The Centre for Internet and Society
https://cis-india.org
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A Shortcut to Freedom
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/a-shortcut-to-freedom
<b>In our everyday life we need access to knowledge and information, we need books (and magazines, newspapers), movies (and documentaries, animations), music for education and entertainment purposes. Now, a delighting fact is almost everything we need, from a 1965 book to the latest Bollywood movie’s MP3 song, is available on the web. You knock the door, and it opens. Why should we care for free knowledge then? We have a got “a shortcut to freedom”. </b>
<p><strong>Scenario 1</strong><br />Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalaithaa died on 5 December 2016. Kamlesh, a college student from Chennai wants to post a few photos of the leader on his Facebook wall and page paying his tribute to her. He quickly searches on Google, finds a few photos, and posts on the wall. <br /><br /><strong>Scenario 2</strong><br />Nilima, a young girl from Mumbai, wants to use a latest Bollywood movie song as her mobile ringtone. She too searches on Google, and quickly finds the movie song with many options such as 64 kbps, 128 kbps, remix, reprise and a few issues such as misleading download buttons, pop-up advertisement windows etc. She selects one and puts it as her mobile ringtone.</p>
<p><strong>Scenario 2a</strong><br />A few days later, Madhuri, a friend of Nilima finds her mobile ringtone. Madhuri requests Nilima to send a copy of the music piece, and Nilima sends it over her mobile bluetooth.<br /><br /><strong>Scenario 3</strong><br />Lokesh Sanyal, a school teacher from Darjeeling, West Bengal, needs a book for his studies. He first goes to his local library and also asks his friends, but fails to get a copy of the book. Now, before buying a copy of the book, he thinks to check the world wide web to see if a free PDF copy the book is available, and hurrah!, he gets the book from Torrents or some other site.<br /><br /><strong>We have almost everything we require. . . </strong><br />If we make a list of our requirements of content such as movies, music, books, magazines, games, softwares, we’ll find almost everything is available on the web. You just need spend some time, (be careful about malicious web pages and downloads) and you will get what you want. It might be the movie released just a week ago, or a book published in 1990. It might a photograph of your favorite actress, or music piece of Amzad Ali Khan. Whatever we want, we get.</p>
<p><strong>. . . but</strong><br />Let’s ponder upon these questions:</p>
<ol><li>Are you using a Windows operating system in your laptop or computer? Is the copy of the Windows OS original (if you are unsure about it then did you buy a copy of the OS with registration key or installed from a CD or pendrive given by someone freely)?</li><li>How many (hundred) times you have downloaded images, videos, music, games from the web without checking or knowing its license details?</li><li>Do you know that everytime you are sharing some music or video over your mobile bluetooth, there is a possibility that you are violating some copyright and which might be punishable?</li></ol>
<p>The World Wide Web is not free. You get content, but with those come a large number of restrictions. Knowingly or unknowingly we violate copyright everyday. So what should we do?</p>
<ol><li>Of course we have a shortcut — illegal downloading, piracy, as we know that no one really cares. We can ignore everything and carry on. <br /></li><li>Or, there is a second option, join the <a class="external-link" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_knowledge">free and open knowledge movement</a> and try to get more and more content under the <a class="external-link" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_license#Classification_and_licenses">free licenses</a>. <br /></li></ol>
<p>One option is easy, needs no hard work, on the other hand the second option is difficult to follow, needs a lot of hard work, although that should be the process. It’s completely upto you that which option would you prefer.</p>
<h2>See also</h2>
<ul><li><a class="external-link" href="http://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/free-knowledge-and-indian-government-work">Free Knowledge and Indian Government work</a><br /></li></ul>
<h2>Image credit</h2>
<ul><li>Source: <a class="external-link" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Red_and_blue_pill.jpg">WIkimedia Commons</a>, Author: <a class="external-link" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:W.carter">W.carter</a>, License: CC SA 4.0 International<br /></li></ul>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/a-shortcut-to-freedom'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/a-shortcut-to-freedom</a>
</p>
