From seth.johnson at RealMeasures.dyndns.org Sat Sep 2 06:19:00 2006 From: seth.johnson at RealMeasures.dyndns.org (Seth Johnson) Date: Fri, 01 Sep 2006 20:49:00 -0400 Subject: [Commons-Law] Promote Progress of Science and Useful Arts: Scientific Prediction Exchange Message-ID: <44F8D4FC.15FB6AA2@RealMeasures.dyndns.org> > http://agoraphilia.blogspot.com/2006/08/prediction-markets-whup-on-copyrights.html Prediction Markets Whup on Copyrights and Patents posted 8:04 PM by Tom W. Bell Tuesday, August 29, 2006 I've just posted to SSRN my forthcoming paper, "Prediction Markets for Promoting the Progress of Sciences and the Useful Arts." It will appear in vol. 14 of the George Mason Law Review. You can download a pretty-to-close-to-final draft at here. The abstract: Copyrights and patents promote only superficial progress in the sciences and useful arts. Copyright law primarily encourages entertaining works, whereas patent law mainly inspires marginal improvements in mature technologies. Neither form of intellectual property does much to encourage basic research and development. Essential progress suffers. Prediction markets offer another way to promote the sciences and useful arts. In general, prediction markets support transactions in claims about unresolved questions of fact. A prediction market specifically designed to promote progress in the sciences and useful arts - call it a scientific prediction exchange or SPEx - would support transactions in a variety of prediction certificates, each one of which promises to pay its bearer in the event that an associated claim about science, technology, or public policy comes true. Like other, similar markets in information, a scientific prediction exchange would aggregate, measure, and share the opinions of people paid to find the truth. Because it would reward accurate answers to factual questions, a SPEx would encourage essential discoveries about the sciences and useful arts. Researchers and developers in those fields could count on the exchange to turn their insights into profit. In contrast to copyrights or patents, therefore, a SPEx would target fundamental progress. Furthermore, and in contrast to copyrights and patents, the exchange would not impose deadweight social costs by legally restricting access to public goods. To the contrary, a scientific prediction exchange would generate a significant positive externality: Claim prices that quantify the current consensus about vital controversies. This article measures copyright and patent law against the Constitution's call for promotion of the Progress of science and useful Arts, to find those traditional forms of intellectual property lacking. As a cure for that policy failure, it suggests scientific prediction exchanges. Given that such exchanges offer the promise of large net public and private benefits, why don't they already thrive in the United States? Because the laws written for commodity futures, securities, and gambling markets cast a pall of legal uncertainty over scientific prediction exchanges. To ease that unwarranted burden, the article explores a variety of strategies designed to guarantee the legality of scientific prediction exchanges. The article concludes with an all-too- apt illustration of how legal risks can discourage prediction markets from promoting the progress of science and the useful arts. From seth.johnson at RealMeasures.dyndns.org Tue Sep 5 07:26:22 2006 From: seth.johnson at RealMeasures.dyndns.org (Seth Johnson) Date: Mon, 04 Sep 2006 21:56:22 -0400 Subject: [Commons-Law] Promote Progress of Science and Useful Arts: Scientific Prediction Exchange References: <44F8D4FC.15FB6AA2@RealMeasures.dyndns.org> Message-ID: <44FCD946.5C18D9C2@RealMeasures.dyndns.org> Can't say I can really assess this sort of thing, but my response is at the level of whether this works in general: I would observe that when discoveries are made, it's often a reflection of new understandings of the nature of the "stuff" that's presupposed in previous scientific knowledge: new laws derive from new understandings of the terms that had made up previous laws. So deciding who won a bet on an newly discovered fact can really be contentious -- can certainly be made to be contentious when the interests of betting parties come into play. The only way to address this that I can think of, would be to require that some sort of experimental apparatus be specified that would decide the outcome by reproducibility. But that would either be unsatisfactory for the purpose of resolving issues of whether a fact was discovered, because the experiment proposed would often/usually be irrelevant to the real facts and circumstances of the discovery in the end, or it would be nearly the same as achieving the discovery yourself. The usual principle in science where a discovery is proven by reproducibility, works in large part because the only issue is the verifiability of a discovery that way, not whether somebody gets to win a predetermined bet. Of course, in this world, there is the other way of "proving" a discovery -- in a very, very different sense -- which is the "proving" of successfully bringing a discovery to market in marketable form. Seth Seth Johnson wrote: > > > http://agoraphilia.blogspot.com/2006/08/prediction-markets-whup-on-copyrights.html > > Prediction Markets Whup on Copyrights and Patents > > posted 8:04 PM by Tom W. Bell > > Tuesday, August 29, 2006 > > I've just posted to SSRN my forthcoming paper, "Prediction > Markets for Promoting the Progress of Sciences and the Useful > Arts." It will appear in vol. 14 of the George Mason Law Review. > You can download a pretty-to-close-to-final draft at here. The > abstract: > > Copyrights and patents promote only superficial progress in > the sciences and useful arts. Copyright law primarily > encourages entertaining works, whereas patent law mainly > inspires marginal improvements in mature technologies. > Neither form of intellectual property does much to encourage > basic research and development. Essential progress suffers. > > Prediction markets offer another way to promote the sciences > and useful arts. In general, prediction markets support > transactions in claims about unresolved questions of fact. A > prediction market specifically designed to promote progress > in the sciences and useful arts - call it a scientific > prediction exchange or SPEx - would support transactions in a > variety of prediction certificates, each one of which > promises to pay its bearer in the event that an associated > claim about science, technology, or public policy comes true. > Like other, similar markets in information, a scientific > prediction exchange would aggregate, measure, and share the > opinions of people paid to find the truth. > > Because it would reward accurate answers to factual > questions, a SPEx would encourage essential discoveries about > the sciences and useful arts. Researchers and developers in > those fields could count on the exchange to turn their > insights into profit. In contrast to copyrights or patents, > therefore, a SPEx would target fundamental progress. > Furthermore, and in contrast to copyrights and patents, the > exchange would not impose deadweight social costs by legally > restricting access to public goods. To the contrary, a > scientific prediction exchange would generate a significant > positive externality: Claim prices that quantify the current > consensus about vital controversies. > > This article measures copyright and patent law against the > Constitution's call for promotion of the Progress of science > and useful Arts, to find those traditional forms of > intellectual property lacking. As a cure for that policy > failure, it suggests scientific prediction exchanges. Given > that such exchanges offer the promise of large net public and > private benefits, why don't they already thrive in the United > States? Because the laws written for commodity futures, > securities, and gambling markets cast a pall of legal > uncertainty over scientific prediction exchanges. To ease > that unwarranted burden, the article explores a variety of > strategies designed to guarantee the legality of scientific > prediction exchanges. The article concludes with an all-too- > apt illustration of how legal risks can discourage prediction > markets from promoting the progress of science and the useful > arts. -- RIAA is the RISK! Our NET is P2P! http://www.nyfairuse.org/action/ftc DRM is Theft! We are the Stakeholders! New Yorkers for Fair Use http://www.nyfairuse.org [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 lawrence at altlawforum.org Tue Sep 5 10:11:34 2006 From: lawrence at altlawforum.org (Lawrence Liang) Date: Tue, 05 Sep 2006 10:11:34 +0530 Subject: [Commons-Law] Survey of Open Content Projects in non-Western Countries In-Reply-To: <200609042303.02831.felix@openflows.org> Message-ID: Hi All Felix Stalder has just completed a survey/study of Open Content projects in the non western context. You can find a link to the complete study available here Lawrence Survey of Open Content Projects in non-Western Countries http://oc.openflows.org Vienna, 04.9.2006. Openflows.org releases today a survey of open content projects in five non-western regions: Arab countries, Sub-Saharan Africa, India, Brazil and South East and Eastern Europe. The aim of the study is to assess the potential of the open content production process for areas and fields which are under served by the commercial players. While we cannot claim completeness, we believe that the range of projects allows insight into the complex ways in which these projects interact with their particular contexts and the vast differences this creates. Main Findings Open content projects are extremely sensitive to local conditions. For their constituencies (producers and users of the project) the practical value of the material tends to be far more important than abstract layer of licensing. Hence, very few projects view themselves as 'open content', in contrast to 'open source' software projects, where the sense of community across projects is much stronger. Open content projects rely on at least a kernel of a civil society, comprised of dedicated individuals, NGOs, educational institutions and initiatives, and others who value open cooperation (i.e. where contributions are encouraged from people who are not formerly known). If that does not exist, be it that social tensions are too strong, or that economic situation is too harsh, open content projects cannot flourish. For the majority to larger projects, some  form of institutional support for basic intrastructure is necessary, because of the long-term nature of the projects. In Brazil, for example, this is provided by public institutions (educational and governmental), in collaboration with NGOs and other independent actors. Thus a number large, structured open content projects are developing strongly, particularly in the field of music and education. Where such institutional support is missing, for example in India, such projects have a hard time reaching critical mass. The situation is different for smaller open content projects, such a blogging. These can run on globally available commercial infrastructures (Web2.0 companies) and are hence in all areas growing strongly. Their social and political impact, though, depends highly on local conditions. Political blogs in Egypt, for example, are subject to entirely different dynamics than those in India. Outlook Apart from well-known project based in highly-developed countries (Wikipedia, MIT's Open Course Ware, Web2.0 companies) the field of open content is still nascent. Without support, the uphill battle to reach critical mass (when the project becomes self-sustainable) will be very steep for most larger open content projects. The growth of a globally available infrastructure for collaboration, provided by Web2.0 companies, on the other hand, might help to unlock some of the creative potential currently held-back by the lack of stable, scalable platforms. As of mid 2006, the snapshot provided by this survey, it's too early to say where and in which form this will happen. And without a general strengthening of civil society in these regions, it might well remain stunted for a longer time than necessary. Principal researcher and contact: Felix Stalder Essential research partners: Branka Curcic, Novi Sad, Serbia and Montenegro; Alaa Abd El Fattah, Cairo, Egypt; Tori Holmes and Tati Wells, Rio de Janerio, Brasil; Kerryn McKay and Heather Ford, Johannesburg, South Africa; and Lawrence Liang, Alternative Law Forum, Bangalore, India Support: The research was made possible by a generous grant from the Open Society Institute's Information Program (Very Franz) http://www.soros.org/initiatives/information From venkyh at gmail.com Tue Sep 5 13:21:16 2006 From: venkyh at gmail.com (Venkatesh Hariharan) Date: Tue, 5 Sep 2006 13:21:16 +0530 Subject: [Commons-Law] India At The Forefront Of Knowledge Commons Debate Message-ID: <3f400ec0609050051p2b2bb428iacb663feaffb3d7d@mail.gmail.com> India At The Forefront Of Knowledge Commons Debate http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/index.php?p=389&res=1680_ff&print=0 By Frederick Noronha for *Intellectual Property Watch* NEW DELHI - What do seeds have in common with software? Or age-old medicines with copyright lawyers? And, what's the link between ayurvedic medicines and techies talking free software in Bangalore? Such issues are getting closely enmeshed in a deepening debate on how knowledge is shared or controlled in this new information-dominated century. This is a debate of vital relevance for a country that is making an increasingly visible global impact through its brain power, and yet has among the most impressive collections of traditional medicines and knowledge. Diverse views surface on how such issues should be tackled, as was strongly obvious at a 24-25 August "knowledge symposium" held at New Delhi. The invite-only meet was organised by the open source software firm Red Hat (India) and the Indian Institute of Technology New Delhi. The event brought these diverse strands together while focusing on what it said were alternative ways of looking at sharing knowledge and concepts like intellectual property. India's Big Stakes India has big stakes in this debate. It is home to vast amounts of traditional knowledge - traditional systems of medicine and healthcare, like Yoga, Ayurveda, Unani and Siddha (both systems of medicine), traditional agriculture, and more. But the planet's second-most populous country also faces the dilemma of getting global acceptability on intellectual property issues as it integrates growingly with the global economy. Physicist, eco-feminist, environmental activist and author Vandana Shiva was one of the articulate voices that sought to bring the diverse strands of the debate together. "I'm happy to join those of you working to defend the commons in the field of knowledge," said Shiva, alluding to knowledge typically available in the public domain. Shiva, who has fought for changes in India's agriculture and food sector for over two decades, spoke on 'Nurturing India's Traditional Knowledge'. "What [freely available and IP-unencumbered] open source software is to IT [information technology], open pollinated seeds are to the agricultural commons. These are the same things," she said. "Since the past 20 years, I've started to save seeds and create community seed banks." She argued: "Biodiversity, traditional knowledge and agriculture are matters of life and death [in countries like India], depending on whether resources and knowledge are in the commons, or they are in privatised property." Shiva pointed to the importance of traditional knowledge, especially in the fields of agriculture, nutrition and healthcare. "In this country, we have rice varieties that are taller than this room…," she said in the chandeliered conference room of a luxury hotel. "That helps them to tolerate floods. By just moving the gene, it doesn't mean that some scientist has invented any gene. It is in the commons," she added. In a long and hard-hitting speech, the author of titles such as "The Violence of Green Revolution" and "Monocultures of the Mind" spoke about how traditional knowledge like yoga or ecological farming was being denied its "status as knowledge on a yardstick of Cartesian reductionist knowledge". She noted the diversification of contemporary knowledge, the difficulty of slotting part of it under 'the scientific approach', and charged that traditional knowledge is getting "ghettoised as if it wasn't a science". Who Shall Own India's Ancient Wisdom? Others initiatives related to India's traditional knowledge also were discussed at the meeting. One such initiative is TKDL, an acronym for the Traditional Knowledge Digital Library. This Indian government initiative based in New Delhi is aimed at building a database of traditional knowledge that "enables the protection of such information from getting misappropriated." Since an interdisciplinary team began work in October 2001, the TKDL has completed the transcription of 36,000 ayurvedic formulations into English, German, French, Spanish and Japanese. It made a presentation at the International Patent Classification Union in Geneva in the past. TKDL Director Dr. V. K. Gupta said at the conference: "TKDL deals with traditional knowledge and the issue of patents. We're not focused on getting patents, but on preventing its misappropriation." "Knowledge from the fields of [Indian systems of medicine like] Ayurveda or Siddha are very well documented. But the problem is that of language. This knowledge is documented in languages like Sanskrit, Hindi, Arabic, or Persian. Books about them are not available at international patent offices. So, there's no understanding [about how ancient this knowledge really is]," said Gupta. Gupta pointed out that if anything is pre-known, then existing intellectual property rights (IPR) laws do not allow it to be patented. "A majority of the patents [taken on Indian knowledge] is by expatriate Indians or multinational corporations. There are about 2,000 patents which have been wrongly issued, in our view. Each takes 11 years to fight. How do you resolve this problem?" he asked. So TKDL's approach is to document traditional knowledge. "We've done it for around 70,000 formulations in Ayurveda, and some more in the Unani and Siddha," he added. TKDL's team of a hundred persons have been working on this for the past five years. Past Attempts to Patent Indian Products Attempts have been made - not always unsuccessfully - to get patents related to Indian products, such as Basmati rice (widely grown in the Himalayan foothills), and India-derived lower-gluten genetically modified wheat strains. There was also a patent on Neem (a long-used tree sometimes called the "village pharmacy") challenged by environmental groups, and one on the use of turmeric for treating illness (used for centuries in India). Patents were also sought on Psyllium husk (called Isabgol, in India) – for reducing cholesterol, improving bowel movements, purposes for which it has been traditionally used in India. Fennel (saunf, by its Indian name), coriander (dhania), cumin (jeera) and sunflower products and properties also attracted patents, a development which evokes laughs in India, considering that these items have been so long used for such purposes here. Trade and IPR as 'War by Other Means' "You must make sense of IPR in its context. Trade needs to be seen as a continuation of war by other means," said Prabir Purkayastha of the Delhi Science Forum. Mr Purkayastha's view is shared by people of other ideologies in a country like India which feels it has not gained its fair share for centuries out of global trade deals. India's current government also carries with it a significant influence of the Communist parties, if only because it lacks a majority on its own in the parliament. Prithviraj Chauhan, Indian minister of state attached to the Prime Minister's office, told the meet that India is "keeping up to" its World Trade Organization obligations. But, he hastened to add: "The open source community is performing a historic role, by reversing that which has commercialised and [trends which have] priced all information." Former nuclear scientist and fellow of the Third World Academy of Sciences (Trieste) Dr. V. S. Ramamurthy argued: "India has a long tradition of an intellectual property protection regime, however weak it was. The first Indian patent laws were promulgated (during the British rule) in 1856. After independence, new patent laws were put in place in the form of the Indian Patent Act 1970." Ramamurthy is the chair of the board that controls India's prestigious IIT technological training institutions, that has created many top technologists for global industry. But, he said, while India had joined all international negotiations there "are discomforts" domestically. Scientists Historically Resist Patents not in the Public Interest "A significant number of people, both within the scientific community and outside, believe that today's strategy in handling intellectual property assets is flawed," Ramamurthy said. "It is against the traditional belief that knowledge is a public property, particularly knowledge for public good." Ramamurthy went on to cite the case of Sir Jagdish Chandra Bose, India's physicist who pioneered the investigation of radio and microwave optics. "His reluctance to any form of patenting is well known. It was contained in his letter to (Indian