Centre for Internet and Society

EU Commissioner Hedegaard to deliver keynote address at consumer world congress

praskrishna — 2011-08-20T14:34:45Z

European Union Commissioner for Climate Action, Connie Hedegaard, will deliver the opening keynote address to the Consumer International (CI) 19th World Congress in Hong Kong, 3-6 May, it has been announced.

With under a month to go until the event, Commissioner Hedegaard joins an illustrious list of internationally renowned speakers who will be addressing the world’s consumer movement at the Hong Kong Conference and Exhibition Centre (HKCEC).

Other leading speakers include Alan Jope, Chairman, Unilever Greater China; Sue Rutledge, Director, Consumer Protection, World Bank; Anwar Fazal, civil society leader and former CI President; James Guest, President, Consumers Union of the United States; and Gerd Leonhard, CEO, The Futures Agency.

The CI World Congress, which will be officially opened by Donald Tsang, Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, will be attended by leaders of consumer organisations from over 100 countries, together with representatives from industry, governments, inter-governmental bodies, and civil society. It is being co-hosted by CI member organisation, the Hong Kong Consumer Council.

Commissioner Hedegaard will address the role of consumers in the green economy, a key issue area in light of the overall Congress theme of ‘Empowering Tomorrow’s Consumers’. Other consumer issues that will feature in sessions across the four-day event include: financial services, corporate social responsibility, food safety, and consumer rights in the digital age.

Consumers International Director General, Joost Martens said:

"We are delighted to have Commissioner Hedegaard address the CI World Congress on an issue that is vital to the future of consumption patterns across the globe. Our event is about looking at ways in which consumer groups can help tackle the major challenges facing the world, and give them the tools to empower individual consumers to make a positive difference. Alongside the green economy and issues of sustainable consumption, we have an impressive array of world experts exploring issues of global importance to consumers; such as fair financial services, corporate responsibility and access to knowledge in the digital world."

Hong Kong Consumer Council Chairman, Professor Anthony Cheung said:

"Hong Kong is strategically positioned to hold this World Congress in Asia, which has witnessed some of the fastest growing economies as well as the rampant inflation affecting large populations of consumers. We are honoured to have the Congress held in Hong Kong and to have the opportunity to co-host this single most important world assembly of consumer leaders and advocates at a crucial juncture of time. Fresh ideas and new action are urgently called for to tackle the many pressing issues facing consumers worldwide."

Media accrediation for CI World Congress can be applied for here:

Notes to Editors:

Consumers International (CI) is the only independent global campaigning voice for consumers. With over 220 member organisations in 115 countries, we are building a powerful international consumer movement to help protect and empower consumers everywhere.
The Hong Kong Consumer Council (HKCC) is an independent statutory body committing itself as the trusted voice for consumer betterment towards safe and sustainable consumption in a fair and just market. Joined Consumers International (CI) in 1976, HKCC became CI Council Member in 1978 and has been the Executive Member since 1994.
Consumers International’s 19th World Congress takes place at the Hong Kong Conference and Exhibition Centre, 3-6 May. Day 1 is dedicated to fringe event with Day 2 & 3 taken up with the official programme. Day 4 is the CI General Assembly. All details are at www.consumersinternational.org/congress
The CI World Congress occurs every four to five years. It includes the General Assembly where CI’s President, Executive and Council are voted in.
The last Congress took place in Sydney in 2007. The CI World Congress was previously held in Hong Kong in 1991. The co-hosts for the event are CI’s Hong Kong member, The Consumer Council.
Full list of confirmed chairs and speakers:

Alan Jope, Chairman, Unilever in China
Alejandro Calvillo, Executive Director, El Poder del Consumidor (Mexico)
Anna Glayzer, Programme Officer (Food safety and Nutrition), Consumers International
Anthony Cheung, Chairman, Hong Kong Consumer Council
Anwar Fazal, civil-society leader and former CI President
Bart Combée, President, Consumentenbond
Connie Hedegaard, European Commissioner for Climate Action, EU Commission
David Hammerstein, intellectual property advisor, Transatlantic Consumer Dialogue, and former Spanish MEP
Diana Tsui, CSR Director, KPMG
Gerd Billen, Executive Director, The Federation of German Consumer Organisations (vzbv)
Gerd Leonhard, The Futures Agency
Guido Adriaenssens, Chief Executive Officer, International Consumer Research and Testing (ICRT)
H C Yang, Vice President and Secretary General, China Consumers' Association
Hassan Qaqaya, Chief, Capacity Building and Technical Assistance Section, Competition Law and Policy and Consumer Protection Section, UNCTAD
Helio Mattar, Founder, Akatu Institute for Conscious Consumption (Brazil)
Indrani Thuraisingham, Head of CI Office for Asia Pacific and the Middle East, Consumers International
Jaiok Kim, President, Consumers Korea
James Guest, CEO, Consumers Union of United States
Jami Solli, specialist on financial services in consumer protection law
Jan Gustav Strandenaes, Senior Adviser, The Northern Alliance for Sustainability (ANPED)
Jean Halloran, Consumers Union of United States
Jens Henriksson, International Officer, Swedish Consumers' Association
Jeremy Malcolm, Access to Knowledge Programme Coordinator, Consumers International
Jonathon Hanks, University of Cape Town
Jørgen Schlundt, Deputy Director, National Food Institute, Denmark
Justin Macmullan, Head of Campaigns, Consumers International
Lisa Gunn, Executive Director, Brazilian Institute for Consumer Defence (IDEC)
Luke Upchurch, Head of Communications, Consumers International
Niall Dunne, former Director, Saatchi & Saatchi Sustainability
Norma McCormick, Chair, ISO Committee on Consumer Policy (COPOLCO)
Peter Kell, Chair, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC)
Premila Kumar, Chief Executive, Consumer Council of Fiji
Rasmus Kjeldahl, Executive Director, Danish Consumer Council
Ratna Devi, Deputy Secretary General, Federation of Malaysian Consumers Associations (FOMCA)
Rehan Saiyed, Storm Corporate Design Limited
Richard Henry Kimera, Chief Executive, Consent, Uganda
Robert Welford, Chairman, CSR Asia
Robin Simpson, Senior Policy Advisor, Consumers International
Samuel Ochieng, President, CIN Kenya and Consumers International
Stefan Larenas R, President, Organisation of Consumers and Users of Chile (ODECU)
Sue Rutledge, Director of Consumer Protection, World Bank
Sunil Abraham, Executive Director, Centre for Internet and Society, India
Thami Bolani, Chairman, National Consumer Forum (South Africa)

Press Contact

Luke Upchurch: lupchurch@consint.org [+44 796 894 9327]

Hong Kong Consumer Council

Clara Li clarali@consumer.org.hk [+852 2856 8589]

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/eu-commissioner-keynote-address

Ethical Research Guidelines

praskrishna — 2018-10-13T12:21:48Z

The Centre for Internet and Society will endeavour to protect the physical, social and psychological well-being of those who participate in their research. The guidelines below state the necessary steps to follow while doing research.

The ethical research guideline requires CIS staff and consultants to consider and take the following steps while engaging in research.

Providing notice to the individual of the: Aims, methods, his/her right to abstain from participation in the research and his/her right to terminate at any time his/her participation; the confidential nature of his/her replies and any limits on such confidentiality.
Providing informants and other participants the right to remain anonymous.
Taking informed consent from the individual that he/she agrees to participate. If children are involved in the research, informed consent will be taken from the parents. Informed consent will entail communicating :
- Purpose(s) of the study, and the anticipated consequences of the research;
- Identity of funders and sponsors
- Anticipated uses of the data
- The degree of anonymity and confidentiality which may be afforded to informants and subjects.
Ensuring that when audio/visual-recorders and photographic records are being used, participants that are being recorded will be made aware of the use of the devices, and have the option to request that they not be used.
Ensuring that the identity and identifying information of the participant (if not already in the public domain) is destroyed at the end of project, unless the individual has consented to otherwise.
At public events organized by CIS, it will be announced and publicly posted that the event is being recorded. Individuals will be given the choice object to being recorded or their name and organization shared in conference reports, blogs, articles etc. If the individual does not object, it will be considered that they have given their consent.
The Centre for Internet and Society strictly follows a policy of No Plagiarism.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/about/policies/ethical-research-guidelines

Essentials of building internet tools for inclusion

praskrishna — 2017-03-14T14:38:23Z

A talk jointly proposed by Chinmayi SK and Rohini Lakshané was selected for the Internet Freedom Festival held at Valencia, Spain from March 6 to 10, 2017. The talk held on March 6, 2017 was jointly organized by Random Hacks of Kindness, The Bachchao Project, and the Centre for Internet and Society.

