From prabhuram at gmail.com Mon May 2 14:51:16 2005 From: prabhuram at gmail.com (Ram) Date: Mon, 2 May 2005 11:21:16 +0200 Subject: [Commons-Law] The Ideological War Over Intellectual Property Message-ID: <68752c9f05050202212df7cf81@mail.gmail.com> >Tech Central Station The Ideological War Over Intellectual Property By Mark Schultz Published 05/02/2005 Intellectual property, once a dry, technical subject, has been cast as the villain in a modern day struggle between darkness and light. Free Culture and open source advocates argue passionately that intellectual property rights harm us all by locking up knowledge and culture. Their protests are loudest in the U.S. and E.U., but the most consequential front in this burgeoning ideological war over intellectual property rights is the developing world. Intellectual property critics say the World Intellectual Property Organization ("WIPO") needs to abandon its pro-IP orientation to help the developing world. Until now, WIPO's job has been to promote intellectual property rights and harmonize the world's intellectual property laws. The premise behind WIPO is that intellectual property rights are good for all nations and people. A group of developing countries and NGOs led by Brazil and Argentina aims to change that premise. They want WIPO to adopt a presumption against increased IP rights, allowing "higher standards of protection . . . only when it is clearly necessary . . . and where the benefits outweigh the costs of protection." WIPO is seriously considering this proposal, having just concluded a week of discussions in April, with more meetings to be held in June and July, and a vote scheduled in September. For the sake of the developing world, let's hope that this proposal does not succeed. Developing countries need help with intellectual property rights, but not this kind of help. As hard as it is to imagine saying much good about a UN bureaucracy, the current pro-IP version of WIPO is on the side of the good guys. The New International IP Agenda The debate at WIPO is best understood in light of a broader international movement challenging intellectual property rights on behalf of the developing world. Some developing world politicians and activists contend that the current international IP regime is "intellectually weak, ideologically rigid, and sometimes brutally unfair and inefficient" for developing countries. These critics are promoting a new agenda to guide future international policy making on intellectual property. Proponents of this new international IP agenda are deeply skeptical of the benefit of intellectual property rights. They assert that access to health care and knowledge are fundamental human rights. As they see it, private ownership of intellectual property violates these rights, making drugs too expensive and interfering with obtaining knowledge and educating people in poor countries. These critics say that private parties' intellectual property rights should take a back seat to public needs. The AIDS crisis has been a rallying point, as they have pushed for compulsory licensing of patented drugs. This movement resulted in the adoption of the "Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health" at the WTO meeting in Doha, Qatar in 2001. The Doha declaration essentially allows WTO members to set their own prices for patented drugs to address public health crises. Another key initiative of the new international IP agenda is a treaty promoting Access to Knowledge. Extending the logic of their arguments regarding patented drugs, NGOs and developing country representatives now contend that the public's need for knowledge should also trump intellectual property rights. The proposal includes compulsory licensing of textbooks and other educational works, free use of government funded research, severe limitations on anti-copying technology, and broad privileges for libraries. The new international IP agenda treats intellectual property rights as the least desirable way to encourage innovation. For example, a proposed treaty on Medical R&D would require governments to devote a certain percentage of GDP to medical research. This treaty would create incentives against private ownership of inventions and limit the ability to get patents for certain types of research. NGOs are also urging governments worldwide to adopt a preference or requirement for the use of open source software in government projects, arguing that proprietary software impedes economic development. Prospects for the New International IP Agenda Clearly, the new international IP agenda has a lot of energy and thought behind it, but do intellectual property owners and supporters need to pay attention to it? Yes. The NGOs promoting the new international IP agenda (particularly the US-based Consumer Project on Technology) are well-funded (George Soros, the MacArthur Foundation, and other big donors), well-organized, smart, and incredibly persistent. In one international forum after another, NGOs have challenged intellectual property rights: the WTO, WIPO, UNESCO's proposed Convention on Cultural Diversity, the UN's World Summit for the Information Society, the World Health Organization, and others. A number of developing countries, particularly Brazil and Argentina, have adopted this agenda. India, despite its growing tech economy, continues to vacillate on IP rights. Even in the EU, newer members like Poland have been persuaded that strong intellectual property rights threaten their growing technology sectors. The advocates of the new international IP agenda are energized right now. They should be. WIPO is talking about their issues and is certain to adopt some form of a "Development Agenda" later this year. The only question is the content of that agenda. Supporters of intellectual property rights need to articulate a coherent, principled case for intellectual property protection in the developing world. In the developed world, the debate about intellectual property has mostly been about achieving the "right" balance in IP rights. In those instances, the technology and creative industries have done fine looking after their own interests. The debate on the international stage is more consequential because it is about something more fundamental -- whether intellectual property is good for society. When it comes to development issues, critics of intellectual property have little patience for the niceties of IP law. They say the needs of the poor should take precedence over the rights of intellectual property owners. The argument is far more compelling than any offered by U.S. critics of intellectual property, who are worked up over whether DJ Danger Mouse can sample the Beatles' White Album. We all want to and should help the dying mother in Africa unable to afford AIDS drugs or the poor kid without the books she needs to learn. The new international IP agenda demands a thoughtful response that addresses its moral and practical consequences. The Response to the New International IP Agenda Having a heart for the poor does not call for getting rid of intellectual property rights. We should stop treating the people of the developing world as victims, forever at the mercy of corporations and more developed countries. Yes, we should find ways to help the poor with the needs of the moment. That short term poverty, however, does not mean that they cannot help themselves to prosper. But to do so, they need the same institutions that have helped the people of developed nations to fulfill their potential: The rule of law and private property rights, including intellectual property. As the late, great economist, Julian Simon argued, people are the ultimate resource. There are third world countries, but there is no such thing as a third world mind. As Simon was fond of saying, there are potential new Einsteins, Mozarts, and Michelangelos being born every day in every country. What do these nascent geniuses need to realize their potential to benefit their nations and the world? So many things would help -- security, education, and most of all, liberty. But innovation and creativity require a particular kind of nourishment. Development expert Robert Sherwood explains: "If people seem to be more inventive in the United States or Europe or Japan, it is not an accident. It is not because of genes or schooling or intelligence or fate. Implementation of the intellectual property system is critical because of the habit of mind which is fostered in the population. Human ingenuity and creativity are not dispersed unevenly across the globe. Those talents are present in every country. In some, unfortunately, the enabling infrastructure of effective intellectual property protection is missing." Like people everywhere, people of developing nations can and do invent things. Indeed, when they immigrate to developed countries they are often among the most creative and inventive people in their new homes. The problem in developing countries is that there is little reward for innovation. In conversations with developing world businessmen, Sherwood found that they were well aware of the consequences of the lack of intellectual property rights. These businessmen often did stumble onto innovations, but rivals would soon copy them. In such circumstances, a smart businessman knows that putting resources into innovation and creativity is a bad investment. You cannot capture a return, and you have no property right in which others can invest. In the absence of intellectual property laws, innovation must remain accidental and creative work is for amateurs. In his acclaimed book, The Mystery of Capital, Hernando de Soto identified the lack of well-defined property rights as the root of many of the troubles of the developing world. Without clear, enforceable property rights, people in developing nations cannot unlock the value of the capital they hold. In developed nations, property rights and the rule of law help people to secure loans, raise investment, enter contracts, and make plans knowing that what they have today will not be taken tomorrow. Not so in much of the developing world. De Soto estimates that poor people in developing nations hold trillions and trillions of dollars worth of capital, but it remains "dead capital" because the lack of property rights prevents it from being developed. De Soto's argument largely focuses on real property, but it applies to intellectual property with equal force. A vast amount of intellectual capital in the developing world is underdeveloped, and we are all poorer for it. In recent decades, we have experienced wondrous new things springing from the innovation and creativity of a relative handful of the world's people. Most of those people come from a minority of the world's nations -- not because the people in those nations are smarter or work harder, but because they live in countries that are free, governed by the rule of law, and provide the encouragement and investment fostered by intellectual property rights. As people in the developed world argue over how long the law should give Disney the exclusive right to Mickey Mouse, they need to remember the blessings of intellectual property rights. Yes, intellectual property laws are imperfect and sometimes abused, but they have helped create the most prosperous, dynamic, and enjoyable society the world has ever known. Critics are right when they say that we need to do more than simply demand that developing nations respect the intellectual property rights of the developed world. But we will not help the developing world by discouraging it from doing what has helped the developed world to prosper. If we truly have a heart for the poor, we should help them build institutions that foster intellectual property rights. Unlocking the creativity of all the world's people is a worthy development agenda. The author is Assistant Professor, Southern Illinois University School of Law -- Prabhu Ram, Max-Planck-Institut for Intellectual Property, Competition and Tax Law, MarstallPlatz 1, 80539 Munich GERMANY Tel: + 49 89 24246226 Mob: + 49 17629830521 Web: http://infoserve.blogspot.com From srinivas at southcentre.org Mon May 2 20:56:33 2005 From: srinivas at southcentre.org (srinivas at southcentre.org) Date: Mon, 2 May 2005 17:26:33 +0200 Subject: [Commons-Law] Inclusion of `video pirates' under Goondas Act In-Reply-To: <20050501100008.B46FC28D918@mail.sarai.net> Message-ID: I too would like to read the judgment.What is interesting is that this is applicable to some category of 'pirates' and not all 'pirates' .It protects the interests of film industry . .If you make unauthorised copies of a painting by an artist and sell you will not be arrested under Goondas Act but if you make unauthorised copies of a film or songs of a film and sell you can be held under this Act. This is prima facie absurd because the same offence under copyright act is treated differently in another Act which has nothing to do with copyright.I can illustate the absurdity by another example. .If you are a producer and you use somebody's novel to make a film without any authorisation from the author or publisher or copyright holder , nobody can demand that he police should arrest you under Goondas Act.But if somebody makes an unauthorised copy of the same film he or she can be held under this Act. A complaint by the producer or copyright holder is not necessary to invoke this Act against a 'pirate'. If the critera is economic value of the subject under IP protection then the value of some patents would be more than the production cost of some, perhaps most films. But in case of patent infringment one can seek an injunction but cannot seek invoking Goondas Act. I think the inclusion of 'video pirates' under Goondas Act may be held as invlaid by Supreme Court if an appeal is filed and the case is argued wel. K.Ravi Srinivas Post Doctoral Fellow IPR Policy Research & Development Program South Centre 17-19 Chemin Du Champ d'Anier 1209 Petit Saconnex Geneva Switzerland Postal Address K.Ravi Srinivas South Centre CP 228 1211 Geneva 19 Switzerland Tel: +41 22 791 81 67 Fax: +41 22 798 85 31 email: srinivas at southcentre.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/commons-law/attachments/20050502/dc2d102d/attachment.html From pedro_paranagua at yahoo.com.br Tue May 3 02:55:06 2005 From: pedro_paranagua at yahoo.com.br (Pedro de Paranagua Moniz) Date: Mon, 02 May 2005 22:25:06 +0100 Subject: [Commons-Law] Statement of the Brazilian Civil Society regarding Brazilian Negotiations - International Support required Message-ID: <42769AB2.7070707@yahoo.com.br> COOPERATION WELCOMED FROM INDIA AND EVERYWHERE: The Brazilian Network for Peoples Integration (Rebrip) is requesting national and international support for the following statement. If your organization wishes to support this statement, send an email to abia at abiaids.org.br where the coordination for signatures is organized. The statement will be forwarded to the Government representative within days. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- *Open Statement of the Civil Society regarding the Brazilian Negotiations for Voluntary License for aids drugs.* For the past 4 years, Brazil has at numerous occasions announced to be ready to issue compulsory licenses for anti-retroviral drugs that are used in the Brazilian Aids Programme. But until today it has not done so despite the fact that the Aids programmes budget is increasingly under pressure. Today 80 % of the budget of the Aids National Programme’s for ARVs is spent on imported patented drugs. 70% is spent on the purchase of four patented drugs, Lopinavir/Ritonavir, Tenofovir, Efavirenz and Nelfinavir. Brazilian public and private companies are only producing 7 out of 16 drugs that are used in the tri-therapy while there is capacity to produce all of the needed medicines. Since 15^th of March 2005 the Minister of Health is in negotiation to obtain a voluntary license from Abbott, Gilead and Merck respectively for Lopinavir/Ritonavir, Tenofovir and Efavirenz The Minister of Health gave that day an ultimatum to Abbott, Gilead and Merck to transfer the technology of production to Brazilian Public Laboratories. Should the companies not be willing to do this on a voluntary basis, a compulsory license would be issued. In both cases a royalty would be paid to the patent holders. Three weeks after the deadline set by the minister there is still no clear indication that the companies are willing to come to an agreement. Nevertheless, the Ministry of Health has not taken action. We fail to understand the lack of action by the Brazilian authorities. At the international level, Brazil is a key defender of the use of the flexibilities in TRIPS and the Doha declaration on TRIPS and Public Health. Still when it comes to taking action at home Brazil turns out to be a tiger with no teeth. The flexibilities in patent law are designed to give governments the tools to act. We want Brazil to take action now by issuing compulsory licenses for the medicines that are needed to sustain its successful AIDS programme and to allow for the export of the medicines that are produced in Brazil to other developing countries who need them. End of Statement From prashant at nalsartech.org Tue May 3 13:56:23 2005 From: prashant at nalsartech.org (Prashant Iyengar) Date: Tue, 3 May 2005 13:56:23 +0530 Subject: [Commons-Law] French court rules against copy protection Message-ID: <200505031356.23493.prashant@nalsartech.org> French court rules against copy protection PARIS - A French court has ordered DVD vendors to pull copies of the David Lynch film "Mulholland Drive" off store shelves as part of an unprecedented ruling against copy prevention The appeals court ruled Friday that copy prevention software on the DVD violated privacy rights in the case of one consumer who had tried to transfer the film onto a video cassette for personal use. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7645680/ PARIS - A French court has ordered DVD vendors to pull copies of the David Lynch film "Mulholland Drive" off store shelves as part of an unprecedented ruling against copy prevention techniques. The appeals court ruled Friday that copy prevention software on the DVD violated privacy rights in the case of one consumer who had tried to transfer the film onto a video cassette for personal use. The ruling could be a major setback for the DVD industry, which places lock software on disks as part of its battle against piracy. The industry blames illegal copying for millions of dollars in lost revenues each year. "This ruling means that 80 percent of DVDs now on the French market are equipped with illegal mechanisms," said Julien Dourgnon, spokesman for consumer advocacy group UFC-Que Choisir, which brought the case. "Stores will probably not have to send back products already in stock," Dourgnon said Tuesday. "But in the future, no DVD or CD that has the device can be sold." France, along with other European Union members including Germany and Spain, has laws guaranteeing the right of consumers to copy recordings they have purchased for private use. Lionel Thoumyre, a lawyer for the artist rights group Spedidam, said the ruling sets a new precedent in the European Union, where intellectual property laws are nearly identical among member states. "This is brand new," he said. "I think this is the first judgment in Europe going in this direction." The consumer group filed the suit on behalf of a man who bought the "Mulholland Drive" DVD and then wanted to copy the movie onto a videocassette so he could show the film at his mother's home. The ruling overturned a lower court's decision in favor of the defendants, co-producers Alain Sarde Films and Studio Canal and distributor Universal. The suit was filed in 2003. The defendants also were found guilty of violating French consumer protection laws, which state that a vendor must notify consumers of a product's essential characteristics. The only notification of the copy prevention software on the DVD in this case were the letters "CP," short for "copying prohibited," in small print on the cover, a warning that the court found insufficient. Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. From prabhuram at gmail.com Tue May 3 14:30:57 2005 From: prabhuram at gmail.com (Ram) Date: Tue, 3 May 2005 11:00:57 +0200 Subject: [Commons-Law] Vampire fears over DNA data Message-ID: <68752c9f05050302003678e909@mail.gmail.com> Vampire fears over DNA data Karen Dearne MAY 03, 2005 A PRIVATE DNA database project that aims to collect blood samples from 100,000 indigenous people – including Australian Aborigines – as a means of tracing ancient migration routes has reignited fears of "vampire research" and claims of biopiracy. The $US40 million ($51 million) Genographic Project, led by US population geneticist Dr Spencer Wells, will rely on massive computing power to investigate the genetic roots of modern humans. National Geographic is co-ordinating an international team of scientists to collect DNA samples and oral histories from indigenous people. IBM is contributing its Blue Gene computational biology machines and data analysis tools. The five-year project, funded by the Waitt Family Foundation, headed by Gateway computer billionaire Ted Waitt, was immediately denounced by the US-based Indigenous Peoples Council on Biocolonialism. The group declared the Genographic Project "a clone" of the Human Genome Diversity Project that it defeated in the early 1990s. Dubbed the "vampire project", the HGDP was considered to be an "unconscionable attempt" by genetic researchers "to pirate our DNA for their own purposes". The council has called for an international boycott of IBM, National Geographic and Gateway until the project is dropped. It's understood the matter will be discussed by the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies at its council meeting this month. Institute research director Luke Taylor said the body had only been made aware of the project through a media kit that arrived a couple of days before its Australian launch. "The kit has been referred to inistitue chairman Mick Dodson and we'll be evaluating it, Dr Taylor said. "At this stage, there has been no consultation with us, and we've been given no details of what appears to be a complex and problematic study." The media kit invites participation in the public part of the project. Anyone can take part by logging on to the National Geographic website, paying a $US100 fee for a swab kit to return a saliva sample, and providing some non-identifying family information for inclusion in the database. GeneEthics Network executive director Bob Phelps said the project was being "sweetened" by public participation and access, but "it's still biopiracy". "Here we've got indigenous people who are being overrun by dominant populations, but these researchers are not advocates for them," Mr Phelps said. "It's like animals in the zoo: taking the last remnants of disappearing peoples and grabbing the material that may be of scientific or commercial use in the future. "They're making sure that their DNA doesn't disappear, instead of saying these people are of value and are entitled to survive in their own right, aside from their genetic material." The head of IBM's Computational Biology Centre, Ajay Royyuru, said the Genographic Project would not involve collection of sensitive information on individuals' medical or health status. "The information we're gathering is only about geographic location and the language they speak," Dr Royyuru said. "We aim to create a database that holds information about markers that speak of deep ancestry and the migratory routes that our ancestors have travelled. "We are deliberately not looking for health information. We will not be gathering data that is medically relevant." All research outcomes would be published and the entire database would become a public resource at the project's completion, he said. "We recognise that the data we're gathering is perhaps the most personal information. It is you, your genome, which is unique to you," he said. "We've found that if we are up-front about what we will do and what we will not do, if we tell people what the project's about, they're actually delighted to participate. If the project succeeds, it will be because enough people on the planet understand that when we share this data, we'll be able to interpret it. "We can only discover the story of our migratory history when we put all the details together and look at the correlations." Australian Law Reform Commission acting president Brian Opeskin said there were considerable medical and cultural sensitivities about the creation of genetic databases, and particularly commercial use of the data. An ALRC inquiry on the protection of human genetic information in 2003 recommended strengthening existing measures. "No one would really doubt the value of many of these databases, particularly for medical research, but questions arise when there are conflicts of interest and profit-taking by those involved in collecting the data," Mr Opeskin said. "Every few months there's some new use for genetic information. "What happens when researchers collect DNA data for one purpose, and then want to make different uses of it later? "If people are well-informed they are often quite happy to be altruistic in contributing their samples, but discovering later that the material is being used for commercial purposes often causes a lot of grief." Story Link:http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,15155214%5E15321%5E%5Enbv%5E15306,00.html Genopgraphic Website : http://www3.nationalgeographic.com/genographic/ -- Prabhu Ram, Max-Planck-Institut for Intellectual Property, Competition and Tax Law, MarstallPlatz 1, 80539 Munich GERMANY Tel: + 49 89 24246226 Mob: + 49 17629830521 Web: http://infoserve.blogspot.com From kb at t0.or.at Tue May 3 17:52:22 2005 From: kb at t0.or.at (Konrad Becker ) Date: Tue, 3 May 2005 14:22:22 +0200 Subject: [Commons-Law] World-Information City Bangalore In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <200505031220.j43CJrkb028159@mail.t0.or.at> Dear all, please check out some recent articles and interviews with Lawrence Liang, Solly Benjamin and others at: http://world-information.org/wio/readme World-Information City in Bangalore is realized in collaboration with Alternative Law Forum and partner organizations Sarai(Delhi), de Waag (Amsterdam) and Mahiti (Bangalore) You'll find info on the upcoming World-Information City event in Bangalore November 2005 and "Networks of Imagination" a workshop in Vienna at: http://world-information.org/wio/pressroom/releases/1113400383 best, Konrad www.t0.or.at From anand at sarai.net Tue May 3 22:08:49 2005 From: anand at sarai.net (Anand V. Taneja) Date: Tue, 3 May 2005 18:38:49 +0200 (CEST) Subject: [Commons-Law] Pakistan - copyright piracy hub Message-ID: <2070.221.134.50.237.1115138329.squirrel@mail.sarai.net> Pakistan - copyright piracy hub http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4495679.stm When Ameed Riaz - an enterprising young man from Karachi - bought EMI Pakistan from its parent company in England back in 1993, he probably had visions of becoming the country's music guru. Not without reason. With exclusive rights to over 150,000 songs and other compilations, EMI Pakistan is the largest music archive in Pakistan. But within two years, Mr Riaz was forced to shut down and seek an alternative living. "Everything is pirated here," he says. "From software to audio to video, nothing escapes the pirates' cutlass." Indeed, Pakistan has risen over the last 25 years to become a global hub of audio and video piracy. International piracy watchdogs currently rank the country in the world's top 10 pirate nations. They say Pakistan will continue to climb the piracy charts unless drastic measures are adopted to put an end to illegal copying. Trade sanctions risk In a letter to Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz last year, the International Federation for Phonographic Industries (IFPI) said illegal replication facilities in Pakistan were doubling their copying capacity every 18 months. The scale of such operations has already reached staggering proportions. What never ceases to amaze foreign visitors to Pakistan is that the country's big DVD and CD shops are full of perfectly packaged - but pirated - goods. According to the IFPI, Pakistani replication facilities are producing in excess of 230 million copies a year. Khalid Jan Mohammed For as long as Pakistanis want to watch cheap movies, there will be piracy Khalid Jan Mohammed Given that the country's local consumption is only about 25 million discs, the IFPI concludes that the rest are being exported across the world. The organisation estimated in 2003 that Pakistani pirates were exporting more than 13 million CDs and DVDs to 46 countries every month. Since then the figure has gone up, it believes. Global anti-piracy bodies are hoping that the coming into effect of an international agreement called TRIPS (Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) on 1 January this year may force a change in the situation. Pakistan is a signatory to TRIPS and risks trade sanctions from Western nations if it fails to honour its obligations under the treaty. Government officials point to tighter customs control at airports which they say have led to a decline in air shipments. But custom officials argue the change may prove to be merely cosmetic - the bulk of the illicit trade is conducted via land or sea routes. Pessimism Pakistani investigators name Dubai, Nepal and India as the three major transit countries for illicit DVDs originating from Pakistan. Their pessimism is shared by Khalid Jan Mohammed, one of the leading players in Pakistan's CD and DVD business. PAKISTAN PIRACY Pirate DVD fetches $1 in Pakistan, $10 abroad Over 13m pirate copies exported a month About 230m replica discs made every year Domestic piracy market worth $27m a year Annual cost to copyright holders - at least $2.7bn IFPI estimated figures Sitting in his sparsely furnished office on one of Karachi's busiest roads, Mr Mohammed denies that his company - Sadaf CD - is involved in piracy. But few would be convinced. "Look, my friend, necessity is the mother of invention," he says. "For as long as Pakistanis want to watch cheap movies, there will be piracy." The international community can go hang, he says. Mr Mohammed has been in the business for 22 years and his speech - laced with expletives of all kinds - bears testimony to his street-smart credentials. His powerful connections in the Pakistani administration are almost legendary, which perhaps explains why moving against him and other big players in the business is so hard. "Alcohol was banned over 25 years ago, but you name a brand that is not available in Pakistan," he argues. Just like the alcohol market had influential customers who kept it going, he says, so does the piracy bazaar. Huge profits "Western diplomats buy these pirated DVDs. Many of them have become my personal friends in the process," he says. Ameed Riaz Ameed Riaz: "Nothing escapes the pirates' cutlass" Mr Mohammed argues that if the West really wants to stop piracy in Pakistan, it needs to convince international distributors to lower their royalty charges. "Pakistanis have become so addicted to cheap entertainment that