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Ring Side View : Update on WIPO Negotiations on the Treaty for the Visually Impaired
https://cis-india.org/accessibility/ring-side-view
<b>As a legal advisor of the World Blind Union and part of the World Blind Union delegation to the 24th meeting of the WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) that concluded on July 25, 2012 I had a ring side seat to the negotiations that happened between Member States in relation to the Treaty. </b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">On call almost 24 x 7 to answer questions and clarify positions to Member States on aspects relating to the Treaty and the ground reality faced by the print disabled community, those were possibly the most grueling 10 days of my life.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Progress at the last 3 SCCRs was painfully slow. At the start of this SCCR on July 16 2012 the single biggest hurdle to progress on the Treaty was the stand that the African Group had taken at the earlier SCCRs with respect to a comprehensive text covering exceptions and limitations to copyright for education, libraries, archives and disabilities. See <a class="external-link" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzKnVkcW7LQ">my discussion with Jamie Love</a> from Knowledge Ecology International on this issue. It was evident that while a comprehensive text had its merits, it would be impossible to make progress on this comprehensive text because, other that for exceptions for disabilities, the issues relating to education, libraries and archives had not reached the level of maturity required to progress to a Treaty. So it was essential that exceptions for disabilities were de-linked from exceptions for education etc. This is exactly what the African Group did much to the excitement of the WBU team.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Much was left to be done over the next few days including discussion on the text of the working document which prepared by Chair after SCCR 23,<a class="external-link" href="http://wipo.int/meetings/en/doc_details.jsp?doc_id=195021"> available here</a>. Normally, discussions on text happen at the plenary session attended by Member States as well as accredited organizations such as the World Blind Union, my organization Inclusive Planet Centre for Disability Law and Policy and others. This process, while adding to transparency and more participation is sometimes slow and the request of some Member States considering the urgency of the matter, discussions were taken out of plenary into a closed room round table discussion. All Member States could participate and many did. Unfortunately, accredited organizations were not invited to attend. Full credit to Member States in terms of effort put into this effort as they worked well beyond normal working hours on most days in an attempt to reach consensus on the text.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Another critical outcome we had hoped for was that there would be consensus between Member States that the instrument would be in the form of a Treaty. As the negotiations between Member States progressed it became clear that the United States and the European Union were blocking the Treaty while everybody else was pushing hard for the Treaty. The United States and the European Union were pushing for some form of non-binding instrument that would be more in the nature of a recommendation. Further coverage of this is at <a class="external-link" href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/26/blind-treaty-2012_n_1706543.html">Huffington Post</a> and in the <a class="external-link" href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2012/jul/30/us-eu-blocking-treaty-blind-books">Guardian</a>. The drawbacks of a soft law as opposed to a Treaty is obvious in that a soft law has no binding force as opposed to a Treaty. Rumor has it that the reason for the United States not supporting the Treaty is that the publishing lobby is apparently a huge contributor to President Obama’s re-election campaign and that he could ill afford to alienate this lobby by pushing for the Treaty. The European Union’s opposition to a binding Treaty was despite a resolution adopted by the European Parliament in February 2012 <a class="external-link" href="http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/pressroom/content/20120216IPR38346/html/Binding-rules-to-ensure-blind-people%27s-access-to-books">calling on the European Union to support a binding Treaty</a>.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">We had hoped that SCCR 24 would close with agreement on the text, agreement that it would be a Treaty and finally that the SCCR referring the Treaty to the upcoming General Assembly in October 2012 to call for a Diplomatic Conference in 2013 to expressly agree on the Treaty.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">However, this was not to be. Although much progress was made on the text, the text remains incomplete, with a lot of brackets in the text on undecided points. There was no consensus that the instrument should be a treaty. And lastly there was no decision on referring the issue to a diplomatic conference.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The next steps as outlined in the conclusions to SCCR 24 are the following:</p>
<ol>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">an inter-sessional meeting of the SCCR be held in Geneva between the 2012 General Assembly and the 25th session of the SCCR to continue work;</li>
<li>the 25th session of the SCCR will attempt to conclude or advance substantially the text of the document; and </li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">that the General Assembly convene an extraordinary session to be held in December 2012 to evaluate the text from SCCR/25 and to make a decision on whether to convene a diplomatic conference in 2013. </li>
</ol>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">SCCR 24 made more progress on this issue that any of the previous SCCRs I have attended. We are very optimistic that the Treaty will become a reality of the next 18 to 24 months with the increased pressure being exerted on the US and the European Union by the blind groups in these jurisdictions respectively. Needless to say, the Treaty will benefit developing countries the most since the majority of persons with print disabilities are in these countries. India and other developing countries are mindful of this and are pushing as hard as possible to make it happen.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; "><i>My next post will be on the pros and cons of the text that was proposed at the end of SCCR 24</i>.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/accessibility/ring-side-view'>https://cis-india.org/accessibility/ring-side-view</a>
</p>
No publisherRahul CherianCopyrightAccessibilityAccess to KnowledgeWIPO2012-08-13T04:34:22ZBlog EntryCopyright Law: More Than A Moral Obligation
https://cis-india.org/news/www-businessworld-in-jaya-bhattacharji-rose-august-9-copyright-law
<b>It was a cozy and warm atmosphere in a bookstore in South Delhi — with plenty of cushions thrown on the floor — that I attended a delightful book launch for children. The book was displayed prominently, along with some fabulous original illustrations done by the author, from which the book illustrator had been “inspired”. I clicked some photographs with my smartphone. The publishers, based in another city, couldn't attend the event. So, I thought why not mail it to them, they are fraternity. Soon, a newsletter popped into my mailbox from the same publisher, with a lovely write-up of the book launch accompanied by my photographs, but with no acknowledgement given to me. I was disappointed.</b>
<hr />
<p>This column by Jaya Bhattacharji Rose was <a class="external-link" href="http://www.businessworld.in/web/guest/storypage?CategoryID=37528&articleId=459101&version=1.0&journalArticleId=459102">published in Business World</a> on August 9, 2012. Pranesh Prakash is quoted.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">After pondering over it, I decided to bring it to the publisher’s notice. To me, it was the principle of recognising the IPR (intellectual property rights) of the creator and giving due credit that I felt was at stake here. This was the reply I received, “So sorry. It was a slip up as I had said that you should be acknowledged. But since that is not the usual practice — simply because no one had asked — it was overlooked.” An apology received and accepted. I did not stop at that. I requested that in the next newsletter it should be rectified and on the blog, the photographs uploaded should go with credits.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">To explore larger issues surrounding copyright, and for publishers in general, <a class="external-link" href="http://businessworld.in/web/guest/storypage?CategoryID=0&articleId=304899&version=1.0&journalArticleId=304900">management of copyright</a> is a very important part of their business. In May 2012, the Indian Parliament passed a few amendments to the Copyright Act. (It is still a bill, at the time of writing this column.) A victory to a large extent for the music industry, but it has made very little difference, so far, to the publishing industry. Plus, the debate surrounding Clause 2(m) of the Indian Copyright Act is still an open chapter. As per the clause, a book published in any part of the world can easily be sold here. Thus, diluting the significance or infringing upon an exclusive Indian edition. The Parliament Standing Committee investigating the pros and cons of Clause 2(m), made a “forceful recommendation” for its amendment, but it was not included in the bill. So the HRD Minister has referred it to an NCAER expert committee constituted.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">However, another amendment relevant to the publishing industry has been the increase in copyright term for photographs. “This will make using older photographs impossible without hunting down the original photographer,” says Pranesh Prakash, a lawyer and copyright expert and programme manager at Centre for Internet and Society. “So far, things have worked well because sepia-tinted photographs have generally become part of the public domain. But now, only photographs by photographers who died before 1951 are part of the public domain. This has shrivelled up the public domain in photographs since it is even more difficult to trace the photographer (and date of death) than to estimate the age of a photograph, determining whether a photograph is in the public domain is laden with uncertainty. The use of historical photos in books (and Wikipedia) will be badly affected.”<br /> <br />Having been a publisher for years, I tend to be very careful about issues involving copyright. Dig deep and you will find anecdotes that illustrate the crying need for understanding copyright issues. For example, an illustrator submitting files to a reputed art director could be told that the illustrations are not up to mark. Unfortunately, when the book is published, the ‘new’ illustrations are pale imitations of the original line drawings submitted by the illustrator.<br /> <br />Or for that matter, a playwright being asked to create a script, but is never acknowledged or even paid the royalty due since the director believes that the core idea for the play is hers. ‘The playwright merely gave it a form’ is a common retort. Or, a couple of editors discovering their original research (and highly acclaimed globally) has been blatantly plagiarised by a well-known writer and published by an equally prominent publisher. Despite having marshalled all the necessary evidence, the editors are unable to file a case, since the court fee is a percentage of the damages sought and is beyond their reach. So, these cases stagnate with no redressal and the creators are left frustrated and angry.<br /> <br />The core issue is, how many professionals in the publishing eco-system actually know what is copyright or how to exercise their rights? After all, it is only a concept, albeit a legal one, which gives the creator of an original work exclusive right(s) to it for a limited period of time. Establishing and verifying the ownership to copyright is a sensitive issue. A good example of how an organisation can facilitate, disseminate, inform and empower a literary community on IPR and related topics is the Irish Writers Union.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">According to their <a class="external-link" href="http://www.djei.ie/science/ipr/irish_writers_union.pdf">website</a>, it is “the representative organisation for one of the major stakeholders in any discussion about copyright: Irish authors. While we understand that copyright legislation might be a barrier to innovation in certain industries, the IWU believes that any change to copyright law must be managed in such a way as to ensure that no damage is done to Ireland’s literary activity. ...literature earns hard cash for Ireland. Both in the form of its contribution to the €2bn annual gain from cultural tourism and in the considerable revenues deriving from the success of sales of Irish works, Irish publishing and writing is an activity that should not be jeopardised by any legal change that weakens the value of copyright ownership to the creators of original literary works. ...We note that if anything, copyright law in regard to literature should be strengthened to protect rights holders.”</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">As Shauna Singh Baldwin, a Canadian-American novelist of Indian descent, comments upon the significance of copyright in an e-mail conversation with me, “The breath of the individual creator, his/her imagination and speculation gives life to a work of art. To create something new, you take ideas from many sources, recontextualise them, find unexpected connections between them, and create something new — and beautiful. If we continue to be ashamed of our own imaginations and so fearful of mistakes that we must copy the tried and true, we will never create, only innovate.”<br /> <br />As for the rejoinder and photo credits I had requested for my photographs, the publisher implemented it immediately. And I was glad.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><i>Jaya Bhattacharji Rose is an international publishing consultant and columnist</i>.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/news/www-businessworld-in-jaya-bhattacharji-rose-august-9-copyright-law'>https://cis-india.org/news/www-businessworld-in-jaya-bhattacharji-rose-august-9-copyright-law</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaCopyrightAccess to Knowledge2012-08-13T03:59:47ZNews ItemJuly 2012 Bulletin