For the full schedule of Internet Freedom Festival, click here. A manual titled Building Tech for Diversity and Inclusion 101 jointly authored by Chinmayi S.K., Rohini Lakshané and Willow Brugh was released during the event.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/events/essentials-of-building-internet-tools-for-inclusion

Essay Review: Digital AlterNatives with a Cause

praskrishna — 2012-02-10T05:53:30Z

Hivos and the Centre for Internet & Society (CIS) are pleased to announce the monthly essay review event. It starts from the midnight of February 17 and ends on the midnight of February 26. Hurry! Pick any essay from the four book collective of Digital AlterNatives with a Cause? and send us your reviews.

Hivos and CIS have consolidated their three year knowledge inquiry into the field of youth, technology and change in a four book collective “Digital AlterNatives with a cause?”.

This collaboratively produced collective, edited by Nishant Shah and Fieke Jansen, asks critical and pertinent questions about theory and practice around 'digital revolutions' in a post MENA (Middle East - North Africa) world. It works with multiple vocabularies and frameworks and produces dialogues and conversations between digital natives, academic and research scholars, practitioners, development agencies and corporate structures to examine the nature and practice of digital natives in emerging contexts from the Global South.

The event invites readers from around the world to pick any one essay from the books and review it in the week of 17-26 February 2012.

Previously found reviews can be found here.

For submission guidelines, please get in touch with: Nilofar Ansher (nilofar.ansh@gmail.com)

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/events/essay-review

eSpeak Punjabi

praskrishna — 2015-03-10T02:02:21Z

eSpeak Punjabi

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/home-images/eSpeakPunjabi1.png

Ericsson v. Kingtech

praskrishna — 2015-03-30T16:33:58Z

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/ericsson-v-kingtech.pdf

Environmental Scan Report

praskrishna — 2011-11-23T09:19:18Z

The Environmental Scans are the first component of the “Free Access to Law – Is it Here to Stay” global study on the sustainability of FAL initiatives.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/environmental-scan.pdf

Environmental Scan Report

praskrishna — 2011-11-23T09:14:04Z

The Environmental Scans are the first component of the “Free Access to Law – Is it Here to Stay” global study on the sustainability of FAL initiatives.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/openness/environmental-scan-report.pdf

Environment Scan Report

praskrishna — 2012-06-21T10:07:41Z

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

Entertainment industry and Internet piracy in focus

praskrishna — 2012-09-17T10:00:54Z

The first-of-its-kind initiative by the anti-piracy cell of the Kerala Police to register cases against 1,010 Internet users for uploading or downloading the Malayalam film Bachelor Party has sparked a debate between social media experts and legal puritans on what the law actually says.

Krishnadas Rajagopal's article was published in the Hindu on September 17, 2012. Pranesh Prakash and Prashant Iyengar are quoted.

Internet users and anti-monopoly advocates say the police action against movie downloaders is “questionable.” They argue how the Copyright Act, 1957, has given wide exception to those who disseminate copyright works for “personal and private use.”

Legal puritans, on the other hand, quote the same 1957 law and the Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000, to argue that the State police have not done anything wrong.

They say the act of uploading and downloading a copyrighted cinematographic work amounts to publishing and transmitting it, respectively.

They cite Section 66 of the IT Act, 2000, that says a “hacker,” if found guilty, can get three years’ imprisonment, a fine up to Rs.2 lakh, or even both.

That’s not all. Section 43 of the same statute prescribes that a “hacker” may have to cough up Rs.1 crore in compensation in case of “damage to the computer system.”