they will not pay beyond what they already are," he says. What they are paying now can perhaps never lure Western distributors into treating Pakistan as a viable market. Throughout Pakistan, the latest movie is available on DVD for just over $1. The price drops to below $1 if the purchase order exceeds 10. While these prices may not be good enough to attract the Western distributor, there is plenty in it for the pirates. The Pakistani domestic market alone generates some $27m every year - and those are just one-tenth of the total bootleg CDs and DVDs made in Pakistan. The rest go overseas, where DVDs fetch on average about $10 each, still less than the licensed price. But even at this low price pirate copy exports from Pakistan are costing copyright holders about $2.7bn a year. According to Khalid Jan Mohammed, it is the only business in the country where profit margins can be four to five times the cost. "You try and stop this," says Mr Mohammed. -- The Sarai Programme http://www.sarai.net/ Weblogs - http://synchroni-cities.blogspot.com/ http://www.chapatimystery.com/ From hbs.law at gmail.com Wed May 4 18:39:57 2005 From: hbs.law at gmail.com (Hasit seth) Date: Wed, 4 May 2005 09:09:57 -0400 Subject: [Commons-Law] Bar Talk: IP Grassroots Movement (Hasit) Message-ID: <8b60429e05050406094c801bd4@mail.gmail.com> Bar Talk An IP grassroots movement uses environmentalism as a model, and local pubs as a forum. By Lisa Lerer IP Law & Business/May 2005 At first glance, the group of twenty-somethings that gathered on March 29 at Bar Nine in New York City looked like just another bunch of young professionals out at happy hour. But when they peeled off their business casual blazers, revealing "Save Betamax" T-shirts, it became clear that this gathering was different. It was the inaugural meeting of CopyNight, a monthly discussion group made up of about 30 IP aficionados. Shouting over blaring Bob Dylan and Billy Joel, they gossiped about the day's big news: The U.S. Supreme Court had heard arguments in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd. The court is considering whether manufacturers of peer-to-peer file-sharing technology, like Grokster, can be held liable for distributing software that allows users to illegally copy and distribute copyrighted music. A decision is expected this summer. The New York group was a lively collection of musicians, filmmakers, students, lawyers, academics, and techies. The most famous of the crew was Esther Dyson, a well-known technology consultant and commentator. Despite their diverse backgrounds, everyone present sided with Grokster and advocated for less restrictive copyright laws. "Why can't it be like in headshops?" wondered a documentarian. "You know, you can sell a bong but like not explicitly for weed." CopyNight tries to use casual social events to foster discussion about copyright, says cofounder and Google Inc., product manager, David Alpert. "Helping people build social networks around values that matter to them gets people involved," he says. On the night of oral arguments in Grokster, CopyNight groups met at bars in San Francisco, Santa Monica, Raleigh, Austin, Seattle, Providence, and Washington, D.C. As we went to press the groups planned on meeting again on April 26, says cofounder Ren Bucholz, who works as the activism coordinator for the technology civil liberties group Electronic Frontier Foundation. CopyNight is just one of a growing number of IP-focused grassroots organizations. The debate about IP regulation has raged in academia since the Internet's early days, but over the past year students and professionals have taken up the cause. Their loose coalition takes its cues from IP heavyweights like Stanford Law professor Lawrence Lessig and policy organizations like the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Public Knowledge, which worry that the recent copyright term extension and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act are stifling innovation. (Passed in 1998, the DMCA allows copyright owners to lock up digital content behind technological walls, and makes it illegal to break those walls.) These new groups, collectively known as the free culture movement, hope to raise the national profile of IP issues. Some of the most active organizing happens on college campuses. Over the past two years, students at 14 universities--from Colby College to University of California-Santa Cruz--have started free culture groups. College students' interest is unsurprising--a July 2003 survey by the Pew Internet and American Life Project showed that 72 percent of 18-to-29-year-olds don't care about copyright when they download music, a view shared by 61 percent of online Americans aged 30-49. The movement grew out of a now well-known DMCA lawsuit that Swarthmore College students Nelson Pavlosky and Luke Smith won in 2004 against Diebold Election Systems. Pavlosky and Smith, members of their school's small free culture group, posted online Diebold internal memos, suggesting that the company knew about flaws in its voting machines. Diebold then sent a cease and desist letter to Swarthmore's Internet service provider saying if the ISP took the posting down it would not be liable for copyright infringment under safe harbor provisions of the DMCA. The students sued the corporation in California district court seeking a judicial declaration that they didn't infringe any copyrights, an injunction against future lawsuits, and monetary damages. Judge Jeremy Fogel ordered Diebold to pay attorneys' fees but, because Diebold promised not to sue, Fogel found their other requests moot. The case made Pavlosky and Smith notorious on college campuses, and spawned free culture spin-off chapters at other schools. Those groups host campus events and sponsor advocacy campaigns, like their "save the iPod" action against the INDUCE Act, failed federal legislation that would hold technology companies responsible for products that encourage copyright infringement. Bucholz compares the current state of the free culture movement to the early days of environmentalism. Lessig's 2004 book Free Culture, which argues that copyright law suppresses creativity, is the Silent Spring of the current IP rights movement, he argues. John Palfrey, executive director of the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, doubts that IP is the next abortion rights or gun control. The problem, Palfrey believes, is one of rhetoric. "It's hard to make an argument against clean water, but the IP debate is just a little more subtle," he says. Free culture activists argue for greater balance between copyright holders and users, an argument not easily encapsulated in emotional sound bites. A spokesperson from the Recording Industry Association of American declined to comment on the movement. Alpert and Bucholz say that Americans just need to be educated--one CopyNight at a time. From kalisaroj at rediffmail.com Thu May 5 15:48:17 2005 From: kalisaroj at rediffmail.com (avinash jha) Date: 5 May 2005 10:18:17 -0000 Subject: [Commons-Law] Information & Knowledge Message-ID: <20050505101817.21570.qmail@webmail46.rediffmail.com> Friends: Please find below the substance of a presentation made at a seminar on “Policy Options and Models for Bridging Digital Divides: Freedom, Sharing and Sustainability in the Global Information Society” held in Tampere, Finland (http://www.globaledevelopment.org/seminar_programme.htm) For consideration and criticism... Avinash ---------------------------------------- Information, knowledge and `open and collaborative models` 1. ‘OPEN AND COLLABORATIVE MODELS’ AND THE INTERNET By Internet we mean the entire connected world. I do not get connected only when I switch on my computer. I move through the connected world when I move through the transportation systems, use credit cards and bank accounts, communicate through phones. I create data in the network with each of my activities. I do not access the Internet, but the Internet accesses me in such cases. How do we interpret the Internet in the context of global society? There is no doubt whatsoever that the connected world is at the center of the world. Global financial markets and industrial networks cannot function without Internet. Nor can the infrastructure of states and knowledge institutions. Equally, there is no doubt that there is a world outside the connected world. We know that frequent wars are taking place in this world and it is not incompatible with Internet. Periodic economic crises that plagued the world, seem to have vanished after the US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The powerful tsunami which devastated many coastal areas of Asia, including India, coincided with the Bombay Stock Exchange registering a peak for the whole year. There is certainly a disjunction in the world. If we give too much of centrality to ‘digital divide’ in interpreting this disjunction, we will be making a mistake. This position assumes eventual extension of information society, as it exists in some parts of the world, to the rest of the world. The question then becomes one of making this process fast and painless. I doubt that a ‘global information society’ in this sense is possible or desirable. As soon as we are connected, we encounter a dynamic which is being shaped by various forces - hardware, software, pornography, intellectual property, finance, data and so on. You do not determine the relationships you are forced into, or your degree of freedom is limited. For example, as a passenger on a metro network you have little control and even awareness of the data about you, which comes into existence and circulates. Your position in the connected world depends on a lot of factors; it depends on your location or your place in the world. I think it is more fruitful to think of ‘digital divides’ or ‘digital inequalities’ from this starting point, as a practice and politics of the shaping of the Internet, sensitive to the position of the Internet within the whole global society. Expansion of access is not necessarily a development, if you slip into a powerless position in the connected world. The central theme of this conference, linking of FLOSS with development, becomes significant here. It marks an important advance upon the prevalent paradigm of “IT and Development”. Development becomes meaningful when it is thought of as movement of the whole world towards a better condition. It is not only the developing world which is in need of development; the developed world also needs to develop together. Rest of the world doesn’t have to be brought up to the level of the Internet. Internet has to co-develop with the world. Open Source Movement (software), open content movement (science/scholarship), on line collaborative ventures (software development/content development and organization) can be seen as efforts and processes which make the Internet more democratic and participative. They keep the democratic and emancipatory possibilities of the Internet open. They cannot transform the Internet on their own. In the form of ‘open and collaborative models’, they cannot translate into panacea for all ills. Not because there is anything wrong with openness or collaboration. Forms of on line collaboration are not applicable everywhere, and even where applicable, not sufficient or meaningful without an appropriate relationship with life-world. Even for activities in the connected world, we require energy, organization and involvement that come from the world beyond the Internet. Virtuality is dependent upon real relationships. The world beyond the Internet is accessible to us only through locality or place; otherwise, it remains an abstraction. It is the world of here and now, the world as perceived and felt. It is the world of necessity. We have no choice where we are placed. It is through work that freedom has to be earned – work in the world and work upon ourselves. This is also a world and life full of real knowledge. If we do not have this knowledge or have poor knowledge in this realm, we will be unable to interpret any other knowledge that we have access to, in a manner which is beneficial for others and ourselves. The local is not a bounded location on the map. It has no definite boundaries. While we are at work on ‘open and collaborative models’, there are life-threatening forces at large in the world, which are progressively destroying myriad forms of ‘open and collaborative models” and threatening traditions of knowledge associated with them. Agriculture and forest and health are obvious examples. And all these traditions are not ancient at all. These are live traditions negotiating with contemporary changes and there are new ones also coming into existence. We, the inheritors of modern knowledge traditions, need a perspective on knowledge in society that will enable us to relate to these traditions of knowledge. We need a language to talk about knowledge which can encompass both these worlds and worlds in-between. The current dichotomy between traditional knowledge and modern scientific knowledge is inadequate and misleading. It ignores the dynamic character of the former and the traditional aspect of the latter. Unless, of course, we imagine a future world, where majority of the inhabitants of our planet have no option but to forfeit their knowledge, skills and dignity, in order to become computer literate two or three generations down the line, and hope to join the Internet world on the most disadvantageous terms to themselves. They will mostly be in a position of being constantly accessed by the Internet, while having minimum access to it. We cannot ‘save’ this knowledge by bringing it to the Internet. Internet will take what it needs. The artisan will perhaps keep creating products using his or her knowledge. But the Internet will make sure that a substantial portion of each transaction will be appropriated by the connected world. In the new organization of industry, organized labour is a small proportion. Skilled industrial labour is being pushed back into artisanal mode of production, with the difference now that they will not have direct access to markets. 2. INFORMATION AND KNOWLEDGE We have treated the Internet as a socio-technological complex, animated by capital and information. As such, there are certain systemic requirements of openness and collaboration that are needed to sustain its dynamic. A lot of information has to flow freely, a lot of standards have to be open, and many codes have to be open. After all, it is not for no reason that we call our age the information age. It has made possible the flows of great quantities of information through worldwide networks. Anytime, anywhere access is the motto. A narrative of progress has also to be sustained. Since the early days of ‘digital revolution’, theories of information society have nurtured a narrative of progress, with visions of a society free from the drudgery of industrial capitalism. Theories of information society arose in 60’s and 70’s, building upon the undeniable changes taking place in the occupational structures of industrial economies. In the era of superpower competition and wide opposition, theories of information society created the vision of a new kind of ‘developed’ society in the throes of birth, a vision sorely needed by the western powers. We also know that third world states were pushing for a new international economic order and a new international information order. These latter have all but vanished now from the public consciousness. Maybe they never took roots beyond the international public space of the time. There is a vision of ‘knowledge society’ that will be based on new information technology and abundance of information. ‘If they don’t have bread, let them eat information.’ Of course, it will be pointed out that you need information and knowledge to make bread, to sell bread, and to buy the best bread available. And it is supposed that if adequate information is flowing and best knowledge is accessed, the best bread will be made, sold and bought. It is this ‘flow of adequate information and access to best knowledge’ that forms the normative content of information society theories that I want challenged. The relationships between information, knowledge, life and society that is posited here is plausible, but plausible is not enough. Not only does it not show us the real workings of the information age, it serves to conceal them. I will attempt a different account of these relationships. Let us begin with a popular adage of the information age – Information is Power. It is true in the sense that the right information at the right time enhances our capacity in a given context. What about power over others? On some reflection, we find that possessing information that everyone else possesses is no source of power over others. It is the exclusive possession of certain information that gives us certain leverage or power. It is the secrecy or withholding of information which is the source of power over others. Consider the popular film “Wall Street” where exclusive possession of key information allows the actors to play the stock exchange in a certain way. Here we are not talking of information as property. That comes later. Information is the missing piece in a puzzle or a game. It is in the very nature of information, seen in this way, that withholding it is obstructing something, or leaving something incomplete or unaccomplished. Once the information is disseminated, its power dissolves. It becomes a capacity by being integrated into a body of knowledge. Because of this we cannot say that information always wants to be free. There is an equal pull in the opposite direction. It wants to be secret as well. If I know that the most attractive girl in my class is going to be at some dance hall in the evening, this information strongly wants to be secret. Information can be withheld in many ways. It can be withheld because there is no information about this information, i.e., no one suspects the existence of this information. Or it can be legally withheld through Official Secrets Acts and other beauraucratic provisions. It can be withheld through particular organization of information. For example the disciplinary organization of information in libraries makes it difficult to access for a non-academic person. Information can be inaccessible because there is no appropriate technology of organization. Or, it can be withheld because one has no purchasing power to buy it – and this last is concerned with the question of intellectual property. What is the role of secrecy in the information society? Financial markets seem to function because of a combination of secrecy and information. If everyone had the same information it would not work. Can we now say that the information technology revolution also brought about an information revolution? What possibly can we mean by ‘information revolution’? One possible meaning is that the interplay of information and secrecy has intensified in the information age. Information is some knowledge which has already found a symbolic medium (creating the potential for it to circulate) and like any knowledge, is associated with some desire. It leaves one body of knowledge (and desire) and circulates and finds other bodies of knowledge (and desires). This happens through the mediations of symbols, materials (media), information organization systems, technologies, institutions, IPR and social organization. These together define how information circulates and gets assimilated in society. Information can be organized to reveal or to conceal. Information systems are ways of selecting, organizing and retrieving information. They operate within institutions which are ways of organizing people and their work in different ways for different purposes. The way governments, corporations, libraries organize and institutionalize information systems are very different from each other. Over and above these, there is a social organization of knowledge and circulation of information. One kind of information circulates among scientists, another kind circulates among policy makers, and a whole lot of different kinds of information among people, mediated through a myriad of institutions and technologies. The picture changes with the advent of Internet, though not entirely. We can think of Internet as a gigantic information system. Certain older rigidities, the social organization of information we referred to, have broken down. We suddenly have a whole world of information at our fingertips. We navigate the Internet through hyperlinked connections. Or, we switch channels on the television. For our purposes that is also part of the Internet. We start getting tracked, and information is thrown at us. We encounter a complex world of texts, sounds, images. We do find a great deal of information and a lot of relevant information too. (We do get emotionally and otherwise involved with the Internet, but my interest is information that we find on the Internet.) Where do they come from? They are the results of work done by individuals, organisations, institutions – knowledge work and information work. When the confidential documents of the US government are made public after a certain number of years, it requires organized and sustained work to ferret out significant information from that pile. It requires constant work by others to pull together significant links on the Internet. These activities are guided by values, perspectives, ideologies of people and institutions doing it; it is guided by their knowledge of the world. Internet as a system of information organization is divorced from knowledge organization. What do we do with the information on the receiving end? If we are interested in knowing, we decode the information and then we let the knowledge thus acquired work in us. Knowledge work again; we can call it thinking. Then knowledge works through us; we can call it doing. But Internet is just one of the sources of information for knowing, thinking, doing. We have been working with a range of meanings of the word ‘information’ employed in common language, as a bit of knowledge that circulates. There are other lives to the concept of information. Information has become an important concept in many sciences. In the science of genetics, inheritance is understood in terms of passing of genes from one generation to another. Genes are understood as carrying information necessary for reproduction of the organism with inherited characteristics. Information, as defined by the theory of Shannon and Weaver became a central concept in cybernetics and systems theory. It was related to the concept of order in thermodynamics. In quantum mechanics, the act of observation was seen to result in the loss of information. The uncertainty principle states that when we want to measure certain pairs of quantities, greater accuracy in the measurement of one quantity necessarily produces greater uncertainty in the other quantity. But the decisive point in this line of development came from the digital revolution. When it became technologically possible to convert ‘all’ forms of communication to the single digital platform, it became possible to think of information as independent of the medium. Information from any medium - texts, sounds, images – can be separated from the original medium and converted to digital form. We would like to insist that information be understood as the unity of medium and message. Without the medium, message is just meaning. Without the message, medium is just a thing. The predominance of digital information over all others is no reason to think that medium can be separated from message. That separation is done by us when we access the information. The predominance itself is defined on the basis of the quantity of information. If we do not define ‘quantity of information’ like Shannon and Weaver, we cannot even say that digital information is predominant form of information in our age. 3. COLLABORATIVE WORK OF KNOWLEDGE The concept note (http://www.globaledevelopment.org/forthcoming_concept_note.htm) of this seminar takes inspiration from the open source movements to propose a model of ‘open and collaborative work’ that will be true heir to the classic academic principles of knowledge sharing and creation. The note identifies ‘free sharing of information’ and ‘building on the work done by others’ as two important elements of this model. These two principles – free sharing of information and building on the work done by others – can indeed form the basis of collaborative efforts in creation, organization and communication of knowledge. They will be necessary, but not sufficient for collaborative work of knowledge. The process of collaboration cannot be limited to the Internet. Internet becomes one instrument of free sharing of information. We can think for example of dialogue as a principle of collaborative knowledge work. We cannot hope to capture dialogue on the internet. Internet can become one of the locations of dialogue. Natural Philosophy was transformed into Science at the beginning of nineteenth century. Disciplines were formed; a state supported infrastructure of research was instituted where the scientific community came to be nested. A divorce between creation and verification of knowledge on the one hand and application of this knowledge, on the other, was effected through the philosophy of ‘knowledge for its own sake’. Scientists could freely pursue research by building upon the work of others, while the knowledge thus produced was routinely used by the society at large or the corporate body supporting the research. This divorce between knowledge and its application, made the scientific community almost powerless. They had the authority on scientific matters, but no power or control over anything else. “Open and collaborative models” perhaps stand at a similar juncture today. It can either become domesticated by dominant forces shaping the Internet, or it can become a part of the movement towards an open future. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/commons-law/attachments/20050505/a9328d2c/attachment.html From kalisaroj at rediffmail.com Thu May 5 15:55:41 2005 From: kalisaroj at rediffmail.com (avinash jha) Date: 5 May 2005 10:25:41 -0000 Subject: [Commons-Law] Information & Knowledge - Interesting Sources Message-ID: <20050505102541.782.qmail@webmail17.rediffmail.com> SOURCES FOR "INFORMATION & KNOWLEDGE" Quotes: Our working hypothesis is that the status of knowledge is altered as societies enter what is known as the postindustrial age and cultures enter what is known as the postmodern age. -Lyotard, The postmodern condition, p.3. The notion that learning falls within the purview of the State, as the brain or mind of society, will become more and more outdated with the increasing strength of the opposing principle, according to which society exists and progresses only if the messages circulating within it are rich in information and easy to decode. -Lyotard, p.5. It is not hard to visualize learning circulating along the same lines as money, instead of for its “educational” value or political (administrative, diplomatic, military) importance; the pertinent distinction would no longer be between knowledge and ignorance, but rather, as is the case with money, between “payment knowledge” and “investment knowledge” – in other words, between units of knowledge exchanged in a daily maintenance framework (the reconstitution of the work force, “survival”) versus funds of knowledge dedicated to optimizing the performance of a project. -Lyotard, p.6 This world of data is produced by us while we are acting the way we always used to do. Our acting gets more and more translated and transported as data into a dataworld, mostly without that we know about it. Wireless networks connect everyday life (mobiles, smartcards in the metro, payback cards while shopping) and produce a counterworld, that consists of data, intangible and purely informational. This data then feedbacks into the real world, into everyday life, structures what we do and how we do it, sometimes even determines it. - Oli Liestert, Digital Inequalities The internet with its virtual reality threatens the primacy of ordinary life. Ordinary life therefore assumes the status of a principle of regeneration (recreation) of humanity. Ordinary life is life not conditional to anything. Technologies, sciences, arts, philosophies, religions and the like come and go, enrich and deprive human life but do not alter the essence of ordinary life. Ordinary life is the richest life which is not all true, good, moral or desirable but which has in it the criteria of truth, goodness etc. Internet led imagery of virtual life compares with ordinary life just the way artificial language compares with the natural language -Sunil Sahasrabudhey, The New Imagination Indigenous social formations is where one needs to stand to look at the world. People who populate these formations constitute the deepest and the widest canvas of emancipatory human activity. Not their world, not their social formations, not what they know and do, and not what they wish or aim at, but they themselves are that reality which incessantly produces men, women, ideas and activity which can challenge the New Empire. The internet shall force the national citizenry out side the net to merge with the surrounding Swadeshi Samaj. To realize the political potential of this New Age phenomena we need to recreate Gandhi. -Sunil Sahasrabudhey “I think perhaps the word “information” is causing more trouble than it is worth, except that it is difficult to find another word that is anywhere near right. It should be kept solidly in mind that [information] is only a measure of the difficulty in transmitting the sequences produced by some information sources” -Claude Shannon [Source: Warren Weaver, The Mathematics of Communication, Scientific American, July 1949, p.12. As quoted by Theodore Roszak, p.25.] [Cybernetics] is the study of information transfer: the converting of information from one form to another – the human voice into radio waves and back into sound once more, or a complex mathematical equation into a set of punched holes on a tape, to be fed into a computer’s ‘memory store’. To him [The Cyberneticist], protein synthesis is just such another case. The mechanism for ensuring exact replication of a protein chain by a new cell is that of transferring the information about the protein structure from the parent to the daughter cell. -Steven Rose, The Chemistry of Life, Penguin Books, Baltimore, 1970. p.162 [As quoted by Theodore Roszak] For centuries, knowledge, news, literature, personal messages have been exchanged by a proliferating variety of methods: paper, printing, canvas, tiles, vinyl, celluloid, ink, paint, 3-D. Only a matter of few decades ago, it became evident that every form of communication was capable of being reduced to the condition of data, then stored and retransmitted in some suitable medium. We realized that the information contained within, say, a picture can be extracted from a supporting medium and held for posterity, or for rapid onward communication in the form of computer data. Whatever the source of the communication, whatever the ultimate means of delivering the message, the material passed through the condition of being information. The world came to appear constituted of information. Information thus came to provide one of the transforming, paradigmatic ideas of the century. - Anthony Smith, Information as Paradigm of Culture, p. 65. Castells’ work has no explicit theory of knowledge or the varieties of knowledge. He takes the nature of modern science for granted. His IT paradigm is only a revamped but playful transfer of technology (TOT) model with a place for finance capital and criminality. As a result, Castells’ network society is the gigantic civics of the transfer of technology paradigm, embodying a new relation between map and territory. What it lacks is a politics of knowledge and a politics of competing theories of knowledge. Castells’ paradigm would see alternative epistemologies as ‘noise’. -Shiv Viswanathan, Knowledge and information in the network society The definition of knowledge is thus crucial to the debate. To define knowledge as formal, abstractable knowledge is to impoverish knowledge and to deny the existence of tacit, embodied and, alternative knowledges. It is this wider epistemological politics of knowledge that is missing in Castells’ work. The danger is that knowledge itself might be soon rewritten to suit the paradigm, as a result that which cannot be reprogrammed for the network ceases to be knowledge. Castells’ core work avoids this issue though he is sensitive to it when he discusses the Japanese experience in his reference to the importance of tacit knowledge in the Japanese work organization. - Shiv Viswanathan Books and Articles: Anthony Smith, Information as Paradigm of Culture, Chapter 4 of “Software for the Self: Technology and Culture”, Faber and Faber, London. Anthony Wilden, System and Structure: Essays in Communication and Exchange (Second Edition), Travistock, London, 1980. Appleby, Hunt and Jacob, The Heroic Model of Science, Chapter 1 of “Telling the Truth about History” [A study of 18th century formation of the normative structure of science.] Arun Kundnani, Where do you want to go today?: The Rise of Information Capital, Race & Class, 40, 2/3 (1998/99). David Cahan (Ed), From Natural Philosophy to the Sciences: Writing the History of Nineteenth Century Science, University of Chicago Press, 2003. David Lyon: Cyberspace: Beyond the information society? In “Living with cyberspace: technology and society in the 21st century”, ed. By John Armitage and Joanne Roberts, Continuum, New York, 2002. David Noble, Digital Diploma Mills at www.firstmonday.org Encyclopaedia Britannica, Information Theory Jean-Francois Lyotard, The postmodern condition: A report on knowledge, Manchester University Press, 1984 Jean-Pierre Dupuy, The Mechanization of the Mind: On the Origins of Cognitive Science, Princeton University Press, 2000. John Durham Peters, Information: Notes Toward a Critical History, Journal of Communication Inquiry, 12/2, Summer 1988, p. 9-23. Oli Leistert, Digital Inequalities, https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/2005-March/005148.html Peggy Mohan, In Between Paradigms: Perspectives on Communication Theory for India, Economic and Political Weekly, April 11-18, 1992. Philip Agre, Toward a Critical Technical Practice: Lessons Learned in Trying to Reform AI, in “Bridging the Great Divide: Social Science, Technical Systems, and Cooperative Work”, Eds. Geof Bowker, Les Gasser, Leigh Star, and Bill Turner, Erlbaum, 1997. [Also available at http://polaris.gseis.ucla.edu/pagre/ ] Shiv Viswanathan, Knowledge and Information in the Network Society, Seminar, July 2001. [Available at www.india-seminar.com] Sunil Sahasrabudhey, Gandhi’s Challenge to Modern Science, Other India Press, Goa, India, 2000. Sunil Sahasrabudhey, Dialogues on Knowledge in Society [available at http://www.indigen.org.in/docs.html] Theodore Roszak, The Cult of Information: The Folklore of Computers and the True Art of Thinking, Paladin, London, 1988. Walter Buckley (Ed.), Modern Systems Research for the Behavioral Scientist: A Sourcebook, Aldine Publishing company, Chicago, 1968. [See especially: Cybernetics in History by Norbert Weiner, p. 31 The Promise and Pitfalls of Information Theory by Anatol Rapaport, p. 137 Thermodynamics and Information Theory by L. Brillouin, p. 161] -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/commons-law/attachments/20050505/e4468957/attachment.html From tahir.amin at btopenworld.com Thu May 5 17:33:12 2005 From: tahir.amin at btopenworld.com (TAHIR AMIN) Date: Thu, 5 May 2005 13:03:12 +0100 (BST) Subject: [Commons-Law] Fwd: [A2k] US reveals intellectual property blacklist Message-ID: <20050505120312.48270.qmail@web86105.