Nobel laureate) Rabindranath Tagore dated May 17, 1901 from London." "It was not that Sir Bose was unaware of patents and its advantages. He was the first Indian to get a US Patent (No. 755840) in 1904. And Sir Bose was not alone in his avowed reluctance to patenting. Roentgen, Pierre Curie and many others also chose the path of no patenting on moral grounds," said the former atomic scientist. What Model is Best for India? There's also anger over some recent developments. Red Hat India's Venkatesh Hariharan pointed to attempts to patent yogic postures, under the name of Bikram Yoga, in the United States recently. "When asked, why he was doing it, the expatriate Indian's answer was, 'This is the American way of life'," Hariharan said. "These are models that we need to look at. Is that kind of model applicable to India?" Hariharan said. "If we [in India] had patented the zero, what would have happened to the world of IT? Would one of the most famous person in the world of IT have had so many 'zeroes' behind his net worth?" Shiva herself argues: "Ideas used by Microsoft and Monsanto cause despair across the globe. You need to give justice to farmers, not push them to extinction." She spoke of the growing cases of farmer suicides in central India, many hundred cases each year, believed to be caused by their financial distress. In Shiva's view, the patent regimes are based on an assumption that the only incentive for human beings is making money. But others, like the young Indian lawyer of Chinese descent, Lawrence Liang, see the issue differently. Liang believes that the "first generation" of critical scholarship on intellectual property in India "emerged in the context of biodiversity and traditional knowledge, which has a nationalist twist to it". He sees this emerging from "an older debate around Western modernity versus tradition, and Western epistemology versus the indigenous context." What Way Forward? Liang points out that Indian campaigners like Shiva, Suman Sahai, and Darshan Shankar have done work on biodiversity. But, he feels, these debates remain dependent on the discourse of development, pitting developing versus developed countries. It responds to a "crisis of property," and, in Liang's view, seeks a "strengthening of property rights within a nationalist model." Others like legal consultant Sudhir Krishnaswamy suggested that there was a contradiction in the way India was trying to defend its traditional knowledge. While multinational corporations were being criticised, the solution proposed was to make the national government even stronger, he noted. This led to disastrous consequences, for instance when the government took control of the forests, Krishnaswamy said. Dr. Satyanarayan "Sam" Pitroda, an expatriate Indian who now heads the national Knowledge Commission, talks about creating the building blocks for new knowledge creation from India. His focus is less on how to retain control over traditional knowledge. Professor Anil Gupta, the editor of the 17-year-old HoneyBee magazine, highlights issues of traditional knowledge in distant places like Argentina. His view is that this knowledge needs to be protected by defensive patents favouring the villagers and communities that created it. But pointing to contemporary issues including pesticides allegedly entering Coca Cola and Pepsi Cola in India, due to the excessive use of agricultural chemicals, and the death of its traditional form, Shiva stressed her point. "If you force computer users to pay royalties to Microsoft… or if you force farmers to pay royalties to Monsanto, it is violative of the [Indian] Constitution," she said. And Shiva sent out a loud message as she concluded: "Thank you for holding this meeting. There's too little of this happening. And I'd like to tell Red Hat that this red saree [a reference to the colour of her clothes] is more than willing to make this happen." ------------------------------ *This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. All of the news articles and features on Intellectual Property Watch are also subject to a Creative Commons Licensewhich makes them available for widescale, free, non-commercial reproduction and translation.* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/commons-law/attachments/20060905/1cf8961c/attachment.html From jeebesh at sarai.net Tue Sep 5 17:28:49 2006 From: jeebesh at sarai.net (Jeebesh Bagchi) Date: Tue, 5 Sep 2006 17:28:49 +0530 Subject: [Commons-Law] India At The Forefront Of Knowledge Commons Debate In-Reply-To: <3f400ec0609050051p2b2bb428iacb663feaffb3d7d@mail.gmail.com> References: <3f400ec0609050051p2b2bb428iacb663feaffb3d7d@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: Interesting report. Made me totally confused about what does `protection of the commons` mean? Protection by whom? The report gives names of many people saying very different and contradictory things. Can anybody illuminate me on this. best jeebesh On 05-Sep-06, at 1:21 PM, Venkatesh Hariharan wrote: > India At The Forefront Of Knowledge Commons Debate > > http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/index.php?p=389&res=1680_ff&print=0 > By Frederick Noronha for Intellectual Property Watch > > NEW DELHI - What do seeds have in common with software? Or age-old > medicines with copyright lawyers? And, what's the link between > ayurvedic medicines and techies talking free software in Bangalore? > > Such issues are getting closely enmeshed in a deepening debate on > how knowledge is shared or controlled in this new information- > dominated century. This is a debate of vital relevance for a > country that is making an increasingly visible global impact > through its brain power, and yet has among the most impressive > collections of traditional medicines and knowledge. > > Diverse views surface on how such issues should be tackled, as was > strongly obvious at a 24-25 August "knowledge symposium" held at > New Delhi. The invite-only meet was organised by the open source > software firm Red Hat (India) and the Indian Institute of > Technology New Delhi. > > The event brought these diverse strands together while focusing on > what it said were alternative ways of looking at sharing knowledge > and concepts like intellectual property. > > India's Big Stakes > > India has big stakes in this debate. It is home to vast amounts of > traditional knowledge - traditional systems of medicine and > healthcare, like Yoga, Ayurveda, Unani and Siddha (both systems of > medicine), traditional agriculture, and more. > > But the planet's second-most populous country also faces the > dilemma of getting global acceptability on intellectual property > issues as it integrates growingly with the global economy. > Physicist, eco-feminist, environmental activist and author Vandana > Shiva was one of the articulate voices that sought to bring the > diverse strands of the debate together. > > "I'm happy to join those of you working to defend the commons in > the field of knowledge," said Shiva, alluding to knowledge > typically available in the public domain. Shiva, who has fought for > changes in India's agriculture and food sector for over two > decades, spoke on 'Nurturing India's Traditional Knowledge'. > > "What [freely available and IP-unencumbered] open source software > is to IT [information technology], open pollinated seeds are to the > agricultural commons. These are the same things," she said. "Since > the past 20 years, I've started to save seeds and create community > seed banks." > > She argued: "Biodiversity, traditional knowledge and agriculture > are matters of life and death [in countries like India], depending > on whether resources and knowledge are in the commons, or they are > in privatised property." > > Shiva pointed to the importance of traditional knowledge, > especially in the fields of agriculture, nutrition and healthcare. > "In this country, we have rice varieties that are taller than this > room…," she said in the chandeliered conference room of a luxury > hotel. "That helps them to tolerate floods. By just moving the > gene, it doesn't mean that some scientist has invented any gene. It > is in the commons," she added. > > In a long and hard-hitting speech, the author of titles such as > "The Violence of Green Revolution" and "Monocultures of the Mind" > spoke about how traditional knowledge like yoga or ecological > farming was being denied its "status as knowledge on a yardstick of > Cartesian reductionist knowledge". > > She noted the diversification of contemporary knowledge, the > difficulty of slotting part of it under 'the scientific approach', > and charged that traditional knowledge is getting "ghettoised as if > it wasn't a science". > > Who Shall Own India's Ancient Wisdom? > > Others initiatives related to India's traditional knowledge also > were discussed at the meeting. One such initiative is TKDL, an > acronym for the Traditional Knowledge Digital Library. This Indian > government initiative based in New Delhi is aimed at building a > database of traditional knowledge that "enables the protection of > such information from getting misappropriated." > > Since an interdisciplinary team began work in October 2001, the > TKDL has completed the transcription of 36,000 ayurvedic > formulations into English, German, French, Spanish and Japanese. It > made a presentation at the International Patent Classification > Union in Geneva in the past. > > TKDL Director Dr. V. K. Gupta said at the conference: "TKDL deals > with traditional knowledge and the issue of patents. We're not > focused on getting patents, but on preventing its misappropriation." > > "Knowledge from the fields of [Indian systems of medicine like] > Ayurveda or Siddha are very well documented. But the problem is > that of language. This knowledge is documented in languages like > Sanskrit, Hindi, Arabic, or Persian. Books about them are not > available at international patent offices. So, there's no > understanding [about how ancient this knowledge really is]," said > Gupta. > > Gupta pointed out that if anything is pre-known, then existing > intellectual property rights (IPR) laws do not allow it to be > patented. "A majority of the patents [taken on Indian knowledge] is > by expatriate Indians or multinational corporations. There are > about 2,000 patents which have been wrongly issued, in our view. > Each takes 11 years to fight. How do you resolve this problem?" he > asked. > > So TKDL's approach is to document traditional knowledge. "We've > done it for around 70,000 formulations in Ayurveda, and some more > in the Unani and Siddha," he added. TKDL's team of a hundred > persons have been working on this for the past five years. > > Past Attempts to Patent Indian Products > > Attempts have been made - not always unsuccessfully - to get > patents related to Indian products, such as Basmati rice (widely > grown in the Himalayan foothills), and India-derived lower-gluten > genetically modified wheat strains. There was also a patent on Neem > (a long-used tree sometimes called the "village pharmacy") > challenged by environmental groups, and one on the use of turmeric > for treating illness (used for centuries in India). > > Patents were also sought on Psyllium husk (called Isabgol, in > India) – for reducing cholesterol, improving bowel movements, > purposes for which it has been traditionally used in India. Fennel > (saunf, by its Indian name), coriander (dhania), cumin (jeera) and > sunflower products and properties also attracted patents, a > development which evokes laughs in India, considering that these > items have been so long used for such purposes here. > > Trade and IPR as 'War by Other Means' > > "You must make sense of IPR in its context. Trade needs to be seen > as a continuation of war by other means," said Prabir Purkayastha > of the Delhi Science Forum. > > Mr Purkayastha's view is shared by people of other ideologies in a > country like India which feels it has not gained its fair share for > centuries out of global trade deals. India's current government > also carries with it a significant influence of the Communist > parties, if only because it lacks a majority on its own in the > parliament. > > Prithviraj Chauhan, Indian minister of state attached to the Prime > Minister's office, told the meet that India is "keeping up to" its > World Trade Organization obligations. But, he hastened to add: "The > open source community is performing a historic role, by reversing > that which has commercialised and [trends which have] priced all > information." > > Former nuclear scientist and fellow of the Third World Academy of > Sciences (Trieste) Dr. V. S. Ramamurthy argued: "India has a long > tradition of an intellectual property protection regime, however > weak it was. The first Indian patent laws were promulgated (during > the British rule) in 1856. After independence, new patent laws were > put in place in the form of the Indian Patent Act 1970." > > Ramamurthy is the chair of the board that controls India's > prestigious IIT technological training institutions, that has > created many top technologists for global industry. But, he said, > while India had joined all international negotiations there "are > discomforts" domestically. > > Scientists Historically Resist Patents not in the Public Interest > > "A significant number of people, both within the scientific > community and outside, believe that today's strategy in handling > intellectual property assets is flawed," Ramamurthy said. "It is > against the traditional belief that knowledge is a public property, > particularly knowledge for public good." > > Ramamurthy went on to cite the case of Sir Jagdish Chandra Bose, > India's physicist who pioneered the investigation of radio and > microwave optics. "His reluctance to any form of patenting is well > known. It was contained in his letter to (Indian Nobel laureate) > Rabindranath Tagore dated May 17, 1901 from London." > > "It was not that Sir Bose was unaware of patents and its > advantages. He was the first Indian to get a US Patent (No. 755840) > in 1904. And Sir Bose was not alone in his avowed reluctance to > patenting. Roentgen, Pierre Curie and many others also chose the > path of no patenting on moral grounds," said the former atomic > scientist. > > What Model is Best for India? > > There's also anger over some recent developments. Red Hat India's > Venkatesh Hariharan pointed to attempts to patent yogic postures, > under the name of Bikram Yoga, in the United States recently. "When > asked, why he was doing it, the expatriate Indian's answer was, > 'This is the American way of life'," Hariharan said. > > "These are models that we need to look at. Is that kind of model > applicable to India?" Hariharan said. "If we [in India] had > patented the zero, what would have happened to the world of IT? > Would one of the most famous person in the world of IT have had so > many 'zeroes' behind his net worth?" > > Shiva herself argues: "Ideas used by Microsoft and Monsanto cause > despair across the globe. You need to give justice to farmers, not > push them to extinction." She spoke of the growing cases of farmer > suicides in central India, many hundred cases each year, believed > to be caused by their financial distress. > > In Shiva's view, the patent regimes are based on an assumption that > the only incentive for human beings is making money. But others, > like the young Indian lawyer of Chinese descent, Lawrence Liang, > see the issue differently. Liang believes that the "first > generation" of critical scholarship on intellectual property in > India "emerged in the context of biodiversity and traditional > knowledge, which has a nationalist twist to it". He sees this > emerging from "an older debate around Western modernity versus > tradition, and Western epistemology versus the indigenous context." > > What Way Forward? > > Liang points out that Indian campaigners like Shiva, Suman Sahai, > and Darshan Shankar have done work on biodiversity. But, he feels, > these debates remain dependent on the discourse of development, > pitting developing versus developed countries. It responds to a > "crisis of property," and, in Liang's view, seeks a "strengthening > of property rights within a nationalist model." > > Others like legal consultant Sudhir Krishnaswamy suggested that > there was a contradiction in the way India was trying to defend its > traditional knowledge. While multinational corporations were being > criticised, the solution proposed was to make the national > government even stronger, he noted. This led to disastrous > consequences, for instance when the government took control of the > forests, Krishnaswamy said. > > Dr. Satyanarayan "Sam" Pitroda, an expatriate Indian who now heads > the national Knowledge Commission, talks about creating the > building blocks for new knowledge creation from India. His focus is > less on how to retain control over traditional knowledge. > > Professor Anil Gupta, the editor of the 17-year-old HoneyBee > magazine, highlights issues of traditional knowledge in distant > places like Argentina. His view is that this knowledge needs to be > protected by defensive patents favouring the villagers and > communities that created it. > > But pointing to contemporary issues including pesticides allegedly > entering Coca Cola and Pepsi Cola in India, due to the excessive > use of agricultural chemicals, and the death of its traditional > form, Shiva stressed her point. "If you force computer users to pay > royalties to Microsoft… or if you force farmers to pay royalties to > Monsanto, it is violative of the [Indian] Constitution," she said. > > And Shiva sent out a loud message as she concluded: "Thank you for > holding this meeting. There's too little of this happening. And I'd > like to tell Red Hat that this red saree [a reference to the colour > of her clothes] is more than willing to make this happen." > > This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. All of the > news articles and features on Intellectual Property Watch are also > subject to a Creative Commons License which makes them available > for widescale, free, non-commercial reproduction and translation. > > > _______________________________________________ > commons-law mailing list > commons-law at sarai.net > https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/commons-law -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/commons-law/attachments/20060905/b6821f36/attachment.html From machine at zerosofzeta.com Wed Sep 6 00:42:59 2006 From: machine at zerosofzeta.com (Yogesh Girdhar) Date: Wed, 6 Sep 2006 00:42:59 +0530 Subject: [Commons-Law] India At The Forefront Of Knowledge Commons Debate In-Reply-To: <3f400ec0609050051p2b2bb428iacb663feaffb3d7d@mail.gmail.com> References: <3f400ec0609050051p2b2bb428iacb663feaffb3d7d@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <1d804b40609051212q4ab089fdvdd59381d20d898a0@mail.gmail.com> Cool, Does anybody by any chance have video recording of this symposium? I would really like to see it Thanks -Yogi On 9/5/06, Venkatesh Hariharan wrote: > India At The Forefront Of Knowledge Commons Debate > > http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/index.php?p=389&res=1680_ff&print=0 > > > By Frederick Noronha for Intellectual Property Watch > > NEW DELHI - What do seeds have in common with software? Or age-old medicines > with copyright lawyers? And, what's the link between ayurvedic medicines and > techies talking free software in Bangalore? > > Such issues are getting closely enmeshed in a deepening debate on how > knowledge is shared or controlled in this new information-dominated century. > This is a debate of vital relevance for a country that is making an > increasingly visible global impact through its brain power, and yet has > among the most impressive collections of traditional medicines and > knowledge. > > Diverse views surface on how such issues should be tackled, as was strongly > obvious at a 24-25 August "knowledge symposium" held at New Delhi. The > invite-only meet was organised by the open source software firm Red Hat > (India) and the Indian Institute of Technology New Delhi. > > The event brought these diverse strands together while focusing on what it > said were alternative ways of looking at sharing knowledge and concepts like > intellectual property. > > India's Big Stakes > > India has big stakes in this debate. It is home to vast amounts of > traditional knowledge - traditional systems of medicine and healthcare, like > Yoga, Ayurveda, Unani and Siddha (both systems of medicine), traditional > agriculture, and more. > > But the planet's second-most populous country also faces the dilemma of > getting global acceptability on intellectual property issues as it > integrates growingly with the global economy. > Physicist, eco-feminist, environmental activist and author Vandana Shiva > was one of the articulate voices that sought to bring the diverse strands of > the debate together. > > "I'm happy to join those of you working to defend the commons in the field > of knowledge," said Shiva, alluding to knowledge typically available in the > public domain. Shiva, who has fought for changes in India's agriculture and > food sector for over two decades, spoke on 'Nurturing India's Traditional > Knowledge'. > > "What [freely available and IP-unencumbered] open source software is to IT > [information technology], open pollinated seeds are to the agricultural > commons. These are the same things," she said. "Since the past 20 years, > I've started to save seeds and