Middle line

Some others draw the middle line about the police’s drive. They say that though downloading is as illegal as buying a pirated CD from the market and “ignorance of law is no excuse to escape prosecution under an existing law,” the sheer magnitude of registering mass cases against downloaders, probably on a global scale, is impractical.

“It is questionable whether downloading for personal use by itself constitutes an offence under the Copyright Act, 1957. The Act has created a wide exception for personal and private use,” says Pranesh Prakash, programme manager for Access to Knowledge, Openness, Internet Governance and Freedom of Speech at The Centre for Internet and Society in Bangalore.

The usage “personal and private use” in the Act can be better understood in the contrast — that is, downloading without any intention to “disseminate the cinematographic work to a community you are not provisionally associated to.”

Legislative intent

Prashant Iyengar, Assistant Professor and Assistant Director, Centre for Intellectual Property Rights Studies, Jindal Global Law School, says the legislative intent behind the wide exceptions given to dissemination of work in the 1957 law is actually strengthening the public domain.

“In India under the Copyright Act, we have a robust regime of fair dealing rights to ensure that information cannot be monopolised at the expense of the public’s access to information,” he says.

He refers to Section 52 of the Act that allows reproduction of literary, artistic, musical, and dramatic works for research and private uses without any “quantitative restriction” on the amount that may be copied. “However, cinematographic works do not fall under this exception,” he says.

Under Section 51, a single copy of a cinematographic work could be “imported” to India for personal and domestic use. This would not amount to copyright infringement.

“But it is currently unsettled in law whether Section 51 would protect users downloading movies for their personal use. On the other hand, if you receive a copy of a movie CD by post, this section would clearly apply,” Mr. Iyengar says.

Pavan Duggal, senior Supreme Court lawyer specialising in cyber laws, differs in his opinion. As far as he is concerned, the law is clear against copyright infringement.

He says unauthorised downloading of movies also attracts action under the IT Act, 2000. “The legal perspective is that when you upload a pirated copy, you are doing an act of publishing and when you click the ‘download’ button, you are transmitting data in an electronic format for the purpose of diminishing the value of electronic information,” he says.

“The Kerala Police have not done anything fundamentally wrong by registering cases against uploaders and downloaders. When I am creating a film, I have copyright to both cinematic and electronic versions. In case of infringement, I can act by suing for damages, injunction, in addition to exposing the person to criminal liability under the Copyright Act,” Mr. Duggal says.

However, Mr. Iyengar vehemently counters the point. He asks a “pertinent” question — how the Kerala Police conducted their probe and how the Internet Protocol addresses were obtained when Internet service providers have strict privacy obligations against disclosure of any such details, except to government authorities.

“In this case, one hears that a private investigation firm called ‘Jadoo Infotech’ was involved in conducting ‘cyber-patrolling,’ which is not authorised by any law. They would be guilty of the digital equivalent offence of ‘lurking house trespass’,” Mr. Iyengar says.

But Nandagopal Rajan, an associate editor with a technology magazine in Delhi, has a simple logic grounded in law.

“Anybody who is downloading illegally cannot seek protection. You are actually doing something illegal. On the flip side, how many people can you prosecute?” he asked.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/www-the-hindu-sep-17-2012-krishnadas-rajagopal-entertainment-industry-and-internet-piracy-in-focus

English Wikipedia and the Telugu Wikipedia joint meetup and edit-a-thon: Sakshi

praskrishna — 2016-01-05T06:31:25Z

The article was published in Sakshi on December 20, 2015. A scanned version of the article is given below.

On December 20, 2015 English Wikipedia and the Telugu Wikipedia joint meetup and edit-a-thon were conducted on Golden Threshold, Hyderabad.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/news/english-wikipedia-and-the-telugu-wikipedia-joint-meetup-and-edit-a-thon-sakshi

English Wikipedia and the Telugu Wikipedia joint meetup and edit-a-thon: Andhra Jyoti

praskrishna — 2016-01-05T06:33:09Z

The article was published in Andhra Jyoti on December 20, 2015. A scanned version of the article is below.

On December 20, 2015 English Wikipedia and the Telugu Wikipedia joint meetup and edit-a-thon were conducted on Golden Threshold, Hyderabad. Andhra Jyoti covered the programme.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/news/english-wikipedia-and-the-telugu-wikipedia-joint-meetup-and-edit-a-thon-andhra-jyoti

English gottila,job illa

praskrishna — 2016-12-10T04:47:11Z

Quoted as the ‘golden boy of Karnataka’, after winning two gold medals for India in Special Olympics in 2003 in Dublin, once Aslam Pasha quit his last job as a night watchman a week back.

The article by Regina Gurung was published in the Indian Express on December 7, 2016. Nirmita Narasimhan was quoted.

Even as government services allow disability and sports quota, guess what is keeping this man from being employed? The Queen’s language.

Born and brought up in Bengaluru, Aslam was conceived at home to a home maker mother and a fish stall owner father. Hindi is the only language he can speak and read. Despite being born without functional legs, his love for sports was not hindered. He started participating in wheelchair racing competitions and became fond of shot put.

Tracing and reminiscing his past glories, he tells City Express the beginning and abrupt end of his golden career.

While in his teens, he says, he went to Hubli to participate in a wheelchair racing and shot put competition. After his win there, he was taken to Delhi and introduced to the Special Olympics Committee. He made it to the Special Olympics in Dublin in 2003 and secured two gold medals as a part of the eight-member team.

On his return to the country, he was welcomed with great warmth and was felicitated. He says he even met APJ Abdul Kalam, the then President of India, and received `2 lakh as a reward. He gave the entire sum to his parents. They live in a slum near Soda Factory. His popularity was short lived. Sooner than he realized, people forgot him. He wondered what more could he do with his life. The calls from the committee stopped, he was clueless on what to do next.

In his late 20s, he started applying for various jobs but was rejected for having ‘no communication skill’.“I have been looking for a job from over three years now. I even did a one-year course on data entry at Intel, but everything is useless as I don’t know English,” says Aslam.

‘’Do you mention that you are a gold medalist?” asked City Express.

“Yes I do but I always get the same reply… “You don’t know English, so what is the use?” Aslam replies.

Aslam did not complete his education since he was always keen on sports, says Neel Lama, Aslam’s school’s friend.

“Following Olympics training, most athletes drop out of educational institutions,” says Nirmita Narasimhan, Policy Director of Centre for Internet and Society, who heads the accessibilty and inclusion programme.

Aslam used to go for his night watchman duty in hiding, after his parents fell asleep.

“They tell me it is okay, but I know the difficulties they face,” says Aslam. G N Nagaraj, founder of Karnataka State Disabled and Care Giver’s Federation questions that when cricketers and other Olympians are showered with sponsors, why is the Paralympian who is “five times more deserving”, not offered a job?

On Saturday, Aslam Pasha, had gone to an institution to enroll himself in an English language speaking course.

He was told that he needs to pay `24,000 for the course that also includes the auto fare of the tutor. “How can I pay so much to learn English and then look for a job?” questions Aslam. “But still I desperately want to learn the language,” adds the 30 something Aslam.

“A wheel chair accessy (person who uses wheel chair) is considered 75 per cent disabled and those who are more than 75 per cent disabled can avail for a government pension of `1,200 per month,” says Nagaraj who is working towards the passage of the Rights of Persons with Disability bill.

“The procedure is tiring. A disabled person is expected to travel some 40-50 km and the office stays open from 10am to 12 noon only, so many don’t claim it,” Nirmita adds, who is also visually challenged herself.

“I had approached other institutions, but for reasons unknown they don’t approve of my enrollment, probably because of looks. I had to lie to the English instituition that I would be going to England, and only they they agreed,” Aslam says.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/accessibility/news/new-indian-express-december-7-2016-regina-gurung-english-gottila-job-illa

Enforcement of Anti-piracy Laws by the Indian Entertainment Industry

praskrishna — 2011-08-04T04:35:48Z

This brief note by Siddharth Chadha seeks to map out the key actors in enforcement of copyright laws. These bodies not only investigate cases of infringement and piracy relating to the entertainment industry, but tie up with the police and IP law firms to pursue actions against the offenders through raids (many of them illegal) and court cases. Siddharth notes that the discourse on informal networks and circuits of distribution of cultural goods remains hijacked with efforts to contain piracy as the only rhetoric which safeguards the business interests of big, mostly multinational, media corporations.