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> Published in the Register.com US reveals intellectual property blacklist By OUT-LAW.COM Published Wednesday 4th May 2005 10:48 GMT The US has published a blacklist of those of its trading partners that are most ineffective when it comes to protecting intellectual property rights (IPRs). The "Special 301" report from the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) fingers Ukraine as the worst offender. The report, published annually by the Office of the USTR, identifies those countries that deny adequate and effective protection for IPRs or deny fair and equitable market access for those that rely on intellectual property protection. It places countries into a hierarchy of categories, with the ranking of Priority Foreign Country reserved for the worst situations described by the USTR as "countries that fail to enter into good faith negotiations or make significant progress in bilateral or multilateral negotiations to provide adequate and effective protection of IPR". Such nations face the possible threat of trade sanctions. Currently, the Ukraine is the only country in the category, and is subject to sanctions valued at $75m. The second highest ranking is the Priority Watch List, followed by the Watch List. Countries are placed on these Lists when there are particular problems in that country with respect to IPR protection, enforcement, or market access for those relying on intellectual property. This year's report puts 14 US trading partners on the Priority Watch List: Argentina, Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Israel, Kuwait, Lebanon, Pakistan, the Philippines, Russia, Turkey, and Venezuela. Thirty-six trading partners have been placed on the Watch List, meriting bilateral attention to address the underlying IPR problems: Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Belarus, Belize, Bolivia, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, European Union, Guatemala, Hungary, Italy, Jamaica, Kazakhstan, Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Poland, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Slovakia, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkmenistan, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam. The report also announced the results of a special Out-of-Cycle Review of China's intellectual property regime, concluding that infringement levels remain unacceptably high throughout China, in spite of Beijing's efforts to reduce them. "This year, we are elevating China to the Priority Watch List for failure to effectively protect intellectual property rights and to meet its commitment to significantly reduce infringement levels, despite efforts by China's senior leadership to do so," said Acting US Trade Representative Peter Allgeier. "China must take action to address rampant piracy and counterfeiting, including increasing the number of criminal IPR cases and further opening its market to legitimate copyright and other goods." Copyright © 2005, OUT-LAW.com OUT-LAW.COM is part of international law firm Pinsent Masons. -- Michelle Childs -Head of European Affairs Consumer Project on Technology in London 24, Highbury Crescent, London, N5 1RX,UK. Tel:+44(0)207 226 6663 ex 252. Mob:+44(0)790 386 4642. Fax: +44(0)207 354 0607 http://www.cptech.org Consumer Project on Technology in Washington, DC PO Box 19367, Washington, DC 20036, USA Tel.: 1.202.387.8030, fax: 1.202.234.5176 Consumer Project on Technology in Geneva 1 Route des Morillons, CP 2100, 1211 Geneva 2, Switzerland Tel: +41 22 791 6727 _______________________________________________ A2k mailing list A2k at lists.essential.org http://lists.essential.org/mailman/listinfo/a2k --------------------------------- Yahoo! Messenger - want a free & easy way to contact your friends online? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/commons-law/attachments/20050505/2e11e509/attachment.html From patrice at xs4all.nl Fri May 6 14:24:01 2005 From: patrice at xs4all.nl (Patrice Riemens) Date: Fri, 6 May 2005 10:54:01 +0200 Subject: [Commons-Law] fwdfyi&e: RIAAs Grand Total: 10, 037 - What are Your Odds? Message-ID: <20050506085401.GD73236@xs4all.nl> ----- Forwarded message from "Aldert J.B.P. Hazenberg" ----- Date: Fri, 06 May 2005 00:36:23 +0200 To: _HL Subject: RIAA's Grand Total: 10,037 - What are Your Odds? Ik lig dubbel : (=ROTFL) http://www.slyck.com/news.php?story=769 Aldert. - ----- End forwarded message ----- From pedro_paranagua at yahoo.com.br Fri May 6 02:56:53 2005 From: pedro_paranagua at yahoo.com.br (Pedro de Paranagua Moniz) Date: Thu, 05 May 2005 22:26:53 +0100 Subject: [Commons-Law] IP brain wash in China Message-ID: <427A8F9D.6090206@yahoo.com.br> http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/05/05/scout_ip_badge/ From annymcbeal at gmail.com Sun May 8 11:14:16 2005 From: annymcbeal at gmail.com (anu) Date: Sun, 8 May 2005 11:14:16 +0530 Subject: [Commons-Law] The Mandela Industry! Message-ID: <8a1161ed050507224438424925@mail.gmail.com> Hi All, The following is the story of Nelson Mandela's legal battle against a certain industry and individuals who seemingly are using his name for commercial purposes. I find the story extremely difficult to understand. Mandela's doesn't claim right over his name under copyright (perhaps because he can't do it) but seemingly he personally wants to prevent people from using his name for commercial benefits. Is it his attempt to prevent people from making a brand out of his name or does he despise exclusivity over his name by someone else? To me it seems similar to the attempt Rajnikant (South Indian film superstar) to protect some stunts under copyright. I would be grateful if anyone can explain this better to me. Thanks Anuranjan http://www.hindu.com/2005/05/08/stories/2005050801342000.htm The Mandela industry Apartheid hero fights to keep his name from being exploited CAPE TOWN: Anti-apartheid hero. Icon of peace and racial reconciliation. Father of the Nation. Brand name on everything from gold coins to clothing? Adored and admired the world over, Nelson Mandela has had to deploy a team of lawyers to make sure that last label does not stick, going after the opportunists, criminals — and now even an old friend — accused of trying to exploit his name by attaching it without permission to a range of products and causes. The 87-year-old former South African President is now locked in a legal battle against his former attorney and close adviser, Ismael Ayob, over what happened to the profits from Mandela's brief flirtation with drawing and whether his signature on a series of lithographs of his Robben Island prison was forged. In what looks set to be a highly publicised, painful struggle against Mr. Ayob, a long-time confidant, Mr. Mandela has drafted George Bizos, the celebrated lawyer who represented him during his treason trial to fight the white racist regime four decades ago. ``I don't think that Mr. Mandela or I expected — or are enjoying the prospect of — this litigation,'' Mr. Bizos said. He expects to file the case in the Pretoria High Court ``in the next few days.'' The case will illustrate the complexities of protecting Mr. Mandela's money-spinning name from commercial predators while allowing his legions of fans to re-christen roads, squares, bridges, universities and shanty towns in his honour. ``Mr. Mandela's instructions are very clear and emphatic,'' another of his lawyers, Don MacRobert, said. ``If you want a museum or municipality named after him, he will agree if you get his approval. If you have a commercial concern — such as T-shirts, or hats or diamonds, the short message is, `No,''' said Mr. MacRobert. He said Mr. Mandela was determined to prevent all attempts to ``Disney-ize his name.'' Mr. MacRobert, a 65-year-old copyright and patent law veteran, says he is involved in about 45 cases for Mr. Mandela. He gave a list of recent offenders: A man in Sydney who registered the Internet domain name of nelsonmandela.com. After threats of legal action, he transferred the name to Mandela in January; A woman in Holland who wanted to register the name Nelson Mandela for an educational company. When challenged, she insisted that ``Nelson Mandela'' was a holy Sanskrit name; A clothing company that applied to register Mr. Mandela's prison number, 46664. Mr. MacRobert put his objections into verse and it relented. — AP From taapzi at yahoo.com Sun May 8 11:53:39 2005 From: taapzi at yahoo.com (taapsi johri) Date: Sat, 7 May 2005 23:23:39 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Commons-Law] Fwd: [A2k] WIPO Online Forum on IP in the Information Society Message-ID: <20050508062339.48592.qmail@web50206.mail.yahoo.com> ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: taapsi johri Date: May 8, 2005 11:50 AM Subject: Fwd: [A2k] WIPO Online Forum on IP in the Information Society To: commons-law at sarai.net - ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Pedro de Paranagua Moniz < pedro_paranagua at yahoo.com.br > Date: May 7, 2005 10:50 PM Subject: [A2k] WIPO Online Forum on IP in the Information Society To: undisclosed-recipients Although a good opportunity to participate, all the relevant information for preparing for the discussion will be available only on the first day of discussions: transparency? participation? access? balance? Online Forum on Intellectual Property in the Information Society Geneva, June 1 to 15, 2005 - ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) will host an Online Forum on Intellectual Property in the Information Society from June 1 to 15, 2005. The WIPO Online Forum is designed to enable and encourage an open debate on issues related to intellectual property in the information society, and in light of the goals of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). This presents a unique opportunity for all to engage and shape the emerging debate on the value of intellectual property in our day. The WIPO Online Forum will be open to participation by all interested persons � you are invited to join in online discussions over a period of two weeks from June 1, 2005. It is hoped that the Online Forum will further inform the discussions taking place during the second phase of WSIS. The conclusions of the Online Forum will form part of WIPO's contribution to the Tunis Summit. Instructions � How to Participate Please visit this site on June 1, 2005, to read fully about the themes of the Forum, see the lists of questions under each theme, browse background resources - and to join in the discussion. All persons are welcome to participate, and instructions will be given on how to submit a comment on each theme. The Online Forum is designed to give participants a chance to discuss their views on key issues relating to intellectual property in the information society and, as such, WIPO will not moderate the Forum, although any obscene or off-topic comments will be removed. As usual, any specific question for WIPO can be sent to ecommerce.mail at wipo.int . http://www.wipo.int/ipisforum/en/ _______________________________________________ A2k mailing list A2k at lists.essential.org http://lists.essential.org/mailman/listinfo/a2k - --------------------------------- Yahoo! Mail Mobile Take Yahoo! Mail with you! Check email on your mobile phone. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/commons-law/attachments/20050507/11e1def2/attachment.html From pedro_paranagua at yahoo.com.br Fri May 6 23:50:06 2005 From: pedro_paranagua at yahoo.com.br (Pedro de Paranagua Moniz) Date: Fri, 06 May 2005 19:20:06 +0100 Subject: [Commons-Law] WIPO's Development Meeting - Day Two (April 12) Message-ID: <427BB556.2010407@yahoo.com.br> WIPO's Development Meeting - Day Two (April 12) WIPO's development meeting started with a clear clash of positions opposing developed countries and non-developed countries aligned with the "friends of development" group. The proposal put forward by Brazil and Argentina and backed by 12 other countries (Bolivia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Iran, Kenya, Peru, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania and Venezuela) aims at a deep reform in WIPO's structure so as to take into account public interests and the needs of the non developed countries. The group of friends of development proposal includes allowing for greater flexibility of patent laws, reviewing the role and influence of right holders, allowing greater participation of public interest groups in the organization and increasing the measures for the transfer of technology and access to knowledge to non developed countries. This is the first time that the needs of non developed countries and public interests are seriously addressed in the WIPO. In day two, developed countries, specially the US and the EU countries, have responded to the friends of development proposal by stating that development issues are already addressed in the WIPO by means of technical assistance programs and the Permanent Committee on Cooperation for Development. Non developed countries have responded to that by highlighting that technical assistance programs are not enough and that development issues should not be dealt in a committee but should be incorporated in the overall structure of the organization. India, for example, stressed that technical assistance should not be directed to merely promoting the enforcement of intellectual property law in the countries receiving assistance. Argentina added that technical assistance provided by the WIPO should not only foster the traditional use of the intellectual property system but also inform the recipients of the existing limitations and flexibilities of the system so assisted countries could explore a wider range of possibilities that might serve their needs. The expositions of the different countries' positions clearly showed that there were two main clashing sets of proposals: one that defended that WIPO already properly addresses the issue of development and that no major change other than increasing technical assistance or strengthening the role of the committee on cooperation for development are needed; the second position revolving around the bold set of proposals for reforming the WIPO put forward by Argentina, Brazil and the friends of development group. It should be highlighted the strong statement made by India criticizing the intellectual property system and aligning itself with the friends of development group. India argued that the intellectual property system favors the right holders in the developed countries and not the public interest or the developing countries. It also mentioned the need for further flexibilization mechanisms as to better balance the damages and benefits of the intellectual property system. Finally, it opposed the trend of continuous increasing levels of protection of intellectual property. Other countries, specially in Africa and Central America, stated support for the friends of development proposal. The United States reaffirmed its position supporting the existing intellectual property system and stated that it already properly addresses developing issues. For the US instead of weakening the intellectual property system, it needs to be expanded and deepened. The US also criticized Brazil's and the friends of development proposal for believing complex developing issues could be solved by a reform in the intellectual property system and pointed to other fora more appropriated for discussing specific development issues. Brazil and Argentina took then the floor to comment the three other proposals made by the United States, the United Kingdom and Mexico. Argentina noticed that all those other proposals basically try to limit the development agenda to technical cooperation. The US proposal, Argentina observed, basically supports the status quo of intellectual property. For Brazil, the US proposal for a partnership program is only a matchmaking mechanism to connect donors and requesters of technical cooperation. It also submits technical cooperation to market forces, substituting WIPO's funding for outsourced funds from the private sector. Both Argentina and Brazil praised United Kingdom's document's considerations of the relationships between development and the intellectual property system but regretted the very limited scope of its concrete proposals. Brazil and Argentina criticized Mexico's document for stating that Intellectual Property by itself promoted development and reminded that several developed countries not long ago flexibilized intellectual property as a means to promote their own development. The third and last day of the meeting will be dedicated to future work which should be informed by the discussions of the previous two days. Author: Pablo Ortellado URL: http://www.mediatrademonitor.org/node/view/195 Posted on April 12, 2005 | Filed Under: Copyright/Fair Use | English From pedro_paranagua at yahoo.com.br Sat May 7 22:50:57 2005 From: pedro_paranagua at yahoo.com.br (Pedro de Paranagua Moniz) Date: Sat, 07 May 2005 18:20:57 +0100 Subject: [Commons-Law] WIPO Online Forum on IP in the Information Society Message-ID: <427CF8F9.9080106@yahoo.com.br> Although a good opportunity to participate, all the relevant information for preparing for the discussion will be available only on the first day of discussions: transparency? participation? access? balance? Online Forum on Intellectual Property in the Information Society Geneva, June 1 to 15, 2005 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) will host an Online Forum on Intellectual Property in the Information Society from June 1 to 15, 2005. The WIPO Online Forum is designed to enable and encourage an open debate on issues related to intellectual property in the information society, and in light of the goals of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). This presents a unique opportunity for all to engage and shape the emerging debate on the value of intellectual property in our day. The WIPO Online Forum will be open to participation by all interested persons – you are invited to join in online discussions over a period of two weeks from June 1, 2005. It is hoped that the Online Forum will further inform the discussions taking place during the second phase of WSIS. The conclusions of the Online Forum will form part of WIPO’s contribution to the Tunis Summit. Instructions – How to Participate Please visit this site on June 1, 2005, to read fully about the themes of the Forum, see the lists of questions under each theme, browse background resources - and to join in the discussion. All persons are welcome to participate, and instructions will be given on how to submit a comment on each theme. The Online Forum is designed to give participants a chance to discuss their views on key issues relating to intellectual property in the information society and, as such, WIPO will not moderate the Forum, although any obscene or off-topic comments will be removed. As usual, any specific question for WIPO can be sent to ecommerce.mail at wipo.int . http://www.wipo.int/ipisforum/en/ From taapsi at gmail.com Sun May 8 11:50:52 2005 From: taapsi at gmail.com (taapsi johri) Date: Sun, 8 May 2005 11:50:52 +0530 Subject: [Commons-Law] Fwd: [A2k] WIPO Online Forum on IP in the Information Society In-Reply-To: <427CF8F9.9080106@yahoo.com.br> References: <427CF8F9.9080106@yahoo.com.br> Message-ID: <706952230505072320733bf36c@mail.gmail.com> ---------- Forwarded message ---------- -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/commons-law/attachments/20050508/064f8300/attachment.html From tahir.amin at btopenworld.com Sun May 8 19:41:35 2005 From: tahir.amin at btopenworld.com (TAHIR AMIN) Date: Sun, 8 May 2005 15:11:35 +0100 (BST) Subject: [Commons-Law] The Mandela Industry! In-Reply-To: <8a1161ed050507224438424925@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <20050508141135.82309.qmail@web86102.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> Anu, Looks a like a case protecting his name and image' rights from those comercially exploiting it, i.e. giving the impression he is endorsing a product or other project. Whether Mandela wants to use and protect his name for commercial exploitations of his own choice I dont know, or he simply doesnt want his name used in that sense that it may end up on products that he doesnt approve of. Most likely any protection will be done under the law of passing off as opposed to copyright. See the case of formula one driver Eddie Irvine who managed to successfully sue a radio station using his image advertise their radio show. The idea of 'personality rights' is quite new, at least in the U.K , tho not so in the U.S I believe. Cheers Tahir anu wrote: Hi All, The following is the story of Nelson Mandela's legal battle against a certain industry and individuals who seemingly are using his name for commercial purposes. I find the story extremely difficult to understand. Mandela's doesn't claim right over his name under copyright (perhaps because he can't do it) but seemingly he personally wants to prevent people from using his name for commercial benefits. Is it his attempt to prevent people from making a brand out of his name or does he despise exclusivity over his name by someone else? To me it seems similar to the attempt Rajnikant (South Indian film superstar) to protect some stunts under copyright. I would be grateful if anyone can explain this better to me. Thanks Anuranjan http://www.hindu.com/2005/05/08/stories/2005050801342000.htm The Mandela industry Apartheid hero fights to keep his name from being exploited CAPE TOWN: Anti-apartheid hero. Icon of peace and racial reconciliation. Father of the Nation. Brand name on everything from gold coins to clothing? Adored and admired the world over, Nelson Mandela has had to deploy a team of lawyers to make sure that last label does not stick, going after the opportunists, criminals — and now even an old friend — accused of trying to exploit his name by attaching it without permission to a range of products and causes. The 87-year-old former South African President is now locked in a legal battle against his former attorney and close adviser, Ismael Ayob, over what happened to the profits from Mandela's brief flirtation with drawing and whether his signature on a series of lithographs of his Robben Island prison was forged. In what looks set to be a highly publicised, painful struggle against Mr. Ayob, a long-time confidant, Mr. Mandela has drafted George Bizos, the celebrated lawyer who represented him during his treason trial to fight the white racist regime four decades ago. ``I don't think that Mr. Mandela or I expected — or are enjoying the prospect of — this litigation,'' Mr. Bizos said. He expects to file the case in the Pretoria High Court ``in the next few days.'' The case will illustrate the complexities of protecting Mr. Mandela's money-spinning name from commercial predators while allowing his legions of fans to re-christen roads, squares, bridges, universities and shanty towns in his honour. ``Mr. Mandela's instructions are very clear and emphatic,'' another of his lawyers, Don MacRobert, said. ``If you want a museum or municipality named after him, he will agree if you get his approval. If you have a commercial concern — such as T-shirts, or hats or diamonds, the short message is, `No,''' said Mr. MacRobert. He said Mr. Mandela was determined to prevent all attempts to ``Disney-ize his name.'' Mr. MacRobert, a 65-year-old copyright and patent law veteran, says he is involved in about 45 cases for Mr. Mandela. He gave a list of recent offenders: A man in Sydney who registered the Internet domain name of nelsonmandela.com. After threats of legal action, he transferred the name to Mandela in January; A woman in Holland who wanted to register the name Nelson Mandela for an educational company. When challenged, she insisted that ``Nelson Mandela'' was a holy Sanskrit name; A clothing company that applied to register Mr. Mandela's prison number, 46664. Mr. MacRobert put his objections into verse and it relented. — AP _______________________________________________ commons-law mailing list commons-law at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/commons-law --------------------------------- Yahoo! Messenger - want a free & easy way to contact your friends online? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/commons-law/attachments/20050508/eb3fd0ad/attachment.html From jeebesh at sarai.net Mon May 9 16:41:56 2005 From: jeebesh at sarai.net (Jeebesh Bagchi) Date: Mon, 09 May 2005 16:41:56 +0530 Subject: [Commons-Law] Digital Library of the Commons Message-ID: <427F457C.5070302@sarai.net> http://dlc.dlib.indiana.edu/ The *Digital Library of the Commons (DLC)* is a gateway to the international literature on the commons. This site contains an author-submission portal; an archive of full-text articles, papers, and dissertations; the Comprehensive Bibliography of the Commons; a Keyword Thesaurus, and links to relevant reference sources on the study of the commons. From prabhuram at gmail.com Mon May 9 21:06:07 2005 From: prabhuram at gmail.com (Ram) Date: Mon, 9 May 2005 17:36:07 +0200 Subject: [Commons-Law] Microsoft sponsors film on intellectual property theft Message-ID: <68752c9f050509083668ca4d5a@mail.gmail.com> Who wants to have a go at this one?- Ram >VNUNET Microsoft sponsors film on intellectual property theft Lights, camera, court action Iain Thomson Microsoft is offering a prize of £2,000 for the best film that raises awareness of intellectual property theft. The film must carry the theme of "how intellectual property theft affects both individuals and society", and the winner will get £2,000 in vouchers for film equipment. Eight runners up will win a trip to London to see the films being screened. "The subject of intellectual property theft is often seen as legalistic and frankly a bit dull," said Alex Hilton, anti-piracy manager at Microsoft. "The truth is that intellectual property is really about people's creations. When someone has worked hard on a creation, it's unfair to see it stolen in front of their eyes." Microsoft currently has several cases of intellectual property theft in the courts. Its Longhorn operating system is under threat because of one case, and the company recently paid out $60m to settle a similar case with video firm Burst in March. -- Prabhu Ram, Max-Planck-Institut for Intellectual Property, Competition and Tax Law, MarstallPlatz 1, 80539 Munich GERMANY Tel: + 49 89 24246226 Mob: + 49 17629830521 Web: http://infoserve.blogspot.com From lawrence at altlawforum.org Tue May 10 14:45:52 2005 From: lawrence at altlawforum.org (Lawrence Liang) Date: Tue, 10 May 2005 14:45:52 +0530 Subject: [Commons-Law] Bollywood as copy Cat Message-ID: Hi all There is a very interesting if highly simplistic site called www.bollycat.com which makes a listing of all plagiarised movies in Bollywood. While such a simplistic approach tot he idea of the copy pains, it is nonetheless useful as a resrouce for those of us interested in the history of copy culture Lawrence From prabhuram at gmail.com Wed May 11 15:32:18 2005 From: prabhuram at gmail.com (Ram) Date: Wed, 11 May 2005 12:02:18 +0200 Subject: [Commons-Law] Escargot? Oui. Google? Sacre Bleu Message-ID: <68752c9f0505110302226a9ca@mail.gmail.com> >Wired Escargot? Oui. Google? Sacre Bleu By Bruce Gain PARIS, France -- A relationship marked by lows such as Freedom Fries and EuroDisney would seem to have no room to go any lower. And yet: When U.S.