create community seed banks." > > She argued: "Biodiversity, traditional knowledge and agriculture are matters > of life and death [in countries like India], depending on whether resources > and knowledge are in the commons, or they are in privatised property." > > Shiva pointed to the importance of traditional knowledge, especially in the > fields of agriculture, nutrition and healthcare. "In this country, we have > rice varieties that are taller than this room…," she said in the > chandeliered conference room of a luxury hotel. "That helps them to tolerate > floods. By just moving the gene, it doesn't mean that some scientist has > invented any gene. It is in the commons," she added. > > In a long and hard-hitting speech, the author of titles such as "The > Violence of Green Revolution" and "Monocultures of the Mind" spoke about how > traditional knowledge like yoga or ecological farming was being denied its > "status as knowledge on a yardstick of Cartesian reductionist knowledge". > > She noted the diversification of contemporary knowledge, the difficulty of > slotting part of it under 'the scientific approach', and charged that > traditional knowledge is getting "ghettoised as if it wasn't a science". > > Who Shall Own India's Ancient Wisdom? > > Others initiatives related to India's traditional knowledge also were > discussed at the meeting. One such initiative is TKDL, an acronym for the > Traditional Knowledge Digital Library. This Indian government initiative > based in New Delhi is aimed at building a database of traditional knowledge > that "enables the protection of such information from getting > misappropriated." > > Since an interdisciplinary team began work in October 2001, the TKDL has > completed the transcription of 36,000 ayurvedic formulations into English, > German, French, Spanish and Japanese. It made a presentation at the > International Patent Classification Union in Geneva in the past. > > TKDL Director Dr. V. K. Gupta said at the conference: "TKDL deals with > traditional knowledge and the issue of patents. We're not focused on getting > patents, but on preventing its misappropriation." > > "Knowledge from the fields of [Indian systems of medicine like] Ayurveda or > Siddha are very well documented. But the problem is that of language. This > knowledge is documented in languages like Sanskrit, Hindi, Arabic, or > Persian. Books about them are not available at international patent offices. > So, there's no understanding [about how ancient this knowledge really is]," > said Gupta. > > Gupta pointed out that if anything is pre-known, then existing intellectual > property rights (IPR) laws do not allow it to be patented. "A majority of > the patents [taken on Indian knowledge] is by expatriate Indians or > multinational corporations. There are about 2,000 patents which have been > wrongly issued, in our view. Each takes 11 years to fight. How do you > resolve this problem?" he asked. > > So TKDL's approach is to document traditional knowledge. "We've done it for > around 70,000 formulations in Ayurveda, and some more in the Unani and > Siddha," he added. TKDL's team of a hundred persons have been working on > this for the past five years. > > Past Attempts to Patent Indian Products > > Attempts have been made - not always unsuccessfully - to get patents related > to Indian products, such as Basmati rice (widely grown in the Himalayan > foothills), and India-derived lower-gluten genetically modified wheat > strains. There was also a patent on Neem (a long-used tree sometimes called > the "village pharmacy") challenged by environmental groups, and one on the > use of turmeric for treating illness (used for centuries in India). > > Patents were also sought on Psyllium husk (called Isabgol, in India) – for > reducing cholesterol, improving bowel movements, purposes for which it has > been traditionally used in India. Fennel (saunf, by its Indian name), > coriander (dhania), cumin (jeera) and sunflower products and properties also > attracted patents, a development which evokes laughs in India, considering > that these items have been so long used for such purposes here. > > Trade and IPR as 'War by Other Means' > > "You must make sense of IPR in its context. Trade needs to be seen as a > continuation of war by other means," said Prabir Purkayastha of the Delhi > Science Forum. > > Mr Purkayastha's view is shared by people of other ideologies in a country > like India which feels it has not gained its fair share for centuries out of > global trade deals. India's current government also carries with it a > significant influence of the Communist parties, if only because it lacks a > majority on its own in the parliament. > > Prithviraj Chauhan, Indian minister of state attached to the Prime > Minister's office, told the meet that India is "keeping up to" its World > Trade Organization obligations. But, he hastened to add: "The open source > community is performing a historic role, by reversing that which has > commercialised and [trends which have] priced all information." > > Former nuclear scientist and fellow of the Third World Academy of Sciences > (Trieste) Dr. V. S. Ramamurthy argued: "India has a long tradition of an > intellectual property protection regime, however weak it was. The first > Indian patent laws were promulgated (during the British rule) in 1856. After > independence, new patent laws were put in place in the form of the Indian > Patent Act 1970." > > Ramamurthy is the chair of the board that controls India's prestigious IIT > technological training institutions, that has created many top technologists > for global industry. But, he said, while India had joined all international > negotiations there "are discomforts" domestically. > > Scientists Historically Resist Patents not in the Public Interest > > "A significant number of people, both within the scientific community and > outside, believe that today's strategy in handling intellectual property > assets is flawed," Ramamurthy said. "It is against the traditional belief > that knowledge is a public property, particularly knowledge for public > good." > > Ramamurthy went on to cite the case of Sir Jagdish Chandra Bose, India's > physicist who pioneered the investigation of radio and microwave optics. > "His reluctance to any form of patenting is well known. It was contained in > his letter to (Indian Nobel laureate) Rabindranath Tagore dated May 17, 1901 > from London." > > "It was not that Sir Bose was unaware of patents and its advantages. He was > the first Indian to get a US Patent (No. 755840) in 1904. And Sir Bose was > not alone in his avowed reluctance to patenting. Roentgen, Pierre Curie and > many others also chose the path of no patenting on moral grounds," said the > former atomic scientist. > > What Model is Best for India? > > There's also anger over some recent developments. Red Hat India's Venkatesh > Hariharan pointed to attempts to patent yogic postures, under the name of > Bikram Yoga, in the United States recently. "When asked, why he was doing > it, the expatriate Indian's answer was, 'This is the American way of life'," > Hariharan said. > > "These are models that we need to look at. Is that kind of model applicable > to India?" Hariharan said. "If we [in India] had patented the zero, what > would have happened to the world of IT? Would one of the most famous person > in the world of IT have had so many 'zeroes' behind his net worth?" > > Shiva herself argues: "Ideas used by Microsoft and Monsanto cause despair > across the globe. You need to give justice to farmers, not push them to > extinction." She spoke of the growing cases of farmer suicides in central > India, many hundred cases each year, believed to be caused by their > financial distress. > > In Shiva's view, the patent regimes are based on an assumption that the only > incentive for human beings is making money. But others, like the young > Indian lawyer of Chinese descent, Lawrence Liang, see the issue differently. > Liang believes that the "first generation" of critical scholarship on > intellectual property in India "emerged in the context of biodiversity and > traditional knowledge, which has a nationalist twist to it". He sees this > emerging from "an older debate around Western modernity versus tradition, > and Western epistemology versus the indigenous context." > > What Way Forward? > > Liang points out that Indian campaigners like Shiva, Suman Sahai, and > Darshan Shankar have done work on biodiversity. But, he feels, these debates > remain dependent on the discourse of development, pitting developing versus > developed countries. It responds to a "crisis of property," and, in Liang's > view, seeks a "strengthening of property rights within a nationalist model." > > Others like legal consultant Sudhir Krishnaswamy suggested that there was a > contradiction in the way India was trying to defend its traditional > knowledge. While multinational corporations were being criticised, the > solution proposed was to make the national government even stronger, he > noted. This led to disastrous consequences, for instance when the government > took control of the forests, Krishnaswamy said. > > Dr. Satyanarayan "Sam" Pitroda, an expatriate Indian who now heads the > national Knowledge Commission, talks about creating the building blocks for > new knowledge creation from India. His focus is less on how to retain > control over traditional knowledge. > > Professor Anil Gupta, the editor of the 17-year-old HoneyBee magazine, > highlights issues of traditional knowledge in distant places like Argentina. > His view is that this knowledge needs to be protected by defensive patents > favouring the villagers and communities that created it. > > But pointing to contemporary issues including pesticides allegedly entering > Coca Cola and Pepsi Cola in India, due to the excessive use of agricultural > chemicals, and the death of its traditional form, Shiva stressed her point. > "If you force computer users to pay royalties to Microsoft… or if you force > farmers to pay royalties to Monsanto, it is violative of the [Indian] > Constitution," she said. > > And Shiva sent out a loud message as she concluded: "Thank you for holding > this meeting. There's too little of this happening. And I'd like to tell Red > Hat that this red saree [a reference to the colour of her clothes] is more > than willing to make this happen." ________________________________ > > > This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. All of the news > articles and features on Intellectual Property Watch are also subject to a > Creative Commons License which makes them available for widescale, free, > non-commercial reproduction and translation. > > _______________________________________________ > commons-law mailing list > commons-law at sarai.net > https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/commons-law > > From namita at altlawforum.org Fri Sep 8 15:22:33 2006 From: namita at altlawforum.org (namita) Date: Fri, 08 Sep 2006 11:52:33 +0200 Subject: [Commons-Law] On a lighter note In-Reply-To: <1d804b40609051212q4ab089fdvdd59381d20d898a0@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: Database on cover songs, very comprehensive. http://www.secondhandsongs.com/ From seth.johnson at RealMeasures.dyndns.org Mon Sep 11 06:46:50 2006 From: seth.johnson at RealMeasures.dyndns.org (Seth Johnson) Date: Sun, 10 Sep 2006 21:16:50 -0400 Subject: [Commons-Law] Gratifying Story about Doctorow's Freely-Distributable Works Message-ID: <4504B902.46C9336C@RealMeasures.dyndns.org> -------- Original Message -------- Subject: [Doctorow] Heartwarming Creative Commons success-story Date: Sat, 9 Sep 2006 11:31:51 -0700 From: Cory Doctorow Reply-To: doctorow at craphound.com To: Seth Johnson CC: doctorow at ctyme.com Last week, I received the most remarkable letter from Jamie, a US Navy seaman stationed on a ship in the Mediterranean Sea. Because my novels are Creative Commons-licensed, he is able to download them and print them out onboard ship, and pass them around to his comrades. The absence of quality reading material on the ship has turned Creative Commons texts into hot items on the ship: > Just like to thank you, from some undisclosed (for operational > security reasons, doncha know) location in the middle of the > Mediterranean Sea, for keeping my sanity. I'm in the US Navy, and > my ship got surge-deployed without warning a couple weeks ago to > "help" with the situation in Lebanon. On a ship underway, there's > no room to keep books -- unless they're the ancient, creaking John > Grisham paperbacks in the ship's library - and no time to get some > anyway if you're scrambling around for the couple days of warning > you have trying to get your bills set up to pay themselves and > telling your landlord you're vanishing for an "open-ended" period > of time. So, the ability to download your stuff from craphound has > permitted me to feed my addiction to the printed word without > having to have someplace to store the physical artifact of the > books. Of course, I actually printed out Someone Comes and Down > and Out, the two I don't own dead-tree copies of yet, and stuck 'em > in a binder, where they've been passed from person to person in my > department, helping keep the other sci-fi junkies similarly sane. > > [three days later] > > Thought you might like to know that what started as "Jamie feeds > his print addiction" has turned into something else entirely. The > sci-fi addicts rapidly finished off the two novels I'd printed out > and bindered, and I had the binder with me in the engine room, > reading to pass the time, when one of the other guys asked what I > was reading. > > A couple hours later, the only noise in the place was when one of > the half-dozen guys sitting around would look up and ask, "Hey, > who's got page 41 of Down and Out?" It was... well, I'm not sure I > can express how weird it was. These are men who aren't normally > readers, much less consumers of slightly wacky science fiction, and > they're now getting impatient with each other to finish chapters so > they can find out what happens next. > > It's starting to change the very *tone* of where I work on the > ship, six hours on and six hours off: instead of the ever-present > three B's of talk to pass in the time in the plant -- beer, babes, > and bodily functions -- it's discussions of which novel (or short, > since we've now got printouts of every piece of fiction on > craphound.com stuffed into a file cabinet) we liked best, and why, > and what makes this stuff cool, and where can we get more like it, > and even starting to talk about the copyfight, and why that's > important. > > I spent about two hours last night as I was reading glancing up > every so often, and grinning like an idiot every time 'cause there > were five guys whose talk usually revolves around how drunk they > were this one time head-down in some pretty intense reading. > > Thank you. This is really something else. > -- Cory Doctorow doctorow at craphound.com latest novel: craphound.com/someone blog: boingboing.net vanity: craphound.com podcast: feeds.feedburner.com/doctorow_podcast second novel: craphound.com/est collection: craphound.com/place novel: craphound.com/down Join my mailing list and find out about upcoming books, stories, articles and appearances: http://www.ctyme.com/mailman/listinfo/doctorow _______________________________________________ Doctorow mailing list Doctorow at ctyme.com http://mailman.ctyme.com/listinfo/doctorow From hbs.law at gmail.com Tue Sep 12 12:56:56 2006 From: hbs.law at gmail.com (Hasit seth) Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2006 12:56:56 +0530 Subject: [Commons-Law] =?windows-1252?q?In_this_tech-driven_world=2C_we_ca?= =?windows-1252?q?n=92t_be_asleep_at_the_wheel?= Message-ID: <8b60429e0609120026m6d601fb8ia4140fc14b15b2a4@mail.gmail.com> At least somebody in this country (India) is thinking seriously about technology and its engagement with society without painting doomsday scenario of every possible shade. I think a society's future rate of progress can be easily predicted as inverse to the count of luddities. Hasit ================== In this tech-driven world, we can't be asleep at the wheel Arun Shourie (Indian Express Online www.indianexpress.com) Posted online: Tuesday, September 12, 2006 at 0000 hrs Print Email The cost of squandering resources on populist schemes will be paid not just in missed advantages but also in the resulting social unrest. First in a three-part series Arun Shourie Related Stories 'Parity', did you say?This is about energy, did you say?Rescued from the abyssThird-class governance can't give first-class response to terrorismNational security through redefinition Among the propellers that are driving the world, technology is one of the most forceful. Six features about its advance have far-reaching consequences for India: • To start with, what has seemed impossible suddenly begins to seem possible • Second, whatever seems possible comes to pass • Third, it comes to pass sooner than anyone had thought possible • Fourth, with each decade, it comes to pass sooner and sooner. And there is good reason for that: the advances are cumulative • Fifth, the advances are interdependent. Today, drug discovery is becoming critically dependent on biotechnology. Biotechnology, in turn, is critically dependent on advances in other technologies — DNA could not have been decoded but for advances in IT. • Sixth, each advance has effects that spread farther than anyone had imagined. Today, the technologies that rivals have mastered are a major influence on the balance of power between countries. Companies rise and, just as swiftly are wiped out by some new Bill Gates working out of a garage. The livelihood of thousands disappears overnight as entire professions are wiped out and new ones appear. Till just the other day in India, telephony was confined to fixed line instruments; PCOs were a leap forward — they provided unimagined access to those who could not get fixed line connections, and thousands got a new way of earning a living; today, with millions having mobiles, fewer go to PCOs. Nor are we anywhere near the end: there is intense competition among service providers, each has invested crores in infrastructure; but now, thanks to advances in internet telephony, you can call the US or Europe for almost nothing. What will that do to the thousands of crores invested by companies in setting up telecom infrastructure? The effects on national security are even more evident, just as they are of even greater consequence. Terrorists remind us every day of the consequences of the miniaturization and increased lethality of the technologies of violence. But the lesson is not lost on states. As technology advances, economies become progressively integrated. That induces the Chinese to acquire capabilities to hurl what they call "the assassin's mace" at the "acupuncture points" of other, modern, integrated societies — national power grids, air-traffic control systems, rail-traffic control systems, financial and banking operations, communication networks — so that, by disrupting and corrupting them simultaneously, the societies are thrown into disarray for those few vital moments. Lemmas For us in India, pushed around as we are ever so often by Luddites, these features of technological change hold several lemmas. First, as a consequence of technological and economic changes, every country is bound to be buffeted by massive dislocations. Take what is today the most successful example of propelling and managing change: China. According to official Chinese estimates, the "floating population" is anywhere between 120 and 140 million. As they lose rights to medical treatment and education once they leave their place of residence, the 20 million children in tow are now bereft of these services. And this is the situation in a country that has today the most purposive government among emerging economies. So massive dislocations are inevitable. But equally important is the related lesson: the march of technology will not be slowed down just because we have not been able to handle the dislocations or are paralysed by the fear of them. A country paralysed by fear of such dislocations, unable to decide which of competing courses to adopt, which stops change, will not just fall behind. It will be wiped out. And for a simple reason: its rivals won't slow down for it to solve its problems. Third, as change is so rapid, as it is cumulative, falling behind for a while makes catching up very difficult. When affairs are stationary or change is slow, even if we falter for a while, we can catch up soon enough. But when change is rapid, once we falter, the one who has captured the lead is able to go on lengthening the distance. China and India were at par in the mid- and late seventies. China began reforms in 1978. Our political class — weak, imprisoned in slogans of the past — had to wait for a breakdown in 1991 to initiate reforms. That lapse has made all the difference. Today, even in the Indian market, in an industry like electronics, many of our manufacturers are traders in Chinese products. Nor is one leap enough. One has to keep forging ahead. Again, the contrast is evident; China has sustained its momentum of reforms for 25 years; in India, splintered "coalitions" give everyone enough power to block everything, they leave no one with sufficient power to push anything. Nor is it enough to catch change by the forelocks. As advances are interdependent, if we falter