Centre for Internet and Society

Pervasive Technologies: Access to Knowledge in the Market Place

praskrishna — 2013-01-28T07:23:02Z

This presentation was made by Sunil Abraham at the 2012 Global Congress on Intellectual Property and Public Interest organized in Rio from December 15 to 17, 2012.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/pervasive-technologies.pdf

9th International Asian Conference

praskrishna — 2013-01-25T18:20:22Z

ITechLaw is organizing the 9th Annual Asian ITechLaw Conference on February 14 and 15, 2013 in India's high technology capital - Bangalore, India. Sunil Abraham will be speaking at this event.

This info was published on ITechLaw website on January 22, 2013.

This conference will focus on the latest regulatory, commercial and technology law issues being faced by emerging and growth industries in India and Asia as well as the U.S. and Europe.

Conference Program

Day 1, Thursday, February 14, 2013

07:45 - 08:45	Breakfast
09:00 - 09:10	Plenary Welcome Presidential Welcome John Beardwood, Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP, Toronto
09:10 - 09:30	Keynote Address (TBD)
09:30 - 11:15	Intellectual Property Moderator: Calab Gabriel, K&S Partners, New Delhi TBD Pravin Anand, Anand & Anand, New Delhi ISP Liability for IP Infringements Paulo Brancher, BKBG Attorneys at Law, Sao Paulo, Brazil John Doe IP Enforcement in India Sundari Pisupati, Tempus Law & Associates, Hyderabad Counterfeiting in the context of the Semiconductor Industry Gaurav Jabulee, Senior Counsel - Asia, Texas Instruments, Bangalore
11:15 - 11:30	Coffee / Tea / Networking Break
11:30 - 13:00	M & A in the Technology Sector Moderator: Manjula Chawla, Phoenix Legal, New Delhi Successor Liability Sadhana Kaul, GC, 3M, Bangalore Tax Planning for Software and Intellectual Property Transactions Roger Royse, Royse Law Firm, Palo Alto, California Post-M & A Integration of a Tech Company Sivaram Nair, General Counsel, Mphasis India, Bangalore
13:00 - 14:00	Buffet Lunch and Networking
14:00 - 15:30	Licensing and Contracting Moderator: Azmul Haque, Shook Lin & Bok LLP, Singapore Software Licensing Stephane Lemarchand, DLA Piper, Paris, France Contract Termination Richard Marke, BWB, London, UK 21st Century Sourcing - Latest Negotiation Trends and Alternative Contracting Models Nick Pantlin, Herbert Smith Freehills LLP, London, UK Internet Gaming and Gambling Moderator: Ananth Padmanabhan, Advocate, Madras High Court Social Gaming Jenna Karadbil, Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP, New York Indian Issues in Gaming and Gambling Regulations Talha Salaria, Lawyers at Work, Bangalore Amrut Joshi, Gamechanger Sports Ventures, Bangalore
15:30 - 15:45	Coffee / Tea / Networking Break
15:45 - 17:30	Privacy Issues relating to Employee Data Moderator: Poorvi Chothani, LawQuest International, Mumbai Legal Barriers for BYOD Strategies - A Holistic Approach to Legal Compliance and Security Martin Wiechers, Deutsche Telekom, Germany EU Employee Data Protection Roland Falder, Bird & Bird, Munich, Germany TBD Frederique David, Co-founding partner, TLD Legal, Paris, France Miscellaneous Hot Topics Moderator: Vineet Subramani, Versus, Mumbai Creating an Open Source Policy Heather Meeker, Greenberg Traurig, Palo Alto, California Journalism using Social Media - Issues relating to Freedom of Expression, Privacy and Interpretation of India's Information Technology Act. Swati Sukumar, Advocate, New Delhi Estate Planning for Digital Properties Wendy Goffe, Stoel Rives, Seattle, WA, USA
18:00 - 19:00	I-WIN Tea
19:30 - 22:00	Gala Dinner (Ticketed Event)

Day 2, Friday, February 15, 2013

08:00 - 08:45	Breakfast
09:00 - 09:30	Keynote Address (TBD)
09:30 - 11:15	Privacy: Data Protection Issues Across the Globe Moderator: Gabriela Kennedy, Hogan Lovells, Hong Kong Cross Border Transfers of Employee Data Dr. Wolfgang Büchner, Jones Day, Munich, Germany Data Protection Reform in the EU Kristian Foss, Gille advokater DA, Oslo, Norway Addressing the Criminal Aspects of Data Protection Violations Claire Bernier, Altanalaw, Paris, France
11:15 - 11:30	Coffee / Tea / Networking Break
11:30 - 13:00	E-Commerce Moderator: Raji Nagarkar, Cisco, Bangalore Privacy Aspects of E-Commerce in Australia Philip Catania, Corrs Chambers Westgart, Melbourne, Australia Retail Trading and E-Commerce in India Samuel Mani, MCM, Bangalore Commerce in the Social Media TBD
13:00 - 14:00	Buffet Lunch and Networking
14:00 - 15:30	Outsourcing Moderator: Bradley Joslove, Franklin, Paris Current Issues - Customer Perspective Mark Rasdale, A&L Goodbody, Dublin, Ireland Current Issues - Service Provider Perspective Kalpana Muthireddi, CSC India, Bangalore 2nd Generation Outsourcing Transactions Ulrich Baeumer, Osborne Clarke, Cologne, Germany
15:30 - 15:45	Coffee / Tea / Networking Break
15:45 - 17:00	Cloud 2.0 Issues Moderator: Rajesh Narang, VP legal & CS, Mindtree, Bangalore Virtual Offices and Cloud Computing - Legal Issues Genevieve Gill, GenLaw, Auckland, New Zealand Regulating the Cloud S.P. Purwar, J. Sagar Associates, Gurgaon Information Security in the Cloud Nagakumar Somasundaram, Amba Research, Bangalore
17:00 - 18:00	Censorship of Online Content Moderator: Stephen Mathias, Kochhar & Co., Bangalore Panel Discussion with the following Panelist Marc S Friedman, SNR Denton, New York, USA Priti Suri, PSA, New Delhi Sunil Abraham, Executive Director, Centre for Internet and Society
18:00 - 18-30	Closing Remarks Raffle Valedictory John Beardwood, Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP, Toronto
18:30 - 20:00	Closing Reception

See the speakers list here

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/itech-law-india-ninth-intl-asian-conference

Bangalore hackers write code as tribute to Aaron Swartz

praskrishna — 2013-01-25T11:41:05Z

A small crowd gathered here on Saturday afternoon in the basement of the Centre for Internet and Society to participate in the Aaron Swartz Memorial Hacknight, organised by HasGeek.

Deepa Kurup's article was published in the Hindu on January 21, 2013. Sunil Abraham is quoted.

Hackers have been coming together the world over to hold memorial services to pay tribute to the work, and the technological and political ideas that are the legacy of Aaron Swartz, who ended his life last Saturday.

A small crowd gathered here on Saturday afternoon in the basement of the Centre for Internet and Society to participate in the Aaron Swartz Memorial Hacknight, organised by HasGeek, a company that hosts technology events in the city.

For the first few hours, before getting down to the technological brass tacks of writing code and contributing to open data projects, they discussed the legacy of the young programming genius; right from co-writing the RSS standard at the age of 14 (which created a standard format for getting feeds of changing web content) to his advocacy against regressive copyright legislations and closed data regimes.

The hacknight, which commenced at 2 p.m., went on till early Sunday morning. It was meant to take forward the legacy of Swartz by coming up with projects that liberate data in the Indian context, as well as working on some of the projects and code that Swartz left unfinished.

“Besides these unfinished projects, there are a lot of ideas on political activism and running campaigns that we need to record and learn from. We also want to maintain some of the tech projects he ran,” says Kiran Jonnalagadda of HasGeek.

This motivated him, and a few others who have collaborated with Swartz on OpenLibrary.org and Internet Archive, to organise this tribute.

Most of the projects that are being worked on at the hacknight have at the core the idea that public data must be accessible and should be used for public good. For instance, one of the groups here proposed to build an interface that can extract data from the electoral rolls so that it becomes easier for citizens to check their names and coordinates on the voter ID list. Another group is working on writing code to extract simple data on passenger reservation and ticket availability to create a database that can then be used to chart simple trends. Yet another team is working on creating a similar web interface that can extract weather data using the weekly updates uploaded by the weather department.

These projects, Mr. Jonnalagadda points out, are all attempts to liberate data, much like what each of the projects Swartz initiated.

Speaking at the event, he said: “Swartz’s death bothered me quite a bit. A guy way ahead of his time, his political activism is an inspiration for many of us here who are working with open data. And we need to preserve this.”

Sunil Abraham, director, CIS, spoke about Swartz and the ethical landmines he stumbled into with the JSTOR case, where he was charged for hacking into and downloading millions of academic papers from the subscription database of JSTOR (short for Journal Storage) in 2011. He put this in the context of American foreign policy rhetoric based on Internet freedom, which restricts itself to freedom of expression and doesn’t include access to knowledge.

“This isn’t the case in India, where the Supreme Court has on various occasions spoken in favour of access to knowledge for example in the Cricket Association Of Bengal decision in 1995 where it was determined that the right to watch cricket cannot be restricted by private broadcasters or channels. This difference was why Swartz, who believed Internet freedom includes access to knowledge, was not defended by Hillary Clinton, who identifies herself as an advocate for Internet freedom.”

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/the-hindu-deepa-kurup-january-21-2013-bangalore-hackers-write-code-as-tribute-to-aaron-swartz

Internet Freedom in India – Open to Debate

praskrishna — 2013-01-25T10:45:56Z

In the aftermath of an Index on Censorship debate in New Delhi, Kirsty Hughes says India’s web users are standing at a crossroads

This article by Kirsty Hughes was published in Index on Censorship. CIS's research on censorship is quoted.

If debate is a sign of a positive environment for internet freedom, then India scores highly. From debates in parliament, and panel discussions (including Index’s own recent event) to newspaper editorials, blogs and tweets on the rights and wrongs of internet freedom, controls on the web, and India’s position in the international debate, there is no shortage of voices and views.

India has around 120 million web users — a large number but still only about 10 per cent of the country’s population. As cheaper smart phones enable millions more to access the net on their mobiles, India’s net savvy population is set to soar in the next few years. But what sort of online environment they will find is open to question — and to wide debate.

India has some very broad laws that could apply to a wide range of online speech, comment and criticism. These laws have been so far rather randomly applied. But the cases that have arisen — from individuals criticising politicians by email, Facebook or Twitter to some of the big web companies such as Google and Facebook (both facing numerous takedown requests and court cases in India) — show just why India needs to look at limiting both the range of some of its net laws, and to stop these laws criminalising a range of speech.

In 2012, there was widespread outcry in India when two women were arrested for complaining on Facebook about the disruption caused by the funeral of Bal Thackeray, leader of the right wing Hindu party, Shiv Sena. They were arrested under the infamous section 66A of India’s IT Act (2008) which criminalises “grossly offensive” and “menacing” messages sent by electronic means, but also “false” messages sent to cheat, deceive, mislead or annoy, taking online censorship beyond offline laws.

India’s telecom minister Kapil Sibal spoke out against the arrests. And as part of the fallout, guidelines were announced that in future any such charges could only be brought by senior police. But how effective such a restriction might be was challenged, with aTimes of India editorial suggesting “rampant political interference in law enforcement is itself a burning issue…so to argue that senior police officers will always resist mob pressure or political diktats isn’t persuasive.”

Other parts of the IT Act (2008) are also causing a chilling atmosphere in India’s cyber sphere — with new regulations introduced in 2011 obliging internet service providers to take down content within 36 of a complaint (whether an individual, organisation, government body or anyone else) or face prosecution. The law covers a sweeping range of grounds for complaint, including “grossly harmful”, “harassing, “blasphemous” and more. It also is confused on liability – holding intermediaries large and small responsible for content on websites and platforms.

One of India’s leading policy centres on digital issues, the Centre for Internet and Society, decided to test how this 36-hour takedown rule could result in censorship of innocuous and legal content on web sites. They sent complaints to four main search engines across a range of content — and as a result got thousands of innocuous posts removed; a censor’s dream outcome.

Despite a debate in parliament calling for repeal of the 2011 rules, for now they remain.

Some observers suggest the Indian government is catch-up mode, not fully understanding the reach or nature of social media or how to deal with the international range and speed of the web today — something plenty of other governments around the world are showing some confusion about. Some think the lively debate on net freedom in India reflects the voice and demands of the growing Indian middle class. But whether those demands remain pro-freedom is yet to be seen as internet penetration grows apace.

There are some other encouraging signs. While many in India are not keen at US dominance of key parts of internet regulation, there was concern from business and civil society ahead of the International Telecommunications Union summit in December 2012, when the Indian government looked like it might advocate some form of top down control of the web as an alternative. In the event, India, like the EU and US, did not go along with Russia, China and others keen to include net governance into the ITU’s remit.

India is going to be an increasingly influential voice in global internet debates — with its rapidly growing number of netizens and its increasing clout more widely in a multipolar world.

Its healthy and lively debate about digital freedom stands as a beacon of hope in the face of some of its more disturbing laws. But the laws will need to change, if India is to be a country that stands for internet freedom.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/index-on-censorship-kirsty-hughes-january-22-2013-internet-freedom-in-india

Odia Education Program at IIMC, Dhenkanal

praskrishna — 2013-01-24T10:23:05Z

The Centre for Internet & Society, Delhi is organizing a workshop on the Odia Education Program on January 26, 2013, from 3.00 p.m. to 6.00 p.m.

This is the first Odia Education Program which ran for three months and 16 students took active part in contributing on various articles on Odia Wikipedia. Subhashish Panigrahi will be supporting for the closing ceremony of the program.

ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ:ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ ଶିକ୍ଷା ପ୍ରକଳ୍ପ/ଭାରତୀୟ ଜନସଂଚାର ସଂସ୍ଥାନ, ଢେଙ୍କାନାଳ/୩ୟ କର୍ମଶାଳା

ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ ରୁ

< ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ:ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ ଶିକ୍ଷା ପ୍ରକଳ୍ପ‎ | ଭାରତୀୟ ଜନସଂଚାର ସଂସ୍ଥାନ, ଢେଙ୍କାନାଳ

ଡେଇଁଯିବେ ଦିଗବାରେଣିକୁ, ଖୋଜିବେ

ଏହି କର୍ମଶାଳା ଭାରତୀୟ ଜନସଂଚାର ସଂସ୍ଥାନ, ଢେଙ୍କାନାଳରେ ଚାଲିଥିବା ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ ଶିକ୍ଷା ପ୍ରକଳ୍ପର ଉଦଯାପନ କର୍ମଶାଳା । ଏହା୨୬ ଜାନୁଆରୀ ୨୦୧୩, ଅପରାହ୍ଣ ଘ୩.୦୦ମି. ରେ ହେବାକୁ ଅଛି । ଏହି କର୍ମଶାଳାରେ ଛାତ୍ରଛାତ୍ରୀମାନେ ଲେଖିଥିବା ପ୍ରସଙ୍ଗ ସବୁ ବିଷୟରେ ଉଇକିଆଳିମାନେ ମତାମତ ଦେବେ ଓ ଆଗକୁ କଣ କଣ କରିବେ ତାହା ବତାଇବେ । ଏକ ଉଦଯାପନ କାର୍ଯ୍ୟକ୍ରମ ସହିତ ଛାତ୍ରଛାତ୍ରୀମାନଙ୍କୁ ମାନପତ୍ର ପ୍ରଦାନ କରାଯିବ

ଆଲୋଚନାର ପ୍ରସଙ୍ଗ

ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆର ପ୍ରଥମ ଶିକ୍ଷା ପ୍ରକଳ୍ପର ସ୍ଥିତି ଓ ଫଳାଫଳ
ଏଯାବତ ଛାତ୍ରଛାତ୍ରୀମାନେ ଲେଖିଥିବା ପ୍ରସଙ୍ଗର ମୂଲ୍ୟାୟନ ଓ ମତାମତ
ଉପସ୍ଥିତ ସାହିତ୍ୟିକ ଓ ଭଦ୍ରମଣ୍ଡଳୀଙ୍କୁ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ ବାବଦରେ ସମ୍ୟକ ସୂଚନା
ମାନପତ୍ର ବିତରଣ

ଏଥିରେ ଭାଗନେଉଥିବା ଉଇକିଆଳିଗଣ

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/events/odia-education-program-at-iimc-dhenkanal

Odia Wikipedia 9th Anniversary Celebration

praskrishna — 2013-01-24T09:52:13Z

The Centre for Internet & Society, New Delhi is celebrating the ninth anniversary of Odia Wikipedia. The event is being held at Academy of Media Learning, M-6, Samanta Vihar in Bhubaneswar from 10.30 a.m. to 12.30 p.m.

ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ, ଅନଲାଇନରେ ଉପଲବ୍ଧ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଭାଷାର ଏକ ମୁକ୍ତ ଜ୍ଞାନକୋଷର ୯ମ ବାର୍ଷିକ ଜନ୍ମତିଥି ୨୯ ଜାନୁଆରୀରେ ଭୁବନେଶ୍ଵରର ଏକାଡେମି ଅଫ ମିଡ଼ିଆ ଲର୍ଣ୍ଣିଙ୍ଗରେ ଅପରାହ୍ଣ ୪ ଘଟିକା ସମୟରେ ଅନୁଷ୍ଠିତ ହେବାକୁ ଯାଉଛି । ଏହି ଅବସରରେ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆ ପରିବାର ଆପଣମାନଙ୍କୁ ଏହି କାର୍ଯ୍ୟକ୍ରମରେ ଭାଗ ନେଇ ଏହାକୁ ସାଫଲ୍ୟମଣ୍ଡିତ କରିବାକୁ ଅନୁରୋଧ କରୁଛି ।

ଏଥିରେ ଆମେ ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଉଇକିପିଡ଼ିଆର ଉପଯୋଗୀତା, ଏହାର ବ୍ୟବହାର ଓ ଆପଣ କିପରି ଏଥିରେ ଭାଗ ନେଇପାରିବେ ଓ ଜ୍ଞାନ ବିତରଣର ଏହି ମହାପ୍ରବାହ ସାମିଲ ହୋଇପାରିବେ ସେ ବାବଦରେ ଜାଣିପାରିବେ । ଏଥିରେ ଭାଗ ନେବା ପାଇଁ ଏହି ଅନଲାଇନ ଫର୍ମଟିକୁ ଭରନ୍ତୁ: http://goo.gl/q5vnA

Agenda

Introducing Wikipedia
Celebrating Odia Wikipedia's 9th birthday!
Current status of Odia Wikipedia and WikiProjects
Press meet

Organizers

ମନୋରଞ୍ଜନ ବେହେରା
ଶ୍ରୀକାନ୍ତ କେଡ଼ିଆ
ସୁଭାସିସପାଣିଗାହି

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/events/odia-wikipedia-9th-anniversary-celebration

Cyber security, surveillance and the right to privacy: country perspectives

praskrishna — 2013-01-23T12:10:23Z

This blog post is fourth in a series of eight blog posts to report on the “Third South Asian Meeting on the Internet and Freedom of Expression” recently concluded in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

This post was published in the Internet Democracy Project Website on January 22, 2013. All the blog posts in this series are written by Richa Kaul Padte, the official rapporteur at the meeting.

'The best way to protect people’s rights is to enable people to protect their rights themselves' – Chinmayi Arun

Pranesh Prakash, CIS India	Opening the session on cyber security, surveillance and privacy, moderator Pranesh Prakash from the Centre for Internet and Society (India) frames the debate by talking about how the principles raised by discussions on security, privacy and surveillance are always in tension with each other. ‘The boundaries that have been drawn in a pre-digital era don’t apply online always [and] the classic model of state-controlled surveillance is not as relevant [today].’

Taking forward the discussion by setting both a global and national framework around the issue, Assistant Professor at the Delhi-based National Law University Chinmayi Arun brings to light the ways in which cyber security is consistently tabled on several global agendas; however, with little to no meaningful parallel discussions around the right to privacy. She also connects the idea of surveillance to notions of censorship vis a vis freedom of expression, and poignantly states: ‘surveillance is a lot more insidious than censorship – [so much] more can take place before people realise it is happening.’ Prakash furthers this idea in his transition between country perspectives by highlighting the ways in which surveillance measures are already established and heavily pervasive, with both Prakash and Arun advocating greater transparency in areas where these measures are in place. As Arun says, ‘it’s not true that every instance of surveillance needs to be secret until it’s done’, and distinguishing between necessary surveillance measures (in the case of crime investigations, for example) and those that position all people as criminals who must be monitored, is key to taking the discussion forward.

Chinmayi Arun, National Law University Delhi, India

Mohammed Nazmuzzaman Bhuian, Dhaka University

Mohammad Nazmuzzaman Bhuian, an Associate Professor from the University of Dhaka, opens a Bangladeshi country perspective with the question, ‘how does a cyber security act become a surveillance act?’ A cyber crime refers to any crime that involves a computer or a network, and the crimes under this can play out in two ways. The computer itself may be a target, or it may be used to carry out a crime. It is when it is used to carry out a crime that the question of online surveillance arises

Offering another perspective from Bangladesh, Head of the Centre for IT Security and Privacy and Assistant Professor, University of Asia Pacific, Mohammad Shahriar Rahman, discusses the manipulation of security and surveillance laws by the State in order to create greater security for itself. He cites the ban of YouTube in the country in response to a US-produced video ridiculing the Prophet Mohammed and the attacks on bloggers who have advocated for free speech on the Internet, including speech that may be anti-authoritarian or anti-religious. These examples echo Mariyath Mohamed’s perspectives on the interplay between religion, politics and censorship from the previous session, which clearly resound through many South Asian countries.

Mohammad Shahriar Rahman, University of Asia Pacific, Bangladesh

Kailash Prasad Neupane, Nepal Telecommunications Authority	Perspectives from Nepal, offered by speaker Kailash Prasad Neupane from the Nepal Telecommunications Authority, highlight the acute similarities between the laws in different South Asian countries, which all position the freedom of expression as ‘subject to certain restrictions’, where the subjectivity of the clause tends to be interpreted by a powerful and majority State against its minority citizens, thus undermining both democracy and citizens’ rights. As Rahman says, ‘if the government wants to be seen as democratic in these times, they need to realise you can’t jail everyone who is critical of the Prime Minister.’

Speaking from the floor, Bishakha Datta, from Mumbai-based women’s media organisation Point of View, expands on the speakers’ views by highlighting the ways in which, given the extensive measures of State security and surveillance, societies themselves become structured around a culture of surveillance that citizens in turn internalise and see as a necessary part of their lives. She asks, ‘when we talk about the right to privacy, are we saying that we are willing to accept surveillance as long as our privacy is maintained, or are we opposing it on the grounds of privacy?’ Echoing Prakash’s idea that ‘the way in which security and privacy are portrayed as being at loggerheads is false’, Arun responds to Datta by advocating privacy as the starting point for all discussions surrounding security. In summary she states, ‘we must underline our right to privacy,and that right must always dominate. One must always start with that right, and then narrow the circumstances in which, only when it is absolutely necessary and to the extent absolutely necessary, it may be violated.’ And it is through this consistent demand for the right to privacy, and the placing of citizens and individuals (rather than the interests of the State) at the heart of these conversations, that we can see security and privacy as co-existing notions that work to ensure, rather than suppress, freedom of expression.	Bishakha Datta, Point of View, India

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/internet-democracy-richa-kaul-padte-jan-22-2013-cyber-security-surveillance-and-the-right-to-privacy

Fifth International IPR Conference (GIPC 2013)

praskrishna — 2013-02-03T02:04:49Z

ITAG Business Solutions is organizing its Fifth International IPR conference "GIPC 2013" at Hotel LaLit Ashok, Bangalore, India on the theme "IPR: The Powerhouse of Tomorrow". Snehashish Ghosh is participating in the event and will speak on Pervasive Technologies: Access to Knowledge in the Market Place.

The Institute of International Trade and Sughrue are the co-organisers of this event. Full details of the event can be seen here.

The conference shall deal with specific technology in various industries, World leaders and the various IPR solutions.

The subjects to be covered in the conference are from idea to asset encompassing all relevant topics including valuation, commercialization, technology transfer, litigation, counterfeiting, analyzing the techno, legal and commercial solution to all associated problems in the field of intellectual property. The conference will deal with complex issues in simple manner about patentability of business methods, software and emerging field of technologies namely electronics, telecommunications, green technologies, nanotechnologies and pharmaceuticals. The emerging BRICS economies need to provide IP competitiveness to the Western Nations through innovation and creativity.

Click to see the agenda.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/fifth-intl-ipr-conference-gipc-2013

Global IP Convention 2013

praskrishna — 2013-01-21T09:58:18Z

The convention is being held in Bangalore from January 23 to 30, 2012.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/global-ip-convention

Is freedom of expression under threat in the digital age?

praskrishna — 2013-02-03T10:50:52Z

This week Index held a high level panel debate in partnership with the Editors Guild of India and the India International Centre to discuss the question “Is freedom of expression under threat in the digital age?” Mahima Kaul reports

This post by Mahima Kaul was published in Index on Censorship on January 18, 2013.

Index on Censorship, in partnership with The Editors Guild of India, hosted a debate in New Delhi on Tuesday (15 January) asking, “Is freedom of expression under threat in the digital age?” Discussing the topic were Ajit Balakrishnan (founder and Chief Executive of rediff.com), Index on Censorship CEO Kirsty Hughes, Sunil Abraham (Executive Director of the centre for Internet and Society), and Professor Timothy Garton Ash, Director of the Free Speech Debate project.

Sunil Abraham questioned the idea of technology specific “internet freedom” that has been advocated by many not least the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. He said there was for instance much greater freedom and diversity on Indian TV than in the US. He also argued that that this freedom does not seem to extend to a right of access to knowledge, as demonstrated by the charges brought against open access activist and developer Aaron Swartz, who committed suicide earlier this month. Swartz was facing charges for allegedly downloading 4.8 million academic articles from subscription-only digital library JSTOR.

Abraham said one unintentional effect of censorship by governments is that it teaches citizens how to protect themselves online. Finally, he questioned the Indian government’s draconian laws and arbitrary actions in the digital realm, wondering whether this is the authorities’ way of warning future netizens about “acceptable online behaviour”, to condition the public not to criticise the government and to create a chilling effect.

Digital

Is freedom of expression under threat in the digital age?

18 Jan 2013

This week Index held a high level panel debate in partnership with the Editors Guild of India and the India International Centre to discuss the question “Is freedom of expression under threat in the digital age?” Mahima Kaul reports

Freedom of expression is always under threat and in need of defending, argued Timothy Garton Ash. However, he didn’t think the threat was particularly high today in the digital realm — rather the threats to privacy were what were particularly concerning online. With 76.8 per cent of India’s 1.2 billion population connected by mobile phone, there is an extraordinary opportunity for the prevalence of freedom of expression brought about by new technologies. But he said there are also a lot of challenges to free expression in India — and that “swing states” such as Brazil and India will be very important in determining where the global conversation goes on freedom of expression

Ajit Balakrishnan, founder of web portal Rediff.com, explained that many of the problems that have occurred in the digital realm in India have to do with poor drafting of legislation. He was particularly concerned about intermediary liability and explained why and how intermediaries roles needed protecting. He also explained that government officials have genuine problems with phrasing, and that when it comes to the application of these laws, understanding them and when they should be applied will take another 25 years. He added that the country is challenged by a legal system ill-equipped for coping with new technologies.

Kirsty Hughes said that freedom of expression is a universal right, meant to be applied across borders not just within countries. She said that while the digital domain allowed a big expansion in freedom of expression there were risks we are heading towards a more controlled net, a partially censored net, and a fragmented net (for instance with Iran attempting to build its own internet disconnected from the rest of the world). She said that some of the negative reactions by government to social media in India were seen to in the UK where there had been a trend towards criminalising supposedly offensive comment — although the new interim guidelines on social media prosecutions were a step in the right direction. Hughes emphasised three main concerns — state censorship, privatisation of censorship and the role of big companies, and mass surveillance. She pointed out that the British government had pushed for extensive surveillance with the Communications Data Bill, but this has now been shelved after a critical report from MPs.

Ramanjit Singh Chima, policy adviser for Google, said that the question is not about absolute freedom, but about what is appropriate and lawful. He emphasised that in the US, judges had strongly defended free expression online as they saw the digital world as a powerful space for free exprssion. He pointed out how effective social media tools, including Google’s own products, have become in helping during emergency situations like natural disasters and terrorist attacks. He also pointed out that the internet is not only about free expression but business as well. The internet contributes to 1.6 per cent of India’s GDP. Singh Chima said positive judgements by US and EU courts protect the users, adding that regulation for the net should be appropriate for its engineering.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/index-on-censorship-mahima-kaul-january-18-2013-is-freedom-of-expression-under-threat-in-the-digital-age

Is freedom of expression under threat in digital age?

praskrishna — 2013-01-17T06:16:09Z

With social networking site Facebook boasting of 1 billion members globally and micro-blogging site Twitter claiming millions, opinion was divided on whether the freedom of expression was under threat in the digital age.

This article was originally published by Indo Asian News Service on January 16, 2013. It was also covered in Business Standard, Vancouver Desi, DNA, and Tech2. Sunil Abraham is quoted.

"Censorship of content should be the last resort as curbing a particular content online actually amplifies its spread over the internet," said Sunil Abraham from Centre for Internet and Society.

He was speaking at a panel discussion organised by London based Index on Censorship and the Editors Guild of India on the issue at the India International Centre Tuesday evening.

"The government has refused to amend Section 66(A) of the IT Act which is used to curb free speech on the net," said Guild chief TN Ninan who moderated the debate. "The law treats digital media differently than the print media," he said.

Director of Free Speech Debate, Oxford University, Timothy Garton Ash said, "There was no threat to the freedom of speech as internet was actually an opportunity for spreading freedom of expression."

India with the large number of net users could act as swing state between two extremes of China which is trying to control the net and the US which champions free speech, he said.

"The question is what are the legitimate limits of free speech rather than asking for unlimited speech," said Ash.

Ajit Balakrishnan, CEO and founder of online portal rediff.com, said "there was a sense of powerlessness among nation states as only local laws applied to any such violations."

He said the internet was not so democratic as it sounded as the actual numbers of users who posted content on Facebook were just 8-9 million while the rest just watched. The same was with Twitter with just 7-8 percent users actually posting messages.

Kirsty Hughes, CEO, Index on Censorship, said "freedom of speech was universal" while noting a "worrying trend that increasingly governments were moving to control the internet."

"The risks of such controls are that we could have a much more controlled, censored and fragmented internet," she said.

Ramanjit Singh Chima of Google India stressed on the need to have laws to protect internet freedom as such curbs affected livelihood of many users and contributed to local economies.

He said the internet allowed people to instantly collaborate and publish critical information during emergency situations.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/ians-news-is-freedomexpression-under-threat-in-digital-age

Aaron Swartz Memorial Hacknight

praskrishna — 2013-01-17T05:18:22Z

On Saturday, January 19, 2013, HasGeek and the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) are organizing a hacknight to understand Aaron’s work and contribute to his projects. The event starts from 2.00 p.m. onwards and ends at 8.00 a.m., the next day morning.

Among the hackers present will be some of Aaron's collaborators, such as Anand Chitipothu and A S L Devi.The Aaron Swartz memorial hacknight is a free event. You do not have to be a hacker to contribute and do not have to be present for the entire night. Join us even if just to show solidarity or inspire others on what they can do. HasGeek encourages participants to bring their own energy drinks and snacks for the evening so that there is enough to go around.

To register, visit: http://hacknight.in/hasgeek/aaronsw-memorial. Once your registration is approved, you can add or join a project to work on during the hacknight.

Aaron Swartz

Aaron Swartz was a hacktivist. He helped create RSS 1.0; contributed to Creative Commons; was an early builder of Reddit, where he's often acknowledged as a co-founder; created the web.py framework; and more recently, became a data liberator, first with PACER, the US public case law archive, and then with scholarly articles from JSTOR, both of which got him into trouble with the law. Aaron's Demand Progress project helped stop SOPA and PIPA, the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect IP Act in the US, both of which threatened to have far reaching unintended consequences.

Aaron Swartz took his life on Jan 11, 2013. However, his work on making the world a better place should not die with him. On Saturday, January 19, HasGeek and the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) are organizing a hacknight to understand Aaron’s work and contribute to his projects. Among the hackers present will be some of Aaron's collaborators, such as Anand Chitipothu and A S L Devi, who can help you get started.

About HasGeek

HasGeek creates discussion spaces around emerging technologies to foster the growth of communities. Since 2010, HasGeek has organized a number of conferences, hacknights and geekups around open source, web design and development, big data, cloud computing and mobile opportunities. The HasGeek Job Board connects thousands of individuals every month with jobs around upcoming technologies. HasGeek also builds tools to assist communities with organizing events and meetups. For more information, write to info@hasgeek.com

About CIS

CIS is a research and advocacy organization based in Bangalore. Founded in 2008, the Centre critically engages with issues concerning internet governance, freedom of speech, public accountability and digital pluralism. Through multidisciplinary research, intervention, and collaboration, CIS seeks to explore, understand, and affect the shape and form of the internet, and its relationship with the political, cultural, and social milieu of our times.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/events/aaron-swartz-memorial-hacknight

An Introduction to Bitfilm and Bitcoin – A Discussion by Aaron Koenig

praskrishna — 2013-02-05T10:14:54Z

The Centre for Internet & Society, Bangalore invites you to a talk by Aaron Koenig, Managing Director, Bitfilm Networks of Hamburg, Germany on January 23, 2013, from 7.00 p.m. to 9.00 p.m.

The Talk

Aaron Koenig will give a talk on the creation and use of Bitcoin, a new digital currency and payment system designed for the voting process of the Bitfilm Festival for Digital Film. Since the year 2000, the Bitfilm Festival has been showcasing films that use digital technology in a creative and innovative way. It takes place on the Internet. However, physical screenings of the films will be held in Bangalore and in Hamburg. Each of the 59 nominated digital animations has its own Bitcoin account, and users worldwide may vote by donating Bitcoins to the films they like anonymously and without any transfer costs. The donated money will be divided among the most popular films (the films with the most votes/Bitcoins).

Aaron will also present an animated short about Bitcoin which he has produced with an animation team based in Bangalore. Of course, the animators were paid in Bitcoin.

More info on the Bitfilm Festival: http://www.bitfilm.com/festival
More info on Bitcoin: http://blink.li/current-issue

VIDEO

Aaron Koenig

Aaron is the Managing Director of Bitfilm. He has run the organization since 1999. He is a vibrant member of art and film societies and an Entrepreneur. Currently engaged with Bitfilm.com, Aaron also publishes a political magazine called BLINK.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/events/bitfilm-and-bitcoin-a-discussion-by-aaron-koenig

7th India Digital Summit 2013

praskrishna — 2013-02-13T06:32:31Z

This summitt organised by Internet and Mobile Association of India is being held in New Delhi from January 16 to 17, 2013 at the Lalit Hotel

Sunil Abraham is the moderator for Plenary Session 3: Discussion on Social Media – Freedom, Moderation or Regulation.

Click to download the agenda

Theme of the Summit

951 million mobile users with 448 million mobile data subscribers; 137 million Internet users and rural Internet growing 7x in the last two years make India one of the top three digital markets in the world. One of only top two at this scale with free market economy democratic polity; and the only one where there is still headroom for growth. The time to invest in Digital India is now.

By 2020 riding on a government investment of 4 billion USD [roughly 10 billion USD on PPP terms] Internet users is expected to be 600 million; and mobile would possibly penetrate 100% of rural India creating the largest free economy digital market in the world.

The Digital Opportunity now and in the next 5 years in India is explosive. And the need to create a Digital Economy on scale is a developmental necessity. The opportunity, however, lies in addressing the current challenges of the ability to provide: low cost connectivity, universal access, usable content, secure networks, affordable devices and enabling policy.

Building on the theme of “Creating the World’s Largest Free Market Digital Economy” the 7th India Digital Summit will focus on five tracks: Infrastructure, Regulatory Frameworks, Services & Content, Entrepreneurship / Innovation and Business 3.0.

Webcast of the Event

Day 1, January 16, 2013

Inaugural
Welcome Address Mr. Hitesh Oberoi, Chairman, IAMAI & Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Info Edge India Limited Address by Chief Guest Mr. Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission, Government of IndiaKeynote Address by Mr. R Chandrashekhar, Chairman (TC) & Secretary , Department of Telecommunications, Ministry of Communications and IT
Plenary Session 1: 1000 digital startups a year: How to make it happen?
Session Chair and presenter: Mr. Satyan Gajwani, CEO, Times Internet Presenter ‐ Mr. Mahesh Murthy, Founder, Pinstorm and Co-founder, Seedfund Mr. Manish Vij, Founder, VUN Network Mr. Pranay Gupta, Joint CEO, Centre for Innovation Mr. Rajesh Sawhney, Founder, GSF Accelerator & Superangels Mr. Mukund Mohan, CEO in Residence, Microsoft Startup Accelerator
Business track Topic: Importance of Creativity to Digital Advertising
Session Chair and presenter Neville Taraporewalla, Sr. Director - Emerging Markets\| India, Malaysia,Thailand & Korea, Advertising and Online, Microsoft Discussion: M Mohit Hira, Senior Vice President & Regional Business Leader-Airtel, JWT Vineet Gupta, Managing Partner, 22feet Communications Arun Sharma, VP Marketing - Head Media & Rural, Bharti Airtel Vikas Tandon, Managing Director, Indigo Consulting Aditya Save, Head-Media & Digital Marketing, Marico Audience Interaction
“Lowering the barrier for mobile web - for both operators and users”
Keynote Address by Mr. Peter Panait Løjmand, Senior Vice President, Opera Software Interaction with Mr. Sanjay Goyal, Chief Executive Officer, ACL Wireless
Plenary Session 2: Cloud – Leveraging the Cloud for Business Efficiency
Session Chair and presenter Mr. Manoj Chugh, Regional President, Global Accounts-APJ, EMC Presenters: Mr. Manav Khanna, Sr. Consultant –Enterprise Security, SafeNet Inc. Mr. Jasminder Singh Gulati, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, Nowfloats Mr. Ravi Shankar, Chief Executive Officer, Nevales Networks Mr. Mandar Kulkarni, Vice President, Solution Engg & Pvt. Cloud Practice, Netmagic Mr. Balaka Baruah Aggarwal, Business Evangelist, Amazon Web Services Mr. Jaydeep Nargund, Head Services-India, AKAMAI Mr. Vivek Ravindran, Director-Core & App Platform, Microsoft
Email Marketing Roundtable with juvlon
Email Marketing in the Year of the Snake - 2013 Presented by Mr. Naresh Bhagtani, CEO, Juvlon, Niche Software
“Unique Identity and Its Positive Externalities for Inclusiveness"
Keynote Address by Mr. Nandan Nilekani , Chairman, UAIDI Interaction with Mr. Shubhashis Gangopadhyay, IDF research
“Bharat Broadband [NOFN]: Going extra mile with public investment”
Keynote Address by Mr. Sam Pitroda Interaction with Mr. Lalitesh Katragadda, Country Head-India Products, Google
Plenary Session 3: Discussion on Social media – Freedom, moderation or regulation
Session Chair & Moderator: Sunil Abraham, Executive Director, The Centre for Internet and Society
Discussion with: Rajesh Kalra, Chief Editor, Times Internet R Sukumar, Managing Editor, Mint Shivam Vij, Kafila.org
Track 3: The last mile of customer connect: m-Engagement from OPENHOUSE
Presenter: Mr. Ankit Singh, Senior Manager, Enterprise mobility, IMI Mobile Mr. Ramesh Raman , Senior manager, Marketing, IMI Mobile

Day 2, January 17, 2013

“Future of Apps and their Monetization”
Keynote Address by Mr. Ilja Laurs, Founder and Chairman, GetJar Moderated by : Mr. Kiruba Shankar
“Communications challenges in the age of Social media”
Keynote address by Dr Shashi Tharoor, Minister of State for Human Resource Development, Government of India Interaction with audience Moderated by Mr. R Jagannanthan
Track 4: CXOs Closed door discussion on Local Language – The Game Changer
Session moderated by Gyan Gupta, Chief Operating Officer, Dainik Bhaskar; Address by speakers Mr. Arvind Pani, Co-founder, Reverie language Technologies Mr. Ajay Gallwale, Founder, Maayboli Mr. C Mathew, DGM (Marketing), Malayala Manorama Mr. Manoj Gupta, Head, VAS & Applications, Micromax Audience Interaction Summarising by Moderator
Start-Up Unconference
A peer to peer, informal sharing of views between new entrepreneurs and start-ups of our industry
Chaired by: Mr. Sanjiv Bikhchandani, Founder and Executive Vice Chairman, Infoedge Moderator by: Kiruba Shankar
Plenary Session 5: Discussion on e-Commerce 2.0– Emerging trend
Session Chair & Moderator: Mr. Avnish Bajaj, Managing Director, Matrix Partners In Discussion with: Mr. Alok Mittal, Managing Director, Canaan Patners India Mr. Sachin Bansal, Co-founder & CEO, Flipkart Mr. Sundeep Malhotra, Chief Executive Officer, HomeShop18 Mr. Muralikrishnan B, Country Manager, eBay Mr. Mukesh Bansal, Founder, Myntra.com Mr. Ankur Warikoo, Chief Executive Officer, Groupon India
Plenary Session 6: Marketers Viewpoint – Online and Mobile Marketing
Session Chair: Mr. Upen Rai, Chief Operating Officer and Executive Director, AntFarm Presenters: Mr. Sanjay Tripathy, EVP - Head Marketing, Products and Direct Channels - HDFC Life Mr. Manish Kalra, Chief Marketing Officer, Makemytrip Mr. Vinay Bhatia, Customer Care Associate and VP - Marketing and Loyalty, Shoppers Stop Mr. Samil Malhotra, Vice President Sales and Marketing. The Lalit Suri Hospitality Group Mr. Manu Kumar Jain, Co-founder & Managing Director, Jabong
Plenary Session 7: Interaction: Attracting and retaining talent for Digital Industry
Thought sharing by Industry Leaders Interaction between Industry leaders and Students Industry Leaders: Mr. Sanjiv Bikhchandani, Founder and Executive Vice Chairman, Infoedge Mr. Deep Kalra, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Makemytrip Mr. Anupam Mittal, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, People Group Mr. Dinesh Agarwal, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, IndiaMART Mr. Neville Taraporewalla, Sr. Director , Emerging Markets-India, Malaysia, Thailand & Korea, Advertising and Online, Microsoft Student Entrepreneurs: FMS IMT Ghaziabad IITD Moderated by Kiruba Shankar
India Digital Award Ceremony

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/7th-india-digital-summit-2013

7th India Digital Summit 2013

praskrishna — 2013-01-15T08:53:58Z

This summitt organised by Internet and Mobile Association of India is held in New Delhi, January 16 - 17, 2013.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/blog/7th-india-digital-summit-2013