-based Google announced plans in December to undertake the cost of digitizing the world's books and making them searchable to the public for free, France called foul, with the country's top librarian complaining loudly of yet another example of "crushing American domination." See photosTo some, the outcry smacked of just another case of misplaced Gallic pride; after all, Google plans to include French and other non-English books in its literary database. But a rapid response from bureaucrats in The Hague has sent a signal that the whole continent now sees Google as a threat. Last week, four months after Google's announcement, the European Commission, which represents 25 countries, pledged 96 million euros to digitize all of the books from more than 20 of Europe's most pre-eminent libraries before America gets there first. The motives may seem obvious to Americans accustomed to mocking European pretensions; but, in fact, there is more to this than an anti-U.S. reflex. At its heart, the library face-off highlights a mix of anxieties -- from historical influence to commerce to technology -- exacerbated by fears that search engines are poised to become the great new gatekeepers of culture. "It is very important to draw from the private sector to develop search engines for annexing, indexing and graphical interfaces that are not dominated by American technology," said France's Bibliotheque Nationale President Jean-Noël Jeanneney, the man who first called out Google and America and has been credited as the catalyst for Europe's response. "We see the Google initiative as a trumpet call to take action." European pique at the encroachments of U.S. technology and values isn't hard to find. The EC's Competition Bureau last year hit Microsoft with a record $613 million fine and other restrictions over its Windows operating system monopoly. Last month, French wire service Agence France-Presse sued Google, claiming the search giant's publication of AFP's content violated copyright laws, in one of the first lawsuits of its kind. For nearly five years, former Yahoo chief executive Tim Koogle stood accused in France of criminal responsibility for auctions of Nazi paraphernalia on Yahoo's website -- charges that were thrown out by a Paris court only last month. France is not without its bragging rights in technology circles. French communications equipment maker Alcatel continues to maintain a sizeable market share worldwide. Germany-based Infineon Technologies is a leading DRAM supplier and STMicroelectronics in Switzerland has successfully carved out a niche in multimedia semiconductor components. Nevertheless, despite liberal investment in government-sponsored projects and industry subsidies, Europe is largely missing from the PC and internet revolutions. It's not for lack of trying. France poured billons of dollars in state aid into subsidizing Bull's operations for years, but the longtime state-owned computer and software group never managed to capture a credible share of the server and workstation markets against the likes of IBM, HP or other U.S. firms. France's Minitel teletext information system was once a mainstay in French households -- and was considered the country's consumer technology crown jewel -- but the internet has largely rendered it obsolete. "There is a growing awareness in continental Europe of the technology gap, even with some of the very good technologies they have had, of companies like Google, like Microsoft, like Apple ... which are presented as almost technology imperialists at the forefront," said Jonathan Fenby, a former Observer editor and author of France on the Brink. "There is this defensive reaction: 'We have to defend what we've got. We mustn't let the Americans and the British get into this.'" Google has been mostly quiet about the specifics of its own book-scanning project or how it will fit into the EC's scheme, having blandly proclaimed that the two efforts will be complementary rather than competitive. "The French National Library has its own (project), which is a prototype for what it is proposing (for the EC)," said J.L. Needham, partner-development manager for Google Print, agreeing that the EC had the requisite technological capabilities to put the books of its national libraries online. In Europe's favor, the technologies required to put books online are fairly accessible. Specifically, the project will require fairly ubiquitous optical-scanning equipment and search-engine technologies from the likes of Norway-based Fast Search & Transfer, which licenses its search engine know-how to Yahoo and AOL. "Europe has all of the technologies together and everything needed," said John M. Lervik, chief executive officer of search engine Fast Search. "It is probably more about getting all of the parties together and aligned." In an interview with Wired News, Jeanneney claimed that the EC's online library project is not so much about France's and Europe's dependence on U.S. technology, but instead addresses concerns about the historical footprint that Google will make. If Google's power remains unchecked, Jeanneney argues, it could unconsciously taint how future generations perceive and interpret not only the internet but the whole sweep of Western history and culture. "The main issue of this project is not one that involves national pride, but it is necessary that the history of the planet (in the digital world) be communicated not only through an American medium, but one that is European -- or even Asian -- as well," he said. Despite the rhetorical outrage, Jeanneney and his colleagues at the Bibliotheque Nationale met with Google last week to discuss the initiative. While neither party would disclose specifics about how the two organizations might collaborate, Jeanneney did concede that the EC project might share its European-flavored content with Google. Instead of the latest stopgap measure to counter American technological dominance, it's even possible that Jeanneney has something loftier in mind, similar in influence to the majestic Bibliotheque Nationale overlooking the Seine, which former French President Francois Mitterrand helped to erect and leave behind for adulation long after he was dead. "Today, journalists as well as educators increasingly use the internet and, specifically, search engines, such as Google, to do their research," Jeanneney said, "which shows how it is essential that there is multilateralism, not in the military or diplomatic sense, but in how information is made available and distributed around the planet during the decades and centuries to come." Story location: http://www.wired.com/news/ebiz/0,1272,67482,00.html -- Prabhu Ram, Max-Planck-Institut for Intellectual Property, Competition and Tax Law, MarstallPlatz 1, 80539 Munich GERMANY Tel: + 49 89 24246226 Mob: + 49 17629830521 Web: http://infoserve.blogspot.com From shivamvij at gmail.com Wed May 11 17:43:01 2005 From: shivamvij at gmail.com (shivam) Date: Wed, 11 May 2005 17:43:01 +0530 Subject: [Commons-Law] Law Research Institute, Kolkata Message-ID: Dear commons-law list members, I am desperately looking for the contact info (website/email/phone/address - in that order!) of the Law Research Institute, Calcutta, and Google has not been of much help. I'm specifically looking for the contact of their former director, SK Ghosh. I'm sure those of you who are from Kolkata can help. I would be very grateful to you. Many thanks, Shivam -- http://mallroad.blogspot.com From postmaster at crit.org.in Wed May 11 00:38:18 2005 From: postmaster at crit.org.in (Work in Progress) Date: Wed, 11 May 2005 00:38:18 +0530 Subject: [Commons-Law] At the World Social Forum 2004 Message-ID: <74d7355b50a0b9541b63ff62579e5045@crit.org.in> Screening of ‘WORK IN PROGRESS: AT THE WORLD SOCIAL FORUM (WSF), 2004   Date: FRIDAY 13 MAY 2005 Time: 6:30 p.m. Place: THE LITTLE THEATRE National Centre for Performing Arts (NCPA) Dorabji Tata Road, Nariman Point, Mumbai 400021   About the Film   Work in Progress: At the WSF 2004 (59 min., documentary, digital video, English) We came into this world to understand certain things: Very few, but exceedingly important ones.   Andrei Sinyavsky   This film has made its journey from being a document of an event to becoming an impression of a worldwide movement for economic, political and cultural justice and a travelogue of ideas for change. The World Social Forum began in Brazil in the year 2000 as a space for defining alternatives to globalisation, economic imperialism, war and discrimination. In 2004, it’s fourth year, it came to Bombay and widened its horizons to include issues of gender, indigenous people’s rights, alternative sexuality, women and war, caste and racism. For 5 days people protested and analysed existing economic, political and social injustice; celebrated alternatives and resistance through speeches, processions, music, debate, performance, conversation; and sharpened their imagination of a better world with diversity and justice at its heart, under a common slogan -- Another World Is Possible. This film has been created from video material gathered by student crews to document this five day event. Credits PRODUCER: World Social Forum India DIRECTOR: Paromita Vohra EDITORS: Rikhav Desai with Irene Dhar, Batul Mukhtiar, Neeraj Voralia, Kavita Pai, Shan Mohammad, Nirupama Kaul CAMERA Ajay Noronha, Anirudh, Arun Varma, Chandidas, Kapil Sharma, Mukesh Kumar, Sameer Mahajan, Setu, Subhra Dutta SOUND Amla, Anita Kushwaha, Gissy Michael, Hari M, Manoj Sicca, Shubhashish Roy, Suresh Rajamani FIELD PRODUCERS: Akshay Sujir, Divya Unny, Gifty Sahny, Mahafreed Irani, Nikita Jain, Payal Raj, Poornima Swaminathan, Pratibha Prakash, Sai Raje, Sandeep Francis, Sangeeta Joardar, Shalini Nair, Sohil Shah, Supriya Thanawala About the Director PAROMITA VOHRA is a documentary filmmaker and screenwriter. Her films as director are Work In Progress (2004),  Cosmopolis: Two Tales of a City,(2004),  Un-limited Girls (2002), , A Short Film About Time (2000), A Woman’s Place,(1999) and Annapurna (1995. Some of her films as writer are the Pakistani feature film Khamosh Pani (Golden Leopard, Locarno Film Festival, 2003, (Best Screenplay, Kara Film Festival, 2003),  the documentaries If You Pause: In a Museum of Craft (2004), A Few Things I Know About Her (Silver Conch, Mumbai International Film Festival 2002), and the faux documentary Skin Deep (1998). As part of the international women in media collective A Woman’s Place, she is the India Co-ordinator for a media exchange project around identity and context between teenage girls in Bombay and New York. She teaches scriptwriting as visiting faculty at Sophia Polytechnic and is a PUKAR Associate. Enquiries: Paromita Vohra D-404, Trans Apartments Mahakali Caves Road Andheri (E), Bombay 400093 Phone: +91.22.2837.7960 E-Mail: parodevi at mtnl.net.in _____ CRIT (Collective Research Initiatives Trust) Announcements List announcer at crit.org.in http://lists.crit.org.in/mailman/listinfo/announcer From prashant at nalsartech.org Thu May 12 08:15:31 2005 From: prashant at nalsartech.org (Prashant Iyengar) Date: Thu, 12 May 2005 08:15:31 +0530 Subject: [Commons-Law] Mandela files lawsuit against former Indian lawyer Message-ID: <20050512081531.3jue7pye4eiw4osk@www.nalsartech.org> Mandela files lawsuit against former Indian lawyer Durban, May 11 Former South African President Nelson Mandela has filed a lawsuit against his ex-lawyer of Indian-origin as well as a businessman for allegedly swindling millions of dollars by illegally using his name and selling artwork recalling his long years in prison. "My name and reputation are, and will continue to be, harmed by the injurious and unlawful actions," Mr Mandela said in an application to the Johannesburg high court. "I am desirous to create and leave a legacy of moral rectitude, care for the disadvantaged group of persons in our society, dignity for all, regardless of race, colour, creed or station in society," the former President said, adding his former lawyer of Indian-origin Ismael Ayob and businessman Ross Calder were ‘injurious’ to his legacy. "I suffer and will continue to suffer immeasurable damage to my name and reputation. The gains which now have been achieved through the Nelson Mandela foundation, the Nelson Mandela childrens’ fund and other charity organisations would be in vain should the actions of Calder and Ayob, and the companies under their control, not be immediately interdicted," he said. Mr Mandela has asked the court to stop Mr Ayob from using his name which was his copyright. He has also asked the court to remove Ayob and his wife from all positions they hold in the Nelson Mandela trust, NRM family trust and Mandela trust. He also wanted Ayob to produce audited financial statements of the money that went into the trusts and the companies that he sold his works of art. —PTI http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=90614 From anivar.aravind at gmail.com Thu May 12 18:57:14 2005 From: anivar.aravind at gmail.com (Anivar Aravind) Date: Thu, 12 May 2005 18:57:14 +0530 Subject: [Commons-Law] Fwd: TIRUR MODAL MEDIA DEVOLPMENT FOR KERALA In-Reply-To: <20050512050918.84394.qmail@web8503.mail.in.yahoo.com> References: <20050512050918.84394.qmail@web8503.mail.in.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <35f96d4705051206277adb2da6@mail.gmail.com> ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: mishak south Date: Thu, 12 May 2005 06:09:18 +0100 (BST) Subject: [kerala-thoughts] TIRUR MODAL MEDIA DEVOLPMENT FOR KERALA To: kerala-thoughts at yahoogroups.com Sound bites It is 5.30 p.m. at a busy junction in Tirur in Malappuram district, and passengers stop by to listen to an #8216;exclusive#8217; news story from a loudspeaker tied to an electric post. It is about K.P. Kutty Vakkad, a popular folk song writer, alleging that Kalabhavan Mani, a Malayalam actor and parody singer, has plagiarised his work. The crowd listens in rapt attention as expert comments and an interview with Vakkad follow. Welcome to Time News, a novel communication medium which uses audio cassettes to disseminate news and advertisements.The cassettes are played in shops, buses, cinema theatres and street-corners every day. The brainchild of Reji Tirur, 29, a freelance journalist and script-writer of the film Pattalam, Time News releases more than 1,000 audio cassettes a day. With a team of six reporters, it dishes out local, national and international news and exclusive stories. "I had this idea of a news cassette which could be played in public places," says Reji. "When I discussed it with my friends, they encouraged me." Thus was born Time News in May 2004. Reji, the chief editor, works out of a rented room with an ordinary recording system. After the news is gathered and written down, a newsreader records it on the master cassette. Copies are quickly made and distributed. A cassette contains news for 30 minutes, and after five recordings, the cassette is destroyed. It is a win-win situation for everyone. Advertisers are happy that unlike in the case of television or radio, audiences do not switch them off. "Our ads are fully heard by the audience," says T. Surendran, manager, Golden Bankers, Tirur. Agrees, Zakhir Hussain, managing director, Kairali Enterprises: "Advertising in Time News has helped us spread our business in interior areas of the state." Content with revenue from advertisements, Time News distributes the cassettes free of cost. The listeners are also happy. "You get all the latest news while travelling on a bus," says Tajuddin, who listens to the cassette while commuting after work. "Unless there are pressing stories, there is no need to switch on the television." Cinema theatres, too, have responded with enthusiasm. "Usually, the audiences are impatient before the show starts," says Bharathan, manager of Chithrasagar theatre. "But now, they listen in rapt attention as we play Time News bulletins." The concept of #8216;breaking news#8217; has increased the credibility of Time News. Reji#8217;s financial partner T. Shakeel says its announcement of former chief minister E.K. Nayanar#8217;s death in May had a remarkable impact on its popularity. Since then people have been approaching Time News with news stories. Shakeel says even individuals are demanding a copy of the cassette. Reji wants to expand the medium throughout the state. "With technology, it is possible to extend the bulletins all over the state," he says. "Advertisers are also keen on this." Is Kerala ready for it? From srinivas at southcentre.org Thu May 12 23:58:52 2005 From: srinivas at southcentre.org (srinivas at southcentre.org) Date: Thu, 12 May 2005 20:28:52 +0200 Subject: [Commons-Law] Need a Paper ? Fake It Message-ID: I wonder who will be entitled to copyright in such cases, in other words who is the 'author' here http://www.the-scientist.com/2005/5/9/12/2 For untenured professors, the pressure to publish is intense. But it's unlikely any professor would be desperate enough to use a tool that a trio of Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate students recently dreamed up. Fed up with announcements for conferences they deemed of dubious scientific integrity, Jeremy Stribling, Max Krohn, and Dan Aguayo produced a Web-based application called SCIgen [http://www.pdos.csail.mit.edu/scigen/] to generate random, nonsense computer science papers-complete with figures, graphs, and references. It worked: One of their papers, entitled "Rooter: A Methodology for the Typical Unification of Access Points and Redundancy," was accepted without review for the 9th World Multi-Conference on Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics, to be held in July in Orlando, Florida. The system relies on "skeleton sentences" and a lexicon of computer science buzzwords. Stribling, Krohn, and Aguayo combed the computer science literature to compile the lexicon, which Stribling says contains 3,500 or so phrases and terms. "It's kind of like Mad Libs," says Stribling. "You have sentences and blanks you have to fill in." The resulting text is grammatically correct, but meaningless. Repurposing SCIgen for the life sciences, or any field for that matter, would be relatively straightforward, says Stribling, as long as the field is rife with buzzwords. "You'd have to write new sentences," he says. "That took us a week to two weeks, pretty solid work." All it would take, says Mark Craven, an assistant professor of biostatistics and medical informatics at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, who develops algorithms for analyzing biomedical literature, is a context-free grammar-the computer equivalent of eighth-grade sentence diagrams-and a lexicon. That could be a significant hurdle. PubMed contains well in excess of 15 million papers, and the Medical Subject Headings listing-the database's controlled thesaurus-has more than 22,000 keywords, not counting chemical and protein names. Yet Craven says it would be simple to write a script to download a huge collection of papers-say 50,000 records-and then pull out keywords automatically. Mining the complete article text would be more challenging, he says, but is also doable. As for Stribling et al., their success has been their undoing. Their original plan was to attend the meeting and present a randomly generated talk that was created just prior to the presentation. They collected just under $2,400 from 171 donors to finance their trip after they posted a plea for funds on their Web site. But news of their prank, spread on blogs like Slashdot.org, Fark.com, and also in the mainstream press, caused the conference to rescind their provisional acceptance. Conference organizer Nagib Callaos writes in an E-mail that he was "examining our systems and procedures, and if they were really being followed by our staff." It's unlikely that "SCIgen-erated" papers would have any chance of making it past reviewers in a serious scientific journal, says biolinguist Lynette Hirschman. One of the "grand challenges" of cognitive science is getting a computer to do a task such that people cannot distinguish between what a computer has done and what a person has done. "The reason that this is a grand challenge is that, so far, computers have not come close on tasks such as writing a conference paper," Hirschman writes in an E-mail. That doesn't mean it wouldn't be fun to try. Craven says he'd up the ante by adding "some discourse processing" to the software, to get some coherence from one sentence to the next. Then, he says, the result would be "less like computer-generated garbage and more like human-generated garbage." Alan Sokal, who famously published a nonsensical paper in the journal Social Text in 1996, says of the MIT prank: "My reaction is basically, more power to them." Jeffrey M. Perkel From hbs.law at gmail.com Sat May 14 00:33:10 2005 From: hbs.law at gmail.com (Hasit seth) Date: Fri, 13 May 2005 15:03:10 -0400 Subject: [Commons-Law] India eyes own open-source license Message-ID: <8b60429e05051312032f9b9a05@mail.gmail.com> Heard about this from Slashdot.org, one of my favorite websites. ========================== India eyes own open-source license By Michael Kanellos http://news.com.com/India+eyes+own+open-source+license/2100-7344_3-5701861.html Story last modified Wed May 11 04:00:00 PDT 2005 MUMBAI, India--In the seemingly never-ending quest to balance openness with profits, one of India's more influential professors is devising yet another open-source licensing program. Deepak Phatak of the Indian Institute of Technology has kicked off an effort to create the Knowledge Public License, or KPL, a licensing program that will let programmers share ideas with one another while at the same time allowing them to retain the rights to their own software modifications. The license will likely function much like the Berkeley Software Distribution or the MIT License programs, he added. The idea is to create an environment where developers can take advantage of the collaborative power of the open-source movement while giving individuals the ability to exploit their own twists. News.context What's new: Deepak Phatak of the Indian Institute of Technology has begun an effort to create an open-source license that will let programmers share ideas while also letting them retain the rights to their own software modifications. Bottom line: The number of open-source licenses has exploded, leaving many in the community miffed. But Phatak's proposal comes with the power of numbers. India's 1,750 colleges with computer science and electrical engineering degrees admit about 250,000 students a year. Combined with the outsourcing boom, that makes India one of the major centers for software development. More stories on India Ideally, such a program could also help ease the raging tensions between the open-source software movement and proprietary software companies. "The free software people are afflicted by what I call the J factor, which is the jealousy factor. The proprietary people are afflicted by the G factor, the greed factor. They want to maximally extract money from the world," Phatak said in an interview here. "I am working to tell the world, 'Please permit these groups to coexist peacefully and harmoniously. There is a tremendous advantage to everyone.'" "Legally, we have to move very carefully because the Americans have a tendency to sue anybody for anything," he added. The number of open-source licensing programs has expanded rapidly in the past few years. Under some programs, such as the General Public License, developers have to publish their modifications if the modifications are used outside their own operations. Many in the open-source community have complained about the proliferation of licensing models and taken action to curtail the numbers. Budding software powerhouse If anything, Phatak's licensing proposal comes with the power of numbers. India's 1,750 colleges with computer science and electrical engineering degrees admit about 250,000 students a year, he said. That's up from 1983, when there were 70 colleges admitting 5,000 students a year. Deepak Phatak Deepak Phatak Combined with the boom in outsourcing, this makes India one of the major centers for software development. A contest sponsored by Red Hat seeking new concepts for open-source software drew more than 2,000 proposals, Phatak said. Winners will be announced in a few weeks. Phatak has also created the Ekalavya program to stimulate open-source ideas. Under the program (named after a Hindu legend), students submit ideas to a collaborative portal. Those with promising ideas are then linked up with mentors in the industry. "Let me tell you my dream: Today, India is a net taker in the open-source community. In four years, I want the world to recognize India as a net giver, and that is entirely possible" he said. While collaboration between universities and private enterprise is not as pervasive in India as it is in the U.S., it's growing, according to many sources. For instance, start-ups created to exploit technology that was developed at universities have begun to pop up, according to Rishi Navani, managing director at WestBridge Capital Partners, a venture firm specializing in Indo-U.S. investments. One example is Strand Genomics, which specializes in analytical software for drug discovery and development. Open-source divorce Professors at major institutions such as the Indian Institute of Technology or the Indian Institute of Science also sit on technology advisory boards with corporations and government agencies, which are often run by their former students. ("The IIT is a big club," said one graduate.) Recently, a large insurance company adopted thin clients rather than PCs in part because an IIT study showed that it could cut ownership costs by about two-thirds, Phatak said. A recent visitor to Phatak's office was Microsoft Chief Technical Officer Craig Mundie. "I told him a competitive price point (for a desktop OS) would be in the single digit dollars," Phatak said. Copyright (c)1995-2005 CNET Networks, Inc. All rights reserved. From annymcbeal at gmail.com Sun May 15 10:06:47 2005 From: annymcbeal at gmail.com (anu) Date: Sun, 15 May 2005 10:06:47 +0530 Subject: [Commons-Law] Yoga and copyright Message-ID: <8a1161ed05051421366ffa865c@mail.gmail.com> Hi All, Here is an update on the yoga and copyright issue. Copyright on Yoga remains an academic issue as Yogi, Bikram Choudhary reaches settlement with the coalition of Yoga studios which challanged the copyright upon "his Yoga". Any thoughts? Anu http://www.hindu.com/2005/05/15/stories/2005051500682000.htm A yoga guru and a copyright issue A multi-millionaire popularising ``hot yoga'' in America reaches a settlement SAN FRANCISCO: An Indian yoga guru who became a multi-millionaire popularising ``hot yoga'' in America has reached a settlement with a coalition of yoga studios who challenged the copyright to his version of the discipline. Bikram Choudhury, who trademarked his name and copyrighted his techniques, had been sending ``cease and desist'' letters ordering studios to stop teaching the same form of yoga that his school has used to train more than 2,000 instructors who have opened more than 1,200 Bikram studios in the U.S. Some of them formed a cooperative and sued Mr. Choudhury, claiming that yoga cannot be copyrighted. The settlement is confidential, but three people involved in the case confirmed that Mr. Choudhury has agreed not to sue the 50 members of the San Francisco-based yoga cooperative. And cooperative members have agreed not to advertise the trademarked name ``Bikram''. The settlement avoids a June 20 trial that might have settled the question of whether Mr. Choudhury's copyrighted package of 26 poses and two breathing exercises, performed in a certain sequence in 105-degree heat, could be legally protected. ``Yoga, the word itself, means unity. So our lawsuit was of the intention of creating unity,'' said Sandy McCauley, co-owner of Yoga Loka. She and dozens of other instructors who formed the cooperative received letters from Mr. Choudhury's attorneys demanding that they stop ``distributing, selling or otherwise exploiting'' his work. The cooperative had asked U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton, who later approved the settlement, to void Mr. Choudhury's 2003 copyright. Mr. Choudhury countered that yoga studios cease using his ``Bikram'' trademarked name unless they were affiliated with the Los Angeles-based Bikram's Yoga College of India. Mr. Choudhury, who lives in Beverly Hills and collects Bentley and Rolls Royce cars, was a yoga champion in India who has been teaching his yoga since the 1970s. AP From karim at sarai.net Sun May 15 14:43:06 2005 From: karim at sarai.net (Aniruddha Shankar) Date: Sun, 15 May 2005 14:43:06 +0530 Subject: [Commons-Law] Thought Thieves Steal Ideas FROM YOUR HEAD! Message-ID: <428712A2.4030205@sarai.net> Shining defender of freedom of expression, originality and author's rights, Microsoft Corp., is running a short film contest to win 2000 pounds of film and video equipment vouchers. The subject ? A film on how you would feel and what you would do "if you saw your hard work being passed off as the property of someone else". The short film on "intellectual property theft" has to be in by the first of July. O apathetic masses, "Think about it: what would a world look like without protection for intellectual property?"