in one discipline, we will be drowned in a cascade. Fifth, keeping up requires huge investments. We have had one major electronics complex — in Mohali, near Chandigarh. Even to this day it is not able to fabricate chips and the like at the submicron levels that have become customary. Building a new fab with the requisite capability costs $3-4 billion a piece. China is building six of them in one go. Countries that cannot muster up that kind of investment will have to forego those technologies or become hopelessly dependent on others for them. The effects will not be just on consumer items, and exports. The fabs are vital for national security. Not being able to construct the latest ones is to put the country in danger. Countries which waste resources on boondoggles - like the Employment Guarantee Scheme, or unaccounted subsidies - don't just put themselves at a competitive disadvantage but at risk. Next, the new technologies require ever higher, ever more complex and ever changing skills. "The masses", "the common man" just do not have them, and are not going to have them in the foreseeable future. It follows that countries which allow standards of higher education to fall; countries which do not institute systems to continually upgrade skills; countries which appoint and promote personnel on considerations other than merit (e.g., birth); countries which lose their best minds to others, will fall behind. The technologies that are revolutionising the world today are developed by minuscule minorities, by microscopic scientific and engineering elites. To fail to value these elites, to trample in the name of "equality" the incentives and work-environment that would spur them to do their best in our country is to forfeit our future. One has only to bear two facts from recent history in mind as an antidote to the nonsense which progressives feed us so often. One, the leaders and movements that have shouted the most about "equality" are the very ones who set up the most tyrannical regimes, the ones that came to be marred by the most brazen inequalities — who has not read of the nomenklatura that came to rule, and eventually ruin, the USSR? Second, when you are accosted for being an elitist on this score, when you are lectured about the "revolutionary creativity of the masses", remind yourself of the fate of Mao's Great Leap Forward, of those backyard steel furnaces, so idolised by our revolutionaries. We thus have a duality. On the one side are two facts: without the new technologies, the country will be endangered; and these technologies will be developed by tiny elites. On the other side is the equally undeniable fact: the new technologies will just not provide the massive employment that the growth in population and labour force necessitate in India. Even a factory producing automobile parts looks like a Japanese "lights-out" factory. There are few persons on the shop floor: production is all CAD-CAM. The precision that is today demanded by manufacturers who will use these components in their cars and trucks is measured in microns; the dimensions have to be measured by laser beams. This means that for the kind of numbers that need to be absorbed - we need to create 80 million jobs in the next five years — we have to put massive resources into the only activities which can absorb such numbers: agriculture and infrastructure. Thus, as Deng would have said, we have to walk on two legs. And that reinforces the point we glimpsed earlier: the cost of squandering resources on wasteful, populist schemes will not just be that we will not have those fabs, and thereby forfeit both competitive advantage and national security; we will foment social unrest. Given these truisms, what must we be doing? (To be continued) From jeebesh at sarai.net Tue Sep 12 15:45:39 2006 From: jeebesh at sarai.net (Jeebesh Bagchi) Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2006 15:45:39 +0530 Subject: [Commons-Law] =?windows-1252?q?In_this_tech-driven_world=2C_we_ca?= =?windows-1252?q?n=92t_be_asleep_at_the_wheel?= In-Reply-To: <8b60429e0609120026m6d601fb8ia4140fc14b15b2a4@mail.gmail.com> References: <8b60429e0609120026m6d601fb8ia4140fc14b15b2a4@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <4C174D04-C86A-4CDD-A00E-3720A4294056@sarai.net> I find your intro intriguing. Whom are you you arguing with? And your formulation about "rate of progress" is incredibly sophisticated!!! The author of the piece thinks like most ruling elite - be competitive, have secured fences and desires low disobedience and unrest. A total win win situation is the desire. He compares some historical trends and say lets have fast tech solutions and get going on infrastructure and agriculture apparently for employment generation. Lets not wait. This is what the ministries for this and that have been saying and shouting for last 15 years. Is he saying anything more than this? best j Hasit seth wrote: > At least somebody in this country (India) is thinking seriously about > technology and its engagement with society without painting doomsday > scenario of every possible shade. I think a society's future rate of > progress can be easily predicted as inverse to the count of luddities. > > Hasit > ================== > In this tech-driven world, we can't be asleep at the wheel > Arun Shourie > (Indian Express Online www.indianexpress.com) > > Posted online: Tuesday, September 12, 2006 at 0000 hrs Print Email > The cost of squandering resources on populist schemes will be paid not > just in missed advantages but also in the resulting social unrest. > First in a three-part series > > Arun Shourie > Related Stories > > 'Parity', did you say?This is about energy, did you say?Rescued from > the abyssThird-class governance can't give first-class response to > terrorismNational security through redefinition > > Among the propellers that are driving the world, technology is one of > the most forceful. Six features about its advance have far-reaching > consequences for India: > > • To start with, what has seemed impossible suddenly begins to seem > possible > > • Second, whatever seems possible comes to pass > > • Third, it comes to pass sooner than anyone had thought possible > > • Fourth, with each decade, it comes to pass sooner and sooner. And > there is good reason for that: the advances are cumulative > > • Fifth, the advances are interdependent. Today, drug discovery is > becoming critically dependent on biotechnology. Biotechnology, in > turn, is critically dependent on advances in other technologies — DNA > could not have been decoded but for advances in IT. > > • Sixth, each advance has effects that spread farther than anyone had > imagined. Today, the technologies that rivals have mastered are a > major influence on the balance of power between countries. Companies > rise and, just as swiftly are wiped out by some new Bill Gates working > out of a garage. The livelihood of thousands disappears overnight as > entire professions are wiped out and new ones appear. > > Till just the other day in India, telephony was confined to fixed line > instruments; PCOs were a leap forward — they provided unimagined > access to those who could not get fixed line connections, and > thousands got a new way of earning a living; today, with millions > having mobiles, fewer go to PCOs. > > Nor are we anywhere near the end: there is intense competition among > service providers, each has invested crores in infrastructure; but > now, thanks to advances in internet telephony, you can call the US or > Europe for almost nothing. What will that do to the thousands of > crores invested by companies in setting up telecom infrastructure? > > The effects on national security are even more evident, just as they > are of even greater consequence. Terrorists remind us every day of the > consequences of the miniaturization and increased lethality of the > technologies of violence. But the lesson is not lost on states. As > technology advances, economies become progressively integrated. That > induces the Chinese to acquire capabilities to hurl what they call > "the assassin's mace" at the "acupuncture points" of other, modern, > integrated societies — national power grids, air-traffic control > systems, rail-traffic control systems, financial and banking > operations, communication networks — so that, by disrupting and > corrupting them simultaneously, the societies are thrown into disarray > for those few vital moments. > > Lemmas > > For us in India, pushed around as we are ever so often by Luddites, > these features of technological change hold several lemmas. > > First, as a consequence of technological and economic changes, every > country is bound to be buffeted by massive dislocations. Take what is > today the most successful example of propelling and managing change: > China. According to official Chinese estimates, the "floating > population" is anywhere between 120 and 140 million. As they lose > rights to medical treatment and education once they leave their place > of residence, the 20 million children in tow are now bereft of these > services. And this is the situation in a country that has today the > most purposive government among emerging economies. > > So massive dislocations are inevitable. But equally important is the > related lesson: the march of technology will not be slowed down just > because we have not been able to handle the dislocations or are > paralysed by the fear of them. A country paralysed by fear of such > dislocations, unable to decide which of competing courses to adopt, > which stops change, will not just fall behind. It will be wiped out. > And for a simple reason: its rivals won't slow down for it to solve > its problems. > > Third, as change is so rapid, as it is cumulative, falling behind for > a while makes catching up very difficult. When affairs are stationary > or change is slow, even if we falter for a while, we can catch up soon > enough. But when change is rapid, once we falter, the one who has > captured the lead is able to go on lengthening the distance. China and > India were at par in the mid- and late seventies. China began reforms > in 1978. Our political class — weak, imprisoned in slogans of the past > — had to wait for a breakdown in 1991 to initiate reforms. That lapse > has made all the difference. Today, even in the Indian market, in an > industry like electronics, many of our manufacturers are traders in > Chinese products. > > Nor is one leap enough. One has to keep forging ahead. Again, the > contrast is evident; China has sustained its momentum of reforms for > 25 years; in India, splintered "coalitions" give everyone enough power > to block everything, they leave no one with sufficient power to push > anything. > > Nor is it enough to catch change by the forelocks. As advances are > interdependent, if we falter in one discipline, we will be drowned in > a cascade. > > Fifth, keeping up requires huge investments. We have had one major > electronics complex — in Mohali, near Chandigarh. Even to this day it > is not able to fabricate chips and the like at the submicron levels > that have become customary. Building a new fab with the requisite > capability costs $3-4 billion a piece. China is building six of them > in one go. Countries that cannot muster up that kind of investment > will have to forego those technologies or become hopelessly dependent > on others for them. > > The effects will not be just on consumer items, and exports. The fabs > are vital for national security. Not being able to construct the > latest ones is to put the country in danger. Countries which waste > resources on boondoggles - like the Employment Guarantee Scheme, or > unaccounted subsidies - don't just put themselves at a competitive > disadvantage but at risk. > > Next, the new technologies require ever higher, ever more complex and > ever changing skills. "The masses", "the common man" just do not have > them, and are not going to have them in the foreseeable future. It > follows that countries which allow standards of higher education to > fall; countries which do not institute systems to continually upgrade > skills; countries which appoint and promote personnel on > considerations other than merit (e.g., birth); countries which lose > their best minds to others, will fall behind. > > The technologies that are revolutionising the world today are > developed by minuscule minorities, by microscopic scientific and > engineering elites. To fail to value these elites, to trample in the > name of "equality" the incentives and work-environment that would spur > them to do their best in our country is to forfeit our future. One has > only to bear two facts from recent history in mind as an antidote to > the nonsense which progressives feed us so often. One, the leaders and > movements that have shouted the most about "equality" are the very > ones who set up the most tyrannical regimes, the ones that came to be > marred by the most brazen inequalities — who has not read of the > nomenklatura that came to rule, and eventually ruin, the USSR? > > Second, when you are accosted for being an elitist on this score, when > you are lectured about the "revolutionary creativity of the masses", > remind yourself of the fate of Mao's Great Leap Forward, of those > backyard steel furnaces, so idolised by our revolutionaries. > > We thus have a duality. On the one side are two facts: without the new > technologies, the country will be endangered; and these technologies > will be developed by tiny elites. On the other side is the equally > undeniable fact: the new technologies will just not provide the > massive employment that the growth in population and labour force > necessitate in India. Even a factory producing automobile parts looks > like a Japanese "lights-out" factory. There are few persons on the > shop floor: production is all CAD-CAM. The precision that is today > demanded by manufacturers who will use these components in their cars > and trucks is measured in microns; the dimensions have to be measured > by laser beams. This means that for the kind of numbers that need to > be absorbed - we need to create 80 million jobs in the next five years > — we have to put massive resources into the only activities which can > absorb such numbers: agriculture and infrastructure. > > Thus, as Deng would have said, we have to walk on two legs. And that > reinforces the point we glimpsed earlier: the cost of squandering > resources on wasteful, populist schemes will not just be that we will > not have those fabs, and thereby forfeit both competitive advantage > and national security; we will foment social unrest. > > Given these truisms, what must we be doing? > > (To be continued) > _______________________________________________ > commons-law mailing list > commons-law at sarai.net > https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/commons-law From a_prabhala at yahoo.co.uk Tue Sep 12 15:58:21 2006 From: a_prabhala at yahoo.co.uk (Achal Prabhala) Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2006 15:58:21 +0530 Subject: [Commons-Law] commons-law Digest, Vol 38, Issue 8 References: Message-ID: <00f401c6d656$2d66a130$0a01a8c0@som.yale.edu> How nice to see Shourie pissing all over himself for a change instead of on Dalits and Muslims. ----- Original Message ----- From: To: Sent: Tuesday, September 12, 2006 3:30 PM Subject: commons-law Digest, Vol 38, Issue 8 > Send commons-law mailing list submissions to > commons-law at sarai.net > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit > https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/commons-law > or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to > commons-law-request at sarai.net > > You can reach the person managing the list at > commons-law-owner at sarai.net > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific > than "Re: Contents of commons-law digest..." > > > Today's Topics: > > 1. In this tech-driven world, we can’t be asleep at the wheel > (Hasit seth) > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 1 > Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2006 12:56:56 +0530 > From: "Hasit seth" > Subject: [Commons-Law] In this tech-driven world, we can’t be asleep > at the wheel > To: commons-law at sarai.net > Message-ID: > <8b60429e0609120026m6d601fb8ia4140fc14b15b2a4 at mail.gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="WINDOWS-1252"; format=flowed > > At least somebody in this country (India) is thinking seriously about > technology and its engagement with society without painting doomsday > scenario of every possible shade. I think a society's future rate of > progress can be easily predicted as inverse to the count of luddities. > > Hasit > ================== > In this tech-driven world, we can't be asleep at the wheel > Arun Shourie > (Indian Express Online www.indianexpress.com) > > Posted online: Tuesday, September 12, 2006 at 0000 hrs Print Email > The cost of squandering resources on populist schemes will be paid not > just in missed advantages but also in the resulting social unrest. > First in a three-part series > > Arun Shourie > Related Stories > > 'Parity', did you say?This is about energy, did you say?Rescued from > the abyssThird-class governance can't give first-class response to > terrorismNational security through redefinition > > Among the propellers that are driving the world, technology is one of > the most forceful. Six features about its advance have far-reaching > consequences for India: > > • To start with, what has seemed impossible suddenly begins to seem possible > > • Second, whatever seems possible comes to pass > > • Third, it comes to pass sooner than anyone had thought possible > > • Fourth, with each decade, it comes to pass sooner and sooner. And > there is good reason for that: the advances are cumulative > > • Fifth, the advances are interdependent. Today, drug discovery is > becoming critically dependent on biotechnology. Biotechnology, in > turn, is critically dependent on advances in other technologies — DNA > could not have been decoded but for advances in IT. > > • Sixth, each advance has effects that spread farther than anyone had > imagined. Today, the technologies that rivals have mastered are a > major influence on the balance of power between countries. Companies > rise and, just as swiftly are wiped out by some new Bill Gates working > out of a garage. The livelihood of thousands disappears overnight as > entire professions are wiped out and new ones appear. > > Till just the other day in India, telephony was confined to fixed line > instruments; PCOs were a leap forward — they provided unimagined > access to those who could not get fixed line connections, and > thousands got a new way of earning a living; today, with millions > having mobiles, fewer go to PCOs. > > Nor are we anywhere near the end: there is intense competition among > service providers, each has invested crores in infrastructure; but > now, thanks to advances in internet telephony, you can call the US or > Europe for almost nothing. What will that do to the thousands of > crores invested by companies in setting up telecom infrastructure? > > The effects on national security are even more evident, just as they > are of even greater consequence. Terrorists remind us every day of the > consequences of the miniaturization and increased lethality of the > technologies of violence. But the lesson is not lost on states. As > technology advances, economies become progressively integrated. That > induces the Chinese to acquire capabilities to hurl what they call > "the assassin's mace" at the "acupuncture points" of other, modern, > integrated societies — national power grids, air-traffic control > systems, rail-traffic control systems, financial and banking > operations, communication networks — so that, by disrupting and > corrupting them simultaneously, the societies are thrown into disarray > for those few vital moments. > > Lemmas > > For us in India, pushed around as we are ever so often by Luddites, > these features of technological change hold several lemmas. > > First, as a consequence of technological and economic changes, every > country is bound to be buffeted by massive dislocations. Take what is > today the most successful example of propelling and managing change: > China. According to official Chinese estimates, the "floating > population" is anywhere between 120 and 140 million. As they lose > rights to medical treatment and education once they leave their place > of residence, the 20 million children in tow are now bereft of these > services. And this is the situation in a country that has today the > most purposive government among emerging economies. > > So massive dislocations are inevitable. But equally important is the > related lesson: the march of technology will not be slowed down just > because we have not been able to handle the dislocations or are > paralysed by the fear of them. A country paralysed by fear of such > dislocations, unable to decide which of competing courses to adopt, > which stops change, will not just fall behind. It will be wiped out. > And for a simple reason: its rivals won't slow down for it to solve > its problems. > > Third, as change is so rapid, as it is cumulative, falling behind for > a while makes catching up very difficult. When affairs are stationary > or change is slow, even if we falter for a while, we can catch up soon > enough. But when change is rapid, once we falter, the one who has > captured the lead is able to go on lengthening the distance. China and > India