Centre for Internet and Society

Fighting battles online

praskrishna — 2014-09-16T04:19:55Z

Internet policy maverick Sunil Abraham feels that accessibility is key to democratising the Internet space.

The article by Nikhil Varma was published in the Hindu on September 2, 2014.

Forty-year-old Sunil Abraham essays many roles, of a social entrepreneur, free software advocate and as policy director of the Bangalore-based Centre for Internet and Society that focuses on accessibility, access to knowledge, internet governance, telecom and digital humanities.

When he finished his engineering degree and was job hunting in Bangalore, the internet was an entity he had heard about, but never worked on.

“Family constraints meant that I had to look for jobs that paid me more than the salaries offered by industries for a 9 to 6 job. I decided to knock doors in the non profit sector. I met T. Pradeep, who ran Samuha, an NGO in Northern Karnataka that focused on integrated rural development.

Sunil says, “He offered me a job provided I learnt to work on the Internet. My job was to set up the organisation’s website. By 1998, I became the head of the IT department. Many spinoffs from Samuha were also becoming very successful. Pradeep gave us Rs.14 lakh and asked us to spin off and create a new organisation called Mahiti, with a mandate to serve non profits and provide them with affordable IT services. I just came into the picture to fulfil someone else’s dream. We provided email services to non-profit organisations at affordable rates. We ran a bulletin board service and also offered a free webpage for select NGOs.”

In 99, Sunil was offered an Ashoka fellowship. “It is a US non-profit that that supports social entrepreneurs. The idea that won me the fellowship was exploring the democratic potential of the internet. It is very similar to the work that I do at the CIS. The internet remains a tool that can be used for empowering and disempowering purposes that could have hegemonic implications for society. I also worked with the UNDP, after giving a speech about free and open software at one of their meetings. I was hired as a consultant.”

Till June 07’, Sunil worked with the UNDP, managing the open-source network spanning 42 countries. “I cut my policy teeth in the UN and learnt to work with governments and had a better idea of free software and open content. I made a lot of contacts in the course of my work.”

It was at the end of the UN stint that philanthropist Anurag Dikshit decided to set up the Centre for Internet and society in India and Sunil decided to take up the assignment. “Anurag has been a great help from the start. His funds have been very vital for the organization.”

CIS deals with a host of issues, ranging from making the internet and mobile phones disabled friendly to creating more Wikipedia pages in Indic languages and enhancing internet penetration in rural India. The organization is also

With government surveillance taking on newer dimensions in the internet Sunil says, “Surveillance is like adding salt in cooking. It is essential in small quantities, but counter productive even if it is slightly in excess. While surveillance may be a good idea to keep public servants occupying high office under scrutiny, employing mass surveillance on everybody may not work well.”

He adds, “A rational approach is needed. We believe that privacy is inversely proportional to the power a person yields, while transparency is directly proportional to the power a person yields.”

Sunil is deeply apprehensive about some of the steps governments take to stem the flow of information. “A couple of years ago, the government had banned text messages beyond a certain limit to prevent rumours from circulating. This resulted in people moving to Whatsapp, which is more difficult to monitor. The government agencies ended up being the actual losers. The more unrestricted surveillance, better chances that it could be compromised.”

Another vital issue that plagues our times are the limits to free speech and expression. “Different countries have different sets of laws and traditions that govern all aspects of life. We have not managed to arrive on a consensus on food habits, mankind is a long way from developing a uniform policy about internet usage. In India, there are some limits on free speech.”

He says, “If something is illegal offline, it is bound to illegal online. I do not think we need specific laws to police the internet. If you try to ban something, it may end up getting more consumed. It happened in the case of Wendy Doniger’s book being withdrawn by Penguin. The sales of the book skyrocketed when it was published by another publisher.”

Sunil adds, “It is an important that good laws are made and these laws have been enforced properly. Enforceability must also be taken into account during framing laws.”

A scanned version of the article published in the newspaper can be found below:

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/the-hindu-nikhil-varma-september-2-2014-fighting-battles-online

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praskrishna — 2014-07-22T04:00:37Z

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praskrishna — 2014-07-22T03:57:48Z

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Fig 1: Historic Map: Sawai Madhavpur

praskrishna — 2010-11-29T07:10:04Z

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praskrishna — 2016-10-29T14:28:51Z

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Fifty Relative

praskrishna — 2014-04-22T10:47:54Z

Fifty Relative

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Fifty Companies

praskrishna — 2015-04-14T02:21:13Z

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Fifty Absolute

praskrishna — 2014-04-22T10:45:44Z

Fifty Absolute

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Fifth Meeting of the two Sub-Groups on Privacy Issues under the Chairmanship of Justice AP Shah

praskrishna — 2012-08-07T10:11:25Z

The fifth meeting of the two sub-groups on privacy issues will be held on July 22, 2012 under the chairmanship of Justice AP Shah, former chief justice of Delhi High Court.

The next meeting of the two Sub-Groups (5th Meeting) on privacy issues under the Chairmanship of Justice A.P. Shah, former Chief Justice of Delhi High Court is scheduled to be held on July 22, 2012 at 11.00 a.m. This was announced vide notice No. M-13040/47/2011-CIT&I, dated the 10th June, 2012.

A copy of the notice was sent to the following individuals:

Justice AP Shah, Chairman
Dr. Kamlesh Bajaj
Usha Ramanathan
Sunil Abraham
Prashant Reddy
Prof. Arghya Sengupta
Shri Som Mittal
Shri Gulshan Rai
Mala Dutt

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/fifth-meeting-of-two-sub-groups-on-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

Fifth Annual IP Teaching Workshop

praskrishna — 2016-04-02T06:53:16Z

The V Annual IP Teaching Workshop- 2016 was organised by the Centre for Innovation, Intellectual Property and Competition (CIIPC), at National Law University Delhi in association with National Academy of Law Teaching, NLU-D, on March 31 and April 1, 2016 in Delhi. Nehaa Chaudhari was a speaker.

Concept Note

The annual IP teaching workshops have previously been hosted in association with University of Washington School of Law, Seattle. In 2012, the first such workshop identified several broad challenges faced by teachers of intellectual property law in India. In 2013, the second IP teaching workshop focussed was on IP teaching techniques, use of information and communications technology in IP teaching, research and publication. The third workshop in 2014 discussed various issues initiating IP clinics in India. In 2015, the IV annual IP Teaching workshop focused on diverse issues involving curriculum development, student participation in IP activities, empirical research in IP, academic contributions to IP policy-making, and IP teaching beyond law schools. All workshops have had key speakers and resource persons from India and abroad.

By bringing together a select gathering of IP teachers and scholars from different corners of India, the 2016 workshop in its fifth edition aims to focus on developing a thematic research agenda on contemporary legal issues involving “IP interfaces”. The general approach to the study and teaching of intellectual property in India tends to look at intellectual property in isolation to other areas of law. However, many scholars and teachers of intellectual property have in the past and present eschewed such an approach since it fundamentally limits critical thinking and holistic appreciation of intellectual property law, both in theory and in practice. Recent scholarship has focussed on the overlapping nature of issues within intellectual property. However, teachers and scholars of intellectual property do regularly encounter deeper and intricate questions involving IP interfaces in terms of their symbiotic relationship shared by IP with other areas of law, both- domestic and international law.

IP interfaces looks into the complex web of legal relationships and contestations between intellectual property law in India and other areas of law viz., the law of property, constitutional law, law of contracts, tort law, criminal law, international trade law, international investment law, competition law, technology and regulatory laws. Briefly, these areas of law pose important challenges in the development of IP law, which often have specific legal consequences. Taking recourse to the study of interfaces shared by IP with other areas of law may help us in placing decisive legal limits or in advancing potential legal interpretations that may have teleological consequences for various stakeholders implicated by the IP system. These key areas of law identified above are only indicative, and hence non-exhaustive.

The academic community is invited to contemplate on the theme of the conference by framing specific and focused research questions in different areas of IP law that raise legal implications in their interaction with other areas of law. To specifically scope the thematic discussions during the workshop, we look forward to research proposals that avoid pure policy questions that may govern such interfaces. The workshop aims to focus on legal argumentation, articulation and outcome by working on specific legal questions on IP interfaces. The aim to develop a concrete research agenda in order to discern legal principles that guide such legal relationships in terms of their conflicts, complementarities and contestations of IP interfaces. This is with an exclusive focus on several key areas of Indian/international law in its interaction with intellectual property law in India, as governed by different statutes, case-law jurisprudence and common law principles.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/news/fifth-annual-ip-teaching-workshop

Festival scan on social media

praskrishna — 2016-08-26T03:20:36Z

Authorities in a south Karnataka district have started keeping tighter watch on rumour-mongering and hate messages on social media platforms ahead of religious festivals.

The article was published in the Telegraph on August 26, 2016. Sunil Abraham was quoted.

Police in the communally sensitive Dakshina Kannada district have cautioned people not to start or circulate any hate message or rumours that could affect law and order.

"Anyone spreading rumours or hate messages can be charged under IPC Section 505 as we have all the technical capability to find out the origins of such messages," said Mangalore city police commissioner M. Chandra Sekhar.

This section is applied in the event of any statement or rumour with the intent to cause alarm among the public. "We do get several messages that later turn out to be a hoax," the officer said, citing instances of false rumours.

The officer exhorted citizens to alert the police the moment they get any such messages so that it could minimise or even prevent any damage, especially if the content is communally sensitive.

The district authorities have already ramped up police presence to prevent anything untoward in view of the activities of cow vigilantes who recently lynched a BJP worker for transporting calves in neighbouring Udupi district.

A source in the state police department hinted the measure could be replicated across the state, although other districts are not as communally sensitive like Dakshina Kannada.

The district - Mangalore is its administrative headquarters - had been in the thick of communal tension for decades.

Bhushan Gulabrao Borase, superintendent of police in charge of the Dakshina Kannada rural district, that is the rest of the district except Mangalore city, said keeping a watch on social media had become imperative. "Rural people may be using social media less frequently. But even then we need to be careful," he said.

Cow vigilantism by Hindutva groups is a major concern.

He said people could land in trouble for a seemingly harmless message if it causes some serious issue. "It is better not to start such messages. But it's also important not to forward if one receives them," said Borase.

Sunil Abraham, executive director of The Centre for Internet and Society, had a word of caution, although he appreciated the intent behind the police move.

"It's a reasonable approach if they stick to the scope of the law (Section 505). The problem is only if police overstep their limits, like we have seen on several occasions."

But he agreed there was a need to keep an eye on what goes on in social media since many users abuse messaging platforms like WhatsApp.

"What we don't want is a Nazi Germany where the wife is asked to spy on her husband and the son on the father. But we also don't want the opposite when citizens just ignore everything," he said, asserting that it was the duty of civil society to inform the police if they found anything dangerous being circulated.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/the-telegraph-august-26-2016-festival-scan-on-social-media

Feedback on the NIA Bill 2010

praskrishna — 2011-08-24T06:45:09Z

Letter written by Malavika to the UID...

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/publications/letter-to-uid-authority