No publishertitofreedominfebOpen LicenseAccess to Knowledge2017-06-28T09:58:47ZBlog EntryFreedom in Feb — an awareness increasing campaign
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/freedominfeb
<b>You have heard about the Ice bucket challenge (and the rice bucket challenge). You may have heard about the 100happinessdays challenge (and its Wikipedia version 100wikidayschallenge). You may have heard and participated in the November no shaving challenge. Some of these campaigns are organized to increase awareness about different social issues. Now here the Centre for Internet and Society, India brings to you a campaign called Freedom In Feb.</b>
<p align="left">Freedom in Feb (FiF, hashtag #freedominfeb) is a campaign to be conducted in the month of February. The objective of the initiative is to increase awareness of <a class="external-link" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_content">free content</a> and <a class="external-link" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_license#Classification_and_licenses">free licenses</a>. The name of this campaign “Freedom in Feb” was coined by Sunil Abraham, the Executive Director of The Centre for Internet and Society, India.</p>
<h2>Event dates</h2>
<p>The first iteration of the event will take place between 0:00 UTC on 1 February 2017 and 23:59 UTC on 28 February 2017.</p>
<h2>Rules</h2>
<p>The rule to participate in this challenge is simple:</p>
<ul><li><span class="visualHighlight">The works you will create or publish in February you have to release those under free licenses such as the Creative Commons licenses or under public domain.</span></li><li><span class="visualHighlight">The content includes your blog post, writing, image on Facebook, or Instagram, or your Tweets (no “all rights reserved” please :)).</span></li><li><span class="visualHighlight">If releasing all content under free licenses is not possible, please try to release as much as content under the free licenses this February.</span></li></ul>
<p>So, this Feb, please release your works under the free licenses, and encourage others to do so as well.</p>
<h2>Participate</h2>
<p>If you are interested to participate in this challenge or want to know more, please fill <a class="external-link" href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeJeevyWizR_o7BzkVsbyiIw3beawhdUQ63oWHy5C9pHriCVg/viewform">this form</a>, or you can also send us an email to this address <a class="external-link" href="mailto:sunil@cis-india.org">sunil@cis-india.org</a> and/or <a class="external-link" href="mailto:tito@cis-india.org">tito@cis-india.org.</a> Please include "Freedom in Feb" in your email subject line.</p>
<h2>FAQ</h2>
<p><strong>Question:</strong> Which free license should I choose?<br /><strong>Answer:</strong> You can choose any free license. We suggest you to choose a license that allows remixing, and using for commercial purpose such as CC BY-SA 4.0. You may also choose a license CC BY-NC 2.0, but that’s not really free.<br /><br /><strong>Question:</strong> I am a professional and depend on my works (photography, music, writing) on living. Do I need to release all my creations under the free licenses?<br /><strong>Answer: </strong>We understand this situation, but we request you to release as much as or some content under the free licenses or public domain.</p>
<p><em>More FAQs to be added</em></p>
<h2>Keep in touch</h2>
<ul><li>Facebook: <a class="external-link" href="https://www.facebook.com/freedominfeb/">https://www.facebook.com/freedominfeb/</a></li><li>Twitter: <a class="external-link" href="https://twitter.com/freedominfeb">https://twitter.com/freedominfeb</a></li><li>Freenode IRC: <a class="external-link" href="https://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=#freedominfeb">freedominfeb</a></li><li>Public forum: <a class="external-link" href="https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/freedominfeb">https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/freedominfeb</a> (anyone can post here by sending an email to: <a class="external-link" href="mailto:freedominfeb@googlegroups.com">freedominfeb@googlegroups.com</a>, but you need to join the group to view posts and other </li><li>Hashtag: #<a class="external-link" href="https://www.hashtags.org/analytics/freedominfeb/">freedominfeb</a></li></ul>
<p> </p>
<p align="center"><img src="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/GiFbannerforwebsite.jpg/image_preview" title="FiF banner for website" height="70" width="589" alt="FiF banner for website" class="image-inline image-inline" /></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/freedominfeb'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/freedominfeb</a>
</p>
No publishertitofreedominfebAccess to Knowledge2017-06-28T09:59:29ZBlog EntryFree Knowledge and Indian Government Work
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/free-knowledge-and-indian-government-work