were at par in the mid- and late seventies. China began reforms > in 1978. Our political class — weak, imprisoned in slogans of the past > — had to wait for a breakdown in 1991 to initiate reforms. That lapse > has made all the difference. Today, even in the Indian market, in an > industry like electronics, many of our manufacturers are traders in > Chinese products. > > Nor is one leap enough. One has to keep forging ahead. Again, the > contrast is evident; China has sustained its momentum of reforms for > 25 years; in India, splintered "coalitions" give everyone enough power > to block everything, they leave no one with sufficient power to push > anything. > > Nor is it enough to catch change by the forelocks. As advances are > interdependent, if we falter in one discipline, we will be drowned in > a cascade. > > Fifth, keeping up requires huge investments. We have had one major > electronics complex — in Mohali, near Chandigarh. Even to this day it > is not able to fabricate chips and the like at the submicron levels > that have become customary. Building a new fab with the requisite > capability costs $3-4 billion a piece. China is building six of them > in one go. Countries that cannot muster up that kind of investment > will have to forego those technologies or become hopelessly dependent > on others for them. > > The effects will not be just on consumer items, and exports. The fabs > are vital for national security. Not being able to construct the > latest ones is to put the country in danger. Countries which waste > resources on boondoggles - like the Employment Guarantee Scheme, or > unaccounted subsidies - don't just put themselves at a competitive > disadvantage but at risk. > > Next, the new technologies require ever higher, ever more complex and > ever changing skills. "The masses", "the common man" just do not have > them, and are not going to have them in the foreseeable future. It > follows that countries which allow standards of higher education to > fall; countries which do not institute systems to continually upgrade > skills; countries which appoint and promote personnel on > considerations other than merit (e.g., birth); countries which lose > their best minds to others, will fall behind. > > The technologies that are revolutionising the world today are > developed by minuscule minorities, by microscopic scientific and > engineering elites. To fail to value these elites, to trample in the > name of "equality" the incentives and work-environment that would spur > them to do their best in our country is to forfeit our future. One has > only to bear two facts from recent history in mind as an antidote to > the nonsense which progressives feed us so often. One, the leaders and > movements that have shouted the most about "equality" are the very > ones who set up the most tyrannical regimes, the ones that came to be > marred by the most brazen inequalities — who has not read of the > nomenklatura that came to rule, and eventually ruin, the USSR? > > Second, when you are accosted for being an elitist on this score, when > you are lectured about the "revolutionary creativity of the masses", > remind yourself of the fate of Mao's Great Leap Forward, of those > backyard steel furnaces, so idolised by our revolutionaries. > > We thus have a duality. On the one side are two facts: without the new > technologies, the country will be endangered; and these technologies > will be developed by tiny elites. On the other side is the equally > undeniable fact: the new technologies will just not provide the > massive employment that the growth in population and labour force > necessitate in India. Even a factory producing automobile parts looks > like a Japanese "lights-out" factory. There are few persons on the > shop floor: production is all CAD-CAM. The precision that is today > demanded by manufacturers who will use these components in their cars > and trucks is measured in microns; the dimensions have to be measured > by laser beams. This means that for the kind of numbers that need to > be absorbed - we need to create 80 million jobs in the next five years > — we have to put massive resources into the only activities which can > absorb such numbers: agriculture and infrastructure. > > Thus, as Deng would have said, we have to walk on two legs. And that > reinforces the point we glimpsed earlier: the cost of squandering > resources on wasteful, populist schemes will not just be that we will > not have those fabs, and thereby forfeit both competitive advantage > and national security; we will foment social unrest. > > Given these truisms, what must we be doing? > > (To be continued) > > > ------------------------------ > > _______________________________________________ > commons-law mailing list > commons-law at sarai.net > https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/commons-law > > > End of commons-law Digest, Vol 38, Issue 8 > ****************************************** > ___________________________________________________________ Inbox full of spam? Get leading spam protection and 1GB storage with All New Yahoo! Mail. http://uk.docs.yahoo.com/nowyoucan.html From seth.johnson at RealMeasures.dyndns.org Thu Sep 14 15:37:06 2006 From: seth.johnson at RealMeasures.dyndns.org (Seth Johnson) Date: Thu, 14 Sep 2006 06:07:06 -0400 Subject: [Commons-Law] Generic Sleeping Pill Awakens "Persistent Vegetative State" Brain Cells Message-ID: <450929CA.1D9E5047@RealMeasures.dyndns.org> > http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/story/0,,1870286,00.html Relevant snippet: "The potential for this drug is enormous," says Lomax. "ReGen has applied for a patent to use the drug, now out of patent and generically available, for the treatment of secondary brain injury after brain trauma. The object of the clinical trial is to scientifically establish that the compound works in the way it has been shown to work in individual cases. It will be carried out on patients known to react well to zolpidem, and by lowering the dosage it is hoped that the sedative side-effects will be reduced but the brain stimulation will still continue. "It may be that further research will allow us to better understand the way the drug works and to develop a new generation of better-targeted pharmaceuticals." He says market research estimates the potential market for zolpidem in brain-damaged patents could top $4.3bn (£2.3bn). The company that first developed zolpidem, Sanofi-Aventis, was contacted by Nel and Clauss but appears to have chosen not to become involved in the trials or the use of the drug on brain-damaged patients. Instead, the brain scans on up to 30 patients will be carried out at the Pretoria Academic Hospital by Professor Mike Sathekge, head of nuclear medicine, and Professor Ben Meyer, one of South Africa's most renowned physicians. > http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/story/0,,1870286,00.html Reborn We have always been told there is no recovery from persistent vegetative state - doctors can only make a sufferer's last days as painless as possible. But is that really the truth? Across three continents, severely brain-damaged patients are awake and talking after taking ... a sleeping pill. And no one is more baffled than the GP who made the breakthrough. Steve Boggan witnesses these 'strange and wonderful' rebirths Tuesday September 12, 2006 The Guardian For three years, Riaan Bolton has lain motionless, his eyes open but unseeing. After a devastating car crash doctors said he would never again see or speak or hear. Now his mother, Johanna, dissolves a pill in a little water on a teaspoon and forces it gently into his mouth. Within half an hour, as if a switch has been flicked in his brain, Riaan looks around his home in the South African town of Kimberley and says, "Hello." Shortly after his accident, Johanna had turned down the option of letting him die. Three hundred miles away, Louis Viljoen, a young man who had once been cruelly described by a doctor as "a cabbage", greets me with a mischievous smile and a streetwise four-move handshake. Until he took the pill, he too was supposed to be in what doctors call a persistent vegetative state. Across the Atlantic in the United States, George Melendez, who is also brain-damaged, has lain twitching and moaning as if in agony for years, causing his parents unbearable grief. He, too, is given this little tablet and again, it's as if a light comes on. His father asks him if he is, indeed, in pain. "No," George smiles, and his family burst into tears. It all sounds miraculous, you might think. And in a way, it is. But this is not a miracle medication, the result of groundbreaking neurological research. Instead, these awakenings have come as the result of an accidental discovery by a dedicated - and bewildered - GP. They have all woken up, paradoxically, after being given a commonly used sleeping pill. Across three continents, brain-damaged patients are reporting remarkable improvements after taking a pill that should make them fall asleep but that, instead, appears to be waking up cells in their brains that were thought to have been dead. In the next two months, trials on patients are expected to begin in South Africa aimed at finding out exactly what is going on inside their heads. Because, at the moment, the results are baffling doctors. The remarkable story of this pill and its active ingredient, zolpidem, begins in 1994 when Louis Viljoen, a sporty 24-year-old switchboard operator, was hit by a truck while riding his bike in Springs, a small town 30 minutes' drive east of Johannesburg. He suffered severe brain injuries that left him in a deep coma. He was treated in various hospitals before being settled in the Ikaya Tinivorster rehabilitation centre nearby. Doctors expected him to die and told his mother, Sienie Engelbrecht, that he would never regain consciousness. "His eyes were open but there was nothing there," says Sienie, a sales rep. "I visited him every day for five years and we would speak to him but there was no recognition, no communication, nothing." The hospital ward sister, Lucy Hughes, was periodically concerned that involuntary spasms in Louis's left arm, that resulted in him tearing at his mattress, might be a sign that deep inside he might be uncomfortable. In 1999, five years after Louis's accident, she suggested to Sienie that the family's GP, Dr Wally Nel, be asked to prescribe a sedative. Nel prescribed Stilnox, the brand name in South Africa for zolpidem. "I crushed it up and gave it to him in a bottle with a soft drink," Sienie recalls. "He couldn't swallow properly then, but I helped him and sat at his bedside. After about 25 minutes, I heard him making a sound like 'mmm'. He hadn't made a sound for five years. "Then he turned his head in my direction. I said, 'Louis, can you hear me?' And he said, 'Yes.' I said, 'Say hello, Louis', and he said, 'Hello, mummy.' I couldn't believe it. I just cried and cried." Hughes was called over and other staff members gathered in disbelief. "Sienie told me he was talking and I said he couldn't be - it wasn't possible," she recalls. "Then I heard him. His mother was speechless and so were we. It was a very emotional moment." Louis has now been given Stilnox every day for seven years. Although the effects of the drug are supposed to wear off after about two and a quarter hours, and zolpidem's power as a sedative means it cannot simply be taken every time a patient slips out of consciousness, his improvement continues as if long-dormant pathways in his brain are coming back to life. I see Louis before his daily medication, yet he is conscious where once he would have been comatose. Almost blind because of a separate and deteriorating condition, there is a droop to one side of his mouth and brow because of brain damage. His right arm is twisted awkwardly into his side. Louis is given a pill, and I watch. It is 8.30am. After nine minutes the grey pallor disappears and his face flushes. He starts smiling and laughing. After 10 minutes he begins asking questions. His speech is impaired because of the brain damage and the need, several years ago, to remove all his teeth, but I can understand him. A couple of minutes later, his right arm becomes less contorted and the facial drooping lessens. After 15 minutes he reaches out to hug Sienie. He pulls off her wedding ring and asks what it is. "It's a suffer-ring," she jokes. And he says, "Well, if you're suffering, you should make a plan!" The banter continues and he remembers conversations from the previous day and adds to them. "Louis," I ask, "do you feel any change in awareness before and after the pill?" "No," he says. "None whatsoever." Whatever is happening, he feels the same. "How do you know this is your mother?" I ask, referring to Sienie. Remember, Louis cannot see. He says: "Because I recognise her voice and I know she loves me." Nel was as amazed at Louis' awakening as everyone else. A GP in Springs for 40 years, when he isn't seeing up to 100 patients a day, he spends his time restoring vintage cars. Married with three grown-up children, he has lived in the same house all his life. "Something strange and wonderful is happening here, and we have to get to the bottom of it," he says. "Since Louis, I have treated more than 150 brain-damaged patients with zolpidem and have seen improvements in about 60% of them. It's remarkable." After Louis' awakening was publicised in the South African media, Dr Ralf Clauss, a physician of nuclear medicine - the use of radioactive isotopes in diagnostic scans - at the Medical University of Southern Africa, contacted Nel to suggest carrying out a scan on Louis. "The results were so unbelievable that I got other colleagues to check my findings," says Clauss, who now works at the Royal Surrey County Hospital in Guildford. "We did scans before and after we gave Louis zolpidem. Areas that appeared black and dead beforehand began to light up with activity afterwards. I was dumbfounded - and I still am." Clauss says immediate improvements in the left parietal lobe and the left lentiform nucleus were visible. In lay terms, these are important for motor function, sight, speech and hearing. "I remember saying to Dr Nel that we were witnessing medical history," says Clauss. No one yet knows exactly how a sleeping pill could wake up the seemingly dead brain cells, but Nel and Clauss have a hypothesis. After the brain has suffered severe trauma, a chemical known as Gaba (gamma amino butyric acid) closes down brain functions in order to conserve energy and help cells survive. However, in such a long-term dormant state, the receptors in the brain cells that respond to Gaba become hypersensitive, and as Gaba is a depressant, it causes a persistent vegetative state. It is thought that during this process the receptors are in some way changed or deformed so that they respond to zolpidem differently from normal receptors, thus breaking the hold of Gaba. This could mean that instead of sending patients to sleep as usual, it makes dormant areas of the brain function again and some comatose patients wake up. In Kimberley, the once booming home of the De Beers diamond empire, Riaan Bolton's family heard of Nel's work after he and Clauss had papers published in the medical journal NeuroRehabilitation and the New England Journal of Medicine several months ago. Riaan suffered severe brain trauma when he was thrown from a car in a traffic accident in July 2003. A keen cricketer and rugby player, the 23-year-old was studying to become an industrial engineer but still found time to play guitar in a band. "One specialist said he had a 5% chance of recovering, another said he had no chance whatsoever of regaining consciousness," says his mother, Johanna. She and her husband, Tinus, spend about £1,000 a month on round-the-clock care for their son in a converted garage at their home, but until June they had seen no sign of awareness in him. Then they asked their doctor, Clive Holroyd, to contact Nel for advice. "There was no movement, no recognition, just nothing," says Tinus. "Then we gave him the pill and we noticed him moving the fingers in his left hand and touching them against each other. His eyes went big and he began looking from left to right. "The doctor started asking Riaan questions. He said, 'Look at me, Riaan' and Riaan looked straight at him and focused on his face. Then the doctor asked him to move his hand and he moved it. And then he lifted his head from the pillow and began looking around. I couldn't believe it." I watch as Riaan is given his medication. As with Louis, his face flushes and his eyes begin to sparkle and focus within minutes. Gone is the 1,000-yard stare. He hugs his mother and looks at her face, but even though I am amazed, the family reckon this isn't his best day so far. They show me a number of DVDs they shot in July. In them, Riaan responds to questioning, nods and shakes his head, drinks through a straw, often laughs and says, 'Hello.' He remains severely brain damaged, but there is clear evidence of understanding and communication. "It has given us hope," says Johanna. "To have communication with him again, to know he becomes aware of us and to tell him we love him - knowing he can hear us - is simply beyond belief. It has been a very moving experience." Holroyd remains perplexed. "There is a measurement of the depths of coma called the Glasgow scale, with three being the worst and 15 being normal," he says. "Riaan was six, but within 10 minutes of taking the pill he is up to nine. It's simply unbelievable. And the mind-boggling thing about this is that it's done with a sleeping pill. "Some time ago, Riaan had a cardiac arrest and it was a difficult call as to whether or not to resuscitate him. His mother insisted he should be, and look at him now. From now on, this will cause serious ethical issues over whether to let such coma victims die." Those issues became even more complicated last week, when a British woman believed to be in a persistent vegetative state astonished doctors by responding to their voices. Although these awakenings are the most dramatic aspect of the zolpidem phenomenon, Percy Lomax, the chief executive of ReGen Therapeutics, the British company funding the South African trials, believes Nel's work with less brain-damaged patients could be the most significant. Many stroke victims, patients with head injuries and those whose brains have been deprived of oxygen, such as near-drowning cases, have reported significant improvement in speech, motor functions and concentration after taking the drug. "The potential for this drug is enormous," says Lomax. "ReGen has applied for a patent to use the drug, now out of patent and generically available, for the treatment of secondary brain injury after brain trauma. The object of the clinical trial is to scientifically establish that the compound works in the way it has been shown to work in individual cases. It will be carried out on patients known to react well to zolpidem, and by lowering the dosage it is hoped that the sedative side-effects will be reduced but the brain stimulation will still continue. "It may be that further research will allow us to better understand the way the drug works and to develop a new generation of better-targeted pharmaceuticals." He says market research estimates the potential market for zolpidem in brain-damaged patents could top $4.3bn (£2.3bn). The company that first developed zolpidem, Sanofi-Aventis, was contacted by Nel and Clauss but appears to have chosen not to become involved in the trials or the use of the drug on brain-damaged patients. Instead, the brain scans on up to 30 patients will be carried out at the Pretoria Academic Hospital by Professor Mike Sathekge, head of nuclear medicine, and Professor Ben Meyer, one of South Africa's most renowned physicians. "The results so far could be potentially very important," says Meyer. "We have never before spoken of damaged cells in the brain going into hibernation - we have thought of them as necrotic, or dead, cells. But we know cells can go into hibernation in the heart and thyroid, so why not the brain? If there are hibernating cells in damaged brains, it may be that this drug helps to wake them in some people." In South Africa, I meet a procession of brain-damaged patients who feel the drug has changed their lives for the better. There is 32-year-old Miss X, who can't be named for legal reasons. She suffered four cardiac arrests and hypoxia, a lack of oxygen to the brain, when a hospital's apparent failure to diagnose a gall bladder problem resulted in her contracting septicaemia four years ago. She can barely stand, her arms are in spasm, she cannot speak - although her intelligence has not been affected - and the left side of her face droops. She was given zolpidem for the first time just a week before I see her and her parents say the improvement was such that she has come back for more. Miss X is given a pill by Nel at 4.37pm. By 4.50 the left side of her face is no longer drooping, her eyes sparkle and she smiles broadly. At 5.02, her arms have relaxed enough for her to fold them and she is laughing with her parents. Ten minutes later, she stands up, stretches to her full height and claps her hands. Using a card keyboard, she spells out answers to questions I have for her. "Can you use the keyboard more quickly with the medication?" She answers: "Yes." Does she feel an improvement? "Yes, I am not falling over. I am not coughing so much. I can swallow easier. I feel my limbs are much more relaxed." But