[1] Any takers ? And you, yes, you in the green shirt and the overly long, tangled hair, I know what you're up to! You're trying to STEAL MY IDEAS FROM MY HEAD!! Luckily for me I've wrapped my head in tinfoil so your SinistroWaves cannot penetrate through to my precious, wetly throbbing intellectual property. And don't think that recension/fair use/parody crap will stand up in courts forever! What's that ? Microsoft infringed Sun's[2] copyrightand trademark? SPX's[3], Eolas'[4],Intertrust's [5] and Stac's[6] patents? Well, Microsoft is reformed now, and they're trying to support independent filmmakers. Cynic. I bet you're trying to steal my ideas right now. The contest poster is at http://www.msn.co.uk/img/en/en-gb/portal/specials/thoughtthieves/poster.PDF The contest website is www.msn.co.uk/thoughtthieves [1] http://www.msn.co.uk/thoughtthieves/creating/ [2] http://tinyurl.com/8v3wu [3] http://tinyurl.com/ajcbk [4] http://tinyurl.com/a8taf [5] http://tinyurl.com/77btz [6] http://www.base.com/software-patents/articles/stac.html From paivakil at yahoo.co.in Sun May 15 16:11:00 2005 From: paivakil at yahoo.co.in (Mahesh T. Pai) Date: Sun, 15 May 2005 16:11:00 +0530 Subject: [Commons-Law] Thought Thieves Steal Ideas FROM YOUR HEAD! In-Reply-To: <428712A2.4030205@sarai.net> References: <428712A2.4030205@sarai.net> Message-ID: <20050515104059.GA13920@nandini.home> Aniruddha Shankar said on Sun, May 15, 2005 at 02:43:06PM +0530,: > crap will stand up in courts forever! What's that ? Microsoft > infringed Sun's[2] copyrightand trademark? SPX's[3], > Eolas'[4],Intertrust's [5] and Stac's[6] patents? Well, Microsoft > is reformed now, and they're Hey!! what about the trademarking of the generic, dictionary terms like paint, word, and windows through the backdoor?? What about claiming patent protection on W3C's published XML standards?? Huh?? No problem if M$ steals ideas from our heads? -- Mahesh T. Pai <<>> http://paivakil.port5.com REVOLUTION, n. An abrupt change in the form of misgovernment. From josh.subscriptions at kantei.com Mon May 16 01:24:57 2005 From: josh.subscriptions at kantei.com (Josh Zeidner) Date: Sun, 15 May 2005 12:54:57 -0700 Subject: [Commons-Law] Thought Thieves Steal Ideas FROM YOUR HEAD![ Family Entertainment and Copyright Act of 2005 ] In-Reply-To: <428712A2.4030205@sarai.net> Message-ID: <20050515195456.KVNR7275.fed1rmmtao09.cox.net@baketosh> > -----Original Message----- > From: commons-law-bounces at sarai.net [mailto:commons-law-bounces at sarai.net] > On Behalf Of Aniruddha Shankar > Sent: Sunday, May 15, 2005 2:13 AM > To: reader-list at sarai.net; commons-law at sarai.net > Subject: [Commons-Law] Thought Thieves Steal Ideas FROM YOUR HEAD! > > Shining defender of freedom of expression, originality and author's > rights, Microsoft Corp., is running a short film contest to win 2000 > pounds of film and video equipment vouchers. The subject ? > > A film on how you would feel and what you would do "if you saw your hard > work being passed off as the property of someone else". The short film > on "intellectual property theft" has to be in by the first of July. > > O apathetic masses, "Think about it: what would a world look like > without protection for intellectual property?"[1] > > Any takers ? And you, yes, you in the green shirt and the overly long, > tangled hair, I know what you're up to! You're trying to STEAL MY IDEAS > FROM MY HEAD!! Luckily for me I've wrapped my head in tinfoil so your > SinistroWaves cannot penetrate through to my precious, wetly throbbing > intellectual property. And don't think that recension/fair use/parody > crap will stand up in courts forever! You obviously haven't seen this yet: http://www.publicknowledge.org/content/legislation/s167 "(11) the making imperceptible, by or at the direction of a member of a private household, of limited portions of audio or video content of a motion picture, during a performance in or transmitted to that household for private home viewing, from an authorized copy of the motion picture, or the creation or provision of a computer program or other technology that enables such making imperceptible and that is designed and marketed to be used, at the direction of a member of a private household, for such making imperceptible, if no fixed copy of the altered version of the motion picture is created by such computer program or other technology.'; and " "I demand that you stop making my IP imperceptible you lawless brigand!" or, "I know my IP is in there somewhere!" http://chriscannon.house.gov/Press_2005/march03b.htm This is not an obscenity issue! This ruling will be used to make it illegal to edit out commercials from video and audio footage. Then P2P trading will work much like radio, with songs embedding commercial content. If you edit it out, the song is contraband. http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/003515.php http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:s.00167: Josh Zeidner > What's that ? Microsoft infringed > Sun's[2] copyrightand trademark? SPX's[3], Eolas'[4],Intertrust's [5] > and Stac's[6] patents? Well, Microsoft is reformed now, and they're > trying to support independent filmmakers. Cynic. I bet you're trying to > steal my ideas right now. > > The contest poster is at > http://www.msn.co.uk/img/en/en- > gb/portal/specials/thoughtthieves/poster.PDF > The contest website is www.msn.co.uk/thoughtthieves > > [1] http://www.msn.co.uk/thoughtthieves/creating/ > [2] http://tinyurl.com/8v3wu > [3] http://tinyurl.com/ajcbk > [4] http://tinyurl.com/a8taf > [5] http://tinyurl.com/77btz > [6] http://www.base.com/software-patents/articles/stac.html > _______________________________________________ > commons-law mailing list > commons-law at sarai.net > https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/commons-law From hbs.law at gmail.com Wed May 18 19:20:23 2005 From: hbs.law at gmail.com (Hasit seth) Date: Wed, 18 May 2005 09:50:23 -0400 Subject: [Commons-Law] L-RAMP: A boon for rural innovators Message-ID: <8b60429e0505180650642ec2b4@mail.gmail.com> L-RAMP: A boon for rural innovators Shobha Warrier | May 18, 2005 | 13:31 IST Paul Basil. Photograph: Sreeram Selvaraj Innovation and rural India would seem mutually exclusive terms. But that is about to change. The Lemelson Recognition and Mentoring Programme -- or L-RAMP -- launched in rural Tamil Nadu for inventors, is a union of technology, innovation and funds. L-RAMP is a joint initiative of the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Rural Innovation Network, and the Lemelson Foundation, USA. Impressed with the work done by the Rural Innovations Network, the Lemelson Foundation has decided to pour funds into the project and give it financial muscle and a major impetus. Background IIT Madras is one of the premier institutes in India where the best brains from all over India meet for high technological education and basic and applied research. Innovators in rural India? You bet! Rural Innovations Network is a non-profit organisation with a mission to improve the quality of rural lives and livelihoods by enabling appropriate and environmentally friendly innovations to reach markets. The Lemelson Foundation is a private philanthropic institution established by Jerome Lemelson, one of the most prolific inventors in the United States. Rural Innovations Network is the brainchild of Paul Basil, a mechanical engineer with a post-graduate degree in forestry management. After having worked for the National Dairy Development Board and later with the European Union's horticultural project in Kerala, he was associated with the Honey Bee Network, formed by a group at the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad that studies innovations by people in rural areas and their impact on rural life. Basil came back to the southern part of India and set up Rural Innovations Network (www.rinovations.org) in January 2001 with just three people. Spurring innovation Last year, RIN met over a hundred innovators but Basil confessed that it took a lot of time for an innovation to hit the market. One of the most successful yet simple innovations that they identified last year was an insect trap. If kept inside containers storing grains, the trap attracts insects to it and prevents them from breeding in the grains. Priced at Rs 90, it is a huge success. RIN has tied up with an NGO called International Developmental Enterprises India that has presence in 12 states in the country, and also with the M S Swaminathan Foundation and N-Logue, which has around 2,500 kiosks. The beginning Although, the IITs have started a lot of initiatives in the areas of rural development, socially relevant technology, etc., they haven't been able to address innovators outside their campuses. One of the triggers for them was looking at students as innovators and transforming them into entrepreneurs. That was how in 2004, August, IIT Madras came into contact with RIN which specialises in working with rural innovators. That was also the time the Lemelson Foundation based in the US, which works with inventors and innovators, was looking at expanding their operations outside the US. They were planning to come to India to support the cause of innovation in India. As they work with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US, they decided to make a preliminary visit to the premier institutions in India, the IITs. They also met a lot of other organisations across the country. Finally, they decided IIT Madras was the place to start off their pilot project, and the state of Tamil Nadu, the geographical area. When Lemelson found that the synergy between RIN and IIT Madras would benefit the project, RIN also was included in the initiative and L-RAMP was born. The plan Though RIN works with rural innovators, L-RAMP is a project that is not necessarily limited to rural areas. "We might look at all the fundamental basic human needs like energy, water, etc. Lemelson is not specifically looking at innovations as a development phenomenon. Any innovation in any sector is welcome. It could even be a commercial product. That is how all three of us got together," Paul Basil, the founder of RIN says. What tilted the decision in RIN's favour was its unique strength: working with rural innovators. There are not many players who are involved in such projects. What Lemelson saw was IIT's technological focus and RIN's ability to not just develop technologies but its access to rural markets too. "There are a lot of competent people who are good at developing technologies but where they fail is in developing a sustainable model. They recognised that RIN is an organisation that is building those market linkages between the private sector, entrepreneurs, and innovators. We are based in Chennai and Lemelson chose Tamil Nadu as the place of action, maybe that is another reason why we were chosen." The lead for identification and short-listing innovators will be taken by RIN. Paul Basil is confident that with L-RAMP happening, RIN will be pushed into the bigger league. Although the prime focus of RIN will remain serving rural areas, Basil sees L-RAMP as a pilot to check out their ability to look beyond the rural set-up. "This gives us an entry point to innovations beyond the rural. Our mission remains the same, but we are checking whether there are areas other than rural where we can impact development. I feel 75 per cent of the innovations we support will have an impact on society -- the society comprising the economic levels belonging to middle and rural towns of India." Ample funds Lemelson Foundation brings with them funds of about Rs 8 crore (Rs 80 million) for a period of three years. L-RAMP plans to spend Rs 6 crore (Rs 60 million) in funding 15 to 20 innovations every year on projects ranging from Rs 5 lakh (Rs 500,000) to Rs 25 lakh (Rs 2.5 million), funding the activities of testing, trials, perfecting and readying for markets. L-Ramp will essentially be a provider of funds, one of the most critical supports. The other support required will be services, like protection of intellectual property rights and helping the innovators do market research. The Varun TillerL-RAMP will have a steering committee headed by the Dean of the Industrial Consultancy Centre at IIT Madras, Prof Kalyanaraman, and two members, which will guide operational activities. At the higher level, there is an advisory board chaired by the director of IIT Madras with representatives from various fields like technocrats, NGOs, and people from industry. Then, there is also a team drawn from IIT and RIN to carry out the day-to-day implementation of all the ideas. Postscript: Like the Lemelson Foundation, some readers of rediff.com too are quite impressed with what RIN has been doing for rural India. Some of them have also come forward to help these initiatives. One gentleman has even invested a few lakh rupees in an innovation called Varun Tiller. Photographs: Sreeram Selvaraj Design: Uday Kuckian URL for this article: http://www.rediff.com/money/2005/may/18bspec.htm From lokesh at sarai.net Thu May 19 16:14:45 2005 From: lokesh at sarai.net (Lokesh) Date: Thu, 19 May 2005 16:14:45 +0530 Subject: [Commons-Law] Cotina Radio:This is Akhtar talking Message-ID: <428C6E1D.30803@sarai.net> dear All, Over the last 6 months i have being trying to understand the practices that surounds the world of `duplicate` goods and technologies. I am posting a text that came about from a series of conversation with Akhtar Ali one of the many `worker/artisan/imitator` that inhabits this social world. This is part of my longer project to look at `innovation` in the `jugaad` (improvised) practices. As usual, looking forward to comments and suggestions. cheers lokesh ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Cotina Radio:This is Akhtar talking " I have passed all my life at Kotina. I used to tell my wife that if we have a son I will accommodate him somewhere here. After all at this threshold of forty it is difficult to look for work afresh." When he lost his job of a radio technician to which he had contributed the best years of his life it was hardly difficult to read the emotions chasing each other on his face and in his eyes. However, he kept talking in detail about the history of his technique, skill and pains enjoying his tea. I had a chance encounter in a Union office in the sprawling JJ colony in Seemapuri with him who had risen from being a mere helper to become a master. Akhtar who has crossed the 37th milestone of life stays along with his family in a Resettlement Colony at Seemapuri since 1967. When the hut of his father in Yamuna Bazar was razed Akhtar was hardly a year old. Speaking about this hoary tradition of levelling JJ in Delhi , mother of Akhtar Ali says," Government made us roofless with promises of a 22 sq.ft plot but brought us to this open ground out of the city and dumped us here. We had not been able ever to gather our things, even take down the boards for keeping the household utensils when they brought everything down. They loaded us in a tempo and dumped on this open ground in the evening. " Many families have spent the following 3-4 days in the open. Now-a-days this open ground is a sprawling JJ colony of old Seemapuri. Akhar has also a two-story house in the lane directly opposite the Jama Masjid, Seemapuri about 10-15 houses inside. He stays there along with his mother, wife, a daughter and the family of his younger brother. Hardly had he reached fourteen he thought of finding some work weighed down by the consideration of family responsibilities. In 1980-81 he came across a man at his Uncle's place where he occasionally visited. This man ran a small unit turning out 20-25 radio sets and send these for sale to the shop of his sister's husband at Kolkata. He purchased the spares from the Lajpatrai Market and himself did the assembly work. After completing one order and receiving payment for it alone that he took up another. Keeping constantly in touch with him Akhtar Ali resolved to take up the same work and started as an apprentice with him. The arrival of coloured TV and VCR in India was years' away then. The radio was becoming quite popular. There was a wide scope for radio marketing from villages to towns. Big brands like Philips and Murphy had a stranglehold over the market. However, their price bracket was quite high severelly delimiting its market. During the 80s the local manufacturing played a decisive role in taking the radio to all classes of people. During these days the learning of assembling opened employment avenues. A number of institutes big and small had come up for technical training from place to place. You could learn the assembly work either from any teacher or else at these institutes. Akhtar was hardly in a position to undergo a diploma course and had to make do with the /ustad. /This time it coincided with the hectic preparations which were going on in Delhi for the coming Asiad. Construction work was going on apace. This attracted workers from villages in the bordering States. Most of them came to settle down in JJ colonies This was the population which just for ensuring its cussed existence subsequently entered as cheap labour in the local manufacturing activities. From 1981-84 Akhtar kept learning the skills at the feet of Zulkarnain. Side by side he kept testing his skills on the nicities of production. In the meantime Zulkarnain who was expert in the most intricate details of production started visiting a local unit Kotina Electricals. The company offered Zulkarnain an opportunity to work with them. According to Akhtar they said," Come over and we will pay you handsomely." Zulkarnain-e-Ali started working with them in 1984. Since then he has been working there as n engineer. Neither is Kotina ready to leave him nor he Kotina. His income there is more than any worker or engineer. This Engineer No.I gives designs for all the new circuits coming to the unit. When a IC with a new value comes into the market he designs a circuit and runs the piece to test its output to find out which PF is needed and where, what is the resistance required etc. Sometime after joining Kotina he closed down his own unit and took up Akhtar on his bandwagon. Akhtar Ali started working on a piece-rate basis with Kotina Radio when Delhi was burning in the anti-Sikh riots consequent upon the assasination of Indira Gandhi in 1984. Kotina was neither an old or popular brand then. The owner had put it up in 1981-82. The owner lived in Shahdara area in a two room tenement with a tile roof along with his family. Upto 1983 Akhtar's employer carried the ready goods to Lajpatrai Market on a cycle. He turned out 25-30 sets a day and kept them in the market. The production has reached to a daily average of 50-60 sets by 1984. Initially he had an agreement with the shop there where he took all his goods. Towards the end of 1985 he himself hired a shop there. Sometime after this he went in for the boxes put up over the shops in the Lajpatrai Market purchasing one. However, this was brought down by government as an illegal construction. After that he hired another box from where he began marketing. However since the 80s a vast trasformation has come over in the stand of the Lajpatrai Market. Akhtar highlighted some tendencies revealed in these changes. The constant disturbance and the continuous changes straightway adversely affects the production. The need to go in for new forms of sets and its internal wiring is the outcome of this process. Secondly, even if their goods are sold at the Market they receive orders directly at the factory both from the city as well as outside. The customer asked for designs according to his requirements and the production proceeds accordingly. Out of station parties have to be despatched the goods in cartons of varying capacities and forward them so that their representative could collect them from the station. Thirdly, one can get not only readymade goods but also spare parts in the Lajpatrai Market. People purchase these spares, take them to their towns where they get these assembled and sell them. Most of the spares for Kotina come from Lajpatrai Market. Kotina has direct business relations with other parts of the city and other States with the shopkeepers who exhibit their wares and sell them to the consumers. Remembering his attraction for radio Akhtar says," I don't know who invented radio. When I came in this line they only knew that Philips and Murphy manufactures sets. We had seen only seen these which resembled big boxes one could see in shops these days. There were tubes inside. They were known as High Band.If you had an occasion to peep at the back of the TV you would have noticed that the picture tube is elongated towards the rear. The radio tubes were similar and a set contained 3-4 inch long 4 to 6 tubes. The battery system was not there in them at the time. ..When we started production these were small two-band radios--medium and short wave." In 1994 Philips and Japanese brands became 4-bands on introduction of FM. The local production of FM sets began in 1996 when we at the Kotina went in for it." Initially the output of stations in radio kept varying -sometime high ,sometimes low. It was necessary to change the band, adjust the setting of the anttenna suitably. Today all these things have been epitomised in the IC dispensation with anttena nor the constant shifting from here to there When Akhtar joined this work people had a liking for listening to radio news. Now-a-days it is the predelection for songs and new programmes on Radio Mirchi. The people in the rural area go in for BBC London news and Radio Ceylone. Akhtar says that the credit for expansion in the market for radios goes to these two channels. Kotina is comparatively in a better position now-a--days not only in market but in the local production and its sale. It is a well-known brand among consumers(especially the limited-income sector).It has a good market in different cities ,districts, small town to villages in Kolkata and UP regions. This industry launched with insufficient investment whose owner himself was a technician has not only held its own for the last 24 years but has also improved its returns. There are many aspects of this matter which helped this outcome. Referring to its staying power in market Akhtar says that Kotina is a good invesment when compared to its price and quality, almost able to hold its own against Philips. Whenever Philips marketed a new model the owner would get one. It was thoroughly analysed ,"We used to copy down its circuit on paper. After brining it on paper we used to copy the design on the wiring plate. After this a radio set was made using it and verify where any technical lapse has remained. Sometimes the lapse is in earthing . In the copying of the circuit some lines might have been drawn rather thin or thicker necesssitating its rejection. However , it has been observed that after slowly resetting it, it becomes quite regular. It is only then that it is put on the production belt. "Similar the radio comes in various sizes 9, 12 or 18 inches etc. There are differences on account of voltage and band. Radios with 4 1/2 and 6 volts are also made out. Similarly, in the beginning band radios were made. After FM came one more band was added to made it 3. Subsequently there was a further addition of 2 bands in FM, along with one additional band for TV. Now-a-days they come in 4 and 5 bands. Most of the technician work on piece-rate basis. Akhtar also worked on the same basis for over 18-19 years. When he started work the rate was Re.1.25 per wiring, it went by 10 paise in 1986 bringing it to Re.1.35.This prevailed for four years when in 1990 it rose marginally to Re.`1.50. The current rate ranges from Rs.3 to Rs.5, FM Rs.5, 2 band Rs.3. Except for packers, marketers and transports all other in the unit worked on the same i.e.piece rate basis. There are three grade in the manufacturing activities-wireman, fitter and tester. Secondly others who fashion the circuit design and do final checking. It is noteworthy that all the workers ,irrespective of the nature of their work got paid similarly i.e.Rs.3/-The maximum monthly emolument of packers, marketrs etc was Rs.4000/- per months, though in most cases it hovered between Rs.1200 to Rs.1500.However, the income of those working in any of the three grades on piece rate basis differed substantially from them, provided they got work. Actually the wireman who undertakes wiring and soldering of plates could turn out only 25 to 30 plates daily. In comparison the fitter could fit out 50 sets on an average per day. An engineer could easily carry out tuning and checking of 100 sets daily quite easily. Thus their daily income varied from Rs. 75, rs.150 and Rs.300. Akhtar Ali feels ," It is the wireman whose work is the most strenous.Sitting steady for hours with concentration can be most tiresome but fetches the lowest income." In such units there is a definite procedure of work, showing the division of labour quite clearly. However, the piece rate worker has to take many responsibilities . For example, should any lapse be revealed in a set during the final checking it has to be set right by that worker who has originally done the wiring. Generally the goods of two types may be referred back - one is due to internal lapse and another is setting right sets which have come back for replacement. As making good the lapse is the responsibility of the concerned worked but piece rate payment envisages there can be only a single payment once for working on a set, no separate or additional payment is made for the additional burden of setting the set right. However, where the daily production is of hundres of set and the wiremans and fitters may have different engineers how could it be possible to correlate a set to an specific individual? It is imperative to know this as in its absence how could it be possible to know who is an efficient worker and who is not? All the three -owner,engineer and technician --should know this. Consequently if a set comes back for some shortcoming to avoid that one has to slog for somebody elses's lapse he makes a sign on the back of the plate or put a cut on it with the soldering iron or else he may put up a different patch on it. This creats a distinct identity of the technician and the engineer and assists them in ensuring that they attend only to their own original work. It is noteworthy that this locally manufactured goods have different users who cannot afford to go in for branded radioes. The cheap sets are meant for them.Where a 4 1/2 band Philips radio sets is priced at Rs. 870/- and 6 volve at Rs.970/- the corresponding local set comes in a mere one to two hundred chips. Consequently it is necessary for the manufacturers to ensure that their investment is low and turnout is more For this purpose he has to watch the market response to new technique, new parts and their price.Akhtar says,"In Lajpat Rai market you could set with FM ,with TV et all can be had for Rs.100 on the footpath or the small side bazars What the local manufacturers do is put up a IC and the set starts working ,FM will operate.The Chinese ICs have all the functions in them." At this price not only the sellers but even the manufacturers can get a handsome margin.Even after defray all expences Akhtar's factory owners gets Rs. 50 per set..At present his daily turnout and sale is a thousand sets.Small shopkeepers who turn out sets with non-descript labels work on a lesser margin of Rs.20 to Rs. 25/-.For this purpose it is necessary that one should know everything about every ware offered in the market. Akhtar says, "Where one shopkeeper charges Re.1.50 for a spare part another offers it for Re.1.25 One has to find out what is the different between the two.Initially Kotina employed most of the spare parts of Philips make in its set. Slowly with the growing competetion it made some changes. Thus initially Philips made gang was fitted in its set which came for about Rs.13 .Now it is some duplicate resembling Philips gant and costs Rs.8.86. Now-a-days the demand for FM is so much that pelple fit even a gang worth Rs.4.70..Not that the spare parts have become cheaper but that their duplicates are coming in the market. Every original has its duplicate. Now even there is dupliate of the duplicate . "This variation in prices is quite important for both the local manufactures and sellers comparatievely reducing its dependence on big capital. Once its brand was established in the local market Kotina started supplying goods to various other places. There was keen competetion in the market.Many a cheap brands had established themselves in the market. In this contest everybody studies the market and resorts to marginal reduction in price.For covering this margin it also introduces some small change in its produce. As Akhtar says,"If any buyer asked for price reduction the owner would say that it is impossible to reduce it even by a couple of rupees. However, if you persist I would have bring out another edition. If the customer would nervously ask if he would change the produce the owner would reassure that it would not be so. He would just use a cheaper cover or body. However, these remained the same and the place inside was deprived of some paraphernalia which would affect the sound." Akhtar further adds, " This is imperative if one has to survive in competetion e.g. cut down the margin according to the demand necessitating the use of duplicate spares for original. If anybody shoots past would forge ahrea. Nobody would pick up the loser" When Akhtar started work there was an another company who brouht out radioes under the brand name Al Cone. There were yet other units also but Al Cone enjoyed quite a good market. It had a factory in Shahdara and also a shop in Lajpatrai Market. This was an established local brand of the time.Kotina had just started production and in order to established itself it took on the brand head on. For some time there was a keen competetion on price and quality in the market.During this period Al Cone discontinued production and started getting goods manufactured from other small-scale units, affixed the Al Cone sticker and market.Thus, the product was Al Cone only in name and the entire product came from outside. Now, Kotina expanded work in its unit, expanded the facory, brought out quality goods,increased work-strength and secured a strong presence in the market. Evidently there was keen price competetion in the market,especially when many units were presenting identical goods. Kotina faced the same experience. It is significant that when Kotina established its name in the market after taking into account the technical nicities of Philips new people were bound to jump into the market for competing with them. After all it is a matter of changing a single word.Akhtar tells, " One man named his produce Motina . It looked just like Kotina but the goods inside were all inferior. Now everybody does not peer at the name and takes it that it was Kotina. Similarly they just replaced the ' i ' in Philips with an' e '.and markets the goods by just changing one single word. Neither is this very difficult. Lajpatrai is a market where number plate of any type can be had. They would change any company's monogram just marginally enough as not to impinge on the customer's attention. Even if caught he would still insist that its produce is quite different. Our label is different. Our sound is different. This and that. Here he would emphasise these minor variations. " Something like this happened with Kotina also. The sale of Motina brand affected the sales of Kotina.He drove away the Motina brand goods from the market and also its factory workers. However, Akhtar pleads," But Montina was marketing goods under a different name." The age of Competetion will always rule in the market Akhtar after passing through all these problem picked up all the intricacies of a production unit and as always happenes also taught up some new unskilled recruits.Once he started work in Kotina he always continued to be there never even thinking of going elsewhere or started his own production.He started to work there as if the unit belonged to him. He never thought it important enough to think about the potential closing down or his being driven out. Suddenly... On 1st February 2002 Aljtar as usual reached the unit on his old co-travelled, the cycle, negotiating the lanes of Seemapuri, crossing busy thoroughfares. He god busy in work. He had no premonition that this would be