<b>Indian Government works are not available under free and open licenses. On the other hand a large number countries such as Argentina, Australia, Austria, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Israel, Macedonia, Mexico, New Zealand, Poland, Serbia, Spain, Taiwan, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Venezuela etc. have adopted the Creative Commons and other free licenses. The works by the US Federal Government automatically go into public domain. This article promotes the idea that the Government works should be freely licensed, wherever possible and applicable.</b>
<h2 align="center">Part 1: Free Knowledge<br /></h2>
<p>Free knowledge movement is a worldwide movement that creates and tries to get works under free and open licenses. It claims that knowledge is a common human property, and must be easily, freely accessible.</p>
<p>While discussing the topic "Access to knowledge: a basic human right", American scientist and researcher Jack Andraka <a class="external-link" href="https://creativecommons.org/2014/01/07/access-to-knowledge-a-basic-human-right/">feels</a>:</p>
<blockquote>Access to knowledge is, you know, a basic human right. Knowledge should not be commoditized; it wants to be free.</blockquote>
<p>The <em>Open Definition</em> defines the term “Open Knowledge” in <em>Open Definition 2.0</em> as:</p>
<blockquote>"Knowledge is open if anyone is free to access, use, modify, and share it — subject, at most, to measures that preserve provenance and openness."</blockquote>
<p> All open content must be a) available under free licenses, b) accessible as a whole, and c) should be in open format (see <a class="external-link" href="http://opendefinition.org/od/2.0/en/">more details</a>)</p>
<p> A big name in the world of free content is (of course) <a class="external-link" href="https://www.wikipedia.org/">Wikipedia</a>, where you can use, share, remix content from the site under the <a class="external-link" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_Creative_Commons_Attribution-ShareAlike_3.0_Unported_License">Creative Commons licenses</a>. There are many organizations, networks and groups working to get more and more content under free and open licenses such as Creative Commons (text, audio, video, image), Free and Open Source Software or FOSS (software), Open design principle (machine, engineering), Open Access (academic works) etc.</p>
<p>Article 26 of the <a class="external-link" href="http://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/">Universal Declaration of Human Rights</a> suggests that education should be free. Right to information is also a human right and Article 27 of the declaration states:</p>
<blockquote>(1) Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.<br />(2) Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author.</blockquote>
<p>These are just not possible unless knowledge /information is easily and preferably freely accessible to everyone without restrictions. If the first barrier is accessibility, i.e, not having enough digital content or information or content behind paywall, then the second barrier is its openness. Just having access to some web pages is not enough, it also requires rights like free using, sharing, remixing, Unrestricted content can be utilized in the best way.</p>
<hr />
<h2 align="center">Part 2: Indian Government Work<br /></h2>
<p>Indian Government websites are not freely licensed. In section 2(k) of Indian Copyright Act, 1957 the meaning of “Government work” is explained:</p>
<blockquote>"Government work" means a work which is made or published by or under the direction or control of—<br />(i) the Government or any department of the Government;<br />(ii) any Legislature in India;<br /> . . .<br />
<div align="right">Read Indian Copyright Act, section 2(c) <a class="external-link" href="https://indiankanoon.org/doc/1273687/">here</a>.</div>
</blockquote>
<p> Indian Copyright Act section 17(d) informs about the “First owner of copyright” of a Government work:</p>
<blockquote>in the case of a Government work, Government shall, in the absence of any agreement to the contrary, be the first owner of the copyright therein;<br />
<div align="right">Read section 17(d) <a class="external-link" href="https://indiankanoon.org/doc/1684400/">here</a>.</div>
</blockquote>
<p> Section 28 is about “Term of copyright in Government works”. It states:</p>
<blockquote>In the case of Government work, where Government is the first owner of the copyright therein, copyright shall subsist until [sixty years] from the beginning of the calendar year next following the year in which the record is first published.—In the case of Government work, where Government is the first owner of the copyright therein, copyright shall subsist until [sixty years] from the beginning of the calendar year next following the year in which the record is first published."<br />
<div align="right">Read section 28 <a class="external-link" href="https://indiankanoon.org/doc/176237/">here</a></div>
