Centre for Internet and Society

Right to Read in the European Parliament

praskrishna — 2010-05-13T04:45:44Z

The European Blind Union and the Transatlantic Consumer Dialogue supported an event sponsored by seven MEPs in the European Parliament to discuss the way forward for EU to support the Treaty for the Blind, Visually Impaired and Other Reading Disabled which has been proposed at the World Intellectual Property Organisation by Brazil, Mexico, Ecuador and Paraguay.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility/publications/right-to-read-europe-parliament

Right to Read event in Brussels

praskrishna — 2011-04-02T12:19:06Z

A 'Right to Read' event is being held at the European Parliament, Brussels on 4 May 2010.

Blind and other reading disabled people face a "book famine". In the North less than 5% of books published are available for reading disabled people. In the South the figure is less than 1%.

Most accessible books are made by specialist agencies using charitable money. At present, such agencies, operating in different countries, but with a common language, often both transcribe the same book. They cannot avoid this needless and expensive duplication by sharing one accessible file or copy. This is because, under present copyright law, reading material in Braille, or formatted digitally for reading disabled people, cannot legally cross borders. This waste of scarce resources significantly hinders access to reading for the world's 300 million visually impaired people and millions of other reading disabled people, especially the poorest.

The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities says that disabled people have a right to read. The best way to guarantee this right is the adoption of a binding treaty that establishes limitations and exceptions to copyright for the non-commercial production and distribution of accessible books.

The World Blind Union representing over 160 million blind and partially sighted persons in 177 member countries, has now drafted a " WIPO Treaty for Improved Access for Blind, Visually Impaired and other Reading Disabled Persons" to combat the "book famine". It is now being considered by the World Intellectual Property Organization where it has been sponsored by Brazil, Mexico, Ecuador and Paraguay. We have invited stakeholders, experts and EU officials to discuss a way forward and to ask the EU to support a binding treaty. This conference is supported by the European Blind Union and the Transatlantic Consumer Dialogue.

For further details, click here.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/right-to-read-brussels

Right to Read Campaign - Delhi

praskrishna — 2011-08-31T10:43:49Z

The Centre for Internet and Society is organizing a Right to Read Campaign on January 30th 2010, at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi

Millions with print - impairment need access to books Out of these, at least 70 million live in India! They are unable to grow and participate meaningfully in the society because they have no access to books! For this, Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) invites you to a Right to Read Campaign to be held in New Delhi on January 30th 2010.

Download the invitation

PHOTOS

VIDEOS

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/events/right-to-read-campaign

Right to Read Campaign - Delhi

praskrishna — 2010-01-22T10:05:50Z

Celebrating the Right to Read for persons with Disabilities

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/advocacy/right-to-read-campaign

Right to Knowledge for Persons with Print Impairment: A Proposal to Amend the Indian Copyright Regime

praskrishna — 2013-04-26T06:09:28Z

This research paper argues the need for amending Indian Copyright provisions for enabling the print impaired to gain access to published works. The paper was submitted to the Ministry of Human Resource and Development in November to appraise it of the needs of the print disabled community. It is up for public comments and we welcome your feedback for this ongoing campaign.

As part of the Right to Read campaign and demand for a copyright amendment for print disabled persons, CIS, the Alternative Law Forum (ALF) and Inclusive Planet have come out with a research paper which sets out the case for an amendment to the Copyright Act. The paper deals exhaustively with the issue of exceptions and limitations for the print impaired and outlines case laws, legal provisions and international instruments which oblige India to make the necessary amendment. It also advises the government to support the Treaty for the Blind, Visually Impaired and other Reading Disabled ("TVI") which is presently tabled before the WIPO as a desirable step towards ending the global book famine. The paper also cites some examples of working models of sharing accessible books which are available in countries abroad and to which print impaired persons in developing countries like India have no access.

The paper was submitted to the Ministry of Human Resource and Development in the third week of November so as to ensure that the Ministry is fully appraised of the needs of the print disabled community while it is carrying out the exercise of amending the Act.

The paper was put up for public comments.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility/blog/comments-on-copyright-and-print%20impaired

Right to Information Act and Open Data Policy in India

praskrishna — 2015-06-18T01:27:34Z

Sumandro led a knowledge sharing session at this event organized by Myanmar ICT Development Organization (MIDO) on May 14, 2015.

The session focused on the making of the global open data movement, the open data policy in India and its linkages with the Right to Information Act, the experience of the making of the Right to Information Act in India and its implementational challenges, the emerging open data activities in India and its opportunities and challenges. The issue of Myanmar’s decision to become part of the Open Government Partnership was discussed. The initiative started during Barack Obama's visit in Myanmar in 2012.

The NGOs in Myanmar since then have boycotted talks with the government regarding this topic, as they have felt that the government did not involve them in the decision in the first place. The Myanmar government has promised to be part of OGP by 2016. The NGOs in Myanmar has started to engage with the OGP process on their own. This is being led by the Myanmar Alliance for Transparency and Accountability, or MATA. MIDO is a member of the Alliance. Also, Nwezin Win of National NGO Network of Myanmar has also become a civil society member of the OGP Steering Committee during the rotation of the committee in 2014.

In a brief discussion regarding how open data can be part of the OGP conversations in Myanmar, and the role that MIDO can play in this, Sumandro suggested that MATA focuses both on articulating a demand for open data and information from the government, and on increasing the capacities to work with data among its members. MIDO has critical roles to play in both the demand and supply side of open data and information, especially since ICT capabilities of NGOs in Myanmar are often not sufficient, and it is very important to raise general awareness about technical qualities of open data and information impact the way such data and information can be used in transparency and accountability initiatives.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/news/right-to-information-act-and-open-data-policy-in-india

Right to Education and the Future of Our Languages

praskrishna — 2015-05-27T14:00:44Z

The Department of Linguistics, University of Mumbai and Dr. Rakhmabai Educational Resource and Research Centre in association with ICSSR (WRC) organized a National Symposium on Right to Education and the Future of Our Languages at Pherozeshah Mehta Bhavan from March 9 to 11, 2015. Tanveer Hasan was a speaker.

Prof. Ganesh Devy gave the inaugural address and Prof. Anita Rampal gave the keynote address. Tanveer Hasan spoke about the importance of Free and Open Resources of Knowledge and how these resources could be harnessed in providing access to knowledge and subsequently claim the right to education. The event was organized as an effort to understand the effect of RTE act on the primary and high school education standards across India with special reference to Maharashtra. The workshop also provided an opportunity to meet several like minded institutions and individuals.

More information on the event here.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/news/right-to-education-and-future-of-our-languages

Right to be forgotten poses a legal dilemma in India

praskrishna — 2014-06-09T10:02:25Z

The “right to be forgotten” judgment has raised a controversy, while some argue that it upholds an individual’s privacy, others say it leaves a lot of room for interpretation.

The article by Leslie D' Monte was published in Livemint on June 5, 2014. Sunil Abraham gave his inputs.

Medianama.com has become perhaps the first Indian website to be asked by an individual to remove a link, failing which the user would approach Google Inc. to delete the link under the “right to be forgotten” provision granted by a European court. There’s one hitch: India doesn’t have any legal provision to entertain or process such request.

In his request to the media website, the individual cited a landmark 13 May judgment by the Court of Justice of the European Union (EU), which said users could ask search engines like Google or Bing to remove links to web pages that contain information about them.

According to the judgement, the user is also free to approach “the competent authorities in order to obtain, under certain conditions, the removal of that link from the list of results” if the search engines do not comply.

“...this individual told us of a plan to appeal to Google on the basis of the judgment of the European Court of Justice, and asked us to either convert the public post into a non-indexable post, such that it may not be surfaced by search engines, or to modify the individual’s name, place and any references to his/her employer in the post that we’ve written, so that it cannot be linked directly to the individual,” said Nikhil Pahwa, founder of medianama.com.

Pahwa did not reveal the identity of the individual, who made the request on 31 May. Medianama, according to Pahwa, had written about the individual “a few years ago, protesting against attacks on his/her freedom of speech.” It did not give details. The media website reported about the request on 2 June.

Under legal pressure, the individual eventually relented and retracted the request.

The individual, Pahwa said, requested medianama.com to retain only his last name on the web page, cautioning that if the website does not do so, he would submit the URL (uniform resource locator or address of that link) of that web page to Google in a “right to be forgotten” request.

This, Pahwa said, “might hurt our search ranking, or lead to a blanket removal of our website from Google’s search index.”

“This is a tricky one, and we’ve declined this request,” said Pahwa. He added that “the implications for media are immense, since digital data, which is a recording of online history, will be affected.”

The EU ruling came after a Spanish national complained in 2010 that searching his name in Google threw up links to two newspaper webpages which reported a property auction to recover social security debt he once owed, even though the information had become irrelevant since the proceedings had since been resolved.

Following the ruling, Google put up an online form (mintne.ws/1oYVP5Y), inviting users in Europe to submit their requests.

“...we will assess each individual request and attempt to balance the privacy rights of the individual with the public’s right to know and distribute information,” the form reads.

“When evaluating your request, we will look at whether the results include outdated information about you, as well as whether there’s a public interest in the information—for example, information about financial scams, professional malpractice, criminal convictions, or public conduct of government officials...”

A Google spokesman said on Tuesday that the company had received over 41,000 requests to be forgotten so far.

On the first day itself, Google had received 12,000 requests.

“Almost a third of the requests were in relation to accusations of fraud, 20% were in relation to violent/serious crimes, and around 12% regarded child pornography arrests. More than 1,500 of these requests are believed to have come from people in the UK. An ex-politician seeking re-election, a paedophile and a GP (general practitioner) were among the British applicants”, according to a 2 June report inThe Telegraph of London.

The “right to be forgotten” judgment has raised a controversy. While some argue that it upholds an individual’s privacy, others say it leaves a lot of room for interpretation.

In an interview to Mint on 26 May, Anupam Chander, director of the California International Law Center, reasoned that if a person could simply scrub all the bad information about him from being searchable on the Internet, she/he could do so by claiming that such information was “no longer relevant”.

“Do we want search engines to then judge whether information remains “relevant” or is somehow “inadequate” under the threat of liability for leaving information accessible? An Internet sanitized of accessible negative information will only tell half the truth,” he argued.

The ruling is not binding on India and applies only to EU countries.

According to legal experts, the country has no provision for a right to be forgotten, either in the Information Technology (IT) Act 2000 (amended in 2008) or the IT Rules, 2011. India, for that matter, does not even have a privacy act as yet.

“In India, we do not have a concept of the right to be Forgotten. It’s a very Western concept,” said Pavan Duggal, a cyberlaw expert and Supreme Court advocate.

Still, intermediaries like search engines and Internet services providers, under the country’s IT Act and IT Rules, have the obligation to exercise due diligence if an aggrieved party sends them a written notice, he said.

According to Sunil Abraham, executive director of the Centre for Internet and Society, an Internet rights lobby group, “right to be forgotten” cases should pass the “public interest” test.

“Privacy protection should not have a chilling effect on transparency. The question is: Does the content (which a user wants to be removed) serve a public interest that outweighs the harm that it is doing to the individual concerned? If no public interest is being served, there is no point in knowing what the content is all about. The complication with the EU ruling is that it wants intermediaries and over-the-top providers to play the role of judges,” said Abraham.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/livemint-leslie-d-monte-june-5-2014-right-to-be-forgotten-poses-legal-dilemma-in-india

Rick van Amersfoort to give a public lecture on his work at CIS on May 15

praskrishna — 2011-04-05T04:07:10Z

Rick van Amersfoort, researcher based in Amsterdam will describe his work at Buro Jansen & Janssen, in the Netherlands and Europe.

Reading, digging in archives, procedures under the freedom of Information Act, supporting people for access to their police and intelligence service records, describing mechanisms the state uses to monitor, control and discipline civilians, but also means to overcome eavesdropping, surveillance, arrest or jail is the daily practice of Jansen. Since 25 years it has been active on the edge of legality and illegality. No scientists, nor journalists, but active civilians in a constant battle with the state and its services. Not only the state is evaluated. ‘City of Discipline’ is a project that tries to explain the lack of public outrage against far-reaching laws, although the crime rate is going down and the effectiveness of more security is doubtful.

Buro Jansen & Janssen hosts a variety of websites, some of these are:

The NTRO (National Technical Research Organization) eavesdropping scandal with so-called IMSI-catchers; According to the magazin Outlook the Mata Hari (the Dutch woman Margaretha Geertruida) of India, Madhuri Gupta; Possible police and state operations against protesting farmers in for example Devanahalli and Doddaballapur; Threats from the Indian government towards people and organizations who have contacts with the CPI or other Maoist groups; The 26 November 2008 Mumbai attacker verdict of five death sentences; Destroyed archives on the 1971 war between India and Pakistan are just some news items from the last week that describe the work/research/ activities which Buro Jansen & Janssen is conducting in the Netherlands, Europe and abroad. Van Amersfoort will shed light on the work of Jansen & Janssen in the Netherlands and Europe in relation to the above mentioned news items in India.

About Rick van Amersfoort

The past 10 years Rick van Amersfoort (1964 NL) has been researcher at Buro Janssen & Jansen, an organisation that critically investigates police, justice, secret services and home affairs in Holland and the European Union. Buro Jansen and Janssen publish online the Observant, a bimonthly mailing informing subscribers of the latest governmental infringements and political lobbies within the Netherlands. Other websites include http://www.openheid.nl/ that gives legal advise for public access to people’s records held by police and security services, http://www.preventieffouilleren.nl/, deals with stop and search operations by police and http://www.identificatieplicht.nl that addresses mandatory identification regulation. In 2006 Amersfoort co-authored (Wil van der Schans) Under Pressure, antiterrorism in the Netherlands. Buro Jansen & Janssen regularly appear in the media, local and national newspapers, radio and internet interviews. Current projects include ‘City of Discipline’, a project that tries to explain the lack of public outrage against far-reaching laws, although the crime rate is going down and the effectiveness of more security is doubtful. Van Amersfoort is presently designing a website for public access in connection with the Freedom of Information Act. http://openbaarheid.nl

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/events/rick-van-amersfoort

Richard Stallman

praskrishna — 2012-05-23T05:50:44Z

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/richard.jpg

RHoK Global June 2013

praskrishna — 2013-05-31T13:58:00Z

The Centre for Internet and Society is hosting the Random Hacks of Kindness (RHoK) Global event at its office in Bangalore on June 1 and 2, from 8.30 a.m. to 6.00 p.m.

RHoK is a rapidly growing global initiative encompassing a community of over 5,500 innovators in over 30 countries striving to make the world a better place by developing practical, open source technology solutions to respond to some of the most complex challenges facing humanity. We do this by defining problems, organizing hackathons, and ensuring projects are effectively deployed.

Bangalore has been hosting RHoK hackathons since 2010. RHoK pre-hackathon reception will be hosted on May 31, 2013 at CIS. The tentative plan for tonight's reception can be found at https://www.smore.com/x3fm

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/events/rhok-bangalore-2013

RHoK banner

praskrishna — 2012-12-10T06:52:29Z

RHoK Banner

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/RHOKBanner.png

RHoK

praskrishna — 2013-07-03T07:18:03Z

RHoK

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/copy_of_RHoK1.png

RHoK

praskrishna — 2013-07-03T07:09:40Z

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/RHoK1.png

Revisiting Aadhaar: Law, Tech and Beyond

praskrishna — 2017-05-19T14:47:32Z

Udbhav Tiwari attended a panel on "Revisiting Aadhaar: Law, Tech and Beyond" held at the India International Centre Annexe on May 9, 2017 in New Delhi, organised by the Software Freedom Law Centre (SFLC.in) in collaboration with Digital Empowerment Foundation and IT for Change.

The panel consisted of:

Saikat Datta; Policy Director, Centre for Internet and Society (Moderator)
Anivar Aravind; Founder/Director at Indic Project
Anupam Saraph; Professor and Future Designer
Prasanna S; Advocate
Shyam Divan; Senior Advocate, Supreme Court
Srinivas Kodali; Co-founder at Open Stats
Osama Manzar; Founder and Director, Digital Empowerment Foundation
Usha Ramanathan; Legal Researcher

The panel was quite enlightening (and Saikat was a stellar moderator), with Mr. Divan's elucidation on the arguments made in the court for the Aadhaar case in particular being a great learning experience. Benjamin and Sheetal (both interns in the Delhi office) along with Sumandro also attended the event.

The other learning was that for people who have attended multiple such panels/seminars and meetings on Aadhaar, they can have a lot of repeated content. I passed on the feedback to SFLC about how they could possibly include a small 10 to 15 minute session in future such panels on developments since the previous such event on the Aadhaar and include practical aspects about what people can do about minimising the harms that we are all slowly being co opted into facing with the system.

More info about the event here.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/revisiting-aadhaar-law-tech-and-beyond