an unforgettable day for him. He had a heart attack in the unit the same day. When the attack came on he was with his old tutor engineer with whom he had been associated as a help for the last one year trying to pick up some remnant pieces of skill. When this happened it was the last month of the period. Next he would started working as engineer in his own right.Akhtar sayss,"On the day the tutor had asked me to test the tuning of some sets and finalise them. This involved frequest going up and down I was on the occilator tuning . Suddeny there was a strange feeling in my chest as if somebody was bursting blows on me from behin. I started perspiring and lie down there itself on the slab. But the pain and panic kept increasing. The foreman Tipu and some other boys picked me up and carried me to a doctor." A heart attack when only just 35. He was in the hospital for a few days and then returned home. As there was even still no improvement the doctor advised him complete rest for three months. However, on account of the long-drawn out treatment as well as household expences only led to mounting debts. It was very difficult to carry on and he returned to work earlier. However, the owner asked him to work at home and not to come there.During this time the two candidates under training in the same unit would bring plates and carry back the wired plates. When there was some improvement in health after three months he went back to the factory . He would also bring some work at home and also taught the technique to his wife.His wife picked up the wiring work quite nicely. She would attend to the domestic work as also plate wiring. This went on. His wife says " I had began working as we had to repay the loans Now I feel that I was just sitting idly at home. Now I could bring in some income from this work.." After 2000 quite a change has come over in the atmosphere of the city. An exercise to make Paris of Delhi was under way. There was a vigorous drive for demolition of JJ colonies.Now after the 1996 orders of the Supreme Court closing down 168 bigger factories in 1996 the small-scale industries were now in the queue.There was an unsuccessful attempt in 2001 to shift the small-scale units to conforming zones.The legal action for relocation had begun. However, neither the owners nor the workers approved of going down to Bawana and Narela. Kotina Electronics had also the premonition of danger and in 2002.instead of going down to Bawan ,put up a Rs.3-crore plant in Tronika City in UP abutting on Delhi.A unit which had stated with marginal capital nearabout in 1982 had put up a 3-crore plant in 2002.Evidently, it was difficult to contine work during the process of shifting to a new place. They otherwise also felt that a transfer to Bawana was a losing proposition. Consequently, slowly within a year upto the middle of 2002 Kotina shifted all its activities to the Tronika City. The tecnnicians and workers were directly affected by this. By the end of 2003 all the piece rate workers had been removed including Akhar. For Akhtar already struck by the shifting this was unimaginable. He has this to say about the development," Now-a-days the owners are passing through this phase.Even those whose factory was shifted and others who had not joined this bandwagon. " The opinions of Akhtar Ali and his colleagues about this discharge from the factories and shifting of the units are quite interesting.They feel that this is a diplomatic action of the government . It wanted to shift the factories to such places where it could keep a complete track of its activities and income. Factories in residential areas only declae half of its income to government e.g against a production of 100 units only 50 are declared. It is noteworty that Kotna has not totally cut off work at the original place.However, both its nature and volume has undergone changes. Only a couple o engineers and some boys are working there. The wiring is got done from outside against orders as they were entrusting to Akhtar Ali at home. The unit only attends to fitting and testing whereupon the goods are packed and despatched out. Consequently, two changes could clearly be observed in the Tronika City plant. For one out of the 40-45 orignal workers less than half have remained there. They have mostly been replaced by young girls. The other is a transormation in technique. .Earlier the soldering work was done manually . There is a machine for this in the Tronika City. Akthar remarks, "Soldering machine has taken away employment of many workers." For workers living in Seemapuri and the trans-Yamuna region may not find it difficult as well as uneconomical to travel to Tronika City for work. Akhtar feels,"This is a winning situation for the ownes. He had to pay from 75 to Rs.300 from wireman to engineer daily. He now employs girls there who are paid Rs.1000 to Rs.2000 per month. Thus even after paying Rs.50 per day he saves Rs.25/-. " In new units all the girls are assembled at one place ,given plates for wiring. On a average a girls wires almost 50 plates per day.After this the soldering is got done mechanically. There is the engineer there for the testing and checking work. Akhar says, " Even at the rate of Rs.3 per day he is paying at the minimum Rs. 100 less.At the rates prevailing in the old units he would have had to pay more." Akhtar feels that besides these transformations in the techniques and mehods of radio production there could be some other reasons behind the removal of him and his colleagues.It could be some demands which they had put before the owner, though till then they were not members of any Mazdoor Union.Even then they had three demands. One was of water The factory was on the upper floor and the ground floor was the residence of the owner. There was no separate arangements for the factory workers for drinking water. Akhtar says, " Water was quite a problem during summer.We asked him to entrust the work of providing water to any salaried employees. However , he paid no attention to this request." Anothr was for increasing the piece rate. He has been paying the Re.3 rate for quite some time whereas the market rate was Rs.5. Third related to time. If a large order was received the technicians had to work da y and night for which no allowance for food etc. was available. While on duty they had to spend from their own pockets for food. In addition they had also asked for Fund and Bonus. Most of the workers would prevail upon Akhtar to take up the matter with the owner.," You are an old hand .You talk to him." Perhaps they felt that the owner would not avoid a request from an old worker. However, shortly after this the owner had told them that ince factories were being shifted they better find out some alternative work. However, Akhtar Ali who had already lost his job decided to approach the Union against this decision.I came across him in the Union office. His case against the forcible removal is going on in the Labour Court. After all this long voyage from Radio Ceylone to Radio Marchi it was just possible that with the experience of 20 years and armed with all the intricies of radio work he would have started his own business with a small capitaal. During the couple of initial meetings with him I had a feeling that sooner or later he would think over the matter.Akhtar did think but quite differently which was rather disturbing for me after knowing his odyssy of life. When I asked him he says, "I would do radio work only if I get work at Kotina . Otherwise whatever I would do quite away from this line. Even now he has not finally decided what he has to do for his future. According to him the radio is no more as paying as is necessary for the present times. For bringing out a radio using new spare requires immence capital. It could be around five lakhs according to his estimate Akhar Ali who had devoted the best years of his life on radio technique new a days runs,hold your heart, a fruit juice handcart in Semapuri for meeting his household expences and defraying the court expenses. (translated by Subhash Gatadey ) From abhishektripathi at lycos.com Thu May 19 19:24:58 2005 From: abhishektripathi at lycos.com (Abhishek Nath Tripathi) Date: Thu, 19 May 2005 08:54:58 -0500 Subject: [Commons-Law] Education for construction workers Message-ID: <20050519135458.8F3AAC610F@ws7-5.us4.outblaze.com> Dear All, Let me give u all a background to an isue that some of us are working on. Right to education is a fundamental right in India. There is a very peculiar problem faced by the children whose parents work on construction sites and they are constantly on move. In process, they are never able to get even the basic minimum education. In order to ensure that those construction labourers can get some level of education, a blueprint has been drafted by Mr. Nikhil Pant, who runs an NGO called REACHA in Delhi. The idea is if contractors or the builders are willing to provide/ or are made to provide for the education of kids of the labourers, an NGO can run a small school cum creache at the sites and give them education. At the same time, the kids can be issued a Vidya- Card which details the level of education/ skills that they have acquired in such school, so that when they move to a new site, they can continue from where they had left. The scheme can be combined with National Open School, so that they can appear for public examinations conducted by National Open School. We plan to make representations to the government, NHRC and other organisations, if possible. If anyone has any ideas/ suggestions to offer on the concept or on strategies to be adopted, please mail to abhishekntripathi at gmail.com or nikhil.reacha at gmail.com. Also pass this on to as many people as possible. It would be good if we could build a movement around it. Regards Abhishek Tripathi ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: nikhil pant Date: Sat, 14 May 2005 17:35:35 +0545 Subject: Re: Hi To: abhishek tripathi dear abhishek, nice meetng u 2day. hp we can get off 2 something. i am attachng the 'vidya-shakti' file 4 u. do wrk on the concept note for legal litrecy camps. warm regds, nikhil Abhishek "Courage is not having the Strength to go on, but to go on without having the strength" - -- _______________________________________________ NEW! Lycos Dating Search. The only place to search multiple dating sites at once. http://datingsearch.lycos.com From kat at nls.ac.in Thu May 19 22:50:37 2005 From: kat at nls.ac.in (kat at nls.ac.in) Date: Thu, 19 May 2005 22:50:37 +0530 (IST) Subject: [Commons-Law] Directors have copyrights to movies they have directed Message-ID: <1467.61.246.62.101.1116523237.squirrel@61.246.62.101> Court: TV directors get royalties, too By Tamara Lev After a protracted five-year legal battle, the Tel Aviv District Court recently ruled that directors have copyrights to movies they have directed, as they have contributed their creativity to the productions. This is a landmark decision because until now no court had ruled on the question of directors' copyrights to their works. The ruling means that directors can now demand the payment of royalties for films or programs they have directed which are broadcast on television, just as screenwriters and score composers can. The decision is likely to have a significant effect on the royalties paid by various bodies, particularly the TV stations. The suit was filed by Collecting Society of Film and TV Directors in Israel (known by its Hebrew acronym, Tali), along with directors Shai Carmeli and Doron Tsabari, against Channel 2 franchisees Keshet and Telad. The plaintiffs asked the court to declare that Carmeli held copyrights to episodes of TV series "Zbeng," broadcast by Keshet, and that Tsabari similarly owned copyrights to the documentary "The X-Ray," which was shown by Telad. The court was also asked to declare they had a right to royalties for every broadcast of films and programs they had directed. The franchisees countered that directors are not due any royalties as they were not authors of the works. Tel Aviv District Court Judge Zipora Brun noted that even though copyright law does not specifically mention directors, since the law dates back to the early 1900s when films and TV did not yet exist, it should not be interpreted as excluding directors. Brun said in her ruling that directors invest considerable energy and creativity in directing their works, and it is thanks to the director's work that the "final product" presented to viewers is different than the materials from which it is formed: the film footage, sound, etc. After examining each director's contribution to the works, Brun determined that they did have copyrights to the works, which could then not be broadcast without their permission, and they could now charge royalties. As for the broadcasts that had already taken place, Brun ruled that there had been no copyright infringement, as the directors had consented to the broadcasts. The level of royalties is not mentioned in the law, and collection is usually handled by collective organizations. Tali now plans to commence negotiations for the payment of royalties to directors. From kat at nls.ac.in Thu May 19 23:01:35 2005 From: kat at nls.ac.in (kat at nls.ac.in) Date: Thu, 19 May 2005 23:01:35 +0530 (IST) Subject: [Commons-Law] A Forward Looking BBC Message-ID: <1584.61.246.62.101.1116523895.squirrel@61.246.62.101> An excellent article from the Wired by Cory Doctorow on the positive contributions of BBC towards the commons. http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,67552,00.html Best, Karthik From abhayraj at nls.ac.in Fri May 20 03:55:37 2005 From: abhayraj at nls.ac.in (Abhayraj Naik) Date: Fri, 20 May 2005 03:55:37 +0530 (IST) Subject: [Commons-Law] Quirk - Literary Magazine May-June Submission Call Message-ID: <1308.219.64.187.3.1116541537.squirrel@219.64.187.3> apologies for cross-posting please do circulate in interested channels. Hi people, here's a reminder about the call for submissions for Quirk's May-June edition - we're closing submissions for the coming edition latest by 22nd evening, so dash of your contributions asap. If you havent checked out the March-April 2005 Quirk edition already, do visit www.quirk.in (our slowly but surely evolving web presence) or get your hands on one of our elusive print copies. The Third Quirk Edition: May-June 2005 Featured Theme Contributions: 'The Artist and the Critic' Also Looking For: Poetry, Short Stories, Articles, Opinions, Reviews, Visual Art, Cartoons, Cool Quizzes, Puzzles, Wacky Undefinable Submissions, and So On.... Think Big, Think Different. Anything That’s Good and Fits our Quirky Quality Standards - We're Good to Publish. No Restrictions on Length, Content or Style. Email: quirk at nls.ac.in Or Write In: Abhayraj Naik, The Quirk Team, National Law School of India University, PO Bag 7201, National Law School of India University, Bangalore – 560072, India. Deadline (for consideration for the May-June edition): 22nd May 2005 (approx 8 P.M. IST) feedback, suggestions, advice and brickbats always welcome. email us at quirk at nls.ac.in Regards -- Abhayraj Naik From sudhir at circuit.sarai.net Fri May 20 16:46:08 2005 From: sudhir at circuit.sarai.net (sudhir at circuit.sarai.net) Date: Fri, 20 May 2005 13:16:08 +0200 Subject: [Commons-Law] On Bollywood and creativity Message-ID: Dear all An interesting take on Bollywood film making from Mahesh Bhatt - particularly on learning by copying! Sudhir Why Hema Malini was born in California Bollywood has always copied from Hollywood. Unless the trend is reversed, Indian cinema will not get better MAHESH BHATT Send Feedback E-mail this story Print this story Posted online: Friday, May 20, 2005 at 0000 hours IST Mahesh Bhatt Just a couple of years ago one could not write the word ‘‘Bollywood’’ in an American newspaper without having to include a description of what it meant. Recently in Mumbai I had an unusual privilege of interacting with the senior editors of leading US newspapers. These editors had made a trip to Mumbai specially and made a request to meet Bollywood film-makers in order to get the hang of what makes Bollywood tick. The manner in which they listened to our making and marketing of movies made them gape. After that meeting I came to a conclusion, that in the past few years Bollywood has become shorthand, a buzzword for one of the most happening trends in America. In a new India, multiplexes make it possible to screen a vast variety of movies, catering to different audiences. What’s happening is that from the traditional 1,500 seater’s they’ve come down to theaters which seat 150 or 300 people. So it gives the theater owners as well as audiences a lot of choices. It’s changing viewing habits. Advertisement A whole new generation seems to be taking center stage in India, both as audience and filmmakers. So you have these young audiences that are being exposed to a lot of different material, and a lot of specific youth programming. You also have young directors coming out of Bollywood who are trying to combine those kind of influences with American-style youth influences with a Bollywood sensibility. It wouldn’t be entirely untrue to confess that even my success and the success of most film makers of my generation wouldn’t have been possible without the hours we spent in the cinema halls of India, which exclusively screened those Hollywood films. These were the classrooms where we learnt the ABCs of story telling through sound and picture—the ‘‘language of cinema.’’ Most filmmakers in Bollywood will concede that they owe their craft and the idiom that they flaunt as their own to Hollywood. Art is an image-using system. In order to create we draw from our inner well. This inner well is an artistic reservoir. As filmmakers, we in Bollywood realize that we have to maintain this artistic ecosystem. If we don’t give some attention to its upkeep, our wells are bound to become depleted, stagnant or blocked. And overproducing draws heavily on that artistic well. Over-tapping these wells is like over fishing, and leaves us with diminished resources. Our work dries up, and we start re-cycling. Then comes the time to replenish and restock our creative resources and fill the water afresh. Filling this well involves the active pursuit of images to refresh our artistic reservoirs, and for this we have always turned to Hollywood. When we were kids, we often used to find great filmmakers like Ketan Anand, Manmohan Desai and Vijay Anand visiting our cinema halls. No prizes for guessing why they were there! I remember once when I was struggling to put an ‘‘original’’ script together, the legendary IS Johar, a renowned comedian, filmmaker and Bollywood’s first intellectual, laughingly advised me, ‘‘Son, why don’t you ask your rich producer to buy you a ticket to London, see an American film, and come back and remake it with Indian actors? It is cheaper, less bothersome and guarantees success!’’ At the time I was horrified. Little did I know that in later years I would take that advice of his too seriously. Even today in this age of communication revolution the bulk of Bollywood filmmakers leans on the easily available pirated VCDs and DVDs to nourish their craft. The trade contemptuously refers to this generation as the ‘‘DVD directors.’’ Take away Hollywood and there’s no Bollywood. To fantasize about originality is one thing. To be completely original is a utopian dream, at least in Bollywood. From clifton at altlawforum.org Sat May 21 15:33:54 2005 From: clifton at altlawforum.org (clifton at altlawforum.org) Date: Sat, 21 May 2005 06:03:54 -0400 Subject: [Commons-Law] Urgent Appeal- Slum Fire Accident Message-ID: <59730-22005562110354896@M2W038.mail2web.com> Siddharta Nagara gutted in fire last night Last night (20th May 2005), Siddharta Nagara, a slum of 118 families in Peenya Industrial Estate 3rd Stage, Ward No. 24, Dasarahalli CMC, was gutted entirely by a fire. The slum is atleast 15 years old with the families having moved here from Yadgiri taluka in Gulbarga district. They are all employed in the construction industry and have been the ones who have constructed most of the buildings in the Peenya Industrial Estate. Most of the residents in the slum are dalits while some belong to most backward castes. The slum was gutted by two separate incidents of fire. One began at around 7.00 p.m. last night which gutted an entire row of slums before the fire department could control the fire. Even the police came to the slum later that night and recorded the statements of the slum residents. Again, the early hours of the morning, at around 3.30 a.m., there was another fire that destroyed every remaining house in the slum before the fire department could control the fire. The fire has not only destroyed every single house but with it all the possessions of the people. As of this afternoon (21st May 2005), the people are on the streets. The officials from the revenue department, slum board and CMC officials have visited the slum though there have been no promises made. The revenue department has also undertaken a survey of the gutted houses. As of now people have no food to eat and also no way of cooking any food since their vessels, stoves, etc. have all been destroyed. The Dasarahalli CMC has supplied water today to the slum residents through a water tanker and a nearby industry has promised to provide food for today. As of now there seems to be strong reasons to believe that land grabbers are the ones who are behind the fire. The slum is situated on gomala land (government land) but there are vested interests that are keen on grabbing the land. Added to this the slum is situated on prime land right in the middle on the industrial estate. A police complaint has been filed with the local police station in this regard. The requirements of this community for now are: 1. Temporary shelter – shamianas 2. Vessel sets for each family – stove, two cooking vessels, plates, tumblers, buckets 3. Mats 4. Bedsheets 5. Clothes for men, women and children (boys and girls) 6. Food materials – rice, dhal, jowar, masalas, etc. 7. Milk powder for infants We appeal to you, on behalf of Jan Sahyog, Slum Jagathu, Samatha Sainik Dal and ALF, to contribute towards the above. In solidarity, Selva and Clifton -------------------------------------------------------------------- mail2web - Check your email from the web at http://mail2web.com/ . From prabhuram at gmail.com Sat May 21 16:22:15 2005 From: prabhuram at gmail.com (Ram) Date: Sat, 21 May 2005 12:52:15 +0200 Subject: [Commons-Law] POOR MAN'S COPYRIGHT Message-ID: <68752c9f050521035234babe7c@mail.gmail.com> >BBC News Britney sued over copyright claim Sometimes appeared on Spears' debut album in 1999 A songwriter is suing Britney Spears for copyright infringement, saying he wrote the song Sometimes 15 years ago. Steve Wallace, 34, says he wrote the song in 1990, but did not formally copyright the track until 2003. Alongside the complaint, filed at a federal court in Indianapolis, Mr Wallace submitted a copy of an e-mail allegedly written by pop star Spears. In the e-mail, Spears allegedly admits that Mr Wallace wrote the song. Music label Sony/BMG have refused to comment. Sealed envelope The complaint cites Spears, album promoter Sony/BMG Music Publishing Inc and recording and publishing companies affiliated with the singer. Mr Wallace claims that a few weeks after writing the track in 1990, he executed what's known as a 'poor man's' copyright, sealing his work in an envelope and obtaining a postmark. The track was offered around to music publishers in 1994. The lyrics of Sometimes are almost identical to those written by Mr Wallace, a side-by-side comparison submitted as evidence shows. Spears, 23, obtained a US copyright for Sometimes in January 1999. Mr Wallace's lawyer, John Ritchison, said he had previously tried to settle the case out of court. Mr Ritchison said he wrote to Spears' lawyers seeking recognition and licensing or payment for his client, but they denied Mr Wallace's claim. Sometimes appeared on Spears' 1999 debut album, Baby One More Time, and on 2004's Greatest Hits: My Prerogative. -- Prabhu Ram, Max-Planck-Institut for Intellectual Property, Competition and Tax Law, MarstallPlatz 1, 80539 Munich GERMANY Tel: + 49 89 24246226 Mob: + 49 17629830521 Web: http://infoserve.blogspot.com "Press ON: Nothing in the world can take the place of Perseverance. TALENT will not; Nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with Talent. GENIUS will not; Unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. EDUCATION will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Only...PERSISTENCE and DETERMINATION alone are omnipotent." From vishwas123 at gmail.com Sun May 22 11:02:28 2005 From: vishwas123 at gmail.com (vishwas devaiah) Date: Sun, 22 May 2005 11:02:28 +0530 Subject: [Commons-Law] piracy Message-ID: <1a2579a205052122327dc19c52@mail.gmail.com> The new Star Wars movie has just been released in theatres, but bootleg copies are already for sale around the world and on the Internet. This is perhaps the most glaring example yet of a highly sophisticated global industry that costs Hollywood more than $4 billion an year. For the moment, there is very little Hollywood can do to stop it. It was only a few hours after the midnight US premiere at theatres that a pirated version of Star Wars was available for downloading on the Internet. The Internet copy showed up on a popular file-sharing site used by thousands every day, for free. Law enforcement officials say the burned-in time code across the top suggests the source was a studio work print, perhaps stolen by an insider. By Thursday afternoon, Star Wars counterfeit DVDs were widely available for sale on the streets of New York City. China is considered the centre of movie piracy, where huge numbers of high quality counterfeits are produced and shipped around the world. Wednesday night, the movie industry scheduled a Star Wars premiere in Beijing, but guests were searched for tiny cameras, which is another way that first run movies are pirated. Studio executives said the counterfeits and internet freebies are threatening to undercut their industry, as it did the music industry. From hbs.law at gmail.com Mon May 23 20:41:52 2005 From: hbs.law at gmail.com (Hasit seth) Date: Mon, 23 May 2005 11:11:52 -0400 Subject: [Commons-Law] Stiffling Speech by Community Groups in India... Message-ID: <8b60429e050523081131841b1c@mail.gmail.com> Dear All, A vast amount of literature and buzztime is spent in studying government/state restrictions on speech. With rise of a "commons" culture, a considerable study is being made of how commerce and private industry affects speech. But very little attention seems to be given to how social communities restrict speech. I am specifically speaking of religious and caste oriented community structures in India. Freedom of speech has been under a continuous blackmail by religious/caste groups in India which get ever ready help from government in banning books, movies, plays and lectures. Religion/Caste in India seeks a status over and above the constitution. They are the uber power in India's social power Olympics. Constitution works for the religious/communal groups if it does not disturb their own power over their own group and if its helps them resist or subdue other "rival" community groups' interests. I am interested at the moment only in effect of such religious/caste communities over freedom of speech. Almost every time a film or book critical of any community is published, there are rallies, riots, and even violence against the writers/creators/collaborators of the book. The government is all too willing to use legal powers to ban such "offensive" material. The freedom of speech in the constitution is practiced as an exception to the proviso that allow restrictions on speech that "...offend against decency, or morality or which undermines the security of the state or tends to overthrow the state". Yesterday, there were bomblasts in two theatres in Delhi where a film called "Jo Bole So Nihal" was being shown which the Sikh community declared was offensive to their religious beliefs. "Black Friday" movie was being litigated against in the Bombay High Court, which allowed screening of another movie relating to a story about a Catholic priest. Historian James Laine's book on Shivaji was banned and so on when protesters ransacked library of Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute which they thought has helped Laine. Muslim community has in past invoked book bans from the government for a mere asking (Satanic Verses, Lajja etc). These are just some recent instances of how religious/caste communities in India stiffle speech. Only exception I remember in recent times was Dalit community (especially Prakash Ambedkar) who were angered by Arun Shourie's book "Worshipping False Gods" about Dr. B. R. Amebdkar. Prakash Ambedkar and other Dalit intellectuals made it clear that they are going to fight this book with intellectual material and not riots. So that book was published and so were oppositions from dalit intellectuals. (I recollect these instances from memory, so please let me know of any inaccuracies). These book bans may have been "right" in some short term or long term governmental perspective, but the point is that religious/caste groups stifle speech in India to a considerable extent and readily get away with it. Intellectuals and press in India do not usually come forward in criticizing such community powered stifling of speech lest they be seen as favoring or opposing one minority group or a majority social group. Judiciary and executive seem to be more concerned about day to day "law and order" problems than any real consideration for the Fundamental Right of Freedom of Speech. Further, judiciary and executive believes that throwing the baby out with the bathwater solves the problem, so they are ready to ban a book when any religious community makes a threat of agitation against the book. Interestingly, when one community gets a book banned no other community objects to it since tomorrow they too would want to exercise their "uber constitutional right to their religious beliefs" by seeking to ban some book/film. And that is how more or less freedom of speech in India has functioned for 50 years with very few instances of stifling of political speech by the government which is the major concern of western world's "freedom of speech". We are all aware of book bans in the west too, but it is a declining phenomenon over the years rather than an active happening in recent past. Freedom of speech is not an absolute right anywhere since speech can have immediate catastrophic effects. Given that India is a vast complex of societies that carry a variety of beliefs can there be a basic premise of freedom of speech that is restricted in operation in very rare circumstances? or is that a western world's freedom of speech which has had renaissance and eventual decline of religious influence in public affairs? If so what should be an "eastern freedom of speech" be like? Should an eastern freedom of speech provide a super exception for "religious speech"? India has to resolve the larger question of supremacy of religion vs. constitution sooner or later. We seem to believe that magically one day all communities in India will realize that constitution should have primacy rather than their own dogmas and till then it is fine to let religion trump constitution by allowing religion the upper hand through freedom of religion. I think of it this way: In a constitutional democracy with a marginal or no role for religion, religion is forever knocking on the door of political house of power to be let in (e.g., recent emergence of religion in American politics). In Indian context religion/caste is already in the house of power through the owner's invitation (constitutional right to religious freedom and its judicial interpretation) and is now seeking to oust the Constitution as the owner of the house which some how naively believes that religion will one day understand that it needs to stand quite close to the door and not abuse its invitation. But in the interim, freedom of speech will continue to be stifled by religion/caste in India with minimal opposition from intellectuals, the judiciary, the executive and even the public. If no participant of the Indian society wants freedom of speech that isn't held to periodic hostage by religious/caste groups then what is it doing in the constitution anyway? I still have to reply to Jeebesh's earlier mail, but above is also a part of that thinking process in a broader sense since it involved what kind of "look" of society do we want. Regards, Hasit Seth From sudhir at circuit.sarai.net Tue May 24 01:04:39 2005 From: sudhir at circuit.sarai.net (sudhir at circuit.sarai.net) Date: Mon, 23 May 2005 21:34:39 +0200 Subject: [Commons-Law] Stiffling Speech by Community Groups in India... In-Reply-To: <8b60429e050523081131841b1c@mail.gmail.com> References: <8b60429e050523081131841b1c@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <5e9e955e1d4ef85a1eaff40fe9028f4f@sarai.net> Dear Hasit If freedom of speech rights were to be exercised horizontally (citizens asserting rights against fellow citizens) then such private forms of censorship could be remedied. Moreover I guess the State should have a positive duty to ensure that free speech rights are sustained. But you are right to point out that presently community groups/leaders consider it their right to censor public speech! Sudhir On May 23, 5:11 pm Hasit seth wrote: > Dear All, > > A vast amount of literature and buzztime is spent in studying > government/state restrictions on speech. With rise of a "commons" > culture, a considerable study is being made of how commerce and > private industry affects speech. But very little attention seems to > be given to how social communities restrict speech. I am specifically > speaking of religious and caste oriented community structures in > India. Freedom of speech has been under a continuous blackmail by > religious/caste groups in India which get ever ready help from > government in banning books, movies, plays and lectures. > > Religion/Caste in India seeks a status over and above the > constitution. They are the uber power in India's social power > Olympics. Constitution works for the religious/communal groups if it > does not disturb their own power over their own group and if its helps > them resist or subdue other "rival" community groups' interests. I am > interested at the moment only in effect of such religious/caste > communities over freedom of speech. Almost every time a film or book > critical of any community is published, there are rallies, riots, and > even violence against the writers/creators/collaborators of the book. > The government is all too willing to use legal powers to ban such > "offensive" material. The freedom of speech in the constitution is > practiced as an exception to the proviso that allow restrictions on > speech that "...offend against decency, or morality or which > undermines the security of the state or tends to overthrow the state". > > Yesterday, there were bomblasts in two theatres in Delhi where a > film called "Jo Bole So Nihal" was being shown which the Sikh > community declared was offensive to their religious beliefs. "Black > Friday" movie was being litigated against in the Bombay High Court, > which allowed screening of another movie relating to a story about a > Catholic priest. Historian James Laine's book on Shivaji was banned > and so on when protesters ransacked library of Bhandarkar Oriental > Research Institute which they thought has helped Laine. Muslim > community has in past invoked book bans from the government for a mere > asking (Satanic Verses, Lajja etc). These are just some recent > instances of how religious/caste communities in India stiffle speech. > Only exception I remember in recent times was Dalit community > (especially Prakash Ambedkar) who were angered by Arun Shourie's book > "Worshipping False Gods" about Dr. B. R. Amebdkar. Prakash Ambedkar > and other Dalit intellectuals made it clear that they are going to > fight this book with intellectual material and not riots. So that book > was published and so were oppositions from dalit intellectuals. (I > recollect these instances from memory, so please let me know of any > inaccuracies). These book bans may have been "right" in some short > term or long term governmental perspective, but the point is that > religious/caste groups stifle speech in India to a considerable extent > and readily get away with it. > > Intellectuals and press in India do not usually come forward in > criticizing such community powered stifling of speech lest they be > seen as favoring or opposing one minority group or a majority social > group. Judiciary and executive seem to be more concerned about day to > day "law and order" problems than any real consideration for the > Fundamental Right of Freedom of Speech. Further, judiciary and > executive believes that throwing the baby out with the bathwater > solves the problem, so they are ready to ban a book when any religious > community makes a threat of agitation against the book. > > Interestingly, when one community gets a book banned no other > community objects to it since tomorrow they too would want to exercise > their "uber constitutional right to their religious beliefs" by > seeking to ban some book/film. And that is how more or less freedom > of speech in India has functioned for 50 years with very few instances > of stifling of political speech by the government which is the major > concern of western world's "freedom of speech". We are all aware of > book bans in the west too, but it is a declining phenomenon over the > years rather than an active happening in recent past. > > Freedom of speech is not an absolute right anywhere since speech > can have immediate catastrophic effects. Given that India is a vast > complex of societies that carry a variety of beliefs can there be a > basic premise of freedom of speech that is restricted in operation in > very rare circumstances? or is that a western world's freedom of > speech which has had renaissance and eventual decline of religious > influence in public affairs? If so what should be an "eastern freedom > of speech" be like? Should an eastern freedom of speech provide a > super exception for "religious speech"? > > India has to resolve the larger question of supremacy of religion > vs. constitution sooner or later. We seem to believe that magically > one day all communities in India will realize that constitution should > have primacy rather than their own dogmas and till then it is fine to > let religion trump constitution by allowing religion the upper hand > through freedom of religion. I think of it this way: In a > constitutional democracy with a marginal or no role for religion, > religion is forever knocking on the door of political house of power > to be let in (e.g., recent emergence of religion in American > politics). In Indian context religion/caste is already in the house > of power through the owner's invitation (constitutional right to > religious freedom and its judicial interpretation) and is now seeking > to oust the Constitution as the owner of the house which some how > naively believes that religion will one day understand that it needs > to stand quite close to the door and not abuse its invitation. But in > the interim, freedom of speech will continue to be stifled by > religion/caste in India with minimal opposition from intellectuals, > the judiciary, the executive and even the public. If no participant > of the Indian society wants freedom of speech that isn't held to > periodic hostage by religious/caste groups then what is it doing in > the constitution anyway? > > I still have to reply to Jeebesh's earlier mail, but above is also > a part of that thinking process in a broader sense since it involved > what kind of "look" of society do we want. > > Regards, > Hasit Seth > _______________________________________________ > commons-law mailing list > commons-law at sarai.net > https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/commons-law From vasumank at yahoo.com Tue May 24 01:49:09 2005 From: vasumank at yahoo.com (Vasuman Khandelwal) Date: Mon, 23 May 2005 13:19:09 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Commons-Law] Stiffling Speech by Community Groups in India... In-Reply-To: <5e9e955e1d4ef85a1eaff40fe9028f4f@sarai.net> Message-ID: <20050523201909.40040.qmail@web50907.mail.yahoo.com> Its not for the first time that a constitutional value or right has attempted to be nullified against right to religion. Women's rights activist like flavia agnes have carried on this struggle for long to ensure gender justice in context like family and personal laws or marriage, divorce etc. The Shah bano controversy and its aftermath are just examples, that how these so called competing values play in public domain. What is important is that Supreme Court in both Shah Bano case and later Danial Latifi Case( Upholding the constitutional validity of the statute) has relied on subaltern interpretation of islamic law from various sources and not the dominant version as advocated by AIl india muslim law board etc. Recently there was ample media coverage regarding model nikahnama, and All India Muslim Women Personal board did reject the model nikahnama that was thought to be conservative and did not reflect the constitutional values or even the rights given in islam to women, when properly interpreted can be progressive. This brings to the qestioin that when a right, like speech and expression is pitted against right to religion, whoes values are being relied? SGPC or AIMPLB with all due respect are bodies representing not all religious and diverese views, but only upper class and elite views, through which they have subjugated a large section of their own communities for ages. The sangh parivar again and again tries to rely on brahmanical values in its hindutva campaign which is in decline, forgetting that when hindutva campaign was on its peak, the staunch protagonist of the movements were Uma Bharati and Kanshi Ram and others and they made concious effort to propogate non Brahmanical values of hinduism. The large electoral success they had was precisely bacause it appealed not only to brahmins but also to OBCs, and the trading communities. The irony is that Religious bodies who denounce television and internet in guise of saving religion from values of 'modernity' rely utmost on television, interent, modern communication means. Unlike Supreme Court, Executive has a propensity to fall into this trap, once so often. It is often assumed that, rightly or wrongly, that it will pay rich electoral dividends. And even Communist govt. in Bengal has not hesitated to ban Taslima Nasreen's novels, shows that this strategy is rampant from left to right of politics in india. And this problem has been in developed world too, in UK, a play written by a sikh women called Bezhati that showed rape and sexual violence in gurudwaras was called off, by the theater group, because a large number of sikhs were demonstrating and that it might create 'law and order' problem. This law and order problem is another way to deny freedom of expression. Worth mentioning that , in America, Freedom of speech and expression has been held to be absolute by American SC and it can be only interfered with when there is clear and present danger of violence. As justice holmes had eloquently put in Gitlow's case "That every idea is an incitement" As on the point of horizontal application of rights, this doctrine though sounds well, is conceptually very difficult and most democracies, in Europe, South Africa etc have struggled to apply this doctrine in practice. Therefore utility of it also has to be seen, especially in indian context where other that fundamental duties in art, 51A there is no sound legal basis to apply such a doctrine. Just few random thoughts!!!! Cheers Vasuman sudhir at circuit.sarai.net wrote: Dear Hasit If freedom of speech rights were to be exercised horizontally (citizens asserting rights against fellow citizens) then such private forms of censorship could be remedied. Moreover I guess the State should have a positive duty to ensure that free speech rights are sustained. But you are right to point out that presently community groups/leaders consider it their right to censor public speech! Sudhir On May 23, 5:11 pm Hasit seth wrote: > Dear All, > > A vast amount of literature and buzztime is spent in studying > government/state restrictions on speech. With rise of a "commons" > culture, a considerable study is being made of how commerce and > private industry affects speech. But very little attention seems to > be given to how social communities restrict speech. I am specifically > speaking of religious and caste oriented community structures in > India. Freedom of speech has been under a continuous blackmail by > religious/caste groups in India which get ever ready help from > government in banning books, movies, plays and lectures. > > Religion/Caste in India seeks a status over and above the > constitution. They are the uber power in India's social power > Olympics. Constitution works for the religious/communal groups if it > does not disturb their own power over their own group and if its helps > them resist or subdue other "rival" community groups' interests. I am > interested at the moment only in effect of such religious/caste > communities over freedom of speech. Almost every time a film or book > critical of any community is published, there are rallies, riots, and > even violence against the writers/creators/collaborators of the book. > The government is all too willing to use legal powers to ban such > "offensive" material. The freedom of speech in the constitution is > practiced as an exception to the proviso that allow restrictions on > speech that "...offend against decency, or morality or which > undermines the security of the state or tends to overthrow the state". > > Yesterday, there were bomblasts in two theatres in Delhi where a > film called "Jo Bole So Nihal" was being shown which the Sikh > community declared was offensive to their religious beliefs. "Black > Friday" movie was being litigated against in the Bombay High Court, > which allowed screening of another movie relating to a story about a > Catholic priest. Historian James Laine's book on Shivaji was banned > and so on when protesters ransacked library of Bhandarkar Oriental > Research Institute which they thought has helped Laine. Muslim > community has in past invoked book bans from the government for a mere > asking (Satanic Verses, Lajja etc). These are just some recent > instances of how religious/caste communities in India stiffle speech. > Only exception I remember in recent times was Dalit community > (especially Prakash Ambedkar) who were angered by Arun Shourie's book > "Worshipping False Gods" about Dr. B. R. Amebdkar. Prakash Ambedkar > and other Dalit intellectuals made it clear that they are going to > fight this book with intellectual material and not riots. So that book > was published and so were oppositions from dalit intellectuals. (I > recollect these instances from memory, so please let me know of any > inaccuracies). These book bans may have been "right" in some short > term or long term governmental perspective, but the point is that > religious/caste groups stifle speech in India to a considerable extent > and readily get away with it. > > Intellectuals and press in India do not usually come forward in > criticizing such community powered stifling of speech lest they be > seen as favoring or opposing one minority group or a majority social > group. Judiciary and executive seem to be more concerned about day to > day "law and order" problems than any real consideration for the > Fundamental Right of Freedom of Speech. Further, judiciary and > executive believes that throwing the baby out with the bathwater > solves the problem, so they are ready to ban a book when any religious > community makes a threat of agitation against the book. > > Interestingly, when one community gets a book banned no other > community objects to it since tomorrow they too would want to exercise > their "uber constitutional right to their religious beliefs" by > seeking to ban some book/film. And that is how more or less freedom > of speech in India has functioned for 50 years with very few instances > of stifling of political speech by the government which is the major > concern of western world's "freedom of speech". We are all aware of > book bans in the west too, but it is a declining phenomenon over the > years rather than an active happening in recent past. > > Freedom of speech is not an absolute right anywhere since speech > can have immediate catastrophic effects. Given that India is a vast > complex of societies that carry a variety of beliefs can there be a > basic premise of freedom of speech that is restricted in operation in > very rare circumstances? or is that a western world's freedom of > speech which has had renaissance and eventual decline of religious > influence in public affairs? If so what should be an "eastern freedom > of speech" be like? Should an eastern freedom of speech provide a > super exception for "religious speech"? > > India has to resolve the larger question of supremacy of religion > vs. constitution sooner or later. We seem to believe that magically > one day all communities in India will realize that constitution should > have primacy rather than their own dogmas and till then it is fine to > let religion trump constitution by allowing religion the upper hand > through freedom of religion. I think of it this way: In a > constitutional democracy with a marginal or no role for religion, > religion is forever knocking on the door of political house of power > to be let in (e.g., recent emergence of religion in American > politics). In Indian context religion/caste is already in the house > of power through the owner's invitation (constitutional right to > religious freedom and its judicial interpretation) and is now seeking > to oust the Constitution as the owner of the house which some how > naively believes that religion will one day understand that it needs > to stand quite close to the door and not abuse its invitation. But in > the interim, freedom of speech will continue to be stifled by > religion/caste in India with minimal opposition from intellectuals, > the judiciary, the executive and even the public. If no participant > of the Indian society wants freedom of speech that isn't held to > periodic hostage by religious/caste groups then what is it doing in > the constitution anyway? > > I still have to reply to Jeebesh's earlier mail, but above is also > a part of that thinking process in a broader sense since it involved > what kind of "look" of society do we want. > > Regards, > Hasit Seth > _______________________________________________ > commons-law mailing list > commons-law at sarai.net > https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/commons-law _______________________________________________ commons-law mailing list commons-law at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/commons-law --------------------------------- Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Small Business - Try our new Resources site! -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/commons-law/attachments/20050523/22416b19/attachment.html From hbs.law at gmail.com Tue May 24 02:01:34 2005 From: hbs.law at gmail.com (Hasit seth) Date: Mon, 23 May 2005 16:31:34 -0400 Subject: [Commons-Law] Stiffling Speech by Community Groups in India...(Hasit)(Sudhir) In-Reply-To: <5e9e955e1d4ef85a1eaff40fe9028f4f@sarai.net> References: <8b60429e050523081131841b1c@mail.gmail.com> <5e9e955e1d4ef85a1eaff40fe9028f4f@sarai.net> Message-ID: <8b60429e05052313314bbb48cf@mail.gmail.com> Dear Sudhir, Thanks for your comments. You are right that private forms of censorships can be remedied. The peculiar system in India where a community appeals to the government to ban a book or the government bans a book anticipating community protest makes it a vertical (state - community) free speech relation which began as a private book vs. community thing. Since the state is involved and as you said the state should positively ensure that Freedom of Speech (FoS) is maintained. But here, the state ensures that a ban is placed rather than ensuring FoS and judicial interpretation favors state's action due to law and order aspect. I think it is easy to put FoS in a constitution, however, it is perhaps the hardest freedom for the state to ensure since wiping out an individual and his creation is easily justified against the fury of the community mob. It may seem that courts have done a bad job over the years in not realizing the value of a higher threshold and tolerance for FoS right. But courts have probably carried the dominance of religion over secular constitutional standards in freedom of religion into Fos interpretation. Not good jurisprudence for FoS in my opinion. Regards, Hasit ----------------------------------------------------- On 5/23/05, sudhir at circuit.sarai.net wrote: > Dear Hasit > > If freedom of speech rights were to be exercised horizontally (citizens > asserting rights against fellow citizens) then such private forms of > censorship could be remedied. Moreover I guess the State should have a > positive duty to ensure that free speech rights are sustained. > > But you are right to point out that presently community groups/leaders > consider it their right to censor public speech! > > Sudhir > > > On May 23, 5:11 pm Hasit seth wrote: > > Dear All, > > > > A vast amount of literature and buzztime is spent in studying > > government/state restrictions on speech. With rise of a "commons" > > culture, a considerable study is being made of how commerce and > > private industry affects speech. But very little attention seems to > > be given to how social communities restrict speech. I am specifically > > speaking of religious and caste oriented community structures in > > India. Freedom of speech has been under a continuous blackmail by > > religious/caste groups in India which get ever ready help from > > government in banning books, movies, plays and lectures. > > > > Religion/Caste in India seeks a status over and above the > > constitution. They are the uber power in India's social power > > Olympics. Constitution works for the religious/communal groups if it > > does not disturb their own power over their own group and if its helps > > them resist or subdue other "rival" community groups' interests. I am > > interested at the moment only in effect of such religious/caste > > communities over freedom of speech. Almost every time a film or book > > critical of any community is published, there are rallies, riots, and > > even violence against the writers/creators/collaborators of the book. > > The government is all too willing to use legal powers to ban such > > "offensive" material. The freedom of speech in the constitution is > > practiced as an exception to the proviso that allow restrictions on > > speech that "...offend against decency, or morality or which > > undermines the security of the state or tends to overthrow the state". > > > > Yesterday, there were bomblasts in two theatres in Delhi where a > > film called "Jo Bole So Nihal" was being shown which the Sikh > > community declared was offensive to their religious beliefs. "Black > > Friday" movie was being litigated against in the Bombay High Court, > > which allowed screening of another movie relating to a story about a > > Catholic priest. Historian James Laine's book on Shivaji was banned > > and so on when protesters ransacked library of Bhandarkar Oriental > > Research Institute which they thought has helped Laine. Muslim > > community has in past invoked book bans from the government for a mere > > asking (Satanic Verses, Lajja etc). These are just some recent > > instances of how religious/caste communities in India stiffle speech. > > Only exception I remember in recent times was Dalit community > > (especially Prakash Ambedkar) who were angered by Arun Shourie's book > > "Worshipping False Gods" about Dr. B. R. Amebdkar. Prakash Ambedkar > > and other Dalit intellectuals made it clear that they are going to > > fight this book with intellectual material and not riots. So that book > > was published and so were oppositions from dalit intellectuals. (I > > recollect these instances from memory, so please let me know of any > > inaccuracies). These book bans may have been "right" in some short > > term or long term governmental perspective, but the point is that > > religious/caste groups stifle speech in India to a considerable extent > > and readily get away with it. > > > > Intellectuals and press in India do not usually come forward in > > criticizing such community powered stifling of speech lest they be > > seen as favoring or opposing one minority group or a majority social > > group. Judiciary and executive seem to be more concerned about day to > > day "law and order" problems than any real consideration for the > > Fundamental Right of Freedom of Speech. Further, judiciary and > > executive believes that throwing the baby out with the bathwater > > solves the problem, so they are ready to ban a book when any religious > > community makes a threat of agitation against the book. > > > > Interestingly, when one community gets a book banned no other > > community objects to it since tomorrow they too would want to exercise > > their "uber constitutional right to their religious beliefs" by > > seeking to ban some book/film. And that is how more or less freedom > > of speech in India has functioned for 50 years with very few instances > > of stifling of political speech by the government which is the major > > concern of western world's "freedom of speech". We are all aware of > > book bans in the west too, but it is a declining phenomenon over the > > years rather than an active happening in recent past. > > > > Freedom of speech is not an absolute right anywhere since speech > > can have immediate catastrophic effects. Given that India is a vast > > complex of societies that carry a variety of beliefs can there be a > > basic premise of freedom of speech that is restricted in operation in > > very rare circumstances? or is that a western world's freedom of > > speech which has had renaissance and eventual decline of religious > > influence in public affairs? If so what should be an "eastern freedom > > of speech" be like? Should an eastern freedom of speech provide a > > super exception for "religious speech"? > > > > India has to resolve the larger question of supremacy of religion > > vs. constitution sooner or later. We seem to believe that magically > > one day all communities in India will realize that constitution should > > have primacy rather than their own dogmas and till then it is fine to > > let religion trump constitution by allowing religion the upper hand > > through freedom of religion. I think of it this way: In a > > constitutional democracy with a marginal or no role for religion, > > religion is forever knocking on the door of political house of power > > to be let in (e.g., recent emergence of religion in American > > politics). In Indian context religion/caste is already in the house > > of power through the owner's invitation (constitutional right to > > religious freedom and its judicial interpretation) and is now seeking > > to oust the Constitution as the owner of the house which some how > > naively believes that religion will one day understand that it needs > > to stand quite close to the door and not abuse its invitation. But in > > the interim, freedom of speech will continue to be stifled by > > religion/caste in India with minimal opposition from intellectuals, > > the judiciary, the executive and even the public. If no participant > > of the Indian society wants freedom of speech that isn't held to > > periodic hostage by religious/caste groups then what is it doing in > > the constitution anyway? > > > > I still have to reply to Jeebesh's earlier mail, but above is also > > a part of that thinking process in a broader sense since it involved > > what kind of "look" of society do we want. > > > > Regards, > > Hasit Seth > > _______________________________________________ > > commons-law mailing list > > commons-law at sarai.net > > https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/commons-law > > From bhagwati at sarai.net Tue May 24 13:02:52 2005 From: bhagwati at sarai.net (bhagwati at sarai.net) Date: Tue, 24 May 2005 09:32:52 +0200 Subject: [Commons-Law] legal notice Message-ID: dear all, i am enclosing an `legal notice` from Lall and Sethi Advocates to many small vendors and video libraries in the city of Delhi. This specific letter has been sent to a small shopekeeper in Madipur (a resettlement colony normally unknown to elites of the city and ocassionally in news as sensational crime story or police torture in custody). This letter has been sent to people with very little knowledge of and access to English. Well IP is interesting in a strange way. The elites discovers the `forgotten or hidden or shadow` cities within their imagination of cities. This is truly a `post-development` imaginary of the elites. cheers Bhagwati -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Lal _ Sethi.rtf Type: application/msword Size: 6404 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/commons-law/attachments/20050524/11b639cd/attachment.dot From srinivas at southcentre.org Tue May 24 14:11:07 2005 From: srinivas at southcentre.org (srinivas at southcentre.org) Date: Tue, 24 May 2005 10:41:07 +0200 Subject: [Commons-Law] software and patents In-Reply-To: <20050523201727.1A89228D980@mail.sarai.net> Message-ID: Here is the link to a recent article http://www.law.duke.edu/journals/dltr/articles/2005dltr0012.html K.Ravi Srinivas Post Doctoral Fellow IPR Policy Research & Development Program South Centre 17-19 Chemin Du Champ d'Anier 1209 Petit Saconnex Geneva Switzerland Postal Address K.Ravi Srinivas South Centre CP 228 1211 Geneva 19 Switzerland Tel: +41 22 791 81 67 Fax: +41 22 798 85 31 email: srinivas at southcentre.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/commons-law/attachments/20050524/88dcf74f/attachment.html From vishwas123_ at hotmail.com Thu May 26 11:29:54 2005 From: vishwas123_ at hotmail.com (Vishwas Devaiah) Date: Thu, 26 May 2005 05:59:54 +0000 Subject: [Commons-Law] US officials shut online file-sharing network Message-ID: http://www.ndtv.com/msnnewsdesk/entstory.asp?id=3663 - NDTV Correspondent Federal authorities on Wednesday shut down an online file-sharing network that had the new Stars War movie before it was shown in theaters. The Elite Torrents network was engaging in high-tech piracy by allowing people to download copies of movies and other copyright material for free, authorities said. The action was the first criminal enforcement against individuals who are using cutting-edge BitTorrent technology, Justice and Homeland Security Department officials said. The network had more than 133,000 members and 17,800 movies and software programs in the past four months, officials said. Among those titles was Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith, which was available through Elite Torrents six hours before its first showing in theaters, the officials said. The movie was downloaded more than 10,000 times in the first 24 hours. "Today's crackdown sends a clear and unmistakable message to anyone involved in the online theft of copyrighted works that they cannot hide behind new technology," said John C. Richter, acting assistant attorney general. People attempting to access the elitetorrents.org Web site on Wednesday were greeted with a warning about the penalties for copyright infringement. The message also said, "This site has been permanently shut down by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Individuals involved in the operation and use of the Elite Torrents network are under investigation for criminal copyright infringement." BitTorrent has become the file-sharing software of choice because of its speed and effectiveness, especially after the recording industry began cracking down last year on users of Kazaa, Morpheus, Grokster and other established software. The Motion Picture Association of America estimates that movie piracy cost the film industry $3.5 billion last year, not including the sharing of files online. The association assisted in the investigation, officials said. "Shutting down illegal file swapping networks like Elite Torrents is an essential part of our fight to stop movie thieves from stealing copyrighted materials," said the group's president, Dan Glickman. Hollywood movie studios last year sued many operators of computer servers that use BitTorrent technology to help relay digital movie files across online file-sharing networks. The group also sued six sites this month that focus on swapping television programs. _________________________________________________________________ Kareena or Rani? Saif or SRK? http://server1.msn.co.in/sp05/iifa/ Rock your vote now at IIFA. From hbs.law at gmail.com Thu May 26 19:19:35 2005 From: hbs.law at gmail.com (Hasit seth) Date: Thu, 26 May 2005 09:49:35 -0400 Subject: [Commons-Law] The Open Source Heretic Message-ID: <8b60429e0505260649478886a5@mail.gmail.com> Read about this article at Slashdot.org. Just posting it as a personal perspective of an open source veteran Larry McVoy struggling to run a software company. Do note what he says about innovation. ======================== Forbes.com Computer Hardware & Software The Open Source Heretic Daniel Lyons, 05.26.05, 6:00 AM ET Since 1993, Larry McVoy has been one of the closest allies to Linus Torvalds, creator of the open source Linux operating system. Yet after all these years, McVoy has come to believe that the open source business model, which is all the rage these days among computer makers like Hewlett-Packard (nyse: HPQ - news - people ) and IBM (nyse: IBM - news - people ), cannot generate enough money to support the development of truly innovative software programs. "Open source as a business model, in isolation, is pretty much unsustainable," says McVoy, founder and chief executive of BitMover, a San Francisco-based company that makes a software-development tool for Linux called BitKeeper. McVoy understands open source as well as anyone on the planet. Though his product, BitKeeper, is not an open source program, from 2002 until 2005, McVoy let open source programmers use it for free. But as of July, McVoy will stop the give-away, saying it has been costing him nearly $500,000 per year to support Torvalds and his programmers. Open source advocates have pushed McVoy to "open source" his product--that is, to publish the program's source code, or basic instructions, and let the world use it for free. But McVoy says it is simply not possible for an innovative software company to sustain itself using an open source business model. "We believe if we open sourced our product, we would be out of business in six months," McVoy says. "The bottom line is you have to build a financially sound company with a well-trained staff. And those staffers like their salaries. If everything is free, how can I make enough money to keep building that product for you and supporting you?" The term "open source" refers to software that is distributed with its source code so that anyone can read or copy that code. Most commercial programs, like those made by Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people ), keep their source code secret. Open source products typically are distributed free, since it's pretty much impossible to charge money for something that anyone can copy. So how do you make money with open source code? Some companies, like Red Hat (nasdaq: RHAT - news - people ), distribute Linux for free and then make money selling service contracts to users. "One problem with the services model is that it is based on the idea that you are giving customers crap--because if you give them software that works, what is the point of service?" McVoy says. "The other problem is that the services model doesn't generate enough revenue to support the creation of the next generation of innovative products. Red Hat has been around for a long time--for a decade now. Yet try to name one significant thing--one innovative product--that has come out of Red Hat." To be sure, a few open source companies are successfully generating revenue and even (possibly) profits. But none of them generates enough money to do anything really innovative, says McVoy, 43, an industry veteran who has developed operating system software at Sun Microsystems (nasdaq: SUNW - news - people ), Silicon Graphics (nyse: SGI - news - people ) and Google (nasdaq: GOOG - news - people ). "The open source guys can scrape together enough resources to reverse engineer stuff. That's easy. It's way cheaper to reverse engineer something than to create something new. But if the world goes to 100% open source, innovation goes to zero. The open source guys hate it when I say this, but it's true." Torvalds disagrees with McVoy about the sustainability of open source. "Open source actually builds on a base that works even without any commercial interest [which] is almost always secondary," he says. "The so-called 'big boys' come along only after the project has proven itself to be better than what those same big boys tried to do on their own. So don't fall into the trap of thinking that open source is dependent on the commercial interests. That's nice gravy, but it is gravy." But McVoy says open source advocates fail to recognize that building new software requires lots of trial and error, which means investing lots of money. Software companies won't make those investments unless they can earn a return by selling programs rather than giving them away. "It costs a huge amount of money to develop a single innovative software product. You have to have a business model that will let you recoup those costs. These arguments are exceedingly unpopular. Everyone wants everything to be free. They say, 'You're an evil corporate guy, and you don't get it.' But I'm not evil. I'm well-known in the open source community. But none of them can show me how to build a software-development house and fund it off open source revenue. My claim is it can't be done." And though open source software may be "free," sometimes you get what you pay for, McVoy says. "Open source software is like handing you a doctor's bag and the architectural plans for a hospital and saying, 'Hey dude, if you have a heart attack, here are all the tools you need--and it's free,'" McVoy says. "I'd rather pay someone to take care of me." McVoy argues that the open source phenomenon may appear to be sustainable but actually is being propped up by hardware makers who view open source code as a loss leader--something that will entice customers to buy their boxes. "Nobody wants to admit that most of the money funding open source development, maybe 80% to 90%, is coming from companies that are not open source companies themselves. What happens when these sponsors go away and there is not enough money floating around? Where is innovation going to come from? Is the government going to fund it? This stuff is expensive." Even the popular Linux operating system would suffer if hardware makers stopped their sugar-daddy support for its development--putting their own programmers to work on Linux, and sending payments to the Open Source Development Labs, the non-profit organization that employs Torvalds and some of his key lieutenants. "If hardware companies stopped funding development, I think it would dramatically damage the pace at which Linux is being developed. It would be pretty darn close to a nuclear bomb going off," McVoy says. McVoy says he believes the software industry will reach some kind of balance between open source and traditional software companies. Open source companies will make commodity knockoffs and eke out tiny profits, while traditional "closed source" companies will develop innovative products and earn fatter profits. Heretical as this may seem, McVoy wants to be on the side that innovates and makes money. From sudhir at circuit.sarai.net Fri May 27 14:30:42 2005 From: sudhir at circuit.sarai.net (sudhir at circuit.sarai.net) Date: Fri, 27 May 2005 11:00:42 +0200 Subject: [Commons-Law] on TK and Access and Benefit Sharing Schemes Message-ID: <078f3613e342cf89c9c3908e4cb02390@sarai.net> Dear all In early June WIPO is scheduled to discuss the formalization of an access and benefit sharing aspect to patents relying on genetic resources in third world countries. Apologies for cross posting - as this brief from Grain provides one an insight into the discussion. But I wouldnt be too quick in assuming that if it's bad for them [Europe in this case] it's good for us! Best Sudhir BIO-IPR docserver | http://www.grain.org/bio-ipr ________________________________________________________ TITLE: European Union to Lose US$79 Billion if New U.N. Regulatory System Created AUTHOR: Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy PUBLICATION: press release via PR Newswire DATE: 25 May 2005 URL: http://www.mysan.de/article113706.html NOTE: This follows right on the heels of a report from the Australian APEC Study Centre, flagged earlier on BIO-IPR, which also tried to argue that private contracts and unfettered property rights defined by national law are better than putting conditions on the grant of patents over biodiversity and traditional knowledge under international law. ________________________________________________________ PRI News Release | 25 May 2005 EUROPEAN UNION TO LOSE US$79 BILLION IF NEW U.N. REGULATORY SYSTEM CREATED A newly released study by the California-based Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy (PRI) reveals startling economic impacts for the European Union if a proposed international regime to govern access- and benefit-sharing (ABS) of genetic resources takes effect. The creation of a patent-based ABS regime will be discussed by world diplomats and policy experts in Geneva on June 6-10 at a meeting of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). BRUSSELS, Belgium, May 25, PRNewswire -- A newly released study by the California-based Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy (PRI) reveals startling economic impacts for the European Union if a proposed international regime to govern access- and benefit-sharing (ABS) of genetic resources takes effect. The creation of a patent-based ABS regime will be discussed by world diplomats and policy experts in Geneva on June 6-10 at a meeting of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). "Analytically, the new ABS regime would be equivalent to a long-run tax on biotechnological and pharmaceutical research," said study co-author Benjamin Zycher, a Senior Fellow at PRI. "Naturally, such a measure would have significant economic consequences." In the EU alone, Zycher's findings predict a loss of US$79 billion. The ABS regime has been proposed by representatives of nations in the 17-member Like Minded Mega-diverse Countries (LMMC) who argue that the international patent system needs to be further regulated to prevent biopiracy and to reach the goals of the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), adopted by the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. The 17 countries, led by Brazil, would also like to see further redistribution of the profits created when genetic resources are turned into modern medicine by pharmaceutical and biotech companies located primarily in the Western world. "The mega-diverse countries claim that patent regulations are necessary to protect the world's biodiversity," said Zycher. "The fact is that the new ABS regime would undermine the current contract-based system that will protect research and development much more successfully." Under current international law, governed by the WIPO and the World Trade Organization (WTO), biotech companies are free to make contracts with individual countries, obtaining the right to use genetic resources from such biodiverse areas as the Brazilian rain forest, and to use these resources in their product development. The LMMC proposal would limit the freedom to make contracts by making it more difficult to protect patents and by imposing unpredictable obligations on biotech companies to share their future profits. The PRI study predicts that the proposed ABS regime will have significant economic impacts on countries in the developed world. Using a careful methodology that transforms biotechnological and pharmaceutical research and development into capital stocks, the detailed study finds that the cumulative loss to the EU15 countries would be US$79 billion between now and year 2025. By comparison the United States stands to lose much less -- US$21.6 billion. "The bottom line is that the best way to protect the world's biodiversity is to give research-based biotech companies negotiated property rights to invest in bio-diverse areas," said the study's other co-author Timothy A. Wolfe. "Without property rights and contracts enforced under law, the Brazilian rain forest will be left in the hands of lumberjacks and farmers who need more open land for their cattle." ABOUT PRI For 26 years, the Pacific Research Institute for Public Policy (PRI) has championed freedom, opportunity, and personal responsibility by advancing free-market policy solutions. PRI is a non-profit, non-partisan educational organization based in San Francisco, California. Web site: http://www.pacificresearch.org From pedro_paranagua at yahoo.com.br Fri May 27 23:24:14 2005 From: pedro_paranagua at yahoo.com.br (Pedro de Paranagua Moniz) Date: Fri, 27 May 2005 18:54:14 +0100 Subject: [Commons-Law] Report from Kerala Message-ID: <42975EC6.4090405@yahoo.com.br> http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/8319 India's Upcoming Free Software, Free Society Conference Free software advocates and IT delegates from around the world will be in Kerala, India, this week in the hopes of building free software collaborations for the future. Free software offers its users various freedoms. In India, free software enthusiasts are working on a new one--the freedom to build bridges to potential partners half-way across the globe who are facing similar developmental concerns or challenges. To help facilitate this bridge-building process, the Free Software Foundation of India is organising a four-country conference to be held May 28-29, 2005. The Free Software, Free Society conference brings together hackers from an unlikely set of nations, people who don't speak the same language but who do see much in the idea that knowledge is most powerful when it is shared freely. Arun M, arun at gnu.org.in, one of the key organisers of this event, said, "The Free Software movement has shown a new way of knowledge creation based on collaboration and social ownership. This conference explores the possibilities of applying the Free Software model in addressing broader questions such as governance, digital inclusion, development and culture." Free Software, Free Society is being organised by the Free Software Foundation of India, along with Italy's Hipatia project, the Society for Promotion of Alternative Computing and Employment (SPACE) in Kerala and the Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management-Kerala (IITM-K). The conference will be held at Technopark, a technology and software promotion centre in the state-capital of India's southernmost state of Kerala.... ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Frederick Noronha 784 Near Convent, Sonarbhat SALIGAO GOA India Freelance Journalist TEL: +91-832-2409490 MOBILE: 9822122436 http://fn.swiki.net http://www.livejournal.com/users/goalinks fred at bytesforall.org http://www.bytesforall.org _______________________________________________ Fsf-friends mailing list Fsf-friends at mm.gnu.org.in http://mm.gnu.org.in/mailman/listinfo/fsf-friends From krishnan_santhosh at yahoo.com Sat May 28 11:17:24 2005 From: krishnan_santhosh at yahoo.com (santhosh krishnan) Date: Fri, 27 May 2005 22:47:24 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Commons-Law] same sex marriages Message-ID: <20050528054724.12608.qmail@web51706.mail.yahoo.com> against same sex marriages? then you probably agree with this... Homosexuality is not natural, much like eyeglasses, polyester, and birth control are not natural. Heterosexual marriages are valid because they produce children. Infertile couples and old people cannot get legally married because the world needs more children. Obviously gay parents will raise gay children because straight parents only raise straight children. Straight marriage will be less meaningful, since Britney Spears's 55-hour just-for-fun marriage was meaningful. Heterosexual marriage has been around for a long time, and it hasn't changed at all: women are property, Blacks can't marry Whites, and divorce is illegal. Gay marriage should be decided by the people, not the courts, because the majority-elected legislatures, not courts, have historically protected the rights of minorities. Gay marriage is not supported by religion. In a theocracy like ours, the values of one religion are always imposed on the entire country. That's why we only have one religion in America. Gay marriage will encourage people to be gay, in the same way that hanging around tall people makes you tall. Legalizing gay marriage will open the door to all kinds of crazy behavior. People may even wish to marry their pets because a dog has legal standing and can sign a marriage license. Children can never succeed without both male and female role models at home. That's why single parents are forbidden to raise children. Gay marriage will change the foundation of society. Heterosexual marriage has been around for a long time, and we could never adapt to new social norms because we haven't adapted to cars or longer lifespans. Civil unions, providing most of the same benefits as marriage with a different name are better, because a "separate but equal" institution is always constitutional. Separate schools for African-Americans worked just as well as separate marriages will for gays & lesbians. source: http://grove.ufl.edu/~ggsa/gaymarriage.html __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/commons-law/attachments/20050527/27950a6b/attachment.html From jawahar at sarai.net Sat May 28 13:37:08 2005 From: jawahar at sarai.net (jawahar at sarai.net) Date: Sat, 28 May 2005 10:07:08 +0200 Subject: [Commons-Law] Report from Kerala In-Reply-To: <42975EC6.4090405@yahoo.com.br> References: <42975EC6.4090405@yahoo.com.br> Message-ID: <7cb45ea04c1da9f26b55b6294abdb213@sarai.net> did you know that for some time now the District Courtrs in Delhi are being computerised with Linux as the OS - although i must admit that some of the people who operate it that i have spoken with it are peeved that they have not been consulted during the process Jawahar On May 27, 7:54 pm Pedro de Paranagua Moniz wrote: > > http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/8319 > > India's Upcoming Free Software, Free Society Conference > > Free software advocates and IT delegates from around the world will > be in Kerala, India, this week in the hopes of building free software > collaborations for the future. Free software offers its users various > freedoms. In India, free software enthusiasts are working on a new > one--the freedom to build bridges to potential partners half-way across > the globe who are facing similar developmental concerns or > challenges. To help facilitate this bridge-building process, the Free > Software Foundation of India is organising a four-country conference to > be held May 28-29, 2005. The Free Software, Free Society conference > brings together hackers from an unlikely set of nations, people who > don't speak the same language but who do see much in the idea that > knowledge is most powerful when it is shared freely. Arun M, > arun at gnu.org.in, one of the key organisers of this event, said, "The > Free Software movement has shown a new way of knowledge creation based > on collaboration and social ownership. This conference explores the > possibilities of applying the Free Software model in addressing broader > questions such as governance, digital inclusion, development and > culture." > > Free Software, Free Society is being organised by the Free Software > Foundation of India, along with Italy's Hipatia project, the Society > for Promotion of Alternative Computing and Employment (SPACE) in Kerala > and the Indian Institute of Information Technology and > Management-Kerala (IITM-K). The conference will be held at Technopark, > a technology and software promotion centre in the state-capital of > India's southernmost state of Kerala.... > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > -- > Frederick Noronha 784 Near Convent, Sonarbhat SALIGAO GOA > India Freelance Journalist TEL: +91-832-2409490 MOBILE: > 9822122436 http://fn.swiki.net http://www.livejournal.com/users/ > goalinks > fred at bytesforall.org http://www.bytesforall.org > > > _______________________________________________ > Fsf-friends mailing list > Fsf-friends at mm.gnu.org.in > http://mm.gnu.org.in/mailman/listinfo/fsf-friends > > > _______________________________________________ > commons-law mailing list > commons-law at sarai.net > https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/commons-law From shekhar at crit.org.in Sun May 29 06:12:17 2005 From: shekhar at crit.org.in (Shekhar Krishnan) Date: Sat, 28 May 2005 20:42:17 -0400 Subject: [Commons-Law] Cabinet Approves New Map Policy Message-ID: Dear All: Strangely, I've not seen this discussed on any of the usual mailing lists so far (or maybe I missed it). Apologies for cross-posting. See also our Mumbai Free Map project on http://www.crit.org.in/projects/gis Best Shekhar ______ Cabinet approves new map policy Defence and open series to be released Though as a rule the use of maps is governed by a system of registration, there will now be no such requirement for maps up to a scale of 1:1 million. Special Correspondent The Hindu, Chennai 20 May 2005 http://www.hindu.com/2005/05/20/stories/2005052003771200.htm NEW DELHI: : The Union Cabinet on Thursday approved a new policy, which provides for the release of two series of maps — defence and open. This is to ensure free flow of spatial information for developmental activities and address security concerns. The defence series maps (DSMs) are for the exclusive use of the defence forces and authorised government departments. The open series maps (OSMs) will be available to the public, private and public agencies and non-governmental organisations involved in planning and development of irrigation projects, roads, bridges and hospitals. The Defence Ministry will determine the policy on the use of DSMs, while the Survey of India (SOI), under the Science and Technology Ministry, will be responsible for the policy on OSMs. The S&T Ministry will have to take one-time permission from the Defence Ministry before releasing a map in the open series. The user-agency will be free to add value and share it, provided the changes are communicated to the SOI. The OSMs can be produced to any scale. Though, as a rule, the use of maps is governed by a system of registration, there will be no such requirement for maps up to a scale of 1:1 million. Registered private agencies, carrying SOI accreditation, will be permitted to do surveys for preparing maps in all parts using the public domain datum. Redundant features Announcing the decision,Finance Minister P. Chidambaram said technological changes around the world rendered many features of the existing map policy redundant and anachronistic. An official release said its continuance tended to impede free flow of spatial information and engendered high opportunity costs for a developing economy. At the same time, all spatial data available in the public domain had potential security hazards. The new policy would address all these concerns. Later, addressing a press conference, S&T Minister, Kapil Sibal, said the SOI would begin releasing the new OSMs in a few months, after the Defence Ministry decided on the extent of the geographical areas that could be opened up for generation of maps without compromising security concerns. At present, 60 per cent of the geographical area was under restriction. It was expected that the new policy would drastically reduce this. The SOI would soon begin updating the maps. The OSMs would have all essential parameters such as the latitude, longitude, gradients and contours. _____ Shekhar Krishnan CRIT (Collective Research Initiatives Trust) B-43, Shravasti Goregaon-Malad Link Road Malad (West), Mumbai 400064 India http://www.crit.org.in/members/shekhar From thaths at gmail.com Mon May 30 11:59:23 2005 From: thaths at gmail.com (Thaths) Date: Mon, 30 May 2005 11:59:23 +0530 Subject: [Commons-Law] Masters of Remix - The Humpback Whales Message-ID: <1bc23463050529232954243fb3@mail.gmail.com> http://joi.ito.com/archives/2005/05/26/masters_of_remix_-_the_humpback_whale.html "I sat next to Dr. Roger Payne at lunch. He talked to me about the songs of the Humpback Wales that he has been recording for decades. He is the authority of this field. He explained to me that Humpback Whales sang beautiful songs. They copy from each other, remixing the songs and add to the songs. These songs evolve over time and riffs get passed from whale to whale across the world. The songs have lots of interesting variations and even have rhymes. He made an interesting observation that the whale songs of the 60's were much more beautiful than the whale songs these days. I suggested that he made some of these songs available online via Creative Commons and he agreed that this would be a cool idea and agreed to work on this. For now, you can find three of his CD's on Amazon.com: Whales Alive, Deep Voices and Songs of the Humpback Whale. I look forward to when we have some whale songs on ccMixter." -- "Good things don't end in -eum; they end in -mania or -teria" -- Homer J. Simpson From dev.gangjee at st-catherines.oxford.ac.uk Mon May 30 20:08:53 2005 From: dev.gangjee at st-catherines.oxford.ac.uk (Dev Gangjee) Date: Mon, 30 May 2005 15:38:53 +0100 (BST) Subject: [Commons-Law] WIPO online forum for IP policy debate Message-ID: <20050530143853.78B42226CA@webmail218.herald.ox.ac.uk> An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: not available Url: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/commons-law/attachments/20050530/f8f6764b/attachment.pl From ashbabu at hotmail.com Tue May 31 00:19:48 2005 From: ashbabu at hotmail.com (Aswathy Babu) Date: Tue, 31 May 2005 00:19:48 +0530 Subject: [Commons-Law] Raj Anand Moot Problem 2004 Message-ID: Mr. Sudhir, My name is Ashwathy Babu and i am a 5th yr law student from ILS law college. I have heard that the Raj Anand moot problem is published online every year and this year i would like to participate. Hence i would humbly like to request that an intimation be forwarded when the details are published..... i am not sure as to whether this would be irregular, but its just that i would like to make sure that i do not miss it when the problem comes out..... Thank you so much.... Yours sincerely Aswathy Babu ashbabu at hotmail.com ashbabu at gmail.com -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/commons-law/attachments/20050531/713d9ed1/attachment.html From lawrence at altlawforum.org Tue May 31 12:56:24 2005 From: lawrence at altlawforum.org (Lawrence Liang) Date: Tue, 31 May 2005 12:56:24 +0530 Subject: [Commons-Law] Landmark case from South Africa Message-ID: Hi all I was in Joburg for a few days, and had a chance to follow a very interesting case that was decided by the constitutional court in SA. This is the first IP case of this kind to reach the constitutional court. A media activist group "Laugh it off" had created a parody of Black label beer, a popular brand in SA with a series of t shirts stating "Black labour: White Guilt", and they were of course sued by Black Label for dilution and disparaging use. You can see the label here http://www.laughitoff.co.za/ Full story of case http://www.finance24.com/articles/default/display_article.asp?Nav=ns&Article ID=1518-24_1712289 The court held in favour of Laugh it off. In a concurring judgment, Justice Albie Sachs, said: "The evidence indicates that everybody concerned with the t-shirts, whether producer or consumer, knew that they were intended to poke fun at the dominance exercised by brand names in our social and cultural life." He said the over-zealous application of the trademark law could have a detrimental effect on the free circulation of ideas. Justice Moseneke said SAB had failed to show a real or even probable likelihood that the t-shirts had economically harmed the Carling Black Label brand. While this is an interesting and highly significant decision, a troubling question of course would be the logical extension of Justice Moseneke's statement. Would it then mean that if you could show a real or even probable likelihood, then the question of free speech will be rendered irrelevant? Lawrence From dev.gangjee at st-catherines.oxford.ac.uk Tue May 31 22:57:57 2005 From: dev.gangjee at st-catherines.oxford.ac.uk (Dev Gangjee) Date: Tue, 31 May 2005 18:27:57 +0100 (BST) Subject: [Commons-Law] Response to Black Label In-Reply-To: <20050531100009.AF92228D924@mail.sarai.net> Message-ID: <20050531172757.75050226D2@webmail219.herald.ox.ac.uk> An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: not available Url: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/commons-law/attachments/20050531/da623e92/attachment.pl