does she feel more tired? "No". What is she hoping for? "To talk again. I'd love to be able to call my cats to come to me." At 5.22pm, Miss X issues a long, drawn-out "Wall-eeee!" and hugs Nel. Then there is Wynand Claasens, 22, who suffered severe brain damage five years ago when he was assaulted outside his school. A series of subsequent strokes left him wheelchair-bound, depressed and aggressive. He used to be a long-distance runner. Nel gave him Stilnox for the first time in early July this year. "I was struggling to walk, my left eye was hanging lower and was smaller than my right eye, I was feeling very angry, I had pains in my knees and I was having trouble going to the toilet," Wynand says. "Now I'm walking with one stick, my face has evened up, I can go to the toilet when I'm ready and the pain in my knees has gone. I take one 10mg tablet each night and I feel about 60% better." The list goes on. Heidi Greven, who is now 21, was starved of oxygen to her brain at birth. Her mother, Babs, says she used to sit in silence, locked inside her own head, never communicating and looking terribly unhappy. When I meet Heidi, she is walking around, curious about everything. She examines the shorthand in my notebook. Although too shy to speak (she will always be brain damaged), she jokes with Nel. At home, she now chats with her parents. "I'll never forget the first time she was given the medication," says Babs. "It was in July 2002. After 10 to 15 minutes it was like a curtain being lifted from her eyes. I couldn't believe it. She suddenly started looking around and fiddling with magazines. Then she went outside the door and looked into the other rooms in the surgery. She found a portable radio and put it up to her shoulder and began listening to it. Beforehand, she would just sit there doing nothing. "That was a Saturday. When she went to [a special] school on the Monday, her teacher sent a note home asking what we had done to make Heidi come alive." There are others, too: Paul Ras, a 69-year-old runner who suffered brain damage after a traffic accident. Now he is convinced zolpidem is responsible for a recovery that allows him to run races up to 50km - with only one hip. And Theo van Rensburg, a 43-year-old lawyer who suffered severe brain injuries in a car crash in 1991. He also suffered a stroke while in a coma for three months. He took Stilnox in 1999 and reported an improvement in balance, co-ordination, speech and hearing. "I go horse-riding now," he says. He still has difficulty speaking, but I can understand him. "It's really good for my balance." Finally, I meet 22-year-old Janli de Koch, whose eyesight was damaged in a car accident in Switzerland in December 2004. The injury resulted in a restriction of her visual field to two corners of her eyes; she cannot see below a certain point, so that she bumps into things and falls over. Last month, she was prescribed zolpidem and now says she can already see more than she used to. She hopes the improvements will continue. In 1969 the neurologist Dr Oliver Sacks used the then new drug L-Dopa to awaken a group of catatonic patients who had survived the 1917-1928 epidemic of the mysterious "sleeping disease", known as encephalitis lethargica. The 1990 film Awakenings chronicles Sacks' delight at his patients' progress and his despair when the medication stops working and they slip back into a catatonic state. The hope with zolpidem is that the improvements will continue and there will be no regression. In the patients who have used the medication longest - such as Louis Viljoen and Theo van Rensburg - the signs are that progress continues. But time will tell. Perhaps the last word should go to Pat Flores, the mother of George Melendez, the 31-year-old coma patient who reassured his parents that he wasn't in pain after taking Ambien, as zolpidem is known in the US. He was starved of oxygen when his car overturned and he landed face down in a garden pond near his home in Houston, Texas, in 1998. "The doctors said he was clinically dead - one said he was a vegetable," says Pat. "After three weeks he suffered multi-organ failure and they said his body would ultimately succumb. They said he would never regain consciousness." He survived and four years later, while visiting a clinic, Pat gave him a sleeping pill because his constant moaning was keeping her and her husband, Del, awake in their shared hotel room. "After 10 to 15 minutes I noticed there was no sound and I looked over," she recalls. "Instead of finding him asleep, there he was, wide awake, looking at his surroundings. I said, 'George', and he said, 'What?' We sat up for two hours asking him questions and he answered all of them. His improvements have continued and we talk every day. He has a terrific sense of humour and he carries on running jokes from the day before. "It is difficult to describe how it feels to get someone back who you were told you had lost for ever. There is a bond that has been restored and it validates our absolute belief that all along George was locked inside there somewhere. It tells us that we were right and the doctors were wrong. George, and his personality, were in there the whole time". What is persistent vegetative state? Though it sounds unkind to refer to a human in such terms, even medical dictionaries define persistent vegetative state (PVS) as the condition of living like a vegetable: in other words, existing without consciousness or the ability to initiate voluntary action. Though people in this state may occasionally give the impression of being awake and sentient, making random movements and opening their eyes and even appearing to smile or cry, they are unable to respond to communication or demonstrate awareness of their environment. This is different from an ordinary coma, in which the patient's eyes are closed, and which rarely last more than four weeks. The other key difference is that a person in a coma hasn't necessarily lost all cognitive function (ie, brain power); they are just temporarily unable to access it. If they recover - and many do - they may have cognition afterwards. PVS is the result of irreparable damage to the cerebral cortex - the "thinking, feeling" part of the brain - but it is not to be confused with brain death. And while the "persistent" bit in the title indicates that the condition, unlike coma, is generally deemed permanent, there are intermittent reports of "recoveries". Last week, it was reported that a 23-year-old woman who has been in a vegetative state since suffering devastating brain damage in a traffic accident was suddenly able to understand speech. And in 2003 an Arkansas man, Terry Wallis, returned to consciousness 19 years after he was injured in a car accident, stunning his mother by saying "Mom" and then asking for a drink of fizzy pop. Such breakthroughs are controversial, in both medical and legal circles. The British Medical Association, for example, currently deems such miraculous events not as recoveries from PVS, but as an indicator of an earlier misdiagnosis. Because legal systems do not generally equate PVS with death, and diagnosis is difficult, there have been several famous court cases involving people in this condition. The most high-profile centred on Terri Schiavo, a 26-year-old Florida woman who went into a PVS after collapsing and suffering a heart attack in 1990. In 1998 her husband, Michael Schiavo, petitioned for her gastric feeding tube to be removed; her parents did not believe the diagnosis and took the case to court to prevent medical care being withdrawn. Ultimately, the court challenges were unsuccessful and in 2005 Schiavo's feeding tube was removed, leading to her death. There is no treatment for PVS. Instead, the medical team concentrate on preventing infections and maintaining the patient's physical state as much as possible. The most common cause of death for a person in a vegetative state is infection such as pneumonia. For most such patients, life expectancy ranges from two to five years; survival beyond 10 years is unusual. Helen Pidd From anivar at gaia.org.in Thu Sep 14 16:28:49 2006 From: anivar at gaia.org.in (Anivar Aravind) Date: Thu, 14 Sep 2006 16:28:49 +0530 Subject: [Commons-Law] Fwd: [india-gii] `India's Patents Act must extend to software' -- Craig Mundie In-Reply-To: <20060913224554.GB20459@utopia.kingsly.net> References: <20060913224554.GB20459@utopia.kingsly.net> Message-ID: <35f96d470609140358l59c2ddf1w9ddc8501dbfea725@mail.gmail.com> ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Kingsly John Date: Sep 14, 2006 4:15 AM Subject: [india-gii] `India's Patents Act must extend to software' -- Craig Mundie To: India Gii http://www.hindu.com/2006/09/14/stories/2006091409301800.htm Addressing an interactive meeting on the `Role of IPR in the Knowledge Economy' organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), Mr. Mundie pointed out that although India had made a lot of progress in enforcing IPR, it had still to bear in mind that for becoming an ICT (information and communication technology) superpower it would have to recognise patenting as a standalone enterprise. - -- - --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Kingsly At Users Dot SourceForge Dot Net -- http://kingsly.org/ - --------------------------------------------------------------------------- ____________________________________________________________ You received this message as a subscriber on the list: india-gii at lists.cpsr.org To be removed from the list, send any message to: india-gii-unsubscribe at lists.cpsr.org For all list information and functions, see: http://lists.cpsr.org/lists/info/india-gii -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/commons-law/attachments/20060914/5cddbb0c/attachment.html From vivek at sarai.net Mon Sep 18 14:12:47 2006 From: vivek at sarai.net (Vivek Narayanan) Date: Mon, 18 Sep 2006 14:12:47 +0530 Subject: [Commons-Law] SARAI-CSDS INDEPENDENT FELLOWSHIPS, 2007: Call for Proposals Message-ID: <450E5C07.7070603@sarai.net> Please note: the schedule for the ifellows programme has changed. This year, although October 31 is still the deadline for applications, the fellowship term will now run from March to the end of October 2007 (fellows are required to be in the country until then to complete the term and attend the fellowship workshop at the beginning of November). --Vivek. CALL FOR PROPOSALS – SARAI-CSDS INDEPENDENT FELLOWSHIPS, 2007 Applications are invited for the upcoming cycle of Sarai-CSDS Independent Research Fellowships. The Sarai Programme, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi Sarai is a programme of the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), Delhi. CSDS is one of India's best known research centres, with traditions of dissent and a commitment to the work of the public intellectual going back four decades. The Sarai Programme at CSDS was initiated in 2000 as a platform for discursive and creative collaboration between theorists, researchers and practitioners actively engaged in reflecting on contemporary urban spaces in South Asia—their politics, built form, ecology, culture and history—as well as on the histories, practices and politics of information and communication technologies, the public domain and media forms. For more information, visit www.sarai.net *The Purpose of the Independent Fellowship* The Sarai-CSDS Independent Fellowships allow the time for individuals from diverse backgrounds to either begin or continue research into specific aspects of media and urban culture and society, broadly and creatively defined, and to also think carefully and rigorously about the various public forms in which their research might be rendered. We are also interested in using the materials generated through the research to continue to build up our thematic archive of research on the city. Thus, we see the fellowship as an important source for this archive. Finally, an important purpose of the fellowship program is to spark, overlap and allow access to newly emerging research networks across disciplines, academic and non-academic institutions, organisations, practices, geographical locations and professional backgrounds. We are thus invested in the idea of what we call public and distributed research, where new knowledge is created and shaped from a variety of locations, and not just in a top-down fashion. Participants in the fellowship programme are expected to have a very strong and independent motivation towards the pursuit of their own specialised areas of research, but also to respond to and critique the research of others in the programme as intelligent non-specialists, and be open to suggestions and comments from non-specialists. Each year, a large number of the fellowships are awarded to projects that deploy standard methodologies and forms from the humanities and social sciences towards what we feel are justly deserving, new and emergent areas of research. We would like to not lose sight of these tried and tested methodologies in the humanities and social sciences, and will place a special emphasis on them this year. However, a significant number of fellowships are also awarded to projects that are innovative both in terms of what they consider to be research, as well as the variety of purposes and forms to which that research is applied. As a result, we encourage the inclusion of individuals with little or no previous formal research experience who want to pursue, more rigorously, a passion for a tightly-focused, feasible, understudied research topic; and equally, we encourage individuals with seasoned research experience in a conventional context to experiment with forms that are relatively new to them. For detailed abstracts of successful proposals from previous years, please visit www.sarai.net and click on the link for "Independent Fellowships" on the left-hand sidebar. *Conditions* --For administrative purposes, applicants are required to be resident in India, and to have an account in any bank operating in India. --Applications can be in Hindi or in English. The research work and presentation can also be in either Hindi, English, or a combination of the two languages. *Please note that this year the schedule for the Independent Fellows programme has changed.* --The research fellowship will run from March 2007 to the end of October 2007, with a final workshop that all fellows are expected to attend. It will award up to Rs 70,000 during this period. --Fellows will be required to make a minimum of six postings, one per month, on Sarai's "reader-list" email listserve, between February and the end of August 2007. --A working draft or initial prototype of the final work will be expected by the end of September. The final presentation of the research project will be made in Delhi at the beginning of November 2007. --The fellowships do not require the fellows to be resident at Sarai. --Although participation in the fellowship programme does require a substantial time commitment—to the research, the postings on progress, and interaction with other researchers and projects in the fellowship cycle—participants are also welcome to pursue the fellowship research in addition to their primary occupations or commitments to other fellowships or grants, if any. --Proposals from teams, partnerships, collectives and faculty are welcome, as long as the grant amount is administered by and through a single individual, and the funds are deposited in a single bank account in the name of an individual, partnership, registered body or institutional entity. --Applicants who apply to other institutions for support for the same project will not be disqualified, provided they inform Sarai if and when support is being sought (or has been obtained) from another institution. The applicants should also inform Sarai about the identity of the other institution. *What Do You Need To Send, Where and When?* There are no application forms. Simply send us by postal mail your: 1. Name(s), email address(es), phone(s), and postal address(es). 2. Proposal (not more than 1200 words) including details of the subject, process, mode of public presentation and rationale for the research. Your proposal will be greatly strengthened if you are also able to indicate the kinds of materials that you think your research project would be able to generate for the Sarai archive. In the past, fellows have submitted transcripts of interviews, photographs, recordings, printed matter, maps, multimedia and posters, related to the subject of their study, to this archive. 3. Two work samples: if possible, the samples of previous work done should give us a sense of your preferred mode of public presentation for this project (e.g., academic research paper, narrative prose, multimedia, video, performance, photography, installation, sound recording, "creative" writing, prototype design, combinations of the above, etc.) and also suggest to us how you might understand your upcoming research process for this fellowship. The work samples can—but do not necessarily have to—make reference to the current research topic. 4. A clear work plan (not more than one page) with, if possible, a month-by-month breakdown of the research work. 5. An updated CV (not more than two pages) for each applicant, and a short text (about half a page) giving us your intellectual biography. --Send these to: ATTN: I-FELLOWS PROPOSAL 2005-2006, Independent Fellowship Programme, Sarai, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, 29 Rajpur Road, Delhi 110054, India. --Enquiries: vivek at sarai.net for English proposals, ravikant at sarai.net for Hindi proposals. --Last date for submission: English proposals should be postmarked on or before Tuesday, October 31, 2006; Hindi proposals should be postmarked on or before Monday, November 13, 2006. --The list of successful proposals for 2007 will be announced on the Sarai website, and on Sarai's email list, reader-list at sarai.net, between the end of December 2006 and the beginning January 2007. For more details on joining the reader-list, please visit www.sarai.net and click on "LISTS at Sarai". *Who Can Apply? * There is absolutely no pre-qualification required for application to the Sarai-CSDS Independent Fellowship. Sarai invites independent researchers, media practitioners, working professionals, software designers and programmers, urbanists, architects, artists and writers, as well as students (postgraduate level and above) and university/college faculty to apply for support for research-driven projects. *What Other Fellowships Does Sarai Offer?* Sarai offers an exciting "Student Stipendship" for students at academic institutions wishing to pursue closely mentored and innovative research (contact: Sadan Jha, sadan at sarai.net) and a "FLOSS Independent Fellowship" for programmers and coders wishing to develop free and open source software (contact: Gora Mohanty, gora at sarai.net). Please note that the Sarai Media Fellowships have been discontinued. MORE INFORMATION *Why Research? What Do We Mean by Research? * Sarai is committed to generating public knowledge and creativity through research. Hence the support for research driven projects and processes. The fellowships are in the nature of small grants in order to emphasise the initiation and founding of projects that would otherwise go unsupported. By research we mean both archival and field research, and forays into theoretical work as well as any process or activity of an experimental or creative nature—for instance in the audiovisual media, as well as in journalism or the humanities and social sciences, or in architecture and socially attuned computing. We are especially interested in supporting projects that formulate precise and cogent intellectual questions, reflect on modes of understanding that implicate knowledge production within a critical social framework, foregrounding processes of gathering information and of creating links between bodies of information. We also encourage research that is based on a strong engagement with archival materials and imaginative ways of tackling the question of the public rendition of research activity. *The Experience of Previous Years* This is the sixth year in which Sarai is calling for proposals for such fellowships. We would like to describe how the process has worked in previous years, as an indication of what applicants should expect. These included work toward projects based on investigative reportage of urban issues; essays on everyday life; a history of urban Dalit performance traditions; soundscapes of the city; a graphic novel about Delhi; a documentation of the free software movement in India; research on displacement and rehabilitation in cities; interpretative catalogues of wall writings and public signages; digital manipulation of popular studio portrait photographs; the limitations of language in shrinking public spaces in Srinagar; histories of cinema halls and studios in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata; a study of the world of popular crime fiction in Bengali; reflections on the Kashmiri 'encounter' in Delhi, and many others. Successful applicants included freelance researchers, academics, media practitioners, artists, writers, journalists, activists and professionals such as nurses and bankers. The projects were submitted in English, Hindi or a combination of the two languages. We have seen that projects that set important but practical and modest goals were usually successful, whereas those that may have been conceptually sound but lacked sufficient motivation to actually pursue a research objective on the field, usually did not take off beyond the interim stage. Sarai interacts closely with the researchers over the period of the fellowship, and the independent fellows make a public presentation of their work at Sarai at the end of their fellowship period. During the term of their fellowship each fellow is required to make a posting to our email list every month, reporting on the development of their work. These postings, which are archived, are an important means by which the research process reaches a wider discursive community. They also help us to trace the progress of work during the grant period, and understand how the research interfaces with a larger public. Submissions at the end of the fellowship period included written reports and essays, photographs, tape recordings, audio CDs, video, pamphlets, maps, drawings and html presentations. Fellows have made their final presentations in the form of academic papers, lecture-demonstrations and performances. *What Happens to the Research Projects?