuser.

Click to download the event report (PDF).

Date : 25/11/2014
Time : 6:15pm to 8:15 pm
No. of attendees : 14 ppl
Organisations Involved: The Bachchao Project , CIS , Amnesty International , Breakthrough , Take Back the Tech.Venue : Center for Internet and Society , Domlur

The Bachchao Project is a community effort to build Open Source Technologies with the following aims :

1. Personal Safety with focus on women.

2. Empowering prevention of Gender Based Violence.

3. Enabling fight against Gender Based Violence.

On 25th November we honored the UN’s “ End Violence against Women” day by conducting an event where we invited various NGOs and experts to come join us in our effort by :

1. showcasing how technology has been used to fight gender based violence

2. talk about how technology has added more mediums for gender based violence

3. And discuss how we could make better solutions to fight .

Talks given :

A show case of The Bachchao Project initiatives :

Speakers : Chinmayi S K , Ankitha Herurkar and Yogesh Londhe.

The Bachchao Project talked about their applications : ( thebachchaoproject.org)

Bachchao - A distress application used to send SOS msgs and record evidence in case of a distress
Pehara - A community monitoring system. Which sends distress and alert information in case of any distress reported by anyone in the community to friend , family and the police
i-rode : An Application used to rate public transit and display the safety of a public transit.
Gender Sensitivity of public space : an initiative to provide an interface to rate gender sensitivites of public spaces based on certain questions.
readytoreport.in, an initiative by Amnesty International :

Speaker : Gopika Bashi

Gopika Bashi from Amnesty International spoke about their effort to educate and encourage women to file an FIR when an incident occurs to them . readytoreport.in is a website which educates about all the legal option and the rights of a abused .It also provide answers to their minor questions.

How Breakthrough is using technology to solve problems :

Speaker : Manoj M

Manoj spoke about two of the many initiatives breakthrough has undertaken .

Board the Bus Campaign : This was a gamification solution used by breakthrough to encourage using public transport by women. Where in for every action the woman takes they were given some points which could be

converted into incentives.

Trainer App : This was used to interact with the various trainer at breakthrough who conduct sexual harassment seminars in various States of the country.

Online Harassment in the Indian context :

Speakers :(Rohini Lakshane and Chinmayi S K )

The speakers talked about various forms of Online Harassment . They spoke about the various contextual forms of Harassment in india because of the cultural practices . That included not understanding consent and not understanding the online spaces are an extension of Physical spaces.

Rohini spoke about various strategies that women use to respond to online harassment, such as reporting the abuser, and enlisting support from online followers, or friends or family in order to deal with the abuser. Very few women take legal recourse due to lack of faith in the law, or the time-consuming, emotionally taxing and financially draining nature of legal processes, or negative experiences with law enforcement and the police. Rohini also spoke about how laws don’t necessarily take into account the consent of women and that there are grey areas where it is difficult to distinguish between sexual expression, obscenity and pornography using the existing legal framework in India.

Chinmayi also spoke about take back the tech and how it is fighting online harassment.

Discussion Takeaways :

Panelists :

Ushashri TS - MD , Manhattan Associates , India

Gopika Bashi -Women's Rights Researcher & Campaigner at Amnesty International India

Rohini Lakshane - Researcher at the Centre for Internet and Society

Manoj M - Media and technology Consultant at breakthrough

“one plug fits all” - might not be a adage that might not be applicable for technology solutions in gender based violence
Response of the application or the device needs to be time bound depending upon the application need not be real time always
Application for crisis should be time bound , should consider the limitations like battery and should provide as much accuracy in terms of location.
Technology should take into consideration environments ( rural vs urban) , Cultural tendencies and interactions .
Applications needs to simple to use to make it universal
Validation should be an important part of the technology since there is a chance of a lot of garbage data .
Attitudinal changes will support the usage of technology in a proper way esp in a country like India .
Similar apps for the same purpose without seriously considering the quality of service and sustainability can be harmful .
Everything cannot be an application .
Technology needs acts like a service provider in solving the issues.
There is need and use of technology in counselling and education.
Some technologies should not be done like online FIR since then the authorities might shy away from responsibilities. But some people might have a need for such technologies hence the implementation and validation must be thought through. Also the police would not welcome digital avenues to file FIRs. This is because they try to gauge if the complaint is false by speaking with a complainant who pays a visit to the police station. This is their way of weeding out false and frivolous complaints, and sometimes of thwarting genuine complaints because more FIRs mean more work for the police. They lose this option when FIRs are submitted through digital channels.

Harass Map Egypt is an good example of how technological projects should be implemented with 1000 volunteers working on ground tirelessly to ensure the repeated mapping and stopping of street harassment.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/technology-gender-based-violence

Now, Tulu set to be promoted through Wikipedia articles

praskrishna — 2014-12-06T01:23:43Z

With the dream of including Tulu in the list of official languages of the country (eighth schedule of the Constitution) remaining far from being realised, enthusiasts seem to be keen to promote the language through Wikipedia.

The article by Govind D. Belgaumkar was published in the Hindu on November 24, 2014.

Beginning on Wednesday, a three-day convention at Sahyadri College will ideate to find means to achieve this goal with the Karnataka Tulu Academy leading the initiative.

The convention will focus on writing Wikipedia articles in Tulu.

Nearly 30 students, mostly from Canara College and some from Aloysius College, and some teachers from Bantwal have registered for the event.

The plan is to ensure that about 25-30 people keep writing in Tulu on Wikipedia.

Some students from the Government Girls PU College in Udupi had already been contributing articles in Tulu, according to the academy’s registrar Chandrahas Rai.

He hoped that the activity would help to pressure authorities to include Tulu in the eighth schedule of the Constitution.

The convention comes ahead of the mega Tulu event – Tuluvere Parba planned in December – and it is hoped that it would awaken the Tulu spirit among the people of the region.

The resource person will be Wikipedia representative and Bengaluru-based Programme Manger, Indian Languages, The Centre for Internet and Society Sri Pavanaja U.B..

Mr. Rai said the articles need to be written regularly to keep the language alive on the platform otherwise it would be notified as inactive.

The convention will be inaugurated by Shivaram Shetty, professor in Mangalore University’s SVP Kannada Study Centre.

President of the academy Janaki Brahmabar, president of Bantwal Tulukuta A.C. Bhandary and Tuluvere Parba’s chief convenor Kadri Navaneet Shetty will be present.

Others who are expected to take part include Mangaluru Tulukuta President Damodar Nisarga, General Secretary of Tuluvere Parba Nitte Shashidhar Shetty.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/news/the-hindu-november-24-2014-govind-d-belgaumkar-now-tulu-set-to-be-promoted-through-wikipedia-articles

Kannada Wikipedia Presentation in Mysuru: Coverage in Prajavani

praskrishna — 2014-12-06T02:40:17Z

Media coverage of Kannada Wikipedia presentation at Mysuru on November 23, 2014.

Scanned version of the report published by Prajavani on November 24, 2014

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/news/prajavani-november-24-2014-kannada-wikipedia-presentation-in-mysuru