https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/july-2012-bulletin
<b>Welcome to the newsletter issue of July 2012 from the Centre for Internet & Society (CIS). The present issue features a constitutional analysis of the Information Technology (Intermediaries' Guidelines) Rules notified in April 2011, an analysis of the Indian Draft DNA Profiling Act and CIS statement on Exceptions and Limitations for Libraries and Archives made at WIPO.</b>
<h3><a href="https://cis-india.org/jobs">Jobs</a></h3>
<p>CIS is seeking applications from interested candidates for the following posts:</p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/jobs/research-manager">Research Manager</a>: CIS is seeking an individual, full-time, for a period of 12 months, beginning from October 2012. The Research Manager is expected to contribute to conceptualising, managing and executing research projects in the field of Internet and Society, build knowledge networks of researchers towards collaborative and open knowledge production and dissemination, developing and executing the monitoring and evaluation processes for humanities and social sciences based research, supporting and managing academic, popular and hybrid publishing projects from existing and new research and initiate innovative and creative areas and methodologies of studying the Internet and its practices in India and the larger Global South, to develop key research clusters and networks. Send in your applications by September 5, 2012 to <a href="mailto:admin@cis-india.org">admin@cis-india.org</a>.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/jobs/vacancy-for-programme-director">Programme Director – Access to Knowledge</a>: CIS is seeking a Programme Director for its New Delhi office. The Programme Director will manage CIS’s Access to Knowledge programme which is funded by the Wikimedia Foundation, to support the growth of Wikipedia and its sister projects and to advance access to free knowledge in India. The Programme Director will partner with the large Wikimedia community in India to focus on Indic and English languages and will manage a team of four staff members. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/jobs/programme-officer-access-to-knowledge-and-openness">Programme Officer – Access to Knowledge and Openness</a>: CIS is seeking an individual with a strong background in policy research and advocacy to be part of its Openness and Access to Knowledge programmes. The candidates must have knowledge of Indian and international law on copyright, demonstrable research skills, public-speaking skills, open to travel and work independently. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/jobs/programme-officer-internet-governance">Programme Officer – Internet Governance</a>: CIS is seeking an individual with a strong background in legal research and policy work to be part of its internet governance (IG) programme. The candidates must have good knowledge of Indian and international law on freedom of expression and privacy, demonstrable research skills, have strong communication skills and be media savvy with the ability to convey complex legal issues clearly to a general audience, open to travel and work independently. </li>
</ul>
<p>To apply for the posts of Programme Director and Programme Officers, please send your resume to Sunil Abraham (<a href="mailto:sunil@cis-india.org">sunil@cis-india.org</a>) or Pranesh Prakash (<a href="mailto:pranesh@cis-india.org">pranesh@cis-india.org</a>) with three references.</p>
<h2><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance">Internet Governance</a></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The Internet Governance programme conducts research around the various social, technical, and political underpinnings of global and national Internet governance, and includes online privacy, freedom of speech, and Internet governance mechanisms and processes:</p>
<h3>Featured Research</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/constitutional-analysis-of-intermediaries-guidelines-rules">Constitutional Analysis of the Information Technology (Intermediaries' Guidelines) Rules, 2011</a> (by Ujwala Uppaluri): Ujwala Uppaluri provides a constitutional analysis of the Information Technology (Intermediaries' Guidelines) Rules notified in April 2011, and examines its compatibility with Articles 14, 19, 21 of the Constitution of India.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/indian-draft-dna-profiling-act">Overview and Concerns Regarding the Indian Draft DNA Profiling Act</a> (by GeneWatch UK & the Council for Responsible Genetics, US): The 2007 DNA Profiling Bill pending before the Parliament attempts to create an ambitious centralized DNA bank that would store DNA records of virtually anyone who comes within any proximity to the criminal justice system. The Bill contains provisions limiting access to and use of information contained in the database, and provides for the deletion of a person’s DNA profile upon their acquittal.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Columns</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/internet-censorship">Internet Censorship: Anonymous Can’t be Just Harmful Hackers</a> (Nishant Shah, FirstPost, July 13, 2012): If there was ever an interesting time for people concerned with freedom of speech and expression to live in, it is now, and it is definitely in India. It has been a series of battles the last couple of years, where a slightly out-dated government machinery has been trying to control and contain the burgeoning online spaces, only to be put in their place by the new-age tech-ninjas that have risen as the new heroes in our digital times.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/open-letter-to-hillary-clinton">Open letter to Hillary Clinton on Internet Freedom</a> (Sunil Abraham, Thinking Aloud, July 17, 2012): Sunil Abraham’s open letter to Hillary Clinton was based on a presentation made during a panel discussion at a Google sponsored conference titled Internet at Liberty 2012 in Washington DC on May 24, 2012. <i>The present article published in Thinking Aloud is an updated version of the blog entry published by CIS earlier this year</i>.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Event Report</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/medical-privacy-conference-report">Privacy Matters — Medical Privacy</a> (Yashwantrao Chavan Academy of Development Administration, Pune, June 30, 2012): Privacy India in partnership with the Indian Network for People living with HIV/AIDS, CIS, IDRC, and Society in Action Group with support from London-based Privacy International, held a public discussion on "Medical Privacy". Elonnai Hickok introduced the draft book Privacy in India: A Policy Guide that Privacy India had been compiling. The participants discussed medical privacy in India, the legal aspects of medical privacy, Supreme Court views on medical negligence, confidentiality and privacy, best practices on medical privacy in various health settings, etc.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Ongoing Event</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/iacs-summer-school-2012">The Asian Edge: 2012 Inter-Asia Cultural Studies Society Summer School</a>: The 2nd Biannual Inter Asia Cultural Studies (IACS) Summer School is being hosted in Bangalore, India by CIS and the Centre for the Study of Culture and Society. The IACS Summer School brings together South and East Asian experts from different disciplines as faculty for graduate and advanced research students to engage with key issues of larger social, cultural and political concerns in cultural studies in Asia. </li>
</ul>
<h3>Upcoming Event</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/role-of-us-tech-companies-in-govt-surveillance">Role of the US Tech Companies in Government Surveillance: A Lecture by Christopher Soghoian</a> (Centre for Internet and Society, 194, 2-C Cross, Domlur Stage II, Bangalore (Near Domlur Club and the TERI Complex)): Your internet, phone and web application providers are all, for the most part, in bed with US and other foreign government agencies. They all routinely disclose their customers' communications and other private data to law enforcement and intelligence agencies. Worse, firms like Google and Microsoft specifically log data in order to assist the government — How? — Find out — Christopher Soghoian will give a lecture on the role companies play in assisting government surveillance.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Events Organised</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/consumer-privacy-delhi">Privacy Matters — Consumer Privacy</a> (India International Centre, New Delhi, July 7, 2012): Privacy India, in partnership with the Centre for Internet & Society, International Development Research Centre, Society in Action Group and Privacy International, invite you to a public conference focused on discussing the challenges and concerns to consumer privacy in India.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/has-geek-presents-the-fifth-elephant">The Fifth Elephant</a> (NIMHANS Convention Centre, Bangalore, July 27 and 28, 2012): The event was organised by HasGeek and supported by CIS. The first day covered the technology track and talks from business and industry were held on the following day.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Events Participated</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/speak-easy">Speak Easy: Citizenship, Freedom of Expression and Online Governance</a> (American Centre, Kasturba Gandhi Marg, Connaught Place, New Delhi, July 31, 2012): Chinmayi Arun, a Fellow at CIS spoke at this event organised by the YP Foundation, Youth Ki Awaaz, Change.Org and RTI Anonymous.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/session-m4-international-public-policy-and-internet-governance-issues-pertaining-to-the-internet">Asia Pacific Regional Internet Governance Forum 2012</a> (Aoyama Campus, Aoyama Gakuin University, Tokyo, July 20, 2012). Sunil Abraham was a speaker in the session on international public policy and internet governance issues pertaining to the internet. The event was organised by APrIGF.Asia. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/fifth-meeting-of-two-sub-groups-on-privacy">Fifth Meeting of the two Sub-Groups on Privacy Issues under the Chairmanship of Justice AP Shah</a> (New Delhi, July 22, 2012): Sunil Abraham participated in this meeting held under the Chairmanship of Justice A.P. Shah, former Chief Justice of Delhi High Court.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/fourth-meeting-of-sub-groups-on-privacy-issues">Fourth Meeting of the two Sub-Groups on Privacy Issues under the Chairmanship of Justice AP Shah</a> (Committee Room No. 228, Yojana Bhawan, Planning Commission, New Delhi, July 9, 2012): Sunil Abraham participated in the fourth meeting on privacy issues under the Chairmanship of Justice A.P. Shah, former Chief Justice of Delhi High Court.</li>
</ul>
<h3>News & Media Coverage</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/a-net-of-hatred">A Net of Hatred</a> (Samar Khurshid, Hindustan Times, July 14, 2012): “The problem is...that internet conversations become extreme. Liberals don’t get embroiled in heated arguments while fundamentalists, dedicated to extreme ideologies, tend to win out." Web censorship...is in vain as the net is too vast to control.”— Pranesh Prakash.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/post-website-attack">Post-website attack, cops hot on pursuit of Anonymous hackers</a> (The Times of India, July 11, 2012): “Anonymous consists of a large bunch of activists who gained some credibility in India after they organised offline protests. But this operation doesn't serve any purpose and brings down their credibility as details of those who filed complaints have been revealed.” — Pranesh Prakash.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/kids-on-facebook">The kids are all on Facebook</a> (Shikha Kumar, Daily News & Analysis, July 8, 2012): “Children’s interaction online should always be under parental supervision. Censorship and control is not the responsibility of the government, but of parents.” — Sunil Abraham.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/freedom-debate-takes-a-new-course">Freedom debate takes a new course</a> (Deepa Kurup, The Hindu, July 1, 2012): “Under Indian copyright law, ISPs cannot be liable for copyright infringement committed by their users. So while it is good that the court clarified that its order was limited in its scope, it is possible to read even this as going far beyond that which is allowed under the law.” — Pranesh Prakash.</li>
</ul>
<h2><a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k">Access to Knowledge</a></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The Access to Knowledge programme addresses the harms caused to consumers, developing countries, human rights, and creativity/innovation from excessive regimes of copyright, patents, and other such monopolistic rights over knowledge:</p>
<h3>WIPO</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">CIS participated at the 24<sup>th</sup> session of the WIPO Standing Committee on Copyrights and Related Rights held in Geneva from July 16 to 25, 2012. The outcomes are listed below:</p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/india-opening-statement-sccr24-tvi">India's Opening Statement on the Treaty for the Visually Impaired at SCCR 24</a>: The opening statement of the Indian delegation was delivered by G.R. Raghavender on July 19, 2012. The statement called upon all countries to conclude textual work on the treaty and call for a Diplomatic Conference to finalize it.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blog/cis-statement-sccr24-treaty-visually-impaired">CIS's Statement on the Treaty for the Visually Impaired</a>: Pranesh Prakash read out CIS statement on July 20, 2012.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blog/cis-statement-sccr24-broadcast-treaty">CIS's Statement on the WIPO Broadcast Treaty</a>: Pranesh Prakash read out CIS statement specifically on the Chair's Non Paper on the Protection of Broadcasters which was released on July 23, 2012.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blog/cis-statement-sccr24-libraries-archives">CIS's Statement on Exceptions & Limitations for Libraries and Archives</a>: Pranesh Prakash delivered the statement on the issue of exceptions and limitations for libraries and archives on July 25, 2012.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/wipo-sccr24-discussions-transcripts">Transcripts of Discussions at WIPO</a>: The proceedings were live streamed. Copies of the unedited transcripts are hosted for archival purposes.</li>
</ul>
<h3>International Press Coverage</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/us-support-sought-for-treaty-to-allow-blind-people-access-to-copyrighted">U.S. support sought for treaty to allow blind people access to copyrighted works</a> (Rama Lakshmi, Washington Post, July 24, 2012): “The vast majority of visually disabled people live in poor, developing countries where very little money is spent on converting books into accessible formats, while they are much more readily available elsewhere...The treaty would end the book famine that they currently face.” — Pranesh Prakash.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/us-and-eu-blocking-treaty">US and EU blocking treaty to give blind people access to books</a> (Paige McClanahan, The Guardian, July 30, 2012): “We in developing countries have found our voice and we are not going to back down. When people are demanding their basic rights, no power in the world is strong enough to stop them getting what they want.”— Rahul Cherian.</li>
</ul>
<h3>National Press Coverage</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/eu-stalls-treaty-talks-to-allow-copyright-waiver-for-print-disabilities">EU stalls treaty talks to allow copyright waiver for print disabilities</a> (The Hindu, Priscilla Jebaraj, July 25, 2012): “[The treaty] would allow organisations working for the blind to import and export accessible works without seeking the copyright holder's permission, since very little money is spent in developing countries on converting books into accessible formats, while they are much more readily available elsewhere.” — Pranesh Prakash.</li>
</ul>
<h2><a href="https://cis-india.org/accessibility">Accessibility</a></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">India has an estimated 70 million disabled persons who are unable to read printed materials due to some form of physical, sensory, cognitive or other disability. The disabled need accessible content, devices and interfaces facilitated via copyright law and electronic accessibility policies:</p>
<p><b>Blog Entry</b></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/accessibility/accessibility-audit-of-govt-websites">Accessibility of Government Websites in India — Test Results</a> </li>
</ul>
<h2><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness">Openness</a></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The 'Openness' programme critically examines alternatives to existing regimes of intellectual property rights, and transparency and accountability. Under this programme, we study Open Government Data, Open Access to Scholarly Literature, Open Access to Law, Open Content, Open Standards, and Free/Libre/Open Source Software:</p>
<p><b>Blog Entries</b></p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/unpacking-openness">Unpacking Openness: From Seemingly Transparent to Definitely Opaque</a>: Nishant Shah was in Netherlands recently and as part of his trip had given a public lecture to an audience at Kennisland. One of the respondents wrote a small write-up of the talk. This was originally <a href="http://www.kennisland.nl/filter/opinies/unpacking-openness-from-seemingly-transparent-to-definitely-opaqu">published</a> on the Kennisland website on July 25, 2012.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/blog/2012-conference-on-trends-in-knowledge-information-dynamics">2012 Conference on Trends in Knowledge Information Dynamics</a> (by Rebecca Schild): The 2012 Conference on Trends in Knowledge Information Dynamics convened a panel on Open Access. There was consensus amongst the panelist that the “big question” facing the open access movement no longer remains "if" or "why" open access, but rather "how" open access. The panel proved instructive for shifting the discussion away from ideology towards concrete questions facing the open access agenda and its implementation.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness/open-government-data-commitments-best-practices">Open Government Data</a> (by Pranesh Prakash): Pranesh Prakash provides an analysis of the chapter that CIS published in this report with Transparency & Accountability Initiative.</li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h3 style="text-align: left; ">Grant Award</h3>
<hr />
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/wikimedia-foundation-awards-grant-to-cis">Wikimedia Foundation awards grant to Centre for Internet and Society to expand Access to Knowledge in India</a>: Wikimedia Foundation has approved a grant to the Centre for Internet and Society to expand their Access to Knowledge program in India. This information was <a href="http://blog.wikimedia.org/2012/08/01/wikimedia-foundation-awards-grant-to-centre-for-internet-and-society-to-expand-access-to-knowledge-in-india/">published</a> by Barry Newstead, Chief Global Development Officer on the Wikimedia Foundation website on August 1, 2012.</li>
</ul>
<h2><a href="https://cis-india.org/digital-natives">Digital Natives</a></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Digital Natives with a Cause? examines the changing landscape of social change and political participation in light of the role that young people play through digital and Internet technologies, in emerging information societies. Consolidating knowledge from Asia, Africa and Latin America, it builds a global network of knowledge partners who critically engage with discourse on youth, technology and social change, and look at alternative practices and ideas in the Global South:</p>
<h3>Book Review</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/young-people-technology-new-literacies">Deconstructing Digital Natives: Young People, Technology and the New Literacies</a>: Nishant Shah was invited to do a book review of a new anthology 'Deconstructing Digital Natives', edited by Michael Thomas. The review was published in Routledge's Journal of Children and Media on July 18, 2012.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Digital Natives Newsletter</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/citizen-activism-the-past-decade">Citizen Activism the Past Decade</a>: The deadline for contribution to the Digital Natives newsletter expires on August 15. Nilofar Ansher gives a list of topics that contributors can explore in this blog entry.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Columns</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/across-borders">Across Borders</a> (Nishant Shah, Indian Express, July 5, 2012): “Digital Natives are not only a mobile-wielding generation, but also a mobile generation. They are fluid, not necessarily tied to the geographies of their origin, and often imagine themselves, as travelling across different networks and systems, like the information traffic on the internet. This dislocation of the fixity of where we are from and who we are is one of the most exciting results of the digital turn.”</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/revisiting-techno-euphoria">Revisiting Techno-euphoria</a> (Nishant Shah, DML Central, July 5, 2012): “The gadgets and tools we use are, actually, only material manifestations of the digital — which operates at the level of a paradigm or a context, through which we are slowly reshaping the material, social, and cultural notions of who we are and how we connect to the world around us.”</li>
</ul>
<h3>Event Participated</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/istr-conference">10th International ISTR Conference</a> (Universita Degli Studi Di Siena, Italy, July 10 – 13, 2012): Nishant Shah was a panelist in the session, "Theoretical Grounding of Civic Driven Change". He gave a public lecture on Beyond Normative Citizenships: Exploring the ‘New’ in Digital Activism.</li>
</ul>
<h2><a href="https://cis-india.org/telecom">Telecom</a></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">While the potential for growth and returns exist for telecommunications in India, a range of issues need to be addressed. One aspect is more extensive rural coverage and the other is a countrywide access to broadband which is low. Both require effective and efficient use of networks and resources, including spectrum:</p>
<h3>Building Knowledge and Capacity around Telecommunication Policy in India</h3>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Ford Foundation has given a grant of USD 200,000 to CIS to build expertise in the area of telecommunications in India. The following are the latest outputs:</p>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/telecom/telecom-knowledge-repository/fixed-line-telephones" class="external-link">Fixed Line Telephones</a> (by Jürgen Kock): This module discusses the features and the various stages of the development of fixed line telephones, its early history, the basic principle of a fixed line telephone system, plain old telephone service, digital telephones, cordless phones to today's features of fixed line telephones.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/telecom/telecom-knowledge-repository/video-communication" class="external-link">Different Forms of Video Communication</a> (by Tina Mani): In this module, Tina Mani takes us through some of the common forms of video communication such as video calling, video conferencing, telepresence and video sharing.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/telecom/telecom-knowledge-repository/broadband-policy-2004" class="external-link">Broadband Policy, 2004</a> (by Snehashish Ghosh): In this module, Snehashish Ghosh tells us that the Policy was laid down by the Government of India in order to realize the potential of broadband services. It aimed at enhancing the quality of life by implementation of tele-education, tele-medicine, e-governance, entertainment, etc. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/telecom/telecom-knowledge-repository/cable-television-networks-regulation-act" class="external-link">Cable Television Networks Regulation Act, 1955</a> (by Snehashish Ghosh): In this module, Snehashish examines the purpose of the legislation, the persons affected by it, the administrative bodies which come under the Act, the penalties (including the consequences in case of non-compliance), appeal process and the debates surrounding the legislation.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/telecom/telecom-knowledge-repository/indian-wireless-telegraphy-act" class="external-link">The Indian Wireless Telegraphy Act, 1933</a> (by Snehashish Ghosh): In this module, Snehashish Ghosh throws light on the main objective of the Act — that of regulating the possession of wireless telegraphy apparatus.</li>
</ul>
<h3>RTI Application</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/telecom/dot-response-to-rti-on-use-of-dpi-technology-by-isps">Use of DPI Technology by ISPs — Response by the Department of Telecommunications</a> : Smiti Mujumdar on behalf of CIS filed requests under the Right to Information with the Department of Telecommunications, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, BSNL and MTNL, asking a number of questions related to the use of Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) technology by Internet Service Providers (ISP) in India and corresponding regulations. A scanned version of the response from the Department of Telecommunications is <a href="https://cis-india.org/telecom/use-of-dpi-technology-by-isps.pdf">hosted online</a>.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Column in Business Standard</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/telecom/decision-analysis">Decision Analysis for Interest Rates</a> (Shyam Ponappa, Business Standard, July 5, 2012): The discipline of systematic evaluation through applying process-flow and decision analysis — in this example, of financial logic — can help make reasoned, practical decisions, whether for interest rates, or for resolving issues in power supply, or in telecommunications, spectrum and broadband. </li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h2 style="text-align: justify; ">About CIS</h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">CIS was registered as a society in Bangalore in 2008. As an independent, non-profit research organisation, it runs different policy research programmes such as Accessibility, Access to Knowledge, Openness, Internet Governance, and Telecom. Over the last four years our policy research programmes have resulted in outputs such as the <a href="https://cis-india.org/advocacy/accessibility/blog/e-accessibility-handbook">e-Accessibility Policy Handbook for Persons with Disabilities</a> with ITU and G3ict, and <span><a href="https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/front-page/blog/dnbook">Digital Alternatives with a Cause?</a></span>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/front-page/blog/position-papers">Thinkathon Position Papers</a> and the <a href="https://cis-india.org/digital-natives/front-page/blog/digital-natives-with-a-cause-a-report">Digital Natives with a Cause? Report</a> with Hivos. With the Government of India we have done policy research for Ministry of Communications & Information Technology, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, etc., on <a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blog/cis-analysis-july2011-treaty-print-disabilities">WIPO Treaties</a>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/blog/analysis-copyright-amendment-bill-2012">Copyright Bill</a>, <a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance/front-page/blog/cis-feedback-to-nia-bill">NIA Bill</a>, etc.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">CIS is an accredited NGO at WIPO and has given policy briefs to delegations from various countries, our Programme Manager, Nirmita Narasimhan won the <a href="https://cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/national-award">National Award for Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities</a> from the Government of India and also received the <span><a href="https://cis-india.org/news/nirmita-nivh-award">NIVH Excellence Award</a></span>.</p>
<p><b>Follow us elsewhere</b></p>
<ul>
<li>Get short, timely messages from us on Twitter</li>
<li>Join the CIS group on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/groups/28535315687/">Facebook</a></li>
<li>Visit us at <a href="https://cis-india.org/">http://cis-india.org</a></li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><i>CIS is grateful to its donors, Ford Foundation, Privacy International, UK, Hans Foundation and the Kusuma Trust which was founded by Anurag Dikshit and Soma Pujari, philanthropists of Indian origin, for its core funding and support for most of its projects.</i></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/july-2012-bulletin'>https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/july-2012-bulletin</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaAccess to KnowledgeDigital NativesTelecomAccessibilityInternet GovernanceOpenness2012-10-09T11:46:15ZPageUS and EU blocking treaty to give blind people access to books
https://cis-india.org/news/us-and-eu-blocking-treaty
<b>Copyright fears stall talks on books being translated into braille for blind and visually impaired people in the global south.</b>
<hr />
<p>This article by Paige McClanahan was <a class="external-link" href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2012/jul/30/us-eu-blocking-treaty-blind-books">published</a> in the Guardian on July 30, 2012. Rahul Cherian, a Fellow at CIS is quoted.</p>
<hr />
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The US and the EU are blocking a treaty that would give the world's blind and visually impaired people – 90% of whom live in the developing world – easier access to published works in formats they can use.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">A "treaty for blind people" has been under discussion at the <a href="http://www.wipo.int/portal/index.html.en">World Intellectual Property Organisation</a> (Wipo) since 2008, but negotiations have made little progress. In the latest round of talks in Geneva, which ended on Wednesday 25 July, negotiators deferred a decision on the issue once again, to the dismay of activists.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">"This is not just a legal issue – for us, this is a moral issue. It's about human rights," said Teresa Hackett, programme manager at Electronic Information for Libraries, a non-profit group based in the Netherlands.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">There are about 256 million visually impaired people in the developing world, <a href="http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs282/en/">according to an estimate by the World Health Organisation.</a> In many rich countries, blind people have ready access to works that have been translated into braille and other accessible formats such as audio and large-print books, although, according to the EU, only 5% of books are accessible to blind people in wealthy states.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">However, under existing copyright law, poorer countries can't access those translations without getting the express permission of the copyright holder. Few developing country governments have managed to do that, meaning that their blind and visually impaired populations are left with barely anything to read. The EU estimates that less than 1% of books are accessible to blind people in poorer countries.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">"The Spanish organisation Once has well over 100,000 [translated] books that they would like to send to Latin American countries, but they can't simply because of this copyright barrier," said Dan Pescod of the<a href="http://www.rnib.org.uk/Pages/Home.aspx">Royal National Institute of Blind People</a>. Libraries in five Latin American countries – Colombia, Nicaragua, Mexico, Uruguay and Chile – have fewer than 9,000 accessible books between them, he said.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">A treaty at WIPO could change that. A binding agreement would mean people in the global south could get immediate access to books that have already been translated into accessible formats in other countries. A treaty would also lead to enormous cost savings, as expensive translation has to be replicated in every country that wants to produce an accessible form of a given book.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The European parliament <a href="http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/pressroom/content/20120216IPR38346/html/Binding-rules-to-ensure-blind-people%27s-access-to-books">passed a resolution in February</a> calling on the EU to support a binding treaty for the blind, but it does not appear to be having much impact. "The EU and the Americans are blocking the treaty – that's what's going on," said James Love, director of <a href="http://keionline.org/">Knowledge Ecology International</a> (KEI). "It's shameful what they're doing." He added that the administration of President Barack Obama has changed its position on the treaty over the past few years. In 2008 Obama's transition team were making positive noises, but since then the administration has become less enthusiastic.<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/europe-news" title="More from guardian.co.uk on Europe"></a></p>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/europe-news" title="More from guardian.co.uk on Europe">Europe</a> and the US are home to some of the world's biggest publishing companies, many of which don't like the idea of an international treaty that would restrict their intellectual property rights. Observers speculate that the Obama administration may be loth to upset the publishing industry, a major campaign supporter, this late in an election year. "What we can see in the [negotiating] room is that primarily it's the business interests that dominate," said Hackett.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Activists are hoping for a legally binding treaty, but US and European delegates have been pushing for a softer "instrument" that would offer only guidelines and recommendations.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">"We really don't want to establish a precedent of developing a series of treaties that specifically focus on … limitations and exceptions to the rights of copyright owners," said Alan Adler of the Association of American Publishers, in an <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxVcmOwBAsY">online interview with KEI</a>. Discussions are due to begin again in November, after the US election.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Despite the setback, activists insist they will keep lobbying for a binding treaty. "We in developing countries have found our voice and we are not going to back down," said Rahul Cherian, of <a href="http://www.inclusiveplanet.com/en/login?destination=node%2F241416%27">Inclusive Planet,</a> an Indian nonprofit, in a statement to Wipo delegates last week. "When people are demanding their basic rights, no power in the world is strong enough to stop them getting what they want."</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/news/us-and-eu-blocking-treaty'>https://cis-india.org/news/us-and-eu-blocking-treaty</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaAccessibilityAccess to KnowledgeWIPO2012-08-02T13:56:36ZNews ItemU.S. support sought for treaty to allow blind people access to copyrighted works
https://cis-india.org/news/us-support-sought-for-treaty-to-allow-blind-people-access-to-copyrighted
<b>Advocates of visual disability groups from across the world urged the United States to get off the fence at the global copyright negotiations in Geneva this week and actively back a strong treaty that allows blind people access to copyrighted published works.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">This article by Rama Lakshmi was <a class="external-link" href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/us-support-sought-for-treaty-to-allow-blind-people-access-to-copyrighted-works/2012/07/23/gJQAR0Hr4W_story.html">published</a> in the Washington Post on July 24, 2012. Pranesh Prakash is quoted.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The proposed treaty would make it obligatory for countries to allow copyrighted printed published works to be converted into an accessible format for people with visual and reading disabilities and shared around the world without seeking permission from the copyright holder.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The United States and European Union agree in principle to disability access but are not committed to a legally binding global treaty. Disability advocates at the ongoing negotiations of the United Nations agency, <a class="external-link" href="http://www.wipo.int/edocs/mdocs/copyright/en/sccr_23/sccr_23_7.pdf">the World Intellectual Property Organization</a>, say that if the U.S. backs their demand, the European Union will automatically fall in line.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">“The American publishers industry, comprising of the publishing giants, does not want it to be a treaty and only want it to be a set of recommendations,” said James Love, director of the Washington-based nonprofit group <a class="external-link" href="http://keionline.org/">Knowledge Ecology International</a> that is part of the campaign in Geneva. “The U.S. has the biggest collection of accessible English language books. It all boils down to the American government’s will. Do you or do you not believe that the American libraries should cooperate with blind people in other parts of the world?”</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">But American publishers say they are opposed to a treaty that has the potential to set the stage for similar exceptions and limitations to the rights of copyright owners in other areas as well.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">“We are not against allowing an exception for people with print disabilities, but our concern is that a treaty will establish a precedent that they will then apply in the other areas like educational uses, library and archives,” said <a class="external-link" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxVcmOwBAsY">Allan Adler, vice president of legal and government affairs at the Association of American Publishers</a> in a telephone interview. “Generally, international treaties establish the minimal rights of the copyright owners first, and not the limitations and exceptions to those rights.”</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Adler’s view was echoed in what a U.S. delegate, Justin Hughes, told negotiators in Geneva on Thursday: “We do not accept any form of linkage between the effort on behalf of the world’s print disabled people and any other project. To us, such a linkage between the print disabilities effort and an effort for business affairs would be unprincipled, it would be unethical, and the United States will not have any part of it.”</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The U.S. government also is advocating a softer, nonbinding alternative to a legally binding treaty, delegates in Geneva say.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">But many disability rights groups say mere recommendations place no obligations and would be toothless.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Disability advocates say that the needs of visually impaired people are being neglected in this battle over what legal shape the agreement ultimately takes.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">“The lack of access to information and knowledge is central to the debate about exclusion of visually impaired people,” said George Abraham of <a class="external-link" href="http://scorefoundation.org.in/">Score Foundation</a>, a New Delhi-based group that supports the campaign to produce a treaty.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Time is running out, advocates of the treaty say. The negotiations began as early as 1981 but have now reached a conclusive stage that could result in a treaty by next year. The Geneva discussions end Wednesday, and lack of consensus this week would put off the negotiations to 2014. By then, most negotiators would have moved on, treaty supporters say.<br /><br />This urgency has driven developing nations like India to take a strong stand. While the exact number is uncertain, experts agree that India has a high proportion of the world’s blind population, with estimates ranging from one-quarter to one-half. G.R. Raghavender, who represents the Indian government at the negotiations, said the Indian delegation “will not return empty-handed.”<br /><br />Earlier this year, India passed key amendments to its domestic copyrights law to permit people with visual disabilities to freely convert text material into an accessible format. But only a global treaty can allow visually disabled Indians to import and use accessible books without taking permission from the copyright-holder.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">“The vast majority of visually disabled people live in poor, developing countries where very little money is spent on converting books into accessible formats, while they are much more readily available elsewhere,” said Pranesh Prakash, a lawyer at the Center for Internet and Society. “The treaty would end the book famine that they currently face.”</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/news/us-support-sought-for-treaty-to-allow-blind-people-access-to-copyrighted'>https://cis-india.org/news/us-support-sought-for-treaty-to-allow-blind-people-access-to-copyrighted</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaAccessibilityAccess to Knowledge2012-08-01T09:44:47ZNews ItemWIPO SCCR 24 Post-lunch Text (July 25, 2012)
https://cis-india.org/a2k/2012-07-25_sccr24_post-lunch.txt
<b>This is an unedited rough transcript of the discussions at SCCR 24, which was live-streamed and made available by WIPO.</b>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/2012-07-25_sccr24_post-lunch.txt'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/2012-07-25_sccr24_post-lunch.txt</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaAccess to KnowledgeWIPO2012-07-31T12:34:00ZFileWIPO SCCR 24 Post-lunch Text (July 24, 2012)
https://cis-india.org/a2k/2012-07-24_sccr24_post-lunch.txt
<b>This is an unedited rough transcript of the discussions at SCCR 24, which was live-streamed and made available by WIPO.</b>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/2012-07-24_sccr24_post-lunch.txt'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/2012-07-24_sccr24_post-lunch.txt</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaAccess to KnowledgeWIPO2012-07-31T12:13:25ZFileCIS's Statement at SCCR 24 on Exceptions & Limitations for Libraries and Archives
https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/cis-statement-sccr24-libraries-archives
<b>This was the statement delivered by Pranesh Prakash on Wednesday, July 25, 2012, at the 24th session of the WIPO Standing Committee on Copyrights and Related Rights on the issue of exceptions and limitations for libraries and archives.</b>
<p>Thank you, Mr. Chair.</p>
<p>We would like to associate ourselves with the statements made by International Federation of Library Associations, Electronic Information for Libraries, Knowledge Ecology International, Conseil International des Archives, Library Copyright Alliance, Computer and Communications Industry Association, and the Canadian Library Association.</p>
<p>The Centre for Internet and Society would like to commend this house for adopting SCCR/23/8 as a working document on the issue of exceptions and limitations on libraries and archives. This issue is of paramount interest the world over, and particularly in developing countries. I would like to limit my oral intervention to three quick points, and will send a longer statement in via e-mail.</p>
<p>First, we feel that this committee should pay special attention to ensuring that digital works and online libraries and archives such as the Internet Archive, also receive the same protection as brick-and-mortar libraries.</p>
<p>Second, we are concerned that we have been seeing some delegations advancing a very narrow interpretation of the three-step test. Such a narrow interpretation is not supported by leading academics, nor by practices of member states. A narrow interpretation of the three-step test must be squarely rejected. In particular, I would like to associate CIS with the strong statements by IFLA and KEI to maintain flexibilities within exceptions and limitations, instead of overly prescriptive provisions encumbered by weighty procedures and specifications.</p>
<p>We have comments about parallel trade as well, drawing from our experience and research in India, and will send those in writing.</p>
<p>Libraries and archive enhance the value of the copyrighted works that they preserve and provide to the general public. They do not erode it. Exceptions and limitations that help them actually help copyright holders. The sooner copyright holders try not to muzzle libraries, especially when it comes to out-of-commerce works, electronic copies of works, and in developing countries, the better it will be for them, their commercial interests, as well as the global public interest.</p>
<p>Thank you.</p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/cis-statement-sccr24-libraries-archives'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/cis-statement-sccr24-libraries-archives</a>
</p>
No publisherpraneshAccess to KnowledgeCopyrightFair DealingsIntellectual Property RightsArchivesWIPO2012-07-25T10:54:38ZBlog EntryEU stalls treaty talks to allow copyright waiver for print disabilities
https://cis-india.org/news/eu-stalls-treaty-talks-to-allow-copyright-waiver-for-print-disabilities
<b>India and other developing countries support such a legally binding treaty, writes Priscilla Jebaraj in an article published in the Hindu on July 25, 2012. Pranesh Prakash is quoted.</b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The European Union is holding up a treaty to allow books and other printed works to be converted into a format accessible to the visually impaired and other print disabled people without seeking the permission of the copyright holder.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">India, and most other developing countries, strongly support such a legally binding treaty currently being negotiated at a World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) meeting in Geneva. However, non-governmental organisation sources at that summit say that the EU is stalling the treaty by placing unreasonable restrictions on how copyrighted works are to be converted, and by whom. The EU office in Delhi and Brussels did not respond to a request for comment on their position.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">"[The treaty] would allow organisations working for the blind to import and export accessible works without seeking the copyright holder's permission, since very little money is spent in developing countries on converting books into accessible formats, while they are much more readily available elsewhere," according to Pranesh Prakash of the Bangalore-based Centre for Internet and Society who is attending the summit as an NGO member. If the treaty is not finalised by Wednesday, when the meeting ends, disabled people could be forced to wait till 2014 for their next chance.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Last week, Indian delegate G.R. Raghavender pleaded with negotiators to finalise the treaty without further delay "so that we won't go back, especially the Indian delegation won't go back empty-handed, facing the 15 million blind people in India, which is almost 50 percent of the world blind population, that is 37 million."</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In fact, the treaty will benefit a much larger group of print-disabled, including those who suffer from motor disabilities which prevent them from holding a book, or learning disabilities such as dyslexia, or autism, which make it hard to read. There are approximately 70 million print-disabled people in India.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Accessible formats would include Braille, electronic text and audio versions of books, making Western publishers' jittery about piracy fears. Hence, some countries are demanding stringent tracking mechanisms and legal requirements that activists say will effectively block access to disabled people in developing countries — where more than 85 per cent of them live.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">"An instrument that subjects the enjoyment of fundamental freedoms by persons with visual impairments to market forces and bureaucratic practices will not work," Mr. Prakash said, in his statement to WIPO delegates. "In India, our Parliament recently passed an amendment to our copyright law that grants persons with disabilities, and those who are working for them, a strong yet simply-worded right to have equal access to copyrighted works as sighted persons."</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">In fact, the EU Parliament had given its unanimous approval to the treaty in February 2012. "It would be a democratic travesty if the EU’s representatives here today posed any problems to a clear road map for a binding international treaty, especially by posing unrealistic proposals with regards to authorised entities and other issues very far from consensus positions in the WIPO and in clear contradiction with the aims of the World Blind Union," said David Hammerstein, a representative of American and European consumer organisations, making a statement at the Geneva meeting.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Read the original published in the <a class="external-link" href="http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article3679662.ece">Hindu</a></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/news/eu-stalls-treaty-talks-to-allow-copyright-waiver-for-print-disabilities'>https://cis-india.org/news/eu-stalls-treaty-talks-to-allow-copyright-waiver-for-print-disabilities</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaIntellectual Property RightsAccess to KnowledgeWIPO2012-07-25T09:37:25ZNews ItemOctober 2011 Bulletin
https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/october-2011-bulletin
<b>Welcome to the Centre for Internet and Society newsletter! In this issue we bring you the updates of our research, events, media coverage and videos of some past events organized by us during October 2011.</b>
<h2><a href="https://cis-india.org/digital-natives">Digital Natives</a></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Digital Natives with a Cause? examines the changing landscape of social change and political participation in light of the role that young people play through digital and Internet technologies, in emerging information societies. Consolidating knowledge from Asia, Africa and Latin America, it builds a global network of knowledge partners who critically engage with discourse on youth, technology and social change, and look at alternative practices and ideas in the Global South:</p>
<h3 align="LEFT">Key Research</h3>
<ul>
<li>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/digital-natives/front-page/blog/digital-natives-and-politics-in-asia">On Fooling Around: Digital Natives and Politics in Asia</a><br />by Nishant Shah, Director-Research<br />Youths are not only actively participating in the politics of its times but also changing the way in which we understand the political processes of mobilisation, participation and transformation, writes Nishant. The paper was presented at the Digital Cultures in Asia conference at the Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<h3 align="LEFT">Links in the Chain</h3>
<ul>
<li>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/digital-natives/volume-8-issue-4.pdf">Analog Relics in the Digital Age</a>, volume 8, issue 4<br />Guest Editor: Nilofar Ansher<br />“The scale of inventions has not really leaped, so much as mutated. We had Twitter and Facebook ... (remember notice boards, community centers and pamphlets); they just weren’t so instant, hyperlinked and global in scale. We still use the medium of a mouthpiece and speaker to talk to each other long distance, the difference is in the changed aesthetics of the 21st century – it’s all squarish curves and scratch-proof glass that are more appealing today. Blackboards, writing material, listening devices and memory aids have undergone unprecedented transformations of function and usage, but it’s still about having a blank canvas to write upon with a chalk, pen, paper or iClick”, writes Nilofar in this issue of the Digital Natives newsletter.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<h3 align="LEFT">Articles/Columns</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/digital-natives/in-search-of-the-other-decoding-digital-natives">In Search of the Other: Decoding Digital Natives</a>: Nishant Shah charts the trajectories of our research at the Centre for Internet and Society (Bangalore, India) and Hivos (The Hague, The Netherlands) to see how alternative models of understanding these relationships can be built. This blog post by Nishant Shah was published in DML central on 24 October 2011. </li>
</ul>
<ol> </ol>
<h3>Staff Quoted in the Media<a href="http://www.cis-india.org/news/write-stuff"></a></h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/news/write-stuff">The Write Stuff</a><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/news/write-stuff"> </a>, Deccan Chronicle, 14 November 2011. Nishant Shah has been quoted in this article.</li>
</ul>
<h2><a href="https://cis-india.org/accessibility" class="external-link">Accessibility</a></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">India has an estimated 70 million disabled persons who are unable to read printed materials due to some form of physical, sensory, cognitive or other disability. The disabled need accessible content, devices and interfaces facilitated via copyright law and electronic accessibility policies:</p>
<h3>Publication</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/accessibility/e-accessibility-handbook-in-russian">e-Accessibility Policy Handbook for Persons with Disabilities</a> (Russian Version)<br />Edited by Nirmita Narasimhan<br />The e-Accessibility Policy Handbook for Persons with Disabilities is now available in Russian. The handbook is a joint publication of ITU, G3ict and the Centre for Internet and Society, in cooperation with the Hans Foundation. Dr. Hamadoun I. Toure, Secretary-General, International Telecommunication Union wrote the preface, Dr. Sami Al-Basheer, Director, ITU-D wrote the introduction and Axel Leblois, Executive Director, G3ict wrote the foreword.</li>
</ul>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Blog Entry</h3>
<ul>
<li>
<p><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/accessibility/accessible-banking">The case for Accessible Banking</a> by Dinesh Kaushal.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<h2><a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k" class="external-link">Access to Knowledge</a></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The Access to Knowledge programme addresses the harms caused to consumers, developing countries, human rights, and creativity/innovation from excessive regimes of copyright, patents, and other such monopolistic rights over knowledge:</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Key Research</h3>
<ul>
<li>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/a2k/jesters-clowns-pranksters">Of Jesters, Clowns and Pranksters: YouTube and the Condition of Collaborative Authorship</a><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/a2k/jesters-clowns-pranksters"> </a><br />by Nishant Shah, Director-Research, Centre for Internet and Society<br />The idea of a single author creating cinematic objects in a well-controlled scheme of support system and production/distribution infrastructure has been fundamentally challenged by the emergence of digital video sharing sites like YouTube, writes Nishant in this essay published in the Journal of Moving Images.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<h2><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness" class="external-link">Openness</a></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The 'Openness' programme critically examines alternatives to existing regimes of intellectual property rights, and transparency and accountability. Under this programme, we study Open Government Data, Open Access to Scholarly Literature, Open Access to Law, Open Content, Open Standards, and Free/Libre/Open Source Software:</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Featured Research</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/openness/blog/know-your-users">Know Your Users, Match their Needs!</a><br />As Free Access to Law initiatives in the Global South enter into a new stage of maturity, they must be certain not to lose sight of their users’ needs. This blog post gives a summary of the “Good Practices Handbook”, a research output of the collaborative project Free Access to Law — Is it Here to Stay? undertaken by LexUM (Canada) and the South African Legal Institute in partnership with the Centre for Internet and Society. Rebecca Schild and Prashant Iyengar from CIS were part of the research team.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Event Organised</h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/openness/events/open-access-to-academic-knowledge-at-the-iisc">Open Access to Academic Knowledge</a><span>, organised by the Indian Institute of Science and CIS</span><span> at National Centre for Science Information, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore on 2 November 2011. Tom Dane participated in this event.</span></li>
</ul>
<h3>Event Participated</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/news/canadian-science-policy-conference">3rd Canadian Science Policy Conference</a>, organised by Canadian Science Policy Conference from16 to 18 November 2011 at the Ottawa Convention Centre. Sunil Abraham spoke in the session on Global Implications of Open and Inclusive Innovation.</li>
</ul>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Announcement</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/news/announcement-of-wikimedia-india-program-trust">The Wikimedia India Program Trust</a>. A new entity, the “Wikimedia India Program Trust”, has been registered in Delhi. Sunil is a trustee.</li>
</ul>
<h2><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance">Internet Governance</a></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The Internet Governance programme conducts research around the various social, technical, and political underpinnings of global and national Internet governance, and includes online privacy, freedom of speech, and Internet governance mechanisms and processes:</p>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Comments / Submissions</h3>
<ul>
<li>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/internet-governance/comments-on-finance-committee-statements">CIS Comments on Finance Committee Statements to Open Letters on Unique Identity</a>: The Parliamentary Finance Committee responded to the six open letters sent by CIS through an email on 12 October 2011. CIS has commented on the points raised by the Committee.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/internet-governance/comments-national-policy-information-technology">Comments on the National Policy of Information Technology</a>: The NPIT 2011 has the laudable goal of making India a ‘knowledge economy with a global role’ by developing and deploying ICT solutions in all sectors to foster development within India and at a global level. CIS appreciates this initiative of the Department of Information Technology and offers brief comments to strengthen the draft.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/internet-governance/comments-draft-national-policy-on-electronics">CIS Comments on the Draft National Policy on Electronics</a>: CIS submitted its comments to the request for comments put out by the Department of Information Technology on its draft 'National Policy on Electronics'.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<h3>Statement</h3>
<ul>
<li>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/india-statement-un-cirp">India's Statement Proposing UN Committee for Internet-Related Policy</a>: India made its statement at the 66th session of the United Nations General Assembly, its proposal for the UN Committee for Internet-Related Policy was presented.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<h3>Podcast</h3>
<ul>
<li>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/openness/professor-balaram-talks-open-access">Professor Balaram talks Open Access</a> : Tom Dane spoke with Professor P Balaram, Director of the Indian Institute of Science about the Open Access movement. A podcast of the interview is available for download.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<h3>Event Report</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/internet-governance/ijlt-cis-lecture-series-report">The 2nd IJLT-CIS Lecture Series — A Post-event Report</a> : The 2nd IJLT-CIS Lecture Series was organised by the Indian Journal of Law and Technology and CIS on the 21st and 22nd of May 2011 at the National Law School of India University, Nagarbhavi, Bangalore. The main theme for this year was Emerging Issues in Privacy Law: Law, Policy and Practice.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Peer Review</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/internet-governance/material-cyborgs-asserted-boundaries">Material Cyborgs; Asserted Boundaries</a><br />by Nishant Shah, Director-Research <br />Nishant explores the possibility of formulating the cyborg as an author or translator who is able to navigate between the different binaries of ‘meat–machine’, ‘digital–physical’, and ‘body–self’, using the abilities and the capabilities learnt in one system in an efficient and effective understanding of the other. The essay was published in the European Journal of English Studies, Volume 12, Issue 2.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Articles / Columns</h3>
<ul>
<li>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/internet-governance/what-is-dilligaf">What is Dilligaf?</a> On the web, time moves at the speed of thought: Groups emerge, proliferate and are abandoned as new trends and fads take precedence. Nowhere else is this dramatic flux as apparent as in the language that evolves online. While SMS lingo – like TTYL (Talk To You Later) and LOL (Laughing Out Loud)– has endured and become a part of everyday language, new forms of speech are taking over. This article by Nishant Shah was published in GQ India.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/news/book-of-jobs">The Book of Jobs</a> The man who made the computer personal, who changed the face of the digital media industry, who was inspired by Zen philosophy to create an eight-billion-dollar empire, Steve Jobs, died last month. Just a few weeks before his death, in the midst of his painful illness, he told Walter Isaacson, the man chosen to write his authorised biography, “I really want to believe that something survives”. And Isaacson wrote him a fairy tale which will make sure that Jobs will be remembered beyond the gizmos and gimmicks, writes Nishant Shah in this article published in the Indian Express on 12 November 2011.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<h3 align="LEFT">Staff Quoted in the Media<a href="http://www.cis-india.org/news/facebook-tracking-footprints"></a></h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/news/facebook-tracking-footprints">Is Facebook tracking your virtual footprints?</a> by Sheetal Sukhija in MidDay, 22 November 2011. Sunil Abraham was quoted in this article.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/news/m-governance">M-governance gains momentum</a> by Vasudha Venugopal in the Hindu, 20 November 2011.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/internet-governance/learn-it-yourself">Learn it Yourself</a>: The peer-to-peer world of online learning encourages conversations and reciprocal learning, writes Nishant Shah. The article was published by the Indian Express on 30 October 2011. Nishant Shah is quoted in this article.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/news/bill-could-kill-internet">SOPA: The bill that could kill the Internet</a> by Suw Charman-Anderson in Firstpost.Technology, 16 November 2011.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/news/broadband-long-way-to-go">Broadband user base still has a long way to go</a>, by Leslie D’Monte & Deepti Chaudhary in Livemint, 15 November 2011. Sunil Abraham has been quoted in this article.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/news/maids-guards-get-fingerprinted">Not mandatory’ but maids, guards get fingerprinted</a> by Hemanth Kashyap in Bangalore Mirror, 9 November 2011. Sunil Abraham has been quoted in this article.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/news/netizen-report">Netizen Report: Transparency Edition</a> by Rebecca MacKinnon in Global Voices Online, 7 November 2011.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/news/blocking-content-google-gets-more-requests">Blocking online content: Google gets more requests than govt</a> by Pallavi Polanki in Firstpost.com, 2 November 2011. Pranesh Prakash has been quoted in this article.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
</ul>
<h3 align="LEFT">Blog Entries<a href="http://www.cis-india.org/internet-governance/sources-cis-funding"></a></h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/internet-governance/sources-cis-funding">Sources of CIS Funding</a> by Pranesh Prakash on 9 November 2011.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>
<p align="LEFT"><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/internet-governance/p2p-throttling-and-dns-hijacking">TRAI urged to take action against P2P throttling and DNS hijacking</a> by Anand on 9 November 2011.</p>
</li>
</ul>
<h3>Events Organised</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/internet-governance/art-activism"><span>Exposing Data: Art Slash Activism</span></a><span> organised by Tactical Tech and CIS at CIS office in Bangalore on 28 November 2011. Ward Smith and Stephanie Hankey (Co-founders of TTC), Ayisha Abraham (Filmmaker, Srishti School of Art Design) and Zainab Bawa (Research Fellow, CIS) gave a lecture.</span><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/internet-governance/events/droidcon-india"><span></span></a></li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/internet-governance/events/droidcon-india"><span>Droidcon India, first Android Conference in Bangalore</span></a><span>, organised by CIS in collaboration with Droidcon.com, Bangalore Android User Group, MobileMonday Bangalore and Android Advices on 18 and 19 November 2011 at the MLR Convention Centre, Bangalore.</span></li>
</ul>
<h3 align="LEFT">Events Participated<a href="http://www.cis-india.org/news/bio-diversity-informatics-workshop"></a></h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/news/bio-diversity-informatics-workshop">Western Ghats Portal: Workshop on Biodiversity Informatics</a> organised by the Western Ghats Portal team at the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and Environment, 25 November 2011. Sunil Abraham spoke in the session on Scientific Commons and Policy.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/news/names-not-numbers">Names Not Numbers Mumbai</a>, 26 November 2011. Nishant Shah spoke in a panel on “The New Digital Individual: Is New Technology Liberating or Enslaving?”. The event was organised by Editorial Intelligence and partners which included the British Council and Financial Times, BBC World News, Mumbai first, Vodafone, Trident and Godrej India Cultural Lab.</li>
</ul>
<h3 align="LEFT">Video<a href="http://www.cis-india.org/events/facebook-resistance"></a></h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/events/facebook-resistance">Facebook Resistance Workshop at CIS</a><span>. This was a workshop for people to learn on how to think beyond the rules and limitations of Facebook, to tweak and play around the features and design to generate useful, creative, and funny concepts and explore how this creative intervention can be turned into a real software developed by the Facebook Resistance.</span></li>
</ul>
<h2><a href="https://cis-india.org/telecom">Telecom</a></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">While the potential for growth and returns exist for telecommunications in India, a range of issues need to be addressed. One aspect is more extensive rural coverage and the other is a countrywide access to broadband which is low. Both require effective and efficient use of networks and resources, including spectrum:</p>
<h3 align="LEFT">Article / Column<a href="http://www.cis-india.org/telecom/telecom-path-breaker"></a></h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/telecom/telecom-path-breaker">Telecom Path-Breaker?</a><br />Does the draft National Telecom Policy-2011 reflect true brilliance or smoke-and-mirrors? It will be a game-changer if a shared network is implemented effectively, writes Shyam Ponappa in this article published in the Business Standard on 3 November 2011.</li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h3><b>Follow us elsewhere</b></h3>
<ul>
<li>Get short, timely messages from us on <a href="https://cis-india.org/">Twitter</a></li>
<li>Join the CIS group on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/groups/28535315687/">Facebook</a></li>
<li>Visit our website <a href="https://cis-india.org/">here</a></li>
</ul>
<p align="LEFT"><i>CIS is grateful to Kusuma Trust which was founded by Anurag Dikshit and Soma Pujari, philanthropists of Indian origin, for its core funding and support for most of its projects.</i></p>
<ul>
</ul>
<ul>
</ul>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/october-2011-bulletin'>https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/october-2011-bulletin</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaAccess to KnowledgeDigital NativesTelecomAccessibilityInternet GovernanceOpenness2012-07-25T04:53:06ZPageWIPO SCCR 24 Pre-lunch Text (July 24, 2012)
https://cis-india.org/a2k/2012-07-24-sccr-24-pre-lunch.txt
<b>This is a rough transcript of the WIPO-SCCR discussions. </b>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/2012-07-24-sccr-24-pre-lunch.txt'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/2012-07-24-sccr-24-pre-lunch.txt</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaIntellectual Property RightsCopyrightAccess to KnowledgeWIPO2012-07-25T03:51:38ZFileWIPO SCCR 24 Pre-lunch Text (July 23, 2012)
https://cis-india.org/a2k/2012-07-23-sccr-24-pre-lunch.txt
<b>This is a rough transcript of the WIPO-SCCR discussions. </b>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/2012-07-23-sccr-24-pre-lunch.txt'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/2012-07-23-sccr-24-pre-lunch.txt</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaIntellectual Property RightsCopyrightAccess to KnowledgeWIPO2012-07-25T03:44:21ZFileNovember 2011 Bulletin
https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/november-2011-bulletin
<b>Welcome to the Centre for Internet and Society newsletter! In this issue we bring you the updates of our research, events, media coverage and videos of some past events organized by us during the month of November 2011.</b>
<h2><a href="https://cis-india.org/digital-natives" class="external-link"><b>Digital Natives with a Cause?</b></a></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Digital Natives with a Cause? examines the changing landscape of social change and political participation in light of the role that young people play through digital and Internet technologies, in emerging information societies. Consolidating knowledge from Asia, Africa and Latin America, it builds a global network of knowledge partners who critically engage with discourse on youth, technology and social change, and look at alternative practices and ideas in the Global South:</p>
<h3>Key Research</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/digital-natives/front-page/blog/digital-natives-and-politics-in-asia" target="_blank">On Fooling Around: Digital Natives and Politics in Asia</a><br /> by Nishant Shah, Director-Research<br /> Youths are not only actively participating in the politics of its times but also changing the way in which we understand the political processes of mobilisation, participation and transformation, writes Nishant. The paper was presented at the Digital Cultures in Asia conference at the Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Links in the Chain</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/digital-natives/volume-8-issue-4.pdf" target="_blank">Analog Relics in the Digital Age</a>, volume 8, issue 4<br /> Guest Editor: Nilofar Ansher<br /> “The scale of inventions has not really leaped, so much as mutated. We had Twitter and Facebook ... (remember notice boards, community centers and pamphlets); they just weren’t so instant, hyperlinked and global in scale. We still use the medium of a mouthpiece and speaker to talk to each other long distance, the difference is in the changed aesthetics of the 21st century – it’s all squarish curves and scratch-proof glass that are more appealing today. Blackboards, writing material, listening devices and memory aids have undergone unprecedented transformations of function and usage, but it’s still about having a blank canvas to write upon with a chalk, pen, paper or iClick”, writes Nilofar in this issue of the Digital Natives newsletter.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Articles/Columns <a href="http://www.cis-india.org/digital-natives/in-search-of-the-other-decoding-digital-natives" target="_blank"></a></h3>
<ul>
</ul>
<ol> </ol>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/digital-natives/in-search-of-the-other-decoding-digital-natives" target="_blank">In Search of the Other: Decoding Digital Natives</a>: Nishant Shah charts the trajectories of our research at the Centre for Internet and Society (Bangalore, India) and Hivos (The Hague, The Netherlands) to see how alternative models of understanding these relationships can be built. This blog post by Nishant Shah was published in DML central on 24 October 2011.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Staff Quoted in the Media <a href="http://www.cis-india.org/news/write-stuff" target="_blank"></a></h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/news/write-stuff" target="_blank">The Write Stuff</a>, Deccan Chronicle, 14 November 2011. Nishant Shah has been quoted in this article.</li>
</ul>
<ol> </ol>
<h2><b>Pathways for Learning in Higher Education</b></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The Pathways Project for Learning in Higher Education is a collaboration between the Higher Education Innovation and Research Applications (HEIRA) at the Centre for the Study of Culture and Society (CSCS) and the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS). The project is supported by the Ford Foundation and works with disadvantaged students in 9 undergraduate colleges in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Kerala, to explore relationships between Technologies, Higher Education and the new forms of social justice in India.</p>
<h3>Article Published by the Media</h3>
<ul>
</ul>
<ol> </ol>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/digital-natives/pathways/learn-it" target="_blank">Learn it Yourself</a>: The peer-to-peer world of online learning encourages conversations and reciprocal learning, writes Nishant Shah. The article was published by the Indian Express on 30 October 2011.</p>
<h3>Video of Event Participated</h3>
<ul>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/digital-natives/pathways/mobility-shifts-2011" target="_blank">Mobility Shifts 2011 — An International Future of Learning Summit</a>: The summit was organised by the New School and sponsored by MacArthur Foundation and Mozilla. It was held from October 10 to October 16, 2011 at the New School, New York City. Nishant Shah participated in the summit and spoke on Digital Outcasts: Social Justice, Technology and Learning in India. The video of the event is online.</li>
</ul>
<ol> </ol>
<h2><a href="https://cis-india.org/accessibility" class="external-link"><b>Accessibility</b></a></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">Estimates of the percentage of the world's population that is disabled vary considerably. But what is certain is that if we count functional disability, then a large proportion of the world's population is disabled in one way or another. At CIS we work to ensure that the digital technologies, which empower disabled people and provide them with independence, are allowed to do so in practice and by the law. To this end, we support web accessibility guidelines, and change in copyright laws that currently disempower the persons with disabilities.</p>
<h3>Publication</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/accessibility/e-accessibility-handbook-in-russian" target="_blank">e-Accessibility Policy Handbook for Persons with Disabilities</a> (Russian Version) <br /> Edited by Nirmita Narasimhan<br /> The e-Accessibility Policy Handbook for Persons with Disabilities is now available in Russian. The handbook is a joint publication of ITU, G3ict and the Centre for Internet and Society, in cooperation with the Hans Foundation. Dr. Hamadoun I. Toure, Secretary-General, International Telecommunication Union wrote the preface. Dr. Sami Al-Basheer, Director, ITU-D wrote the introduction and Axel Leblois, Executive Director, G3ict wrote the foreword.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Blog Post</h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/accessibility/accessible-banking" target="_blank">The case for Accessible Banking</a> by Dinesh Kaushal.</li>
</ul>
<h2><a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k" class="external-link"><b>Access to Knowledge</b></a></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The Access to Knowledge programme addresses the harms caused to consumers, developing countries, human rights, and creativity/innovation from excessive regimes of copyright, patents, and other such monopolistic rights over knowledge:</p>
<h3>Key Research</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/a2k/jesters-clowns-pranksters" target="_blank">Of Jesters, Clowns and Pranksters: YouTube and the Condition of Collaborative Authorship</a><br /> by Nishant Shah, Director-Research, Centre for Internet and Society<br /> The idea of a single author creating cinematic objects in a well-controlled scheme of support system and production/distribution infrastructure has been fundamentally challenged by the emergence of digital video sharing sites like YouTube, writes Nishant Shah in this essay published in the Journal of Moving Images.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Blog Posts</h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/a2k/books-vs-cigarettes" target="_blank">CIS Hosts Scanned Version of George Orwell’s Books vs. Cigarettes</a></li>
</ul>
<h3>Comments / Statement</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/a2k/blog/ace-7-future-work-cis-intervention" target="_blank">CIS Intervention on Future Work of the WIPO Advisory Committee on Enforcement</a>: The seventh session of the World Intellectual Property Organization's Advisory Committee on Enforcement (ACE) is being held in Geneva on November 30 and December 1, 2011. Pranesh Prakash intervened during the discussion of future work of the ACE with this comment.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/a2k/blog/ace-7-french-charter-cis-comment" target="_blank">Comment by CIS at ACE on Presentation on French Charter on the Fight against Cyber-Counterfeiting</a>: The seventh session of the World Intellectual Property Organization's Advisory Committee on Enforcement is being held in Geneva on November 30 and December 1, 2011. Pranesh Prakash responded to a presentation by Prof. Pierre Sirinelli of the École de droit de la Sorbonne, Université Paris 1 on 'The French Charter on the Fight against Cyber-Counterfeiting of December 16, 2009' with this comment.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/a2k/blog/sccr-23-broadcast-cis-statement" target="_blank">Statement of CIS on the WIPO Broadcast Treaty at the 23rd SCCR</a>: The twenty-third session of the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights is being held in Geneva from November 22, 2011 to December 2, 2011. Pranesh Prakash delivered this statement on a new proposal made by South Africa and Mexico (SCCR/23/6) on a treaty for broadcasters.</li>
</ul>
<h2><a href="https://cis-india.org/openness" class="external-link"><b>Openness</b></a></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The 'Openness' programme critically examines alternatives to existing regimes of intellectual property rights, and transparency and accountability. Under this programme, we study Open Government Data, Open Access to Scholarly Literature, Open Content, Open Standards, Open Access to Law, and Free/Libre/Open Source Software:</p>
<h3>Featured Research</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/openness/blog/know-your-users" target="_blank">Know Your Users, Match their Needs!</a><br /> As Free Access to Law initiatives in the Global South enter into a new stage of maturity, they must be certain not to lose sight of their users’ needs. This blog post gives a summary of the “Good Practices Handbook”, a research output of the collaborative project Free Access to Law — Is it Here to Stay? undertaken by LexUM (Canada) and the South African Legal Institute in partnership with the Centre for Internet and Society. Rebecca Schild and Prashant Iyengar from CIS were part of the research team.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Event Organised</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/openness/events/open-access-to-academic-knowledge-at-the-iisc" target="_blank">Open Access to Academic Knowledge</a>, organised by the Indian Institute of Science and CIS at National Centre for Science Information, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore on 2 November 2011. Tom Dane participated in this event.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Event Participated</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/news/canadian-science-policy-conference" target="_blank">3rd Canadian Science Policy Conference</a>, organised by Canadian Science Policy Conference from16 to 18 November 2011 at the Ottawa Convention Centre. Sunil Abraham spoke in the session on Global Implications of Open and Inclusive Innovation. </li>
</ul>
<h3>Announcement</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/news/announcement-of-wikimedia-india-program-trust" target="_blank">The Wikimedia India Program Trust</a>. A new entity, the “Wikimedia India Program Trust”, has been registered in Delhi. Sunil Abraham is one of the trustees. </li>
</ul>
<h2><a href="https://cis-india.org/internet-governance" class="external-link"><b>Internet Governance</b></a></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">The Internet Governance programme conducts research around the various social, technical, and political underpinnings of global and national Internet governance, and includes online privacy, freedom of speech, and Internet governance mechanisms and processes:</p>
<h3>Comments / Submissions</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/internet-governance/comments-on-finance-committee-statements" target="_blank">CIS Comments on Finance Committee Statements to Open Letters on Unique Identity</a>: The Parliamentary Finance Committee responded to the six open letters sent by CIS through an email on 12 October 2011. CIS has commented on the points raised by the Committee. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/internet-governance/comments-national-policy-information-technology" target="_blank">Comments on the National Policy of Information Technology</a>: The NPIT 2011 has the laudable goal of making India a ‘knowledge economy with a global role’ by developing and deploying ICT solutions in all sectors to foster development within India and at a global level. CIS appreciates this initiative of the Department of Information Technology and offers brief comments to strengthen the draft. </li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/internet-governance/comments-draft-national-policy-on-electronics" target="_blank">CIS Comments on the Draft National Policy on Electronics</a>: CIS submitted its comments to the request for comments put out by the Department of Information Technology on its draft 'National Policy on Electronics'.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Statement</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/india-statement-un-cirp" target="_blank">India's Statement Proposing UN Committee for Internet-Related Policy</a>: India made its statement at the 66th session of the United Nations General Assembly, its proposal for the UN Committee for Internet-Related Policy was presented.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Podcast</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/openness/professor-balaram-talks-open-access" target="_blank">Professor Balaram talks Open Access</a> : Tom Dane spoke with Professor P Balaram, Director of the Indian Institute of Science about the Open Access movement. A podcast of the interview is online.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Event Report</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/internet-governance/ijlt-cis-lecture-series-report" target="_blank">The 2nd IJLT-CIS Lecture Series — A Post-event Report</a> : The 2nd IJLT-CIS Lecture Series was organised by the Indian Journal of Law and Technology and CIS on the 21st and 22nd of May 2011 at the National Law School of India University, Nagarbhavi, Bangalore. The main theme for this year was Emerging Issues in Privacy Law: Law, Policy and Practice. </li>
</ul>
<h3>Essay in Peer Reviewed Journal</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/internet-governance/material-cyborgs-asserted-boundaries" target="_blank">Material Cyborgs; Asserted Boundaries</a> <br /> by Nishant Shah, Director-Research <br /> Nishant explores the possibility of formulating the cyborg as an author or translator who is able to navigate between the different binaries of ‘meat–machine’, ‘digital–physical’, and ‘body–self’, using the abilities and the capabilities learnt in one system in an efficient and effective understanding of the other. The essay was published in the European Journal of English Studies, Volume 12, Issue 2.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Articles/Columns</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/internet-governance/what-is-dilligaf" target="_blank">What is Dilligaf?</a> On the web, time moves at the speed of thought: Groups emerge, proliferate and are abandoned as new trends and fads take precedence. Nowhere else is this dramatic flux as apparent as in the language that evolves online. While SMS lingo – like TTYL (Talk To You Later) and LOL (Laughing Out Loud)– has endured and become a part of everyday language, new forms of speech are taking over. This article by Nishant Shah was published in GQ India.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/news/book-of-jobs" target="_blank">The Book of Jobs</a> The man who made the computer personal, who changed the face of the digital media industry, who was inspired by Zen philosophy to create an eight-billion-dollar empire, Steve Jobs, died last month. Just a few weeks before his death, in the midst of his painful illness, he told Walter Isaacson, the man chosen to write his authorised biography, “I really want to believe that something survives”. And Isaacson wrote him a fairy tale which will make sure that Jobs will be remembered beyond the gizmos and gimmicks, writes Nishant Shah in this article published in the Indian Express on 12 November 2011.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Staff Quoted in the Media <a href="http://www.cis-india.org/news/facebook-tracking-footprints" target="_blank"></a></h3>
<ul>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/news/facebook-tracking-footprints" target="_blank">Is Facebook tracking your virtual footprints?</a> by Sheetal Sukhija in MidDay, 22 November 2011. Sunil Abraham was quoted in this article.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/news/m-governance" target="_blank">M-governance gains momentum</a> by Vasudha Venugopal in the Hindu, 20 November 2011. Nishant Shah was quoted in this article.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/news/bill-could-kill-internet" target="_blank">SOPA: The bill that could kill the Internet</a> by Suw Charman-Anderson in Firstpost.Technology, 16 November 2011.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/news/broadband-long-way-to-go" target="_blank">Broadband user base still has a long way to go</a>, by Leslie D’Monte & Deepti Chaudhary in Livemint, 15 November 2011. Sunil Abraham has been quoted in this article.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/news/maids-guards-get-fingerprinted" target="_blank">‘Not mandatory’ but maids, guards get fingerprinted</a> by Hemanth Kashyap in Bangalore Mirror, 9 November 2011. Sunil Abraham has been quoted in this article.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/news/netizen-report" target="_blank">Netizen Report: Transparency Edition</a> by Rebecca MacKinnon in Global Voices Online, 7 November 2011.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/news/blocking-content-google-gets-more-requests" target="_blank">Blocking online content: Google gets more requests than govt</a> by Pallavi Polanki in Firstpost.com, 2 November 2011. Pranesh Prakash has been quoted in this article.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Blog Posts <a href="http://www.cis-india.org/internet-governance/sources-cis-funding" target="_blank"></a></h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/internet-governance/sources-cis-funding" target="_blank">Sources of CIS Funding</a> by Pranesh Prakash on 9 November 2011.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/internet-governance/p2p-throttling-and-dns-hijacking" target="_blank">TRAI urged to take action against P2P throttling and DNS hijacking</a> by Anand on 9 November 2011.</li>
</ul>
<h3>Events Organised</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/internet-governance/art-activism" target="_blank">Exposing Data: Art Slash Activism</a> organised by Tactical Tech and CIS at CIS office in Bangalore on 28 November 2011. Ward Smith and Stephanie Hankey (Co-founders of TTC), Ayisha Abraham (Filmmaker, Srishti School of Art Design) and Zainab Bawa (Research Fellow, CIS) gave a lecture. </li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/internet-governance/events/droidcon-india" target="_blank">Droidcon India, first Android Conference in Bangalore</a>, organised by CIS in collaboration with Droidcon.com, Bangalore Android User Group, MobileMonday Bangalore and Android Advices on 18 and 19 November 2011 at the MLR Convention Centre, Bangalore. </li>
</ul>
<h3>Events Participated</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/news/bio-diversity-informatics-workshop" target="_blank">Western Ghats Portal: Workshop on Biodiversity Informatics</a> organised by the Western Ghats Portal team at the Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and Environment, 25 November 2011. Sunil Abraham spoke in the session on Scientific Commons and Policy.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/news/names-not-numbers" target="_blank">Names Not Numbers Mumbai</a>, 26 November 2011. Nishant Shah spoke in a panel on “The New Digital Individual: Is New Technology Liberating or Enslaving?”. The event was organised by Editorial Intelligence and partners which included the British Council and Financial Times, BBC World News, Mumbai first, Vodafone, Trident and Godrej India Cultural Lab.</li>
</ul>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Upcoming Events</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/internet-governance/dialogue-cafe" target="_blank">Dialogue Cafe @ Centre for Internet and Society</a>, 2 December 2011, Centre for Internet & Society, 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/internet-governance/high-level-privacy-conclave" target="_blank">The High Level Privacy Conclave</a>, 3 February 2011, Paharpur Business Centre, Nehru Place Greens New Delhi, 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. This is a closed-door meeting. For participation, get in touch with Elonnai (<a href="mailto:elonnai@cis-india.org">elonnai@cis-india.org</a>).</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/internet-governance/privacy-symposium" target="_blank">All India Privacy Symposium</a>, 4 February 2011, India International Centre, New Delhi. This is a public meeting. For participation, get in touch with Elonnai (<a href="mailto:elonnai@cis-india.org">elonnai@cis-india.org</a>).</li>
</ul>
<h3 style="text-align: justify; ">Video</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/events/facebook-resistance" target="_blank">Facebook Resistance Workshop at CIS</a>. This was a workshop for people to learn on how to think beyond the rules and limitations of Facebook, to tweak and play around the features and design to generate useful, creative, and funny concepts and explore how this creative intervention can be turned into a real software developed by the Facebook Resistance. </li>
</ul>
<h2 style="text-align: justify; "><a href="https://cis-india.org/telecom" class="external-link"><b>Telecom</b></a></h2>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">While the potential for growth and returns exist for telecommunications in India, a range of issues need to be addressed. One aspect is more extensive rural coverage and the other is a countrywide access to broadband which is low. Both require effective and efficient use of networks and resources, including spectrum:</p>
<h3>Column</h3>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; "><a href="http://www.cis-india.org/telecom/telecom-path-breaker" target="_blank">Telecom Path-Breaker?</a> (by Shyam Ponappa): Does the draft National Telecom Policy-2011 reflect true brilliance or smoke-and-mirrors? It will be a game-changer if a shared network is implemented effectively, writes Shyam Ponappa in this article published in the Business Standard on 3 November 2011.</li>
</ul>
<ol> </ol>
<hr />
<h2 style="text-align: justify; "><b>Follow us elsewhere</b></h2>
<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Get short, timely messages from us on <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=456&qid=46981" target="_blank">Twitter</a></li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Follow CIS on <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=457&qid=46981" target="_blank">identi.ca</a></li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Join the CIS group on <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=458&qid=46981" target="_blank">Facebook</a>\</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; ">Visit us at <a href="http://crm.cis-india.org/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=459&qid=46981" target="_blank">www.cis-india.org</a></li>
</ul>
<p style="text-align: justify; "><i>CIS is grateful to Kusuma Trust which was founded by Anurag Dikshit and Soma Pujari, philanthropists of Indian origin, for its core funding and support for most of its projects.</i></p>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/november-2011-bulletin'>https://cis-india.org/about/newsletters/november-2011-bulletin</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaAccess to KnowledgeDigital NativesTelecomAccessibilityInternet GovernanceResearchOpenness2012-07-24T02:37:09ZPageTranscripts of Discussions at WIPO SCCR 24
https://cis-india.org/a2k/wipo-sccr24-discussions-transcripts
<b>We are providing archival copies of the transcripts of the 24th session of the WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights, which is being held in Geneva from July 16 to 25, 2012. </b>
<p style="text-align: justify; ">This is an unedited rough transcript of the discussions at SCCR 24, which is live-streamed and made available by WIPO at <a class="external-link" href="http://www.streamtext.net/player?event=WIPO">http://www.streamtext.net/player?event=WIPO</a>. We are hosting the live-streamed text for archival purposes:</p>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/2012-07-19-sccr24-pre-lunch.txt" class="internal-link">WIPO SCCR 24 Pre-lunch Text</a> (July 19, 2012)</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/2012-07-19-sccr24-post-lunch.txt" class="internal-link">WIPO SCCR 24 Post-lunch Text</a> (July 19, 2012)</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/2012-07-20-sccr24-pre-lunch.txt" class="internal-link">WIPO SCCR 24 Pre-lunch Text</a> (July 20, 2012)</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/2012-07-20-sccr24-post-lunch.txt" class="internal-link">WIPO SCCR 24 Post-lunch Text</a> (July 20, 2012)</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/2012-07-23-sccr-24-pre-lunch.txt" class="internal-link">WIPO SCCR 24 Pre-lunch Text</a> (July 23, 2012)</li>
<li>(There was no post-lunch plenary session on July 23, 2012)</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/2012-07-24-sccr-24-pre-lunch.txt" class="internal-link">WIPO SCCR 24 Pre-lunch Text</a> (July 24, 2012) </li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/2012-07-24_sccr24_post-lunch.txt" class="internal-link">WIPO SCCR 24 Post-lunch Text</a> (July 24, 2012)</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/2012-07-25_sccr24_pre-lunch.txt" class="internal-link">WIPO SCCR 24 Pre-lunch Text</a> (July 25, 2012)</li>
<li><a href="https://cis-india.org/a2k/2012-07-25_sccr24_post-lunch.txt" class="internal-link">WIPO SCCR 24 Post-lunch Text</a> (July 25, 2012)</li>
</ul>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/wipo-sccr24-discussions-transcripts'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/wipo-sccr24-discussions-transcripts</a>
</p>
No publisherpraneshIntellectual Property RightsCopyrightAccess to KnowledgeWIPO2012-07-31T12:35:43ZBlog EntryWIPO SCCR 24 Post-lunch Text (July 20, 2012)
https://cis-india.org/a2k/2012-07-20-sccr24-post-lunch.txt
<b>This is a rough transcript of the WIPO-SCCR discussions.</b>
<p>
For more details visit <a href='https://cis-india.org/a2k/2012-07-20-sccr24-post-lunch.txt'>https://cis-india.org/a2k/2012-07-20-sccr24-post-lunch.txt</a>
</p>
No publisherpraskrishnaCopyrightAccess to KnowledgeWIPO2012-07-25T03:34:22ZFile