* The annual research projects add to our increasingly substantial archival collections on urban space and media culture. These are proving to be very significant value additions to the availability of knowledge resources in the public domain. Researchers are free to publish or render any part or all of their projects in any forms, independently of Sarai (but with due acknowledgment of the support that they have received from Sarai). Sarai Independent Research Fellows have gone on to publish articles in journals, work towards the making of films, exhibitions, websites, multimedia works and performances, and the creation of graphic novels, soundworks and books. We actively encourage all such efforts. *What We Are Looking For* As in the past, this year too we are looking for proposals that are imaginatively articulated, experimental and methodologically innovative, but which are pragmatic and backed up by a well-argued work plan which sets out a timetable for the project, as well as suggests how the support will help with specific resources (human and material) that the project needs. Suggested Themes: Sarai's interests lie in the city and in media. Broadly speaking, any proposal that looks at the urban condition, or at media, is eligible. Proposals for projects that seek to push disciplinary limits and boundaries or break new ground, that offer fresh and detailed empricial insights, that desire to engage with questions and problems pertaining to cities, urban culture, media from a philosophically and conceptually enriched terrain of inquiry are especially welcome. We are committed to methodological and analytic rigour even as we are also keen to engage with sensibilities and registers of thought that are oppositional, dissident, heretical, imaginative and poetic. More specifically, themes may be as diverse as the experience of work in different locations, institutions and work cultures, histories of urban sexuality, heretical figures and imaginations, histories of particular media practices, legality and illegality, migration, transportation, surveillance, intellectual property, social/digital interfaces, urban violence, street life, technologies of urban control, health and the city, the political economy of media forms, digital art and culture, or anything else that the applicants feel will resonate with the philosophy and interests that motivate Sarai's work. We are particularly interested in work that comes from non-metropolitan and mofussil urban spaces, even though we continue to look for strong projects that articulate the realities of major cities. -- Vivek Narayanan Sarai: The New Media Initiative Centre for the Study of Developing Societies 29 Rajpur Road Delhi 110 054 From sudhir75 at hotmail.com Tue Sep 19 19:31:41 2006 From: sudhir75 at hotmail.com (sudhir krishnaswamy) Date: Tue, 19 Sep 2006 14:01:41 +0000 Subject: [Commons-Law] Creative Commons India License Message-ID: Dear all, In the last last 2 years, little progress has been made on the draft of the Indian version of the Creative Commons License. Shishir Jha, from IIT Bombay, who is leading this project, had requested me to initiate this revision process and to start a wider discussion to finalise the draft. The first set of amendments to the Indian version of the Attribution-Non-Commercial- Sharealike License 2.5 have been made by Krithika, Jayna and myself. A copy of the draft of the License and the Explanation of Legal Changes is pasted below. I look forward to comments and suggestions from this group! regards, Sudhir Creative Commons Legal Code Draft for Discussion-India-See Notes and Comments at end of the Text Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 CREATIVE COMMONS CORPORATION IS NOT A LAW FIRM AND DOES NOT PROVIDE LEGAL SERVICES. DISTRIBUTION OF THIS LICENSE DOES NOT CREATE A LAWYER-CLIENT RELATIONSHIP. CREATIVE COMMONS PROVIDES THIS INFORMATION ON AN “AS-IS” BASIS. CREATIVE COMMONS MAKES NO WARRANTIES REGARDING THE INFORMATION PROVIDED, AND DISCLAIMS LIABILITY FOR DAMAGES RESULTING FROM ITS USE. License THE WORK (AS DEFINED BELOW) IS PROVIDED UNDER THE TERMS OF THIS CREATIVE COMMONS PUBLIC LICENSE (“CCPL” OR “LICENSE”). THE WORK IS PROTECTED BY COPYRIGHT AND/OR OTHER APPLICABLE LAW. ANY USE OF THE WORK OTHER THAN AS AUTHORIZED UNDER THIS LICENSE OR COPYRIGHT LAW IS PROHIBITED. BY EXERCISING ANY RIGHTS TO THE WORK PROVIDED HERE, YOU ACCEPT AND AGREE TO BE BOUND BY THE TERMS OF THIS LICENSE. THE LICENSOR GRANTS YOU THE RIGHTS CONTAINED HERE IN CONSIDERATION OF YOUR ACCEPTANCE OF SUCH TERMS AND CONDITIONS. 1. Definitions a. “Collective Work” means any work, such as a periodical issue, anthology or encyclopedia, in which a number of other contributions constituting separate and independent works in themselves, are assembled into a collective whole. A work that constitutes a Collective Work will not be considered an adaptation (as defined below) for the purposes of this License. Compilation: "a work formed by the collection and assembling of preexisting materials or of data that are selected, coordinated, or arranged in such a way that the resulting work as a whole constitutes an original work of authorship. The term Collective Work." Do we want to add this additional definition of Compilation? b. “Adaptation” means a work based upon the Work or upon the Work and other preexisting works, such as a translation, musical arrangement, dramatization, fictionalization, motion picture version, sound recording, art reproduction, abridgment, condensation, or any other form in which the Work may be recast, transformed, or adapted, except that a work that constitutes a Collective Work will not be considered a Adaptation. c. “Licensor” means the individual or entity that offers the Work under the terms of this License. d. “Original Author” means the individual or entity who created the Work. e. “Work” means the copyrightable work of authorship offered under the terms of this License. I think this would need a better definition. f. “You” means an individual or entity exercising rights under this License who has not previously violated the terms of this License with respect to the Work, or who has received express permission from the Licensor to exercise rights under this License despite a previous violation. g. “License Elements” means the following high-level license attributes as selected by Licensor and indicated in the title of this License: Attribution, Noncommercial, ShareAlike. 2. Fair Dealing Rights Nothing in this license is intended to reduce, limit, or restrict any rights arising from any fair dealing, statutory rights, first sale or other limitations on the exclusive rights of the copyright owner under copyright law of their jurisdictions or other applicable laws. 3. License Grant Subject to the terms and conditions of this License, the Licensor hereby grants You a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive, perpetual (for the duration of the applicable copyright) license to exercise the rights in the Work as stated below: a. to reproduce the Work, to incorporate the Work into one or more Collective Works, and to reproduce the Work as incorporated in the Collective Works; b. to create and reproduce Adaptations; c. to distribute copies or phono-records of the Work, display publicly, perform publicly, and perform publicly by means of a digital audio transmission, the Work including as incorporated in Collective Works; d. to distribute copies or phono-records of Adaptations, display publicly, perform publicly, and perform publicly by means of a digital audio transmission Adaptations; The above rights may be exercised in all media and formats whether now known or hereafter devised. The above rights include the right to make such modifications as are technically necessary to exercise the rights in other media and formats. All rights not expressly granted by Licensor are hereby reserved, including but not limited to the rights set forth in Sections 4(e) and 4(f). 4. Restrictions The license granted in Section 3 above is expressly made subject to and limited by the following restrictions: a. You may reproduce, distribute, publicly display, publicly perform, communicate the Work, publicly digitally perform the Work or create an adaptation of the Work only under the terms of this License, and You must include a copy of this License with every copy or phono-record of the Work You distribute, publicly display, publicly perform, or publicly digitally perform. You may not offer or impose any terms on the Work that alter or restrict the terms of this License or the recipients’ exercise of the rights granted hereunder. You may not sublicense the Work. You must keep intact all notices that refer to this License and to the disclaimer of warranties. You may not distribute, publicly display, publicly perform, or publicly digitally perform the Work with any technological measures that control access or use of the Work in a manner inconsistent with the terms of this License Agreement. The above applies to the Work as incorporated in a Collective Work, but this does not require the Collective Work apart from the Work itself to be made subject to the terms of this License. If You create a Collective Work, upon notice from any Licensor You must, to the extent practicable, remove from the Collective Work any credit as required by clause 4(d), as requested. If You create an adaptation, upon notice from any Licensor You must, to the extent practicable, remove from the Adaptation any credit as required by clause 4(d), as requested. b. You may distribute, publicly display, publicly perform, or publicly digitally perform an Adaptation only under the terms of this License, a later version of this License with the same License Elements as this License, or a Creative Commons iCommons license that contains the same License Elements as this License (e.g. Attribution-NonCommercial ShareAlike 2.5 Japan). You must include a copy of, this License or other license specified in the previous sentence with every copy or phonorecord of each Adaptation. You distribute, publicly display, publicly perform, or publicly digitally perform. You may not offer or impose any terms on the Adaptations that alter or restrict the terms of this License or the recipients’ exercise of the rights granted hereunder, and You must keep intact all notices that refer to this License and to the disclaimer of warranties. You may not distribute, publicly display, publicly perform, or publicly digitally perform the Adaptation with any technological measures that control access or use of the Work in a manner inconsistent with the terms of this License Agreement. The above applies to the Adaptation as incorporated in a Collective Work, but this does not require the Collective Work apart from the Adaptation itself to be made subject to the terms of this License. c. You may not exercise any of the rights granted to You in Section 3 above in any manner that is primarily intended for or directed toward commercial advantage or private monetary compensation. The exchange of the Work for other copyrighted works by means of digital file-sharing or otherwise shall not be considered to be intended for or directed toward commercial advantage or private monetary compensation, provided there is no payment of any monetary compensation in connection with the exchange of copyrighted works. d. If you distribute, publicly display, publicly perform, or publicly digitally perform the Work or any Adaptation or Collective Works, You must keep intact all copyright notices for the Work and provide, reasonable to the medium or means You are utilizing: (i) the name of the Original Author (or pseudonym, if applicable) if supplied, and/or (ii) if the Original Author and/or Licensor designate another party or parties (e.g. a sponsor institute, publishing entity, journal) for attribution in Licensor’s copyright notice, terms of service or by other reasonable means, the name of such party or parties; the title of the Work if supplied; to the extent reasonably practicable, the Uniform Resource Identifier, if any, that Licensor specifies to be associated with the Work, unless such URT does not refer to the copyright notice or licensing information for the Work; and in the case of a Adaptation, a credit identifying the use of the Work in the Adaptation (e.g., “French translation of the Work by Original Author,” or “Screenplay based on original Work by Original Author”). Such credit may be implemented in any reasonable manner; provided, however, that in the case of a Adaptation or Collective Work, at a minimum such credit will appear where any other comparable authorship credit appears and in a manner at least as prominent as such other comparable authorship credit. 5. Representations, Warranties and Disclaimer UNLESS OTHERWISE MUTUALLY AGREED TO BY THE PARTIES IN WRITING, LICENSOR OFFERS THE WORK AS-IS AND MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND CONCERNING THE WORK, EXPRESS, IMPLIED, STATUTORY OR OTHERWISE, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, WARRANTIES OF TITLE, MERCHANTIBILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, NONINFRINGEMENT, OR THE ABSENCE OF LATENT OR OTHER DEFECTS, ACCURACY, OR THE PRESENCE OF ABSENCE OF ERRORS, WHETHER OR NOT DISCOVERABLE. SOME JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OF IMPLIED WARRANTIES, SO SUCH EXCLUSION MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU. 6. Limitation on Liability. EXCEPT TO THE EXTENT REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW, IN NO EVENT WILL LICENSOR BE LIABLE TO YOU ON ANY LEGAL THEORY FOR ANY SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THIS LICENSE OR THE USE OF THE WORK, EVEN IF LICENSOR HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. 7. Termination a. This License and the rights granted hereunder will terminate automatically upon any breach by You of the terms of this License. Individuals or entities who have received Adaptations or Collective Works from You under this License, however, will not have their licenses terminated provided such individuals or entities remain in full compliance with those licenses. Sections 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, and 8 will survive any termination of this License. b. Subject to the above terms and conditions, the license granted here is perpetual (for the duration of the applicable copyright in the Work). Notwithstanding the above, the Licensor reserves the right to release the Work under different license terms or to stop distributing the Work at any time; provided, however that any such election will not serve to withdraw this License (or any other license that has been, or is required to be, granted under the terms of this License), and this License will continue in full force and effect unless terminated as stated above. 8. Miscellaneous a. Each time You distribute or publicly digitally perform the Work or a Collective Work, the Licensor offers to the recipient a license to the Work on the same terms and conditions as the license granted to You under this License. b. Each time You distribute or publicly digitally perform a Adaptation, the Licensor offers to the recipient a license to the original Work on the same terms and conditions as the license granted to You under this License. c. If any provision of this License is invalid or unenforceable under applicable law, it shall not affect the validity or enforceability of the remainder of the terms of this License, and without further action by the parties to this agreement, such provision shall be reformed to the minimum extent necessary to make such provision valid and enforceable. d. No term or provision of this License shall be deemed waived and no breach consented to unless such waiver or consent shall be in writing and signed by the party to be charged with such waiver or consent. e. This License constitutes the entire agreement between the parties with respect to the Work licensed here. There are no understandings, agreements or representations with respect to the Work not specified here. Licensor shall not be bound by any additional provisions that may appear in any communication from You. This License may not be modified without the mutual written agreement of the Licensor and You. Creative Commons is not a party to this License, and makes no warranty whatsoever in connection with the Work. Creative Commons will not be liable to You or any party on any legal theory for any damages whatsoever, including without limitation any general, special, incidental or consequential damages arising in connection to this license. Notwithstanding the foregoing two (2) sentences, if Creative Commons has expressly identified itself as the Licensor hereunder, it shall have all rights and obligations of Licensor. Except for the limited purpose of indicating to the public that the Work is licensed under the CCPL, neither party will use the trademark “Creative Commons” or any related trademark or logo of Creative Commons without the prior written consent of Creative Commons. Any permitted use will be in compliance with Creative Commons’ then current trademark usage guidelines, as may be published on its website or otherwise made available upon request from time to time. [English Explanation of Legal Changes] Draft Ver.1 - For Discussion Only Comments 1. Collective Work The Indian Copyright Act, does not have a definition equivalent to collective works (for example anthologies etc.) as “work” entitled to copyright protection under the Act. The term was defined under Section 35(1) of the old Act of 1911 as follows: Collective work is (a) any encyclopaedia, dictionary, year book or similar work, (b) a newspaper, review, magazine, or similar periodical or any work written in distinct parts by different authors or in which works or parts of works of authors are incorporated. While specific definitions including that of literary work Sec.2(O) includes compilations, there is no overall category of collective work. We may therefore have to consider either adapting the definition of Collective Work as it exists in the CC license, or create a definition for the Indian license. This is unnecessary. Contractually parties may agree arrange rights and liabilities they already have. The lack of statutory recognition of collective works does not mean that a copyright holder does not have any rights related to the inclusion of their work into a collective work as this is a subset of the right to copy/reproduce. So the definition may be left as it is. One more aspect that we might want to think about is whether the term ‘compilation’ needs to be specifically included with the broader definition of ‘collective work’. This would include databases to also be specifically included in the CC License, as they would not always be deemed to be included otherwise. 2. “Adaptations” is not a category defined under the Indian Copyright Act but there exists a similar category of ‘adaptations’ (defined under section 2(a) of the Act). Sec. 14 of the Act also provides for rights that are granted to particular classes of works, and adaptation rights are included for literary, artistic, dramatic work and musical works. The definitions of ‘Adaptations’ and ‘adaptations’ under ‘The Creative Commons License’ and Indian Copyright Act respectively are pretty similar, but the Indian Copyright Act is slightly narrower in scope since it defines what adaptation means in reference to each class of works. For example ‘adaptations’ is defined separately for each class of creative works such as literary, artistic, dramatic and musical work. But Sec. 14 for instance in relation to industrial works, do not provide any right beyond the right of reproduction, exhibition and communication. Whereas the definition of ‘Adaptations’ under ‘The Creative Commons License’ is defined in as: “...translation, musical arrangement, dramatization, fictionalization, motion picture version, sound recording, art reproduction, abridgment, condensation, or any other form in which the Work may be recast, transformed, or adapted...” We would need to discuss the implication of this absence of a specified right of adaptation being granted to cinematograph films. As we are drafting a work-neutral license we can keep the wider CC definition of adaptation with the understanding that works to which the adaptation right does not statutorily attach (industrial works) the definition does not apply comprehensively. 3. Waiver New changes introduced under ‘The Creative Commons License’ in terms of ‘License grant’ which now specifically waives the exclusive right of the author of the work or the ‘performing rights society’ on behalf of the author, to collect such royalties for the public performance or public digital performance (webcast). Provisions dealing with the powers and functions of Copyright society (analogous to performing rights society) in India are Section 33 to 36A of the Copyright Act, which are quite standard across jurisdictions. The waiver of the right to collect royalty by author or via the Performance Rights Society can be easily adapted into the Indian Creative Commons License. Section 34(b) of the Copyright Act gives to the author unconditional right to withdraw any such authorization to collect royalty on his behalf by the copyright society. Hence with regard to the Copyright Society, they don’t have any right under the act which is affected by the ‘waiver terms’ under the Creative Commons License. Under Section 34(a) of the Act, Copyright Societies can merely have the exclusive authorization to administer any rights under the work and nothing provides the same with any power to an exercise of such rights. Under no provision of the Act the rights vested in the author of the work are ever transferred to the Copyright Society and the ‘waiver provision’ under the License merely change the nature of the authorization exercised by the Copyright Societies as in they can not collect any royalty on behalf of the author any more since the author has waived the right to collect the same by adopting the license for the work. Why does the Indian version not contain a provision similar to Sections 4(e) and 4(f) of the UK version of the CC license which grant the licensor an exclusive right to collect whether individually or via a Performing Rights Society the royalties for public performance of the work? There is no need to deny the author this right when Section 8(4) of the Indian version clearly vests in the author to waive any of his rights in writing at any time, if he so wishes. Sections 33 to 36 of the Copyright Act which deal with rights of the Copyright Society also vest in the author express rights to decide what rights he wishes to vest in the Society. Another advantage of vesting this exclusive right in the author is that the author can always be in a position to resolve any conflict between the rights of the Copyright Society and the rights of the licensee under the CC license. _________________________________________________________________ Call friends with PC-to-PC calling -- FREE http://get.live.com/messenger/overview From prashantiyengar at gmail.com Wed Sep 20 09:15:48 2006 From: prashantiyengar at gmail.com (Prashant Iyengar) Date: Wed, 20 Sep 2006 09:15:48 +0530 Subject: [Commons-Law] DRUG DATA SET FOR 5-YEAR COVER (DATA EXCLUSIVITY) Message-ID: <908adbd0609192045w48bfd12du92a8677ef6b5f64a@mail.gmail.com> *DRUG DATA SET FOR 5-YEAR COVER (DATA EXCLUSIVITY) * Source: Business Standard Business Standard[image: external link] In a major win for multinational pharmaceutical companies in India, the government is on the verge of giving five-year protection to data submitted by an innovator to the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI). However, a slew of riders will be added to ensure availability of the drug. The drug controller will not accept mere bioequivalence data from subsequent applicants, which would have to generate data from scratch, involving a considerable cost and money. The Satwant Reddy committee, which is going into the issue, is also looking at including herbal, unani, ayurvedic, siddhi and homeopathic drugs under data protection, a move that has the support of Department of Ayush and the domestic industry. The multinational segment of the pharmaceutical industry in India has been demanding such protection under Article 39 (3) of the TRIPS agreement, while the domestic lobby sees it as a ploy to restrict market access to cheaper generic versions. Article 39 (3) prohibits 'unfair commercial use' of drug data submitted to the regulator but doesn't mention either the drugs that need protection or the form and duration of the protection, leaving a large grey area. To address the concerns of the domestic industry, the department of chemicals and petrochemicals has inserted riders like price checks on drugs enjoying data protection. Also, the period of protection will begin on the first date of publication of the data worldwide and only drugs that came after 1995 will be eligible. The department also plans to allow generic applicants to put in bioequivalence data with the DCGI two years before the expiry of the protection term. This will enable them to have a series of drug launches the day the drug loses protection. 'As Article 39 (3) doesn't specify which drugs qualify for data protection, the government will provide it to any drug that is being introduced in India for the first time. However, it will keep out derivatives that have been mentioned in Para 3 (d) of the Patents Act,' said a ministry source. This means that the definition will not coincide with that of the patentability of a drug. Para 3 (d) of the Patents Act says that derivatives like salts, esters and polymorphs of a known drug are not patentable. The committee initially considered a compensated liability model under which the subsequent applicants could pay royalty to the innovator for commercial use of the data. The suggestion was dropped as calculating an acceptable percentage of royalty was difficult. Share Your Comments Print this page Mail to frien. http://71.18.103.185/tikiwiki/tiki-read_article.php?articleId=19147 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/commons-law/attachments/20060920/6a660e10/attachment.html From prashantiyengar at gmail.com Wed Sep 20 09:18:51 2006 From: prashantiyengar at gmail.com (Prashant Iyengar) Date: Wed, 20 Sep 2006 09:18:51 +0530 Subject: [Commons-Law] NIC, IBM team up for national portal Message-ID: <908adbd0609192048l69d7efa6o34813bb8cd5f20dc@mail.gmail.com> http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/thscrip/print.pl?file=2006091903150400.htm&date=2006/09/19/&prd=bl& Mumbai,Sept. 18: The National Informatics Centre (NIC) has partnered with IBM to power the national portal of India (India.gov.in) enabling delivery of government services. The portal, based on open standards and Service Oriented Architecture, will provide a `single point entry' to government information and services using products such as IBM WebSphere? Portal, IBM Workplace content manager for Web publishing and personalisation. The Web site, available in multiple languages, has information across various services, like filing of tax returns, getting birth certificates and applying for a PAN card. The portal is said to have five layers of security and cannot be hacked easily. "We have provided the software and technology that will help NIC," said Mr R. Dhamodaran, Vice-President, IBM Software group and developer relations. A team of content contributors, comprising senior government officers and experts will contribute diverse and up-to-date information to the portal. NIC and IBM will also ensure universal accessibility of the portal for the physically challenged and those using handheld devices. "We wanted to develop the portal from the point of view of citizens rather than from the government's perspective. It also gives a platform for participation in the process of governance," said Dr N. Vijayaditya, Director-General, NIC. � Copyright 2000 - 2006 The Hindu Business Line From gopa.kumar at centad.org Wed Sep 20 09:56:26 2006 From: gopa.kumar at centad.org (Gopa Kumar) Date: Wed, 20 Sep 2006 09:56:26 +0530 Subject: [Commons-Law] NGOs flay 'decision' to provide 5 year data exclusivity Message-ID: <00b801c6dc6c$f2ce8fc0$6701a8c0@gopacba9226de3> NGOs flay 'decision' to provide 5 year data exclusivity Wednesday, September 20, 2006 08:00 IST Joe C Mathew Public interest groups in India have protested against the 'decision of the Committee for the Protection of Undisclosed Information under Article 39.3 of the TRIPS Agreement under the chairpersonship of Satwant Reddy, secretary, ministry of chemicals and fertilizers to recommend five year data exclusivity for pharmaceuticals' in India. The NGOs stated that the decision was known to have taken on September 6. There is yet to be an official confirmation on the allegations. The NGO representatives said that the committee had ignored the 'concerns raised by the Ministry of Health and strong opposition from public health groups'. "This decision of the government that directly impacts the availability of affordable drugs in the future, also ignores the concerns and suggestions of the Indian Network for Persons living with HIV/AIDS (INP+), the Medico Friends Circle, the Jan Swasthya Abhiyan (Peoples Health Movement), the Global AIDS Alliance, Torchbearers (mental illness advocacy group), MSF's Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines, the Bangalore HIV and AIDS Forum and the Lawyers Collective HIV/AIDS Unit; all of whom had written to the Prime Minister and the health ministry outlining their opposition to Data Exclusivity for drugs", that stated. According to them, amendments to the Drugs and Cosmetic Act will now be drafted seeking to introduce a 5-year Data Exclusivity term in India . They also felt concerned about the manner in which the drafting of the amendments would be carried out. "It remains to be seen if the amendment Bill will be shared with stakeholders including public health groups. Last year the government introduced amendments to the Indian Patents Act 1970 without sharing the proposed bill with stakeholders and experts" ,they said. Data Exclusivity in a certain length of time during which the Drugs Controller General of India is prohibited from relying on available clinical trial data in order to register a generic version of a drug. Data exclusivity prevents the registration (for marketing approval) of generic versions of medicines even when there is no patent on a medicine, for example when a pharmaceutical does not meet the standards for patentability ( e.g. because it is not new). Generic medication from India has been pivotal to the provision of affordable treatment for millions in India and around the world for HIV/AIDS, cancer, TB, asthma and mental illness, they explained. http://www.pharmabiz.com/article/detnews.asp?articleid=35202§ionid=&z=y -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/commons-law/attachments/20060920/1fdf83e4/attachment.html From machine at zerosofzeta.com Thu Sep 21 21:30:02 2006 From: machine at zerosofzeta.com (Yogesh Girdhar) Date: Thu, 21 Sep 2006 21:30:02 +0530 Subject: [Commons-Law] WMP 11 -- all your rights are belong to M$ In-Reply-To: <2470FAB8-8E2D-46F7-8251-F5FA4FB428B8@obtech.net> References: <2470FAB8-8E2D-46F7-8251-F5FA4FB428B8@obtech.net> Message-ID: <1d804b40609210900r6924949av5d3c2815455c11ad@mail.gmail.com> http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=34523 Microsoft Media Player shreds your rights Comment No more backups, or Tivo By Charlie Demerjian: Thursday 21 September 2006, 10:08 Click here to find out more! THINK DRM WAS bad already? Think I was joking when I said the plan was to start with barely tolerable incursions on your rights, then turn the thumbscrews? Welcome to Windows Media Player 11, and the rights get chipped away a lot more. Get used to the feeling, if you buy DRM infected media, you will only have this happen with increasing rapidity. One of the problems with WiMP11 is licensing and backing it up. If you buy media with DRM infections, you can't move the files from PC to PC, or at least you can't and have them play on the new box. If you want the grand privilege of moving that content, you need to get the approval of the content mafia, sign your life away, and use the tools they give you. If you want to do it in other ways, you are either a lawbreaker or following the advice of J Allard. Wait, same thing. So, in WiMP10, you just backed up your licenses, and stored them in a safe place. Buying DRM infections gets you a bunch of bits and a promise not to sue, but really nothing more. The content mafia will do anything in its power, from buying government to rootkitting you in order to protect those bits, and backing them up leaves a minor loophole while affording the user a whole lot of protection. Guess which one wins, minor loophole or major consumer rights? Yes, WiMP11 will no longer allow you the privilege of backing up your licenses, they are tied to a single device, and if you lose it, you are really SOL. Remember that feeling I mentioned earlier? This is nothing less than a civil rights coup, and most people are dumb enough to let it happen. Read the links, the entire page is scary as hell, but the licensing part takes the cake. "Windows Media Player 11 does not permit you to back up your media usage rights (previously known as licenses)", Wow, new terminology, old idea, you are a wallet with legs waiting to be raped. "The store might limit the number of times that you can restore your rights or limit the number of computers on which can use the songs or videos that you obtain from them. Some stores do not permit you to restore media usage rights at all." Translation, not our problem, and get bent, we got your cash. But it gets worse. If you rip your own CDs, WiMP11 will take your rights away too. If the 'Copy protect music' option is turned on, well, I can't top their 1984 wording. "If the file is a song you ripped from a CD with the Copy protect music option turned on, you might be able to restore your usage rights by playing the file. You will be prompted to connect to a Microsoft Web page that explains how to restore your rights a limited number of times." This says to me it will keep track of your ripping externally, and remove your rights whether or not you ask it to. Can you think of a reason you would need to connect to MS for permission to play the songs you ripped from you own CDs? How long do you think it will be before a service pack, masquerading as a 'critical security patch' takes away the optional part of the 'copy protection'? Now do you understand why they have been testing the waters on WiMP phoning home? Think their firewall will stop it even if you ask? Then when you go down on the page a bit, it goes on to show that it guts Tivo capabilities. After three days, it kills your recordings for you, how thoughtful of them. Going away for a week? Tough, your rights are inconvenient to their profits, so they have to go. "Recorded TV shows that are protected with media usage rights, such as some TV content recorded on premium channels, will not play back after 3 days when Windows Media Player 11 Beta 2 for Windows XP is installed on Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005. No known workaround to resolve this issue exists at this time." Workaround my *ss, this is wholesale rights removal by design. What WiMP11 represents is one of the biggest thefts of your rights that I can think of. MS planned this, pushed the various pieces slowly, and this is the first big hammer to drop. Your rights, the promises they made, and anything else that gets in the way of the content mafia making yet more money gets thrown out. Why? Greed. Your rights? History. You were dumb enough to let it happen, don't say I didn't warn you. µ From prashantiyengar at gmail.com Wed Sep 27 20:33:12 2006 From: prashantiyengar at gmail.com (Prashant Iyengar) Date: Wed, 27 Sep 2006 20:33:12 +0530 Subject: [Commons-Law] Fwd: [A2k] LimeWire slams RIAA members' 'illegal online cartel' In-Reply-To: <2124.212.46.150.54.1159360054.squirrel@QuestMail.FutureQuest.net> References: <2124.212.46.150.54.1159360054.squirrel@QuestMail.FutureQuest.net> Message-ID: <908adbd0609270803q38f137bci893298db9f4e1c45@mail.gmail.com> ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Michelle Childs Date: Sep 27, 2006 5:57 PM Subject: [A2k] LimeWire slams RIAA members' 'illegal online cartel' To: a2k at lists.essential.org Cc: ecommerce at lists.essential.org, ip at tacd.org A much more interesting line of defence is LimeWire's attack against the music industry. It says the case is "part of a much larger conspiracy to destroy all innovation that content owners cannot control and that disrupts their historical business models". The RIAA and its members are using the law for anti-competitive means, not to control piracy, LimeWire charges http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/09/26/limewire_riaa_counterclaim/ Counterblast in counterclaim By Drew Cullen in San Francisco Published Tuesday 26th September 2006 22:23 LimeWire LLC has returned fire in its copyright dispute with Recording Industry Ass. Of America (RIAA), accusing its members of operating an illegal cartel to control the online distribution of music. In a recent lawsuit, The RIAA attacked LimeWire and its top developers for facilitating copyright theft, through its peer-to-peer (P2P) file swapping service. In today's countersuit, Limewire denies the charges, noting that it is merely the developer of an open source software. Limewire notes that it is a true P2P service - there are no central servers to facilitate file exchange. As such, people who download LimeWire swap files entirely of their "own volition", it claims. Hmm. We can't see a US court buying this argument. A much more interesting line of defence is LimeWire's attack against the music industry. It says the case is "part of a much larger conspiracy to destroy all innovation that content owners cannot control and that disrupts their historical business models". The RIAA and its members are using the law for anti-competitive means, not to control piracy, LimeWire charges. Online music distribution, is it notes, a disruptive business model for the music majors, which are "using the exclusivity rights inherent in their copyrights - that they deployed with a vengeance, by unlawfully extending and pooling those] to cartelize the network for the online distribution of music... They also pooled their huge monetary resources to combat and eventually defeat many of their online competitors." LimeWire's counter-claim is here. (r) http://www.ilrweb.com/viewILRPDF.asp?filename=arista_limewire_060925answercounterclaim - -- 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 1621 Connecticut Ave, NW, Washington, DC 20009 USA .Tel.: +1.202.332.2670,Fax: +1.202.332.2673 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 From pparanagua at gmail.com Thu Sep 28 04:28:12 2006 From: pparanagua at gmail.com (Pedro Moniz) Date: Thu, 28 Sep 2006 00:58:12 +0200 Subject: [Commons-Law] WIPO 2006 General Assembly Message-ID: Dear Colleague, Should you have interest on the heated discussions at WIPO, please take a look at Brazil`s FGV School of Law programmes websites: A2K: www.a2kbrasil.org.br Free Culture: www.culturalivre.org.br Feel free to post your comments and to pass it forward. Best, Pedro Paranagua -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/commons-law/attachments/20060928/958ca733/attachment.html From monica at sarai.net Thu Sep 28 13:01:34 2006 From: monica at sarai.net (Monica Narula) Date: Thu, 28 Sep 2006 13:01:34 +0530 Subject: [Commons-Law] Shiva Vaidyanathan on the copyright jungle Message-ID: <21BCF91B-8861-42A4-B706-51D998374A9D@sarai.net> in the Columbia Jornalism Review: http://www.cjr.org/issues/2006/5/Vaidhyanathan.asp best M Monica Narula Raqs Media Collective Sarai-CSDS 29 Rajpur Road Delhi 110054 www.raqsmediacollective.net www.sarai.net From aidslaw1 at lawyerscollective.org Mon Sep 25 14:17:58 2006 From: aidslaw1 at lawyerscollective.org (aidslaw1) Date: Mon, 25 Sep 2006 08:47:58 -0000 Subject: [Commons-Law] [arkitectindia] Parliamentary Standing Committee hears stakeholders on ITPA Amendment Bill, 2006. Message-ID: <20060925084743.6650228D760@mail.sarai.net> Dear friends, The HRD Standing Committee, considering the Immoral Traffic Prevention (Amendment) Bill (ITPA) 2006, started the process of oral hearings (wherein the relevant stakeholders are given an opportunity to present their concerns or opinions regarding the subject under consideration) from 18th September 2006. Lawyers Collective HIV/AIDS Unit (LCHAU) was called on 18th September 2006 to orally submit its objections and concerns regarding the Bill. Find enclosed a brief outline of the oral submissions made by LCHAU before the HRD Standing Committee. Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act (Amendment) Bill 2006 Legislative History of ITPA * Suppression of Immoral Trafficking (in women and Girls) Act, 1956 (SITA) was enacted pursuant to the International Convention for the Suppression of Traffic in Persons and of the Exploitation of the Prostitution of Others, 1949, which sought to curb trafficking by criminalizing the machinery for organized prostitution. The Convention required signatories to punish third parties (profiting from prostitution of others) without prejudice to how states address prostitutes themselves. The statute relied on a report of the Advisory Committee on Social and Moral Hygiene that delved into the issue of prostitution. A Select Committee too examined the issue. The enactment was approved after intense deliberation and scrutiny. * It was amended twice in 1978 and 1986 and was renamed Immoral Tarffic (Prevention) Act (ITPA). Amendments were introduced ostensibly to make the law more stringent against trafficking. Legislative Thinking - "Though Prostitution is Immoral it is not Illegal" Why prostitution per se was not made an offence? Legislative debates in 1956 acknowