Centre for Internet and Society

Documentation and Wikipedia Contribution — A One Day Workshop

praskrishna — 2013-11-12T04:20:37Z

On November 14, the CIS-A2K team is organizing a one day orientation workshop on 'Documentation and Wikipedia Contribution' at the Kalinga Institute of Social Studies (KISS), Bhubaneswar from 10.30 a.m. to 5.00 p.m.

ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ ରୁ

ଭୁବନେଶ୍ୱରସ୍ଥିତ ଆଦିବାସୀ ଆବାସିକ ଅନୁଷ୍ଠାନ KISS (କଳିଙ୍ଗ ଇନଷ୍ଟିଚୁଟ ଅଫ ସୋସିଆଲ ଷ୍ଟଡିଜ)ଠାରେ ଏଠାକାର ଶିକ୍ଷକ ଓ ସ୍ନାତକୋତ୍ତର ଛାତ୍ରଛାତ୍ରୀମାନେ ଆଦିବାସୀମାନଙ୍କର ଭାଷା, ଚଳଣି ଓ ଜନ‌ଜୀବନ ବାବଦରେ ଅନେକ ଗବେଷଣାଭିତ୍ତିକ ପ୍ରସଙ୍ଗ ଏକାଧିକ ଭାଷାରେ ଲେଖିବାର ଏକ ପ୍ରକଳ୍ପ ଆରମ୍ଭ କରାଯାଇଛି । ପ୍ରାରମ୍ଭିକ ପର୍ଯ୍ୟାୟରେ ଏହି ନ‌ଥିକରଣ ତିନୋଟି ଭାଷାରେ (ଓଡ଼ିଆ, ଇଂରାଜୀ ଓ ହିନ୍ଦୀ)ରେ କରାଯାଇ KISS ୱେବସାଇଟରେ ଉପଲବ୍ଧ କରାଯିବ । ଏହି ପ୍ରସଙ୍ଗସମୂହ ଜ୍ଞାନ‌କୋଷ ପରିସରରେ ଥିବାରୁ ଏସବୁକୁ ଉଇକିକରଣ କରି ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆର ପ୍ରସଙ୍ଗସବୁକୁ ସମୃଦ୍ଧ କରିବା ନିମନ୍ତେ ଏହି ଏହି କର୍ମଶାଳାର ଆୟୋଜନ କରାଯାଇଛି । ନ‌ଭେମ୍ବର ୧୪ (ଗୁରବାର‌) ଦିନ ସକାଳ ୧୧:୦୦ ରେ ଅନୁଷ୍ଠିତ ହେବାକୁ ଥିବା ଏହି କର୍ମଶାଳାରେ ୧୨ ଜଣ ଶିକ୍ଷକ ଓ ୩୨ ଜଣ ସ୍ନାତକୋତ୍ତର ଯୋଗଦେଇ ଓଡ଼ିଆରେ ଟାଇପ କରିବା ଓ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ ବାବଦରେ ତାଲିମ ଗ୍ରହଣ କରିବେ ।

Click to read the full details published on the Wiki meta page here.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/events/documentation-and-wikipedia-contribution

Doctors and Translators Are Working Together to Bridge Wikipedia's Medical Language Gap

subha — 2014-08-04T03:29:44Z

I interviewed Wikimedian User:CFCF who is managing the entire project to understand how it is going to work and wrote on Global Voices' Rising Voices about it.

The article was published in GlobalVoices on July 27, 2014. It can be accessed here. It was republished in the Wikimedia Blog on July 30, 2014.

Internet users from around the world often turn to Wikipedia to answer questions of all kinds. The information offered there includes medical subjects, especially important in parts of the world where access to medical professionals may be limited.

However, much of this information can be unreliable and is available only in the most oft-spoken languages.

A group of experienced Wikipedia editors and medical professionals is trying to change that with the Medicine Translation Project, an effort to improve health care-related topics in English Wikipedia and translate them into other languages, including Hindi, Chinese, Persian, Tagalog, Indonesian and Macedonian.

Recently, the Wikimedia Foundation’s Individual Engagement Grant (IEG), a microgrant supporting work on Wikipedia-related activities, granted 10,000 US dollars to the Medicine Translation Project Community Organizing project, which aims to enhance communication and coordination among the team.

Medical student and Wikipedian User:CFCF along with two advisors, Dr. James Heilman (User:Doc James) and Jake Orlowitz (User:Ocaasi) lead the group. We spoke to founder CFCF over email.

Rising Voices (RV): How did the project get started? What inspired it and how did you identify the needs it would fulfill?

CFCF: [...] The project itself started off in 2011 when Dr. James Heilman and a number of translators from Translators Without Borders: Enrique Cavalitto and Ildiko Santana teamed up in an effort to translate medical articles. Since then, the project has exploded into a larger translation forum with hundreds of translators translating articles into almost a hundred different languages. [...]

For Wikimedia projects with a large pool of editors, we have been taking help from editors to assess what is needed, and what should be translated. On smaller projects we have simply set the goal to get anything on World Health Organization (WHO)’s list of essential medicines, as well as anything about neglected tropical diseases, also from a list by the WHO. As for these articles the project is still in an early phase, but we want to cover basically anything that might be relevant to readers, from cancer to emergency medicine.

RV: How is the process of translation going?

CFCF: [...] The problem is that there are so many layers of complications in the translation process. After an article has been written and been subject to review to ensure its quality, the article needs to be prepared and proofed for translation, after which translators need to be found. [...] Many of our translators are medical professionals and have in-depth knowledge in their native languages. On the top of it, they dedicate plenty of time on the content creation and translation. This helps to get good quality translations. What this also means is they they seldom have any knowledge of Wiki markup or Wikipedia. Someone else who knows the language in question has to go through links, templates etc. and fix them, proofread the translated content so it is up to scratch and readable.

CFCF: [...] The problem is that there are so many layers of complications in the translation process. After an article has been written and been subject to review to ensure its quality, the article needs to be prepared and proofed for translation, after which translators need to be found. [...] Many of our translators are medical professionals and have in-depth knowledge in their native languages. On the top of it, they dedicate plenty of time on the content creation and translation. This helps to get good quality translations. What this also means is they they seldom have any knowledge of Wiki markup or Wikipedia. Someone else who knows the language in question has to go through links, templates etc. and fix them, proofread the translated content so it is up to scratch and readable.

RV: How do you address this?

CFCF: To fix all this, it is best to have a local Wikipedian who can integrate the text. Most of the work has already been done. But, getting these things right is very crucial, especially on Wikipedias with vast content, where there already is a lot of content to link in.

I think the resistance we met early in the project's life was not against translation of content. But, because we did not spend enough time getting the translated articles up to shape before sending them live on the target Wikipedia.

What we saw on the Polish Wikipedia was that much of the issues were down to how they used different templates, and after I commissioned a bot to fix this, the articles started going live very quickly. After this, more and more editors became interested in helping out [...]

RV: Are you in conversation with the Wikipedia Zero team — a mobile data project focused on Wikipedia access in the developing world — about popularising this with their partners in the developing nations?

CFCF: Currently we are not in touch with the Wikipedia Zero team specifically, even though our works target the same communities. The difference between us and them is that we target developed countries as well as countries where there barely is any mobile connectivity at all, such as Burma where I do not know if we will be seeing Wikipedia Zero in the foreseeable future [...]

RV: What are your plans to engage with the larger Wikimedia communities that are multilingual and totally diverse?

CFCF: We aim to get high quality content in as many languages as we can. It is difficult to translate such deeply technical content, so we are really looking for professional translators, or individuals with some form of medical background so that information loss and corruption of content in translation is minimal.We recruit translators either off-wiki, or on the medical WikiProjects. We are still looking for translators who feel they are comfortable with such topics, and we especially need them in smaller languages. We are also searching them at Babylon on Meta Wiki.

WikiProject Med Foundation was the first attempt to get a truly global organization of medical Wikipedia editors. Most medical professionals are fluent in English, and we really try to engage in discussion in other languages when we can, so I think there is a real benefit in creating a global community for medical editors.

We are not large enough yet that we have all the relevant people on English Wikipedia, and we will probably never be because there are always specialists in other countries with very specific knowledge that we can leverage. That makes international collaboration really great.

As for the local language integrators, the idea is to have editors who are willing help out and be an intermediary between that community and our translator community. We have a page where all our finished translations are added. An integrator would patrol that page on a regular basis, inform the respective language Wikipedia that the new translation is ready. The language Wikipedia’s reader community share feedback on the translation quality and suggest for improvement. For us, it is really easy to just add articles without going through them thoroughly. But, that would not work at all. For things to work, we need someone who both knows Wiki markup and the target language so that the integration can go smoothly.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/global-voices-subhashish-panigrahi-july-27-2014-doctors-and-translators-are-working-together-to-bridge-wikipedias-medical-language-gap

Do You Have the Right to Unlock Your Smart Phone?

puneeth — 2013-08-07T07:32:52Z

In this blog post Puneeth Nagaraj looks at the recent controversy over the expiration of the exemption granted by the US Library of Congress for unlocking phones and compares the Indian position as per a 2005 Andhra Pradesh High Court judgment.

Being a gadget freak in India is difficult. Smartphone companies take months to release their latest product in India (if they do at all) and even when they are released, they are overpriced. For instance, Google's offering in the entry level tablet market, the Nexus 7 was released in India only in April — a full 9 months after its US debut. It is priced at Rs. 16,000 (USD 300) while it costs only USD 200 in the US. Google’s other device Nexus 10 is yet to make its way to the Indian market.

For long, the Indian gadget freak has relied on friends or family travelling abroad to get his/her hands on the latest gadgets on offer. It was not uncommon in the days following the release of the earlier models of the iPhone for eager owners of foreign bought phones to unlock or “jailbreak” their phones so they could use it in India. But the practice of “jailbreaking” or “android rooting” (hereinafter referred to as unlocking [*] for convenience) phones serves a wider purpose. Unlocking smart phones allows users to overcome limitations imposed by hardware manufacturers or carriers. As a result, users can freely switch service providers. While some manufacturers (like Apple) strongly oppose unlocking- even threatening to cancel warranty in case of unlocked devices, others do not mind it and some (like Google and HTC) even encourage it.

US Library of Congress Exemption

The whole controversy surrounding the legality of unlocking phones started in the US last October when the Library of Congress decided against renewing a copyright exemption it granted in 2006. As a result, the exemption expired in January and caused a furore in the US. The DMCA (1201 of the USC), prohibits circumvention of technological measures that protect access to a copyrighted work. This sort of protection is necessary to protecting copyrighted works in a digital format. But the US Congress was informed of the restrictive effects of such a prohibition. Consequently, the Congress created statutory exemptions to allow circumvention of these technological measures and empowered the Library of Congress to grant or renew such exemptions.

Despite the exemption granted by the Library of Congress in 2006, many phone companies successfully sued hardware providers who enabled unlocking of phones. With the expiration of the exemption in January, the status of phone unlocking hangs in a balance. This is especially troublesome as it is a widespread and in some cases essential practice. Both the White House and the FCC have been petitioned to legalise unlocking. In response, four different proposals have been tabled in the US Congress just for this purpose (here is an analysis of each of the bills).

At the moment, the unlocking of phones to run unapproved software is still legal as a result of an exemption granted in 2012. But this is also up for review in 2015. There is a need for a more comprehensive solution to address both these issues and the proposals before the Congress fall short.

Indian Position

Syed Asifuddin v. State of Andhra Pradesh
A case based on the unlocking of phones came before the Andhra Pradesh High Court in 2005. Certain Employees of TATA Indicom had facilitated the migration of customers contracted to Reliance for 3 years by unlocking their phones. Representatives of Reliance filed a criminal complaint against them alleging criminal breach of trust (IPC Section 409), cheating (IPC Section 420) and criminal conspiracy (IPC Section 120). They also claimed the violation of copyright and sought punishment under Section 63 of the Copyright Act, as well as Section 65 of the IT Act.

The court dismissed the criminal petitions under the IPC, IT Act and the Copyright Act. However, on the question of copyright infringement, the court held that if a person alters computer programme of another person or another computer company, the same would be infringement of copyright. The court also found that a cell phone would fall under the definition of a computer under Section 2(1) (i) of the Information Technology Act. Consequently, the court held that Section 65 of the IT Act, which deals with the tampering of computer source documents, would be applicable to the present case. The decision itself may not have precedent value on the issue as the High Court was merely ruling on the admissibility of the case on the basis of the above provisions and sent the matter back to the trial court to decide based on the evidence available. But the opinion of the court on copyright infringement and the IT Act is troubling.

Criticism

First, the court used the rather expansive definition of computers in the IT Act (Section 2(1) (i)) to include mobile phones as well. The definition under the above section reads as under:

any electronic, magnetic, optical or other high speed data processing device or system which performs logical, arithmetic and memory functions by manipulations of electronic, magnetic or optical impulses, and includes all input, output, processing, storage, computer software or communication facilities which are connected or related to the computer in a computer system or computer network.

It would not be unreasonable to see smartphones as being capable of “high speed data processing” or “input, output, processing, storage”. However, the phones in question here were basic Samsung N191 and LG-2030 phones (images of these phones can be seen here and here). Even if it might be conceivable that such basic phones can be put in the same bracket as desktop computers or laptops, the court had to examine the definition in the context of the substantial provision. In this case, the substantial provisions were Section 65 and 66 of the IT Act, which deal with tampering source documents and hacking computer systems respectively. So, by equating a basic mobile phone to a computer, the court equated unlocking a mobile phone to hacking a computer. This problem is exacerbated by the fact that Section 66 prescribes criminal punishment to hackers.

Second, the court also erred in its ruling on the Copyright Act. Once again, the court held a basic phone to mean a computer under Section 2(ffb). More worryingly, it was held that the Electronic Serial Number (ESN), a unique code given to every phone would qualify as a computer program under Section 2(ffc) and is thus subject to copyright under Section 14 of the Copyright Act. In doing so, the court has set the bar extremely low for copyrightablity of computer programs. Needless to say this judgment needs to be reconsidered if not watered down. While there is recognition that bootloader protection programmes barely meet the standard for copyright, the Andhra Pradesh High Court has granted protection to a randomly generated 11 digit number.

Fortunately, the case of Syed Asifuddin was not a final ruling on the issue as the court sent the matter back to the trial court. However, there is every chance that a future court can rely on the erroneous reasoning in this case. Further, fair use arguments can always be mad in the favour of an individual consumer who wishes to migrate to another service provider.

The larger problem is that by giving an expansive meaning to the provisions in the Copyright Act and the IT Act, it can be used to target businesses that facilitate unlocking devices that can be targeted (like in the US). Unlike in the US, phone unlocking is not a business in India and is usually done by small business owners who sell and repair mobiles. The consequences of suing such businesses can be worse in India as they can end up in jail for an act that falls in an undefined area of the law. It seems that the situation may be resolved in the US in the near future in favour of the consumer — although the issue of the business of unlocking phones must be resolved finally. The position in India is worrisome especially due to the threat of criminal persecution.

[*]. The term jailbreaking is used specifically in the case of iOS devices and android rooting, as the name suggests is used in the case of android devices. Technically speaking, they are very different given that most android devices do not restrict access to their “bootloaders”. Acknowledging the difference between the two, the discussion here is focused on overriding technological measures meant to protect underlying copyrighted works.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/do-you-have-right-to-unlock-your-smart-phone

Discussion on Creation of Social Media Guidelines & Strategy for Telugu Wikimedia

manasarao — 2017-10-24T14:42:24Z

Between 1 to 16 September, an online discussion took place on the creation of social media guidelines and strategy for Telugu Wikimedia handles online.

An online discussion of guidelines and policies for the various Telugu Wikimedia social media handles was conducted. User:Pavan santhosh.s suggested a set of strategies and guidelines that can be taken into consideration for an official Social Media Policy of Telugu Wikimedia Projects. These suggestions included defining objectives, guidelines (with do's and don'ts) and strategies for the Social Media Policy. User:Ravichandra supported the idea and suggested another objective(showcasing best quality works of Wikipedia). User:Viswanadh added some strategies (such as writing a series of posts about technical aspects that help Wikipedians). User:Pranayraj1985 suggested some don'ts in handling Wikipedia pages as well as handles while User:Rajasekhar1961 expanded the strategy to other sister projects(Telugu Wikisource and Wiktionary). Finally, User:Chaduvari suggested not to name any page as official to avoid possible conflicts. User:Swaralasika announced consensus and User:Pavan santhosh.s created a page based on the discussion in order for the community to reflect.

User:Pranayraj1985 said, "there are pages & groups for Telugu Wikipedia in Facebook for years. We are using them as major social media promotion channels. I(Pranay) am publishing content related to Telugu Wikipedia in those channels. Some of the community members also been admins of page and group. But once or twice, in Facebook page and group, unrelated posts were published and I informed this to Wikimedians active on Facebook and removed those posts. I am glad that this discussion happened and community came up with guidelines and strategy now. This is very much needed.

The guideline page can be found here.

Although the event was successful in creating guidelines, none of the input included women's voices as there were no female participants. Here's hoping there is a diversity of voices in future discussions.

With input from Pavan Santhosh S., Telugu Community Advocate, CIS-A2K.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/discussion-on-creation-of-social-media-guidelines-strategy-for-telugu-wikimedia

Disability Exceptions in Copyright Legislations

rishi — 2015-01-12T02:14:53Z

In the year 2006, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) conducted a study on different national approaches to copyright exception for persons with disabilities. Over 60 countries have an exception in their Copyright laws permitting conversion of works into accessible formats for the benefit of persons who cannot read print. The scope of the exception varies, in terms of the beneficiaries covered, formats permitted, restrictions on who can convert, etc.

On June 28, 2013 the Marrakesh Treaty was signed by 51 countries, to facilitate the creation of accessible copyrighted works for the disabled. The treaty, however, will not come into force until 20 countries ratify it. India, in June 2013, became the first country to ratify it. In this report, we aim to provide an update to the 2006 WIPO study, whereby all relevant details, including whether the countries are signatories to the Treaty are given in a simplified manner. This is to ensure that the information is readily accessible in a simple and comprehensive table for all readers.

A consolidated list of copyright legislations can be found here. See table below for the country-wise exceptions.

Country-wise Exceptions in Copyright Legislations

Country	Legislation	Scope	Works Covered	Formats covered	Who can convert	Marrakesh Treaty Signatory	Ratified UNCRPD
Armenia	Article 22 (h), Law on Copyright and Related Rights adopted by the National Assembly of Armenia on 15 June 2006	Persons who require Braille and other formats designed for blind people	Lawfully disclosed work, except those created for the blind	Braille and other special means for the blind	No restrictions	No	Yes
Australia	Sections 47A, 112, Part VB Division 3, 116A, The Copyright Act 1968 as amended up to 2014	Persons with print disability, persons who by reason of old age, disability or literary problems are unable to handle books or newspapers or to read or comprehend written material	Sound recordings of literary or dramatic works, published editions of literary or dramatic works,	Sound recordings, Braille, large print, photographic or electronic, sound broadcast	By body administering an institution assisting persons with print disability, persons holding print disability radio license	Yes	Yes
Austria	Section 42d, Federal law on Copyrights on Literary and Artistic works and Related Rights as amended up to 2011	Covers all 'disabled persons' however does not define who is disabled	Published works, which are not possible or it is substantially difficult on account of their disability for the person to access a published work	Any suitable format	No restrictions	Yes	Yes
Azerbaijan	Article 19.6, Law on Copyright and Related Rights, 1996 as amended up to 2013	Persons requiring Braille and other formats designed for blind people	Any lawfully disclosed works, except those created especially for the purpose	Braille or other special means for the benefit of the blind	No restrictions	No	Yes
Belarus	Article 19, Law on Copyright and Related Rights, 1998 as amended up to 2003	Persons requiring Braille and other formats designed for blind people	Any work other than those created especially for this purpose	Braille or other special means for the benefit of the blind	No restrictions	No	Yes
Belize	Section 83, The Copyright Act, as amended up to 2008	Persons who are hearing-impaired, or physically or mentally handicapped in other ways	Television broadcasts or cable programs	Copies which are sub-titled or otherwise adapted for the special needs of the persons	A body designated for the purposes of this section by order of the Minister	No	Yes
Brazil	Section 46.I(d) of Law No 9610 on Copyright and Neighboring Rights, 1998	Visually handicapped persons	Literary, artistic or scientific works	Braille or by means of another process using a medium designed for visually handicapped users	No restrictions	Yes	Yes
Bulgaria	Articles 24(1)10, 24(2), 23, 25a(1) and 25a(2) of the Copyright and Neighbouring Rights Act, 1993 as amended up to 2006	Persons requiring Braille and analogous specialized formats	Lawfully disclosed works, except computer programs	Braille or other analogous formats	No restrictions	No	Yes
Cameroon	Section 29(1)(g) of Law No. 2000/011 on Copyright and Neighbouring Rights, 2000	Blind persons	Works published with the authorization of the author	Limited to Braille	No restrictions	Yes	Signed but not ratified
Canada	Section 32, Copyright Act, 1985 as amended up to 203	Persons with 'perceptual disability' and 'print disability' which is any disability which prevents or inhibits a person from reading or hearing a literary, musical, dramatic or artistic work in its original format, including disability resulting from (a) severe or total impairment of sight or hearing or the inability to focus or move one's eyes; (b) the inability to hold or manipulate a book; (c) an impairment relating to comprehension.	Literary, musical or dramatic works other than cinematographic work and not where the work is commercially available in a format specially designed to meet the needs of a person with the disability	Formats specially designed for persons with a perceptual disability, but not large print books	Any person at the request of a person with a perceptual disability or non-profit organization acting for his or her benefit	No	Yes
China	Section 22(12), Copyright Law of the People's Republic of China (as amended up to 2010)	Persons requiring Braille	Published work and additionally applies to the rights of publishers, performers, producers of sound recordings and video recordings, radio stations and television stations	Braille	No restrictions	Yes	Yes
Croatia	Sections 80, 86, 98, Copyright and Related Rights Act as amended up to 2013	Persons with disability.	Lawfully disclosed work	Any format required by the disabled person	No restrictions	No	Yes
Czech Republic	Article 38, Copyright and Rights Related to Copyright as amended up to 2006	Persons with disability	Lawfully published works with the exception of computer programs	Reproduction to the extent required by the specific disability	No restrictions	Yes	Yes
Denmark	The Consolidated Act on Copyright, 2010	Blind, visually impaired and deaf people, people suffering from a speech impediment and people unable to read printed text on account of a handicap	Lawfully published works	Any format specifically intended for those with such disabilities	No restrictions	Yes	Yes
Dominican Republic	Article 44, Law No 65-00, on Copyright of 21 August 2000	Sightless persons and persons with other physical disabilities. However, only public communication if permitted	Scientific, literary or artistic works	No reproduction is permitted	No restrictions	Yes	Yes
El Salvador	Article 44 (d) of the Law on Promotion and Protection of Intellectual Property, 1993	Blind and other handicapped persons	All works of the mind including literary, scientific, artistic, musical and dramatic works. However, mere public communication is permitted and not reproduction	Reproduction is not permitted	No restrictions	Yes	Yes
Estonia	Section 19, Copyright Act (as amended up to 2000)	Blind persons	Works made available to the public except those created especially for the blind.	Braille and other technical formats for the benefits of blind persons	No restrictions	No	Yes
Fiji	Section 185, Copyright Act 1999	People who are hearing-impaired or physically or mentally handicapped in other ways	Television broadcasts or cable programs	Copies which are sub-titled or otherwise modified for the benefits of the beneficiaries	Designated body	No	Signed but not ratified
Finland	Section 17, Copyright Act, 1961, as amended up to 2010	Persons with visual impairments and others who, owing to the disability or illness cannot use the works in the ordinary manner	Published literary or musical works	Text readable by visually impaired persons	No restrictions. However, sound recordings can be made only by institutions	Yes	Signed but not ratified
France	Articles L122-5 and L331-5 to L331-21 of the Intellectual Property Code as amended up to August 2006	Person with motor, psychological, hearing or visual disability which must be at least 50 % assessed against specified relevant standards	Any lawfully disclosed work	Any format used to the extent consistent with the nature of the disability	Disabled persons or organizations listed by the relevant administrative authority	Yes	Yes
Gabon	Article 33, Copyright Law	Persons with a disability including people who are visually impaired	Lawfully published work	Limited to formats for "welfare purposes"	No restrictions	No	Yes
Georgia	Article 23, Law of Georgia on Copyright and Neighboring Rights (as amended up to 2010)	Persons requiring Braille or other means for blind people	Lawfully disclosed work other than those specially created for use by blind people.	Relief dotted print or other special means for blind people	No restrictions	No	Yes
Germany	Articles, 45a, 63 and 95b, Copyright Act, 1965 as amended up to 2013)	Disabled persons	All works, except where the accessible version is available	Formats accessible to the disabled persons to the extent required	No restrictions	Yes	Yes
Greece	Articles 28A, 28C and 66A, Law No. 2121/1993 on Copyright, Related Rights and Cultural Matters (as amended up to 2003)	Blind and deaf-mute persons	Any lawfully disclosed work	Formats directly related to the disability and specifically required by the disability	No restrictions	Yes	Yes
Hungary	Articles 41(1) and 33, Act No LXXVI of 1999 on Copyright (as amended up to 2007)	Disabled persons	Any lawfully disclosed work	Formats designed specially to benefit the disabled	No restrictions	No	Yes
Iceland	Article 19, Copyright Act No 73 of 1972, as amended up to 2006	Blind and visually impaired persons	Published literary or musical works	Braille	No restrictions	No	Signed but not ratified
India	Section 52, Copyright Act 1957 (as amended up to 2012)	Disabled persons	Any lawfully disclosed works	Any accessible format	Any person to facilitate persons with disability to access works including sharing with any person with disability and any organization working for the benefit of the persons with disabilitites	Yes	Yes
Indonesia	Article 15d, Law of the Republic of Indonesia regarding Copyright, No 19 2002	Blind persons	Scientific, artistic and literary works	Braille	No restrictions	Yes	Yes
Ireland	Sections 104, 106, 374, Copyright and Related Rights Act, 2000	Persons with physical or mental disability	Any lawfully disclosed work	Modifications permitted to meet the special needs of a the disabled persons	A designated body	Yes	Signed but not ratified
Israel	Section 28A, Copyright Law, 2007	Persons with disabilities	Any lawfully disclosed work	Formatted to meet the needs of the disabled persons	Any Not for Profit Institution where one of its objectives or primary activities is education, training or welfare of persons with disabilities, A Government Office, or An educational institution determined by the Minister	No	Yes
Italy	Articles 71 bis and 71 nonies of the Law for the Protection of Copyright and Neighbouring Rights, (as amended up to 2010)	Persons with disability in the categories as defined by Ministerial decree	Any lawfully published work	Formats directly related to the disability and only to that extent	No restrictions, but could be set by Ministerial decree	No	Yes
Japan	Articles 33bis, 37, 48, Copyright Law as amended up to 2004	Visually handicapped persons and visually handicapped children/pupils	Works that have been lawfully disclosed and school textbooks (for children)	Braille, including electronically recorded Braille and Large prints	No restrictions found, Braille libraries and other establishments designated by the Cabinet order for sound recordings	No	Yes
Kazakhstan	Articles 19 and 16, Law on Copyright and Neighbouring Rights, 1996, as amended up to 2012	Blind persons and persons requiring Braille	Any work, except those created in special formats for the blind	Braille or other special means for the benefit of the blind	No restrictions	No	Signed but not ratified
Republic of Korea	Articles 30 and 34, Copyright Act No 3916, 1989 as amended up to 2013	Blind persons	Works that have been made public	Braille or sound recordings	No restrictions for Braille, sound recordings can be used only at facilities established for the promotion of the blind as prescribed by Presidential Decree	Yes	Yes
Kyrgyztan	Articles 19, 16, Law on Copyright and related Rights,1998 as amended up to 2014	Persons requiring Braille and Blind persons	Lawfully published works, except those created for this purpose	Braille copies or those produced by other means for blind persons	No restrictions	No	Signed but not ratified
Latvia	Sections 19, 22, Copyright Law as amended up to 2011)	Visually and hearing impaired persons	Any work published lawfully	Formats that permit a visually or hearing impaired person to use it	Organizations for the visually and hearing impaired and libraries providing services to such people are permitted to undertake this activity. However, other persons are not barred other than by limitations imposed	No	Yes
Lithuania	Article 25, Law on Copyright and Related Rights No VIII-1185, 1999 (As amended up to 2014)	Visually and hearing impaired persons	Lawfully published works other than those created in special formats for this purpose	In any format that would benefit the persons having hearing or visual impairment	No restrictions found	Yes	Yes
Macau	Articles 65, 66, Decree-Law No 43/99/M of 1999	Blind persons and those who require Braille	Published works and lectures by Professors	Braille copies or any other format for blind persons	No restrictions on making copies on Braille. However, fixation of lectures may be done only by the Blind persons	No	No
Malaysia	Section 13, Copyright Act 1987 as amended up to 2006	Persons who require Braille copies and persons who are deaf, hard of hearing, physically or mentally handicapped in other ways	Any published work, and television broadcasts	Braille copies and copies with subtitles or other modifications for the end beneficiaries	Braille copies can be used only by the Braille MAB Library, and for television broadcasts, bodies and institutions which the Minister has prescribed	No	Yes
Republic of Moldova	Article 22, Law of Republic of Moldova on Copyright and Neighbouring Rights, 2004	Blind persons	Published works except those created for this purpose	Braille only	No restrictions found	Yes	Yes
Mongolia	Article 24, Law of Mongolia on Copyright as amended up to 2006	Visually and hearing impaired persons	Lawfully published works	Any format that can be used by the disabled	No restrictions	Yes	Yes
Netherlands	Articles 15i, 15c and 29a of the Copyright Act 1912 as amended up to 2008	Handicapped individuals	Literary, scientific and artistic works	Formats directly related to the handicap and necessary because of the handicap	No restrictions found	No	Signed but not ratified
New Zealand	Articles 69, 89, Copyright Act 1994 (version 2014)	A person with a print disability [as defined in Article 69(4)] and persons who are deaf or hard of hearing, or physically or mentally handicapped in any other way	For print disabled, literary or dramatic works and for others, television broadcasts or cable programmes	Braille copies or copies with other modifications for the special needs of the people, and copies that are subtitled or otherwise modified for the special needs	A body prescribed by regulations	No	Yes
Nicaragua	Articles 32 (2), Law on Copyright and Related Rights, 1999 (version 2001)	Visually impaired people	Any lawfully published work	Copies made using the Braille system or any other format necessary	No restrictions	No	Yes
Nigeria	Second Schedule, Copyright Act, 1988 No 47 (No. 42) (version 2004)	Blind people for Braille copies, disabled persons for sound recordings	Any lawfully published works	Braille copies or sound recordings	For sound recordings, only institutions or establishments approved by the Government for the promotion of the welfare of other disabled persons	Yes	Yes
Norway	Sections 17, 17a, 17b, 11, 53b and 12, of Act No 2, relating to Copyright in Literary, Scientific and Artistic Works Etc (version 2005)	Blind persons and other disabled persons	Any published literary, scientific, musical work, film and, any published film or picture or transmitted broadcast program , except any work which has been made specifically for this purpose	For blind persons, any form other than a sound fixation and for the disabled, a fixation on a device that can reproduce the fixation.	No restrictions for the Blind, however, for the disabled, only organizations and libraries as specified by the Kind	Yes	Yes
Panama	Article 47 of Law No. 15 of 8 August 1994	Blind and other handicapped persons. Mere public communication is permitted	Any lawfully published work	No reproduction permitted, hence no accessible formats can be made	No restrictions founds	Yes	Yes
Paraguay	Articles 39 and 45, Law No. 1328/98 on Copyright and Related Rights	Visually handicapped persons	Lawfully disclosed work	Braille or another specific form for the use of visually handicapped	No restrictions found	Yes	Yes
Peru	Articles 43, 50 of Copyright Act- Legislative Decree No 822 of 23 April 1996	Blind people	Lawfully disclosed works	Braille or another specific format to assist blind persons	No restrictions	Yes	Yes
Poland	Articles 33¹, 34, 35, Act on Copyright and Related Rights, 1994	Disabled persons	Lawfully disseminated works	No restrictions on the format; any format which is required by the disabled shall be permitted	No restrictions	Yes	Yes
Portugal	Articles 75, 76, 80, 221, 222 of Copyright and Related Right as amended up to 2008	Blind people and people with disability	Lawfully published works	Braille or another system for blind people, and formats directly related to the disability	No restrictions	No	Yes
Russian Federation	Articles 19, 16 of Law of Copyright and Neighbouring Rights, 1993	Persons needing access to Braille copies or other formats for the blind	Lawfully published works, other than those specifically created for this purpose	Braille copies or other special formats for the blind	No restrictions	No	Yes
Singapore	Sections 54, 261D of Copyright Act (Chapter 63) version 2008	Handicapped readers	Literary or dramatic works that have been published, and where the format has been published, it can be made under the exception that it is not possible to obtain the published copy in a reasonable time and at an ordinary commercial price	Sound recording, Braille copies, large print or photographic version	Body administering an institution assisting handicapped readers, which includes educational institutions	No	Yes
Slovakia	Sections 29, 25, 38 of Copyright Act, 2004	Handicapped persons	Lawfully disclosed works	Formats used exclusively for the needs of the handicapped people	No restrictions	No	Yes
Slovenia	Articles 47a, 46, 166c, Copyright and Related Rights Act, 1995 (amended up to 2001)	Persons with disability	Any work that is not available in the desired format	Formats used directly to assist the disability	No restrictions	Yes	Yes
Spain	Article 31, Royal Legislative Decree 1/1996, (amended up to 2011)	Blind persons	Lawfully disclosed works	Braille system or another specific method	No restrictions	No	Yes
Sweden	Articles 17, 52f of Act on Copyright in Literary and Artistic Works	Persons with disability	Literary and musical works and works of visual art	Formats that can be used to assist the disabled	No restrictions, except for communication of any work to those with a disability, and making, distribution and communication of a sound recording, when the activity can only be undertaken by libraries and organizations as decided by the Government	No	Yes
Ukraine	Articles 21, 15, Law on Copyright and Related Rights 2011	Blind persons	Lawfully disclosed works	Braille only	No restrictions	No	Yes
Uzbekistan	Article 28, Law on Copyright and Neighbouring Rights, 1996 (2011 version)	Blind persons	Lawfully published works, except those specially created for blind people	Relief-dot font or other means for blind people	No restrictions	No	Yes
United Kingdom	Sections 31A to 31F, 74, 28, and 296ZE of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (2003 version)	Visually impaired people, people who are deaf or hard of hearing or physically or mentally handicapped in other ways.	Literary, dramatic, musical or artistic works or published editions, which a visually impaired person has in their lawful possession and which are not accessible to him because of the impairment, television broadcasts, including those delivered by a cable	Any accessible copy, and copies that are subtitled or otherwise modified for the special needs of the beneficiaries	(i) For making accessible copies of works that the person have in their possession, only the visually impaired or someone on his behalf; (ii) for making copies by approved bodies for supply to visually impaired persons, an approved body which is an educational establishment and (iii) for making subtitled or modified copies of broadcasts for supply, only a designated body	Yes	Yes
United States of America	Sections 121, 110 and 1201 of United States Code -Title 17, as amended up to 2004	Blind persons, or other persons with disabilities	(i) For making specialized formats by authorized entities, previously published, non dramatic literary work, but not standardized, secure or norm-referenced tests and related testing material, or computer programs, other than the portions in conventional human language that are displayed to users when the program is in use (ii) For publishers, instructional materials for use in elementary or secondary schools (iii) For transmission of performances of literary works to blind/handicapped persons, any literary work which has been published at least ten years prior to the date of performance	(i) Specialized formats, i.e, Braille, audio or digital texts, exclusively for use by blind people or people with other disabilities (ii) Copies of electronic files as described in legislation relating to individuals with disabilities. The copies must be used solely for reproduction and distribution of the contents in specialized formats (iii) Copies are not permitted except transmissions specifically designed for and primarily directed to blind or other handicapped persons who are unable to read normal printed material as a result of their handicap	(i) Activity must be by an authorized entity, which is non-profit organization or governmental agency that has primary mission to provide specialized services relating to training, education or adaptive reading or information access needs of blind/persons with disabilities (ii) Activity by publisher of print instructional materials (iii) The transmission must be made through the facilities of a governmental body, a non-commercial educational broadcast station, a radio sub carrier authorization or a cable system	Yes	Signed but not ratified

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/disability-exceptions-in-copyright-legislations

DIPP RESPONSE TO CIS RTI - IMPROPER PAYMENT - FEBRUARY, 2015

nehaa — 2015-04-14T17:35:58Z

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/dipp-response-to-cis-rti-improper-payment-february-2015

DIPP RESPONSE TO CIS (THIRD) RTI REQUEST - FEBRUARY, 2015

nehaa — 2015-04-14T18:16:52Z

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/dipp-response-to-cis-third-rti-request-february-2015

DIPP RESPONSE TO CIS (SECOND) RTI REQUEST - FEBRUARY, 2015

nehaa — 2015-04-14T17:58:50Z

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/dipp-response-to-cis-second-rti-request-february-2015

DIPP RESPONSE TO CIS (SECOND) RTI - FEBRUARY, 2015

nehaa — 2015-04-14T18:14:18Z

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/dipp-response-to-cis-second-rti-february-2015

DIPP RESPONSE TO CIS (FIRST) RTI - FEBRUARY, 2015

nehaa — 2015-04-14T17:42:43Z

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/dipp-response-to-cis-first-rti-february-2015

Digitize any Book in the Public Domain

subha — 2014-04-03T08:41:18Z

The article is about a mass scale digitization project for Kannada WikiSource by two Wikipedians.

This was originally published in Opensource.com on March 27, 2014.

A form of poetry in India called Vachana sahitya is part of the popular Indian language, Kannada. It evolved in the 11th century and flourished in the 12th as part of the religious Lingayatha movement. Since that time, more than 259 Vachana writers, called Vachanakaru, have compiled over 11,000 Vachanas (verses).

21,000 of these verses were digitally published into 15 volumes, called Samagra Vachana Samputa, by the government of Karnataka. These volumes were then turned into a standalone project called Vachana Sanchaya; this project was taken on by two Kannada Wikimedians, a Kannada linguist, and the author O. L. Nagabhushana Swamy—to enrich the Kannada WikiSource. This team used Unicode, a standard of consistency for converting text (and code) into a new format.

Swamy was trying to access these poems, and was having trouble because it was in ISCII, an Indian character encoding standard. We began writing scripts to make the Vachanas (poems) searchable by an index. But, in order to do that well, we had to build a platform for everyone to use: the linguistic researchers, students, and the public at large who are interested in reaching this literature.

Omshivaprakash, a Kannada Wikimedian, worked on the architecture of the platform, decided the infrastructure requirements, and chose the open source software tools to use. I was involved in providing critical hacks for digitization and valuable inputs through suggestions, feedback, and quality assurance.

At present, our repository, Vachana Sanchaya, has around 200,000 unique words that were derived from these poems. The public has been using our repository and accessing Vahanas (poems) from our Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ profiles. There are thousands of people now who read a Vahana as part of their daily routine. Vachana Sanchaya is not just meant for reading the poems, it is also meant for research. So, we have added a way for researchers to help us review the content and will be adding references from various research papers.


Above: A screenshot of the Vachana sahitya page

The most commonly searched words are:

ಕರ್ಮ(Karma: English: work/deed)
ಸತ್ಯ(SathyaEnglish: truthfulness )
ನದಿ(Nadī: English:river)

ಆಂಗೀರಸ, ಪುಲಸ್ತ್ಯ, ಪುಲಹ, ಶಾಂತ,
ದಕ್ಷ, ವಸಿಷ್ಠ, ವಾಮದೇವ, ನವಬ್ರಹ್ಮ, ಕೌಶಿಕ, ಶೌನಕ, ಸ್ವಯಂಭು, ಸ್ವಾರೋಚಿಷ, ಉತ್ತಮ, ತಾಮಸ, ರೈವತ,
ಚಾಕ್ಷಷ, ವೈವಸ್ವತ, ಸೂರ್ಯಸಾವರ್ಣಿ,ಚಂದ್ರಸಾವರ್ಣಿ, ಬ್ರಹ್ಮಸಾವರ್ಣಿ,
ಇಂದ್ರ ಸಾವರ್ಣಿ ಇವರು ಇಪ್ಪತ್ತು ಮಂದಿ ಪ್ರಪಂಚ ನಿರ್ಮಾಣ ಸಹಾಯ[ದ]ವರು. ಹತ್ತೊಂಬತ್ತು ಎಂದರೆ ಪುಣ್ಯನದಿಗಳು.
ಅದು ಎಂತೆಂದಡೆ: ಗ್ರಂಥ

All of the content is currently available to the public through the OpenData API, and once the reviewing the work is complete, it will be distributed in the public domain through WikiSource. This will open up the system for students, developers, researchers, and anyone interested in building linguistic tools for Kannada and other Indic languages. Users will be able to use our code to digitize any book available in the public domain. Early literature in any language is well-respected, so making it available via an open platform allows for reuse of the content for research, publication, and other documentation work.

We encourage other projects of this kind to follow our method and use any part of our process that is helpful.

Going foward, we would like to:

Initiate Natural Language Processing (NLP) projects if more researches help to tag words and grow the glossary
Continue work on subsequent, similar projects for Sarvagnana Vachanagalu and Dāsa Sanchaya (work has begun) and Vyasa and Muddann (work not yet started)
Extend this platform to other the contemporary literature works available in the public domain.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/blog-old/opensource-march-27-2014-subhashish-panigrahi-digitize-any-book-in-public-domain

Digitization of Books for Indic Language WikiSource

praskrishna — 2013-08-29T10:32:39Z

Wikimedia India in collaboration with the Centre for Internet and Society is organising a workshop on "Digitization of books for Indic language WikiSource" on August 18, 2013, 2.30 p.m. to 5.30 p.m.

This workshop will be conducted by Malayalam Wikimedian Viswanathan Prabhakaran. Anyone interested in learning about the process of digitising old manuscripts, books and creating text based documents could join this workshop. The workshop will cover the following topics:

Best practices in capturing images using a camera and tripod through demonstration;
An introduction to the types of scanners;
How to hold books and the need to treat old books with proper care;
Discussion on image formats and some basic comparison (i.e. djvu, PDF, JPEG, TIFF, BMP, GIF);
Introduction and practical use of SM Tether (using Nikon dSLR) in capturing images;
Practical demonstration of using Scan Tailor (a free software) in post-processing of scanned pages. Splitting, deskewing, rearranging borders, and de-speckling of scanned pages;
Some basic discussion on copyright and introduction to Wiki Source;
Importance of online archival resources (DLI, DSAL, Archive.org, etc) and when to do or not to redo scanning of books (i.e., image resolution) that are already available in scanned format;
OCR and Indian languages.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/events/digitization-of-books-for-indic-language-wikisource

Digitising contest to preserve rare books in Malayalam

praskrishna — 2014-01-31T06:33:15Z

The Malayalam Wiki Grandhasala has announced a competition in digitally preserving rare books in Malayalam.

The article was published in the Hindu on January 4, 2014.

‘Digitalisation Contest 2014’, launched by the Wiki community, is aimed at digitising rare books in Malayalam, the copyright of which has expired, and making them available online in Unicode font.

The Wiki community wants the books to reach innumerable readers through the Internet.

The competition will be held in separate categories for schools and the general public. The competition involves entering the text on the computer and proof-reading. The prizes include e-book readers and books.

In the first phase of the project, 55 books listed by the Kerala Sahitya Akademi have been offered for digitising. They include ‘Samskshepa Vedartham’ (1772), ‘Malayanmayude Vyakaranam’ (1863) and ‘Hasthalakshanadeepika’ (1892).
Copies of magazines such as ‘Rasikaranjini’ and ‘Mangalodayam’ have also been offered for digitising.

Those who wish to take part in the competition should visit the Wiki Grandhasala (ml.wikisource.org) and become a member of the project.

Details of the competition and the list of books may be downloaded. The contest will be open till January 31. It is being organised on the 10th anniversary of the Wiki Source project by the Centre for Internet and Society, IT@School project, Swanthanthra Malayalam Computing and the Kerala Sahitya Akademi.

For details, contact K. Manoj, general convener of the contest (cellphone number: 9495576262).

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/the-hindu-january-4-2014-digitising-contest-to-preserve-rare-books-in-malayalam

Digitisation, Wikimedia Commons and Wikisource Orientation Workshop at Vigyan Ashram, Pabal, Pune District

Subodh Kulkarni — 2017-06-07T08:37:48Z

A digitization workshop was held at Vigyan Ashram, following the success of the introductory workshop in February.

On 5 February, an introductory Wikipedia orientation program was held in partnership with Vigyan Ashram, for 15 youths from Pabal and surrounding villages in Shirur, Maharashtra. Given the keen interest and enthusiasm of the participants, a follow up workshop was held on 3 April, 2017.

This workshop was attended by 30 participants who were trained on Wikimedia projects such as Wikimedia Commons and Wikisource. They were given an orientation on digitization and OCR tools as well. The workshop aims to enable the training of resource persons who can go onto be employed at libraries and museums in order to help with their digitization efforts. The scanning of old encyclopedias in Marathi has also been proposed for the Wiktionary project.

Participants were taught how to upload books from the Internet Archive to Wikimedia Commons. Subsequently,there was also a demonstration of transferring books from Commons to Wikisource. There are two ways of doing this: the page by page OCR process or converting a complete book through OCR4Wikisource. As OCRS4Wikisource program runs only on Linux, limitation of machines at the event was a hurdle in providing all the participants a hands on experience. Therefore, the scanning activity could not be completed.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/digitisation-wikimedia-commons-and-wikisource-orientation-workshop-at-vigyan-ashram-pabal-pune-district

Digitisation sprint at Andhra Loyola College Vijayawada to bring more books on Telugu Wikisource

Pavan Santhosh — 2016-02-12T11:29:10Z

This 12th, A digitisation sprint is being organised for student Wikipedians of Andhra Loyola College Vijayawada. Students will learn about scanning books, will use OCR engine and digitise books on Telugu Wikisource. The event is organised by CIS-A2K where Telugu Wikimedian Viswanadh will be participating to mentor the new Wikimedians.

Telugu Wikisource, a free online library in Telugu-language. Currently there are about 8 volunteers, known as Wikisourcers, who find Telugu-language text that are available under free licenses like Public Domain or Creative Commons licenses, digitise them and make the books available on the project. Their effort has brought about 29,680 pages of digitised text from old and new published works of different genres ranging from popular science and religious literature to literary contributions of notable authors of the states of Andhra and Telengana.

35 student Wikipedians of the Andhra Loyola College will be participating in this event and will learn about scanning of books, converting text from scanned images using OCR engine and digitising books on Telugu Wikisource by typing and proof-reading. At least 150-200 folios are expected to be digitized on Telugu Wikisource. Most importantly, this activity will also help bring 5-10 new Wikisourcers to Telugu Wikisource. As this is just a two-day long event, more follow up sessions will be conducted over time with the same set of students to help them learn better about the technical process involved and overall digitisation.This is the first of its kind in the institution where the students will not just learn about digitisation of books but will participate in a live contribution and make more Telugu books available online.

"Introducing Student Wikisourcers to Telugu Wikisource will help in developing the project. Also this is a very timely activity because even few days delay might result in really low participation as exams are coming up. "
— Viswanadh (User:విశ్వనాధ్.బి.కె.) ,Telugu Wikipedian (comment from Telugu Wikipedia Village Pump)

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/openness/events/digitisation-sprint-at-andhra-loyola-college-vijayawada-to-bring-more-books-on-telugu-wikisource