</blockquote>
<p>
Section 52 of the act allows some “fair use” and informs how content can be used for research, education, review, criticism and some other purpose. The lengthy copyright section may be read <a class="external-link" href="https://indiankanoon.org/doc/1013176/">here</a>. However, it does not make the content free. You are not allowed to remix the work or use for commercial purpose. You can not freely use, modify, distribute it.</p>
<p>Now let’s have a look at a few Government websites and their license details pages.</p>
<h3 align="center">Indian Prime Minister’s official website</h3>
<div align="center">(<a class="external-link" href="http://www.pmindia.gov.in/en/website-policies">http://www.pmindia.gov.in/en/website-policies</a>)</div>
<p>In this website the copyright policy page informs:</p>
<blockquote>Material featured on this website may be reproduced free of charge. However, the material has to be reproduced accurately and not to be used in a derogatory manner or in a misleading context. Wherever the material is being published or issued to others, the source must be prominently acknowledged. However, the permission to reproduce this material shall not extend to any material which is identified as being copyright of a third party. Authorisation to reproduce such material must be obtained from the department/copyright holder concerned.</blockquote>
<p align="left"> A screenshot may be seen below:</p>
<p align="center"><img src="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/PMIndia.jpg/image_large" alt="PMIndia website copyright policy" class="image-inline" title="PMIndia website copyright policy" /></p>
<p> Here-</p>
<ul><li>“Wherever the material is being published or issued to others, the source must be prominently acknowledged.” -- this part of the policy is similar to the Creative Commons licenses, where the owner or author of a work must be given attribution.</li></ul>
but,
<ul><li>“has to be reproduced accurately” -- it prohibits remix or modification works, </li><li>“not to be used in a derogatory manner” -- it is unclear that what is “derogatory manner”! Can it be used for criticism? <br /></li></ul>
<p> </p>
<p align="center"><strong>Indian Vice President’s official website</strong><br />(<a class="external-link" href="http://vicepresidentofindia.nic.in/website-policies">http://vicepresidentofindia.nic.in/website-policies</a>)</p>
<p align="left">This is similar to the Prime Minister’s website policy and does not allow remix, commercial use etc. See screenshot:</p>
<p align="center"><img src="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/VicePresident.jpg/image_large" alt="Indian Vice President website copyright policy" class="image-inline" title="Indian Vice President website copyright policy" /></p>
<div align="center"><strong>Indian President’s official website</strong><br />(<a class="external-link" href="http://presidentofindia.gov.in/copyright-policy.htm">http://presidentofindia.gov.in/copyright-policy.htm</a>)</div>
<p>Although the Vice President’s website allows some fair use, the Indian President’s official web portal’s license is different and does not allow to reproduce the work “partially or fully”. The copyright policy states:</p>
<blockquote>This contents of this website may not be reproduced partially or fully, without due permission from The President of India, If referred to as a part of another publication, the source must be appropriately acknowledged. The contents of this website can not be used in any misleading or objectionable context.</blockquote>
<p align="center"><img src="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/President.jpg/image_preview" alt="Indian President website copyright policy" class="image-inline" title="Indian President website copyright policy" /></p>
<p>We have shown 3 example above, but it is more or less similar in all government web portals.</p>
<p> </p>
<hr />
<h2 align="center">Part 3: Government works <span class="st">— Worldwide<br /></span></h2>
<p>It might be interesting to note that unlike India, a large number of countries publish their Government works under open licenses or public domain. We’ll discuss only a few here:</p>
<h3 align="center">United States</h3>
<ul><li>The works by the US Federal Government automatically go into public domain. </li><li>The <a class="external-link" href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/copyright">White House website</a> and third party content such as text or speeches by the first lady are licensed under CC SA 3.0 US license. U.S. </li><li>On 18 June, 2013, Barack Obama and other G7 leaders endorsed the Open Data Charter. Open Data Action plan is licensed under CC0.</li><li>Several other works such as works created by New York State Senate, works created by the State of Virginia are also under different creative commons licenses. Details may be seen <a class="external-link" href="https://wiki.creativecommons.org/wiki/Government_use_of_Creative_Commons#United_States">here</a>.</li></ul>
