From monica at sarai.net Sun Oct 1 13:57:12 2006 From: monica at sarai.net (monica at sarai.net) Date: Sun, 01 Oct 2006 10:27:12 +0200 Subject: [Commons-Law] Fwd: new white paper on digital art and copyright Message-ID: sorry for cross posting, but i think this might interest many of you on the list best M ------ Original Message ------ Subject: new white paper on digital art and copyright To: nettime-l at bbs.thing.net From: Richard Rinehart Date: Fri, 29 Sep 2006 13:52:13 -0700 Hello Nettimers, The Canadian Government has published a new white paper on digital art and copyright entitled, "Nailing Down Bits: Digital Art and Intellectual Property". You can find the full paper in HTML or PDF format online at: http://www.chin.gc.ca/English/Intellectual_Property/Nailing_Down/pdf.html A short introduction to the paper follows... Nailing Down Bits: Digital Art and Intellectual Property This paper on digital art and intellectual property has been commissioned and published by Canadian Heritage Information Network CHIN), a special operating agency of the Department of Canadian Heritage. This paper is part of a larger series of papers on intellectual property and cultural heritage that have been commissioned by CHIN. This paper is not written from a legal perspective, but from a cultural heritage community perspective. This perspective is informed by legal professionals and publications and by direct experience with intellectual property issues that arise out of the daily practice of cultural professionals. One could say that this paper is an attempt to create a snapshot of the cultural heritage community's response to intellectual property law and practice regarding (digital) art. This paper is meant to ground that response not in terms of broad theories or abstract philosophies, but in terms of daily practice and real-world case studies. For that reason, the sources used for this paper are not mainly books, but instead more topical, conversational, and immediate sources such as digital art community websites, blogs, email discussion lists and extensive interviews with cultural heritage professionals in Canada and the United States ranging from artists to curators to educators. The intended audience for this paper is primarily the cultural heritage community who may benefit from the discussion and analysis of the issues and proposed paths of action. The legal community may also benefit from the case studies and articulation of how one area of law is playing out in the larger society whether it reaches the courts or not. -- Richard Rinehart --------------- Director of Digital Media Berkeley Art Museum/Pacific Film Archive bampfa.berkeley.edu --------------- University of California, Berkeley --------------- 2625 Durant Ave. Berkeley, CA, 94720-2250 ph.510.642.5240 fx.510.642.5269 # distributed via : no commercial use without permission # is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: majordomo at bbs.thing.net and "info nettime-l" in the msg body # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime at bbs.thing.net From seth.johnson at RealMeasures.dyndns.org Mon Oct 2 07:08:56 2006 From: seth.johnson at RealMeasures.dyndns.org (Seth Johnson) Date: Sun, 01 Oct 2006 21:38:56 -0400 Subject: [Commons-Law] GNU Telephony Releases VoIP Encryption per Zimmerman's ZRTP and RFC 3711 Message-ID: <45206DB0.251DA783@RealMeasures.dyndns.org> For many people, net neutrality was an issue that reared its head when the FCC proposed to regulate VoIP protocols in 2004. The following announcement is a blow for independent and autonomous protocol development and neutral Internet communications, as much as it is for privacy. A lot of different groups forged stronger connections right at that point -- one event that came together then was the Internet Commons Congress in March of 2004, where people in areas such as communications policy and copyright/patents and technology, plus domestic and international arenas, all recognized the need to work together the protect the Internet Commons (See http://www.nyfairuse.org/icc/audio/byspeaker/). Seth -------- Original Message -------- Subject: Re: Secure Call announcement, for immediate review and comment Date: Sun, 1 Oct 2006 18:04:00 -0400 From: David Sugar To: Seth Johnson CC: David Sugar , jays at panix.com < SNIP > --- October 1, 2006; Bayonne NJ --- GNU Telephony is happy to announce that with the latest release of the GNU RTP Stack, GNU ccrtp 1.5, we are introducing a free software framework for developing both the secure RTP profile for VOIP (as defined by RFC 3711), and also a GNU GPL licensed implementation of Phil Zimmermann's ZRTP protocol for voice encryption as used in "Zfone". By offering a native secure RTP framework that can be directly embedded in newly developed VOIP applications, GNU Telephony intends to promote the development and widespread use of secure and intercept free voice and video communication services worldwide. The Twinkle softphone package, immediately available with SRTP/ZRTP support, is the first complete free software package to make use of Secure call features offered in the GNU RTP Stack. The GNU RTP stack can be used to develop secure communications for GNU/Linux hosted applications. The stack may also be used to develop application on various BSD systems including Mac OS/X, on Microsoft Windows, and even for embedded systems. We have tested and built the GNU RTP Stack with Handhelds Open Embedded build environment, and we look forward to implementing a Twinkle based secure calling solutions on Linux kernel powered cell phones in the future. Securing RTP sessions is part of our vision in GNU Telephony to help make passive voice communication intercept a thing of the past. By making "secure by design" encryption capabilities simple to embed, and by enabling the largest possible participation in developing such solutions through free software, we hope to break down those remaining barriers that prevent secure telephony from being widely deployed over next generation telephone networks. Part of this vision includes offering TLS encapsulated SIP over TCP, and deployment of anonymous calling proxies, to further deny passive data mining of call session and connection associative information in the future. Downloads: http://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/commoncpp/commoncpp2-1.5.0.tar.gz http://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/ccrtp/ccrtp-1.5.0.tar.gz http://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/ccrtp/libzrtpcpp-0.9.0.tar.gz http://www.xs4all.nl/~mfnboer/twinkle/download/twinkle-0.9.tar.gz Additional Resources: Phil Zimmermann's zrtp specification; http://www.infosecwriters.com/text_resources/pdf/Zfone_SSotillo.pdf. Zfone project; http://www.philzimmermann.com/zfoneproject/index.html. GNU Telephony Secure Calling; http://wiki.gnutelephony.org/index.php/Secure_Call. Twinkle Softphone; http://www.twinklephone.com/. Open Embedded; http://www.handhelds.org/geeklog/index.php. About GNU Telephony: GNU Telephony is a meta project dedicated to the development and promotion of the use of free software for telephony. GNU Telephony is used to directly support the GNU Common C++ family of libraries and telephony application servers such as GNU Bayonne, which are part of the GNU Project, as well as other packages that we regularly use. We will also support several special projects from this site, including CAPE runtime libraries, Secure Calling, and GNU Telephony Open Embedded. From sunil at mahiti.org Sun Oct 1 23:55:05 2006 From: sunil at mahiti.org (Sunil Abraham) Date: Sun, 01 Oct 2006 23:55:05 +0530 Subject: [Commons-Law] Request for Peer Review - FOSS: Open Content Message-ID: <1159727106.5107.164.camel@localhost.localdomain> Dear Friends, Greetings from the IOSN! The International Open Source Network (IOSN) is an initiative of APDIP and supported by the International Development Research Centre of Canada. IOSN is a Centre of Excellence for Free/ Open Source Software (FOSS), Open Content and Open Standards in the Asia-Pacific region. It is a network with a small secretariat based at the UNDP Regional Centre in Bangkok and three centres of excellence – IOSN ASEAN+3, IOSN PIC (Pacific Island Countries), and IOSN South Asia, based in Manila, Suva and Chennai respectively. We are currently seeking public feedback on an IOSN primer titled FOSS: Open Content by Lawrence Liang. Lawrence Liang is a researcher with the Alternative Law Forum, Bangalore. His key areas of interest are law, technology and culture, the politics of copyright and he has been working closely with Sarai, New Delhi on a joint research project Intellectual Property and the Knowledge/Culture Commons. He is the author of two books, “Guide to Open Content Licenses” and “The Public is watching: Sex, Laws and Videotapes” and numerous articles on copyright, informal information economies and the commons. Contents Include: Contexualising Open Content, The Myths of Copyright, Expansion of Copyright Over The Years, How Copyright impedes Creativity and Access to Knowledge, Emergence of the Open Content Paradigm, Licenses and the Control of Copyright, The Public Domain, Open/ Collaborative Production and its Advantages, Characteristics of Open Content Licenses, Survey of Open Content Projects, Policy Implications and Limitations of Open Content. You can download the files in OpenOffice.org, MS Office and PDF format from here:- http://www.iosn.net/open-content/foss-open-content-draft.doc http://www.iosn.net/open-content/foss-open-content-draft.odt http://www.iosn.net/open-content/foss-open-content-draft.pdf We would be very grateful if you could send your feedback on Lawrence's primer by 14th of October 2006. Thanking you in advance. Sunil == People who have provided peer review in the past include: Dr. M Sasikumar Dr. Nah Soo Hoe Onno W. Purbo Colin Charles Phet Sayo Richard Stallman Wooi Tong Tan Atsushi Yamanaka Raul Zambrano Helena Loh Gaurab Raj Upadhaya Anousak Souphavanh Arun M Dr. Sarmad Hussain Javier Sola Guntupalli Karunakar Pramod Raghavendra Will Smith Bjorn Stabell Jethro Cramp Karl O. Pinc Serge Marelli Vorasone Dengkayaphichith Vincent Berment Alberto Escudero-Pascual Eric S. Raymond Aniruddha Shankar Mahesh T. Pai Kenneth Wong Philippe Langlois Dinesh Nair Devdas Bhagat Raj Mathur Satyakam Goswami Vimal Joseph Simos Xenitellis Seow Hiong Goh Michael Mudd Peter Chong From Boris.Rotenberg at IUE.it Mon Oct 2 19:36:21 2006 From: Boris.Rotenberg at IUE.it (Rotenberg, Boris) Date: Mon, 2 Oct 2006 16:06:21 +0200 Subject: [Commons-Law] CFP Joint IJCLP-AoIR Issue -- Internet Convergences References: Message-ID: <23AC77D3C647384BA97ABF855795ACE9013D40BA@MAILSRV2.iue.private> sorry for cross-posting CALL FOR PAPERS 7TH AOIR CONFERENCE - INTERNET CONVERGENCES The International Journal of Communications Law and Policy (IJCLP) and the Association of Internet Researchers is pleased to announce a call for further papers for a special issue on Internet regulation linked to the IRv7 Conference ('Internet Convergences'). The selection committee - composed of the editorial boards of the IJCLP and Matthew Allen (Curtin University of Technology), Fay Sudweeks (Murdoch University) and Axel Bruns (Queensland University of Technology) - will review and consider all submissions for publication. We have already solicited several papers from the conference which are in the process of being reviewed and would now encourage experts from all disciplines and nationalities to submit further papers for publication by 1st December 2006. Acceptance will be notified by the end of the year for publication in 2007 following strict double-blind peer review. The special issue is defined as follow: The Internet has been characterised as a communications technology that, in its global reach and empowerment of individual users, undermines the jurisdictional authority of both sovereign nations and the international bodies to which those nations subscribe. In such a world, it was imagined, 'regulation' would decline or become irrelevant. This characterisation, part of the rhetorical promotion of the Internet in the 1990s, is wrong in two fundamental ways. Firstly, laws and policies that seek to regulate the Internet have proliferated in recent years and demonstrate significant attention by national governments to the business of governing the Internet; equally global discussions to create international understandings of the Internet have also become more significant even if, for the moment, have been less fruitful than purely national legislation. Second, and at least as importantly, it is now apparent that the Internet involves additional regulatory authorities users, systems administrators, software writers and large corporations. If anything, therefore, the Internet can be said to involve increased, or at least more complex webs of, regulatory activity. In this special issue of IJCLP, we bring together papers that explore aspects of regulation, governance and policy-making at all three levels - systemic, national and international - so as to provide insights into network of network regulation. All inquiries should be mailed to Matthew Allen (m.allen at curtin.edu.au) and Boris Rotenberg (boris_rotenberg at yahoo.it), final submissions to Simone F. Bonetti (simo.bonetti at tiscalinet.it). Formatting and other requirements are stated on the IJCLP website. Submissions must be in English and should be between 4-8,000 words in length. -------------- next part -------------- ***** NOTE: An attachment named winmail.dat was deleted from this message because it possibly contained a windows executable or other potentially dangerous file type. Contact admin at sarai.net for more information. From a_prabhala at yahoo.co.uk Mon Oct 16 14:38:09 2006 From: a_prabhala at yahoo.co.uk (Achal Prabhala) Date: Mon, 16 Oct 2006 14:38:09 +0530 Subject: [Commons-Law] Fw: Experimenta 2007 Call for Entries Message-ID: <016301c6f102$9adef750$0a01a8c0@som.yale.edu> EXPERIMENTA is an international film and video festival held in Bombay, India for the past 4 years; now in its 5th year, EXPERIMENTA 2007 moves to Bangalore. EXPERIMENTA seeks films from any country that challenge popular and conventional modes of cinema. Abstract to obscure compositions from any genre produced on the margins of contemporary screen-culture are welcome. Innovative, cutting edge and non-traditional work that attempts to aesthetically extend the parameters of the mediums of film and video is encouraged. Preview copies must be submitted for selection purposes. All lengths of film are considered. Submissions are reviewed on a rolling basis until the final selection is complete. Filmmakers are encouraged to submit their entries as soon as possible. EXPERIMENTA is a curated film festival and is a Filter India project. To type in and print out a submission form, visit: http://www.filterindia.com/callexp07.htm For information on Filter India, visit: http://www.filterindia.com PLEASE CIRCULATE THIS EMAIL -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/commons-law/attachments/20061016/571f52dd/attachment.html From pparanagua at gmail.com Wed Oct 18 01:28:19 2006 From: pparanagua at gmail.com (Pedro Moniz) Date: Tue, 17 Oct 2006 16:58:19 -0300 Subject: [Commons-Law] SIGN A PETITION FOR AMENDING THE BRAZILIAN COPYRIGHT LAW Message-ID: SIGN A PETITION FOR AMENDING THE BRAZILIAN COPYRIGHT LAW FGV´s Centre for Technology and Society is barred from the IFPI press conference Tuesday 17 October 2006 www.a2kbrasil.org.br It has just taken place at Copacabana Palace, in Rio de Janeiro, a press conference of the International Federation of the Phonografic Industry (IFPI). Even though FGV had gotten oficial accreditation to participate on the conference, the Centre for Technology and Society´s team of professors WERE BARRED FROM ENTERING the room. FGV team of professors, Carlos Affonso Souza, Pedro Paranaguá, and Sérgio Branco, were told that the room could fit only 40 persons but they already had around 50 inside it. When asked if the professors could have access and keep standing at least to hear the debate, they were told that there was no room even for standing. However, after having talked to journalists from TV SBT, O Estado de Sao Paulo, Reuters, Associated Press, Folha de Sao Paulo amongst others, the professors were told that the room was not full and that there were places available. They tried to obtain the press release, but they were told that IFPA ran out of the copies, and that their representative would send a copy via email — FGV is still waiting for it. The IFPI, that represents the major recording companies in the world, held this morning a national (Brazilian) press release to officially inform that they are initiating a new round of court actions, this time in Brazil, against users of peer-to-peer networks, a system for downloading files, including music, through software like Soulseek, eMule etc.. They are spreading their court actions from the USA to Brazil. FGV´s Centre for Technology and Society, under the A2K programme, has prepared a Manifesto clarifying the situation and proposing an amendment to the Brazilian copyright law in order to bring a balance to the discussion. Since FGV was not allowed to enter the conference room, there being bodyguards walking around to intimidate our peaceful professors, they waited until the journalists and photographers were coming out of the room to speak to them and to deliver the Manifesto. All of the journalists got very interested on the issue, and were surprised that FGV was barred from the meeting, despite having had its accreditation accepted. Make your voice heard! Sign on the online petition prepared by the Centre for Technology and Society (CTS) at FGV School of Law in Rio de Janeiro, to be sent to the Brazilian National Congress in order to amend the Brazilian copyright law. To sign the Manifesto, click at www.a2kbrasil.org.br/ENG For a Portuguese version, visit www.direitodeacesso.org.br The Manifesto is in English, Castellano, and Portuguese. It is supported from the begining by Derechos Digitales (Chile), CPSR-Perú (Peru), Alternative Law Forum (India), Free Culture (law students from the USA), Audionautes (France), iRights (Germany), and IP Justice (USA). -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/commons-law/attachments/20061017/d25e2974/attachment.html From monica at sarai.net Mon Oct 23 14:09:32 2006 From: monica at sarai.net (Monica Narula) Date: Mon, 23 Oct 2006 14:09:32 +0530 Subject: [Commons-Law] Fwd: Boy Scout IP merit badge References: Message-ID: sorry for cross posting but its boyscout nature was too delicious not to share... best M Begin forwarded message: > From: t byfield > Date: 23 October 2006 12:24:38 AM GMT+05:30 > To: Nettime-l > Subject: Boy Scout IP merit badge > Reply-To: t byfield > > > The historical origins of the Boy Scouts and equivalent organizations, > yeah, sure, but the history of specific *merit badges*? I suppose they > seemed 'neutral' or 'natural' enough that it didn't make sense to look > more deeply; now I wonder, and this list looks a bit more interesting: > > < http://www.meritbadge.com/mb/ > > > Here's what got me going: > > < http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me- > scouts21oct21,0,6146565.story?coll=la-home-headlines > > > A Merit Badge That Can't Be Duplicated > > MPAA, Scouts team up to offer an anti-piracy > award. But will youths who see downloading as > harmless strive for this patch? By David Pierson > Times Staff Writer > > October 21, 2006 > > Boy Scouts can earn badges for woodcarving, > raising rabbits and firing shotguns. > > But in the Los Angeles area, Scouts will now be > able to earn their stripes by proselytizing about > the evils of copyright piracy. > > Officials with the local Boy Scouts and the Motion > Picture Assn. of America on Friday unveiled the > Respect Copyrights Activity Patch -- emblazoned > with a large circle "C" copyright sign along with > a film reel and musical notes. > > The 52,000 Scouts who are eligible may earn the > patch by participating in a curriculum produced by > the MPAA. To earn the badge, Scouts must > participate in several activities including > creating a video public-service announcement and > visiting a video-sharing website to identify which > materials are copyrighted. They may also watch a > movie and discuss how people behind the scenes > would be harmed if the film were pirated. > > But will the patch be a badge of honor or a > scarlet letter of uncoolness? > > Richie Farbman, 13, is raring to go, eager to warn > others about the dangers of illegal downloading > while adding to his more than 20 activity badges. > > "I think it's really good to get the message out > that it's bad," said the Redondo Beach Scout. "You > can see your friends doing it and tell them why > it's bad. I think if you're a role model, you can > stop people." > > But Richie said he knew his perspective wasn't > shared by many of his classmates. "A lot of people > don't think they're going to get in trouble," he > said, "so they do it anyway." > > Other teenagers say Richie and his Scouting > buddies face an uphill battle. "Everyone knows > it's illegal already, but they do it anyway," said > Kevin Tran, a senior at Taft High School in > Woodland Hills. "They can't afford to buy CDs and > DVDs, and they see it [on the Internet] for free, > so why not do it?" > > Officials at the Scouts' Los Angeles Area Council > said they approached the MPAA with the idea nine > months ago, emphasizing that the entertainment > industry lobbying group did not make financial > donations to secure the badge program. > > The inspiration for the new badge came from Hong > Kong, where the local Boy Scouts organization had > its members pledge not to use or buy pirated > materials. In addition, the Scouts agreed to > search Internet file-sharing sites and turn in > sites and users they see violating the law. The > campaign was launched at a stadium before a slew > of pop stars where the so-called "youth > ambassadors" pledged to stem the rise piracy. > > The move raised concerns from civil libertarians, > who feared the group was creating thousands of > young spies to snitch on copyright abusers. > > Victor Zuniga, a spokesman for the Scouts' Los > Angeles Area Council, said his group decided on a > less aggressive approach: The Scouts won't be > asked to police the Internet for pirates. > > "Our program is educational," Zuniga said, adding > that the badge probably would be offered elsewhere > if was successful here. > > Stephanie Scott, a mother of two Boy Scouts, said > the anti-piracy badge has something other Scouting > activities lack. "This one is tailor-made for the > city boy in L.A.," she said. "Scouts may just as > soon go for this one rather than Wilderness > Survival." > > MPAA Chairman Dan Glickman said partnering with > the Boy Scouts made sense because so much of the > pirating was being done by teenagers. "The truth > is: So many kids today are savvy with computers > and Internet technology and can download > anything," he said. > > Although teenagers might roll their eyes at the > new badge, some technology-industry analysts said > it was a good idea. > > "It's actually an incredibly savvy recognition > that all the legal and legislative protection, all > the technological intervention is clearly not > enough to shut down the Internet," said Eric > Garland, an analyst with BigChampagne, which > tracks file-sharing networks. "You have to go > after the will of the people. Make it an ethical > issue." > > But to many teens, it's not so much about ethics > as it is money. "Sure [Scouts] should learn > downloading is illegal. But if you can't afford to > buy it, then they're going to do it anyway," said > Kevin Nguyen, 16, Chatsworth High. "There's no way > to control it." > > david.pierson at latimes.com > > * Times staff writer Amanda Covarrubias contributed > to this report. > > Cheers, > T > > > > > > # distributed via : no commercial use without permission > # is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, > # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets > # more info: majordomo at bbs.thing.net and "info nettime-l" in the > msg body > # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime at bbs.thing.net Monica Narula Raqs Media Collective Sarai-CSDS 29 Rajpur Road Delhi 110054 www.raqsmediacollective.net www.sarai.net From songcraft at yahoo.com Mon Oct 23 15:25:57 2006 From: songcraft at yahoo.com (Anthony McCann) Date: Mon, 23 Oct 2006 02:55:57 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [Commons-Law] Fwd: Boy Scout IP merit badge Message-ID: <20061023095557.59302.qmail@web33413.mail.mud.yahoo.com> This ties in nicely with Baden-Powell's original intention that the Boy Scouts would turn little boys into 'bricks for the wall of empire'. See the book, The Character Factory http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A0DE0DC1338F935A25756C0A960948260 All the best Anthony McCann Academy for Irish Cultural Heritages, University of Ulster ----- Original Message ---- From: Monica Narula To: commons-law at sarai.net Sent: Monday, October 23, 2006 9:39:32 AM Subject: [Commons-Law] Fwd: Boy Scout IP merit badge -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/commons-law/attachments/20061023/1d7d70ae/attachment.html From vivek at sarai.net Mon Oct 23 15:31:16 2006 From: vivek at sarai.net (Vivek Narayanan) Date: Mon, 23 Oct 2006 15:31:16 +0530 Subject: [Commons-Law] Performance from Universal Beach Message-ID: <453C92EC.3010405@sarai.net> Dear Friends, I will be performing poems from my first book (Universal Beach, published by Harbour Line, 2006) as well as a selection of new poems written towards the second book (tentatively titled Lectures in Indian History) at: *the British Council, Chennai, Thursday 26 October, at 7.30 p.m.* This will be part of the Chennai British Council’s “Writer’s Block” season, where one writer is featured each month. Please note that passes are not required for this event, and that all are welcome. Do come! Upcoming readings include Bangalore, Crosswords Bookstore, on November 9, and at the British Council Delhi on November 29. Below, find blurbs, reviews, bio. ****************************************************************** 'Soon the world will know of a daring, vigorous, sexy, humane, wise and traveled poet. It will find in Universal Beach a remarkable formal control, and an equally remarkable free-verse nonchalance. Narayanan has a noise all his own; a voice, happily, exceeding the limitations of voice.' --David Herd "What is more interesting is the way Narayanan performed... [He] doesn't just recite his poems, he acts them out, complete with strong vocal inflexions, chanting and hand gestures." --Jai Arjun Singh, Business Standard Weekend, Jabberwock blog. “Vivek Narayanan’s poems remind me of a thriving port-city, where diverse tongues are spoken, their registers varying from a priestly classical to a piratical demotic… And then there are moments of luminosity, when the word becomes the bearer of hope and redemption. Not by offering us a spurious clarity, but by challenging us into insight with a jaggedness of phrase, a treacherously ambiguous grammar, and a demanding musicality. --Ranjit Hoskote Vivek Narayanan’s first book of poems, Universal Beach, was published in 2006 from Harbour Line (Mumbai). In 2002, he was the Charles Wallace Writer-In-Residence at the University of Kent at Canterbury. As a poet, he has studied under Derek Walcott and Rosanna Warren (at Boston University) and Charles Tomlinson. He has recently had poems in Harvard Review, Fulcrum, Indian Literature and elsewhere, has been published in Indian and international journals and anthologies since 1994, including in Reasons For Belonging: Fourteen Contemporary Indian Poets (Viking Penguin, 2002). His short stories, reviews and essays have appeared in a number of places, including the Village Voice, The HarperCollins Book of New Indian Fiction (2005), Best New American Voices 2005 (Harcourt Publishers), Poetry Review (UK), The Hindu, and Perihelion. Upcoming work includes poems in the Norton Anthology of Contemporary Voices from the Eastern World (W.W. Norton, 2007) and Sixty Indian Poets (Penguin). In addition to publication, he has been working on the performance of his work since 1995. Narayanan was born in Ranchi in 1972, grew up in Lusaka, Zambia, studied in the US, and is currently based in Delhi, where he works at Sarai: The New Media Initiative ( www.sarai.net )— an organization that brings together visual artists, social scientists, writers, and others to reflect on old and new media forms and the city. Currently he is also a staff writer for the quirky British “non-literary literary magazine”, The Enthusiast ( www.theenthusiast.co.uk ) and Associate Editor at the Boston-based international poetry annual, Fulcrum: www.fulcrumpoetry.org . From vivek at sarai.net Mon Oct 23 15:40:46 2006 From: vivek at sarai.net (Vivek Narayanan) Date: Mon, 23 Oct 2006 15:40:46 +0530 Subject: [Commons-Law] Performance from Universal Beach In-Reply-To: <453C92EC.3010405@sarai.net> References: <453C92EC.3010405@sarai.net> Message-ID: <453C9526.6090303@sarai.net> I should mention that I think that U.B. may be the first poetry book to have been published in India under a copyleft license. Does anyone know? V. From lokesh at sarai.net Thu Oct 26 17:51:08 2006 From: lokesh at sarai.net (Lokesh) Date: Thu, 26 Oct 2006 17:51:08 +0530 Subject: [Commons-Law] Discussion on Capital Punishment Message-ID: <4540A834.1000408@sarai.net> *Debeting Politics series* on *Capital Punishment Justice or Failure of Justice* speakers *Dr. Badri Raina Sonia Jabbar Ravi Nair* Venue : Seminar Room *Kirori Mal College * DelhiUniversity, North Campus Date : *27th October 2006* Time : *12:30 pm.* *Youth and Students' Forum* in collaboration with English Literary Society, KMC contact: 9871499738, 9871406533, 9210578165 From eye at ranadasgupta.com Fri Oct 27 14:29:06 2006 From: eye at ranadasgupta.com (Rana Dasgupta) Date: Fri, 27 Oct 2006 14:29:06 +0530 Subject: [Commons-Law] Player Piano In-Reply-To: <4540A834.1000408@sarai.net> References: <4540A834.1000408@sarai.net> Message-ID: <4541CA5A.4070403@ranadasgupta.com> “Technology and Below-the-Line Labor in the Copyfight over Intellectual Property” (American Quarterly, 58:3, 2006). Extract follows; for full article go here: http://archive.blogsome.com/2006/10/22/andrew-ross-copyfight/#more-433 Kurt Vonnegut published his first novel, Player Piano (1952), at a time of high, dystopian anxiety about the abuse of technology by the state and by industrialists alike. The novel — which depicts an unsavory future in which new technologies make everyone’s skills obsolete — dutifully channeled these public concerns. Player pianos do not really figure in the novel, but the title was an explicit allusion to their contribution, historically, to the technological disemployment of musicians. Nor was Vonnegut the only writer of his generation to draw attention to the mother of cultural automation. The threat posed to artists’ livelihoods by the mechanical player piano was also shared by William Gaddis, who developed a lifelong obsession with the technology. (1) It is worth recalling briefly how and why the pianola, which had a short-lived but legally significant career, should have earned such a reputation as the original sinner. Its fin-de-siècle development was arguably the first salient example of an industrial technology designed, in large part, to cut the costs of creative labor. The subsequent pianola boom came at a time when the American Federation of Musicians (AFM) had scored some significant successes in negotiating wage scales and other conditions for its members. Indeed, the union’s bristling response to this new technology marked the beginning of the AFM’s long struggle against the automation of the jobs of live performers. By 1909, an estimated 330,000 of the pianos produced in the United States were mechanized, and by 1916, 65 percent of the market was still monopolized by player pianos. (2) The roll industry, which serviced the boom, had become one of the chief factors driving the music industries as a whole. While it was promoted as a great equalizer (create your own music in the home!), the pianola met the industry’s need to find a less durable consumer product than the standard piano. Aside from the instrument’s direct threat to live performers, the production of the player rolls created a low-wage manufacturing industry that offered compensatory factory-style employment to the displaced performers and others who could not find work in vaudeville or in one of the many traveling dance orchestras of the time. As a result, the work of pianists was imperiled and degraded on all sides. The pianist workforce took further hits with each new commercial technology for recording or broadcasting performances. While the advent of silent movies provided employment for piano accompanists in the theaters, the sound film process introduced by Vitaphone and the use of canned music in motion pictures would put them and thousands more movie and theater pit musicians out of work. (3) Jukeboxes and other uses of phonographs took a further toll. In the space of two decades, pianists who had been the mainstay of virtually all commercial and domestic entertainment were reduced to bit parts in the Fordist assemblies of orchestras and big bands. By midcentury, the piano was more ubiquitous in households as an item of furniture than as an active complement to the hearth. It is fair to say, in keeping with the spirit of Vonnegut’s title, that the pianola set in motion a machinery of disemployment that continues to transform the craft of music making to this day. But the player piano is more likely to be remembered, and cited, today as a key case study in copyright law. Pianists, after all, were not the only group whose livelihoods were threatened by the mercurial rise of these machines. Their use also deprived composers of profits from sheet music sales. Congress was asked to adjudicate whether the pianola companies had to pay copyright holders for permission to play their content. In their landmark decision of 1909, the legislators resolved that whoever wanted to record the music, and make subsequent copies of it, had to pay for the content, though not at a price set by the holder. Instead, the fee paid to the composer or the relevant copyright holder was set by law (at two cents for each copy). From lokesh at sarai.net Mon Oct 30 11:50:03 2006 From: lokesh at sarai.net (Lokesh) Date: Mon, 30 Oct 2006 11:50:03 +0530 Subject: [Commons-Law] discussion on stealing culture? : IPR & the copyleft movement Message-ID: <45459993.2090803@sarai.net> *Debating Politics Series* *3rd meeting * **Youth and Stud** **ents Foru*m* *and* The St. Stephens College History Society Invites you for a talk on */Stealing Culture?:/* */Intellectual Property Rights/* */And/* */The Copyleft Movement./* // /speakers/ Ravi Sundaram and Ravikant (Sarai, CSDS) Time:1.30 pm venue: Seminar room From seth.johnson at RealMeasures.dyndns.org Mon Oct 30 18:32:01 2006 From: seth.johnson at RealMeasures.dyndns.org (Seth Johnson) Date: Mon, 30 Oct 2006 08:02:01 -0500 Subject: [Commons-Law] Regarding Google and YouTube Message-ID: <4545F7C9.988C9D09@RealMeasures.dyndns.org> A few strands to link up: Youtube's practice is precisely in accord with the WIPO Broadcaster's Treaty. The notion is to watermark video streams so you can tell who broadcast particular broadcasts, then create an unconstitutional, but international-treaty-based "broadcaster's right" to enforce that in complete disregard for basic rights. A fundamental change in the nature of the public domain (and the Internet). I don't know a lot about the "Homeland Stupidity" site that follows, but take note of the following (text pasted below): > http://www.homelandstupidity.us/2006/02/22/google-in-bed-with-us-intelligence/ Google recently acquired Youtube. Despite their net neutrality stance, Google is now in a position to help facilitate the end of net neutrality through the broadcaster's treaty. Seth --- > http://www.homelandstupidity.us/2006/02/22/google-in-bed-with-us-intelligence/ Google in bed with U.S. intelligence By Michael Hampton Posted: February 22, 2006 11:31 am Even while Google presents a public image of vigorously protecting its users’ privacy, it has quietly provided assistance to several U.S. intelligence agencies, such as the Central Intelligence Agency and Defense Intelligence Agency, as the U.S. prosecutes its war on terrorism. In addition, Google may be providing assistance to the National Security Agency. IT contractors and intelligence officials familiar with the arrangement confirmed to HSToday.us that Google had been providing assistance to the intelligence community, but would not say under what authority that assistance had been requested or provided. The intelligence community appears to be interested in data mining Google’s vast store of information on each user who uses Google’s services. Google collects data on each user’s search queries, which web sites users visited after making a query, and through its Google Analytics service, can also track users on cooperating web sites. It’s not clear what level of access to or how much of this information has been made available to intelligence agencies. The contractor, who spoke on a not-for-attribution basis, said that at least one US intelligence agency he declined to identify is working to “leverage Google’s [user] data monitoring” capability as part of an effort by the IC to glean from this data information of “national security intelligence interest” in the war on terror. . . . One of the sources did say, however, that the CIA’s Office of Research and Development “has been giving them additional money and guidance and requirements.” Last November, the CIA - through In-Q-Tel [CIA venture capital company] - issued notices to sell $2.2 million worth of Google stock. Robert David Steele, intelligence veteran and CEO of OSS.Net, Inc. which sponsored last week’s event, told HSToday.us Tuesday evening that “Google is being actively hypocritical and deceptive in playing up its refusal to help the Department of Justice when all along it has been taking money and direction for elements of the US Intelligence Community, including the Office of Research and Development at the Central Intelligence Agency, In-Q-Tel, and in all probability, both the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Army’s Intelligence and Security Command.” Steele added, “I have no doubt that Google, in its arrogance, decided it could make a deal with the devil and not get caught.” — HSToday.us If you are extremely concerned about the possibility that your private browsing information is going to wind up in the hands of U.S. intelligence agencies, you can throw a spanner in the works by blocking cookies from the following domains: google.com, googlesyndication.com, google-analytics.com, and your country-specific Google domain (e.g. google.co.uk). If you actually use Google services, such as Google Mail, then this obviously will prevent you from using those services. Even with cookies blocked, a limited amount of user tracking is possible, so unless you really are a terrorist, it probably isn’t worth the trouble. I still have all of my Google Cookies. Then again, I already know they’re watching me -- [CC] Counter-copyright: http://realmeasures.dyndns.org/cc I reserve no rights restricting copying, modification or distribution of this incidentally recorded communication. Original authorship should be attributed reasonably, but only so far as such an expectation might hold for usual practice in ordinary social discourse to which one holds no claim of exclusive rights. From ramanchima at gmail.com Mon Oct 30 21:43:18 2006 From: ramanchima at gmail.com (Raman Chima) Date: Mon, 30 Oct 2006 21:43:18 +0530 Subject: [Commons-Law] Law schools and their websites: The US "National Law School" Message-ID: <2fbb8fe0610300813n227bd3ffs95b7b0953c8d1e5a@mail.gmail.com> Dear all, Some of us here at the National Law School of India University (NLSIU) Bangalore came across this rather amusing case of "inspiration" recently; a new "National Law School" in the US. To get an idea about what this matter is about, please visit their website at http://www.nationallawschool.net. I was wondering as to the exact legal questions arising from this situation and other cases such as these where an institution has rather directly ripped off another institution's logo, name and also made a website rather similar to the other's in terms of design (you can view the NLSIU website by visiting www.nls.ac.in). While I personally don't believe in very strict and rigidly defined regimes of IPR protection, I do think this is in rather poor taste. Sincerely, Raman Jit Singh Chima. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/commons-law/attachments/20061030/8a5de4a9/attachment.html From annymcbeal at gmail.com Tue Oct 31 12:11:38 2006 From: annymcbeal at gmail.com (anu) Date: Tue, 31 Oct 2006 12:11:38 +0530 Subject: [Commons-Law] online printing experience Message-ID: <8a1161ed0610302241j2470b4bcu62e7c5436290e1fb@mail.gmail.com> http://www.siliconindia.com/shownews/33606 A unique Indian experiment in online publishing Monday, October 23, 2006 ** *Comments( 0 ) | * * * *Print Article| * ** *Email Article* Mumbai: An innovative experiment in publishing by a doctor in Mumbai has sparked off a wide range of academic publications, giving authors hundreds of new readers and a genuine chance to create relevant new knowledge. Mumbai-based Medknow is an open publishing firm that creates academic (mostly medical) journals, puts them online, and makes them accessible to all. While sharing all this useful information without a fee, it makes a tidy profit for itself and also builds readership and credibility for both the journals and the authors. Started by Dev Kumar Sahoo, a doctor, Medknow Publications Pvt Ltd promises to "provide solutions for the scientific publishing community, helping in publication and dissemination of research and thus converting research to knowledge." "We now have 33 journals being published by us," Sahoo told IANS. Journals published include the Journal of Postgraduate Medicine, Indian Journal of Medical Sciences, and a range of other technical and scholarly publications. Medknow has a staff of 20 people and also does a lot of outsourcing. This experiment flies in the face of the traditional wisdom that if you share your knowledge, you won't be able to earn from it. MedKnow shares its information and not just survives, but thrives. "Printing and mailing a journal eats up 85-95 percent of the cost of producing the journal. If you can spend 5-15 percent more, you can get it online. You won't lose readers or subscriptions. On the contrary, the advantages of increased readership is tremendous," explains the 33-year-old doctor. "Without open access, there's no scope for a journal (from a developing country in particular) to reach any quality. Open access (OA) refers to the free online availability of digital content. It is best-known for peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly articles because scholars publish without expectation of payment. Not just are Indian medical journals increasingly tempted by the idea of open access publishing, but there is a growing interest from abroad too, particularly the so-called 'developed' countries," Sahoo says. "Our journals, which provide fee-less publication for accepted writers and immediate free access for readers, go through an online submission and review system (using in-house software). This cuts down costs and resources spent on processing articles," he says. Once an article is processed, it is published for immediate free access on-line. "This increases visibility, attracts authors and encourages more citations, which are all important in the academic field," says Sahoo. Some figures are revealing - their first online venture, the Journal of Post Graduate Medicine from India (JPGM), grew from a 2001 print circulation of 300-400 to about 3,000-4,000 visitors per day. That is almost a million visitors a year. Most of the foreign visitors are from the US and Europe, and from institutions like Harvard and University of California. Quality articles are no longer in short supply. JPGM had 19 articles submitted in 1999 and 770 last year. Its impact factor has "increased visibly". Likewise, open access won't mean a loss of subscriptions even for smaller journals. "Very few (academic) journals in India have a subscription of over 200-300," says Sahoo. "None of our journals that we've published for over three years have lost subscriptions. In fact, we have gained our print subscriptions." By being 'open access' journals, they enter into the "virtuous circle of accessibility" and get noticed via online networks like Bioline, bibliographic database, search engines and individual web sites. This only boosts the accessibility and impact of these journals. Sahoo adds that he first experimented with publishing, while he was still a medical student, wanting to help other students find the best answers from a range of textbooks. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/commons-law/attachments/20061031/a73cdad6/attachment.html From rahulcherian at hotmail.com Tue Oct 31 13:34:07 2006 From: rahulcherian at hotmail.com (Rahul Cherian) Date: Tue, 31 Oct 2006 08:04:07 +0000 Subject: [Commons-Law] Law schools and their websites: The US "National LawSchool" In-Reply-To: <2fbb8fe0610300813n227bd3ffs95b7b0953c8d1e5a@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/commons-law/attachments/20061031/1c1963f2/attachment.html