International Intellectual Property Alliance

The International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA) is an international lobby group of US media industries with close ties to the United States Trade Representative. It has in its reports consistently expressed dissatisfaction with Indian efforts to deal with piracy. IIPA works in close cooperation the other US lobby groups like the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) and the BSA (Business Software Alliance). The IIPA reports, which place India in a 'danger zone', significantly influence regional and international discourses on piracy. Interestingly, the IIPA in India has been very successful in regionalizing and nationalizing a global discourse. Thus, in the past few years, local industry associations in India in cinema, music and software have independently run highly emotional campaigns against piracy, reminiscent of IIPA's own campaigns.

Motion Pictures Association

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) through its international counterpart, Motion Pictures Association (MPA), has been unofficially operational in India for the last 15 years. Its member companies are Walt Disney, Paramount, Sony Entertainment, Twentieth Century Fox, Universal Studios, and Warner Bros. The MPA's work in India was mostly non-obtrusive till 1994 when MPA Asia-Pacific, based in Singapore, started being represented by the high profile legal firm Lall & Sethi Advocates.

They have collectively worked on forming enforcement teams for coordinated raids in Mumbai and Delhi since 1995. Earlier this year, MPA announced its first India office to be set up in Mumbai, called the Motion Picture Distributor's Association India (Pvt.) Limited (MPDA), under the directorship of Rajiv Dalal. Mr. Dalal had previously directed strategic initiatives from the MPAA's Los Angeles office. The MPDA will engage itself in working jointly with local Indian film industries and the Indian government to promote the protection of motion pictures and television rights.

According to the organization's own assertion, in 2006 the MPA's Asia-Pacific operation investigated more than 30,000 cases of piracy and assisted law enforcement officials in conducting nearly 12,400 raids. These activities resulted in the seizure of more than 35 million illegal optical discs, 50 factory optical disc production lines and 4,482 optical disc burners, as well as the initiation of more than 11,000 legal actions.

Indian Music Industry

The world's second-oldest music companies' association, Indian Music Industry (IMI), was first established as Indian Phonographic Industry in 1936. It was re-formed in its present avatar in 1994, as a non-commercial and non-profit organization affiliated to the International Federation of Phonographic Industry (IFPI) and is registered as a society in West Bengal. IMI members includes major record companies like Saregama, HMV, Universal Music (India), Tips, Venus, Sony BMG (India), Crescendo, Virgin Records, Magnasound, Milestone, Times Music and several other prominent national and regional labels that represent over 75 per cent of the output in corporate recordings.

It was one of the first organizations in the country to start the trend of hiring ex-police officers to lead anti-piracy operations. In 1996, IMI hired Julio Ribeiro (a former Commissioner of Police, Mumbai; Director General of Police, Punjab; and Indian Ambassador to Romania) to head its anti-piracy operations. Their anti-piracy work is split into three specific regions, North and North Eastern, Western and Southern and East, each zone headed by a former senior police officer. IMI operates through offices in Kolkata, Mumbai, New Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore and several other cities and towns across India, focusing on surveillance, law enforcement, and gathering intelligence through an 80 member team hired to tackle piracy. During 2001 to 2004, IMI registered over 5500 cases, seized over 10 lakh music cassettes, and around 25 lakh CDs.

Business Software Alliance

Headquartered in Washington DC, the Business Software Alliance has a regional office in Delhi, and has been instrumental in conducting anti-piracy operations across the country. According to the BSA, India ranks 20 in global software piracy rankings, with a rate of 73 per cent while the Asia Pacific average is 53 per cent. China ranks second with a rate of 92 per cent and annual losses of $3,823 million while Pakistan ranks nine with 83 per cent piracy rate. They have engaged the general public in providing them with information on pirated software through an anti-piracy initiative – The Rewards Programme. Launched in 2005, reward amount up to Rs.50, 000, would be provided for information leading to successful legal action against companies using unlicensed software. The reward program was aimed to encourage people to support the fight against piracy and to report software piracy to the NASSCOM-BSA Anti-Piracy Software Hotline.

In 2006, BSA and NASSCOM got a shot in their arms by winning the largest settlement amount for a copyright case in India, with Netlinx India Pvt. Ltd. The case had emerged after a civil raid was conducted at the premises of Netlinx in December 2000, leading to inspection and impounding of 40 PCs, carrying illegal unlicensed software. The settlement includes damages of US$ 30,000, complete legalization of software used by them, removal of all unlicensed/pirated software and submission to an unannounced audit of computer systems during next 12 months.

Industry Enforcers

Bollywood Film and Music companies, such as T-Series and Yashraj Films, have established anti-piracy arms to combat piracy in specific markets. T-Series has been in the industry for over 15 years, as a brand of Gulshan Kumar founded Super Cassettes Industries Limited, and has often been at the forefront for conducting raids along with police officials to check piracy of its copyrighted content. In its latest announcement earlier this year, T-Series launched an anti-piracy campaign against those stealing digital content. The announcement came after they filed a complaint on June 1 with a police station in Mangalore against Classic Video shop for infringement of its copyright works like Billu, Ghajini, Aap Ka Suroor, Apne, Fashion and Karz that had been illegally downloaded and copied onto multiple discs, card readers and pen-drives.

Yashraj Films, a leading film studio, has long been a part of enforcement activities against piracy, both in the Indian market and internationally. Most recently, it was a key member in the formation of the United Producers and Distributors Forum, which also included chairman Mahesh Bhatt, Ramesh Sippy, Ronnie Screwalla of UTV, Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan and Eros International. This organization is now trying to enforce anti-piracy laws by conducting raids across the country with the help of another ex-cop from Mumbai, A.A. Khan. Yashraj Films has also established anti-piracy offices in the United Kingdom and the United States to curb piracy in those markets, as overseas returns of its films, watched by the desi diaspora is one of its largest revenue earning sources. The website of Yashraj Films lists news reports from across US and Europe of instances of crackdown on pirates.

In the context of intellectual property in the creative industries, these anti-piracy agents have successfully created the halo of illegality around the subject of piracy. The discourse on informal networks and circuits of distribution of cultural goods remains hijacked with efforts to contain piracy as the only rhetoric which safeguards the business interests of big media companies and multinational corporations.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/a2k/blogs/piracy-and-enforcement

Encryption policy would have affected emails, operating systems, WiFi

praskrishna — 2015-09-25T01:23:10Z

Our email data would have to be stored. If we connect to a WiFi, that data would have to be stored, and that's plain ridiculous. There is a problem when the government tries to target citizens to ensure national security, said Pranesh Prakash, policy director at the Bangalore-based Centre for Internet and Society.

The article by Amrita Madhukalya was published in DNA on September 23, 2015.

The Draft National Policy on Encryption, withdrawn by the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeiTY) after it created a furore on privacy issues, would have had allowed the government access to any form of digital data that required encryption. Not limited to just WhatsApp or Viber data, it would have affected email services, WiFi, phone operating systems, etc.

"Our email data would have to be stored. If we connect to a WiFi, that data would have to be stored, and that's plain ridiculous. There is a problem when the government tries to target citizens to ensure national security," said Pranesh Prakash, policy director at the Bangalore-based Centre for Internet and Society.

The government, criticised heavily for the policy, withdrew it on Tuesday afternoon. It said that a new policy will be brought in its place.

Nikhil Pahwa of internet watchdog Medianama said that data about normal day-to-day activities would have to be stored if the policy was implemented. "The policy would have affected everyday business to consumer data.
This would mean that if a doctor or lawyer had your data digitised, they will be open to access, and would have to be kept for at least 90 days," said Pahwa.

However, he added that a robust encryption is needed. "It is believed that companies like Google, Facebook allow the NSA to access user data in the US, putting our personal security, and the national security largely, at risk," said Pahwa.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/internet-governance/news/dna-september-23-2015-amrita-madhukalya-encryption-policy-would-have-affected-emails-operating-systems-wifi