<h3 align="center">United Kingdom</h3>
<p> In the United Kingdom, Open Government License (OGL) is used for Crown Copyright works published by the UK government. Since 2001, some works by the UK government were available under the Click-Use license. This license was replaced by OGL in 2010. The first version of OGL was released on 30 September 2010. OGL is compatible with the CC licenses. OGL allows to:</p>
<ul><li>copy, publish, distribute and transmit the Information, </li><li>adapt the Information, </li><li>exploit the Information commercially and non-commercially for example, by combining it with other Information, or by including it in your own product or application.</li></ul>
<p>However,</p>
<ul><li>Attribution must be given to with source link, which is similar to the creative commons licenses.</li><li>Some documents such as the British passport, military insignia, property rights, including patents, trademarks, and design rights, personal information in data don’t come under OGL.</li></ul>
<p>More about the Open Government License may be seen <a class="external-link" href="http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/2/">here</a>.</p>
<h3 align="center">France<br /></h3>
<ul><li>France government’s website<a class="external-link" href="http://www.gouvernement.fr/"> http://www.gouvernement.fr/</a> is licensed under the CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 FR license. The English version of the policy page may be seen <a class="external-link" href="http://www.gouvernement.fr/en/terms-and-conditions">here</a>.</li><li>France government’s cultural department’s website <a class="external-link" href="http://www.culture.fr/">http://www.culture.fr/</a> is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 FR.</li><li>The Culture Communication website <a class="external-link" href="http://www.culturecommunication.gouv.fr/">http://www.culturecommunication.gouv.fr/</a> is also licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 FR.</li></ul>
<h3 align="center">Russian Federation</h3>
<ul><li>Content of the website <a class="external-link" href="http://kremlin.ru">http://kremlin.ru</a> are under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International. License policy page may be seen <a class="external-link" href="http://en.kremlin.ru/about/copyrights">here</a>. Many other Russian government works are under different open licenses, details may be seen <a class="external-link" href="https://wiki.creativecommons.org/wiki/Government_use_of_Creative_Commons#Russian_Federation">here</a>.</li></ul>
<h3 align="center">Netherlands</h3>
<ul><li> The Dutch government official website<a class="external-link" href="http://www.rijksoverheid.nl/"> http://www.rijksoverheid.nl/</a> is licensed under CC 0. All content of this website is under public domain, unless any other license is specified.</li></ul>
<h3 align="center">Bulgaria</h3>
<ul><li>
The President of Bulgaria’s official website <a class="external-link" href="https://www.president.bg/">https://www.president.bg/</a> is licensed under CC BY ND 2.5 Bulgaria.
</li></ul>
<h3 align="center">Croatia</h3>
<ul><li>
Croatian Government website <a class="external-link" href="http://otvorenikod.nsk.hr/">http://otvorenikod.nsk.hr/</a> is licensed under CC BY SA 3.0 Croatia.
</li></ul>
<p> </p>
<h2 align="center"><strong>The Long list<br /></strong></h2>
<span class="visualHighlight">More than 30 countries have adopted and publishing their works under the Creative Commons and other free licenses. Other the above mentioned countries, the list include countries like Argentina, Australia, Austria, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Czech Republic, Georgia, Greece, Guatemala, Israel, Macedonia, Mexico, New Zealand, Poland, Serbia, Spain, Taiwan, Ukraine, Venezuela etc. Other than the counties, several international organizations such as the World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) endorsed the free license concept and have adopted the same. See a long list of countries using free licenses <strong><a class="external-link" href="https://wiki.creativecommons.org/wiki/Government_use_of_Creative_Commons">here</a></strong>.</span>
<p> </p>
<h2 align="center">Last line</h2>
<p>It is unfortunate that the Indian Government works are not under free licenses, however it would be great if the Government rethinks and relicense their general content under the free licenses. This will help not only the movement, but the content itself can be utilized in a much better and broader way.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/free-knowledge-and-indian-government-work'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/free-knowledge-and-indian-government-work</a>
</p>
No publishertitofreedominfebWikipediaOpen LicenseAccess to Knowledge2017-06-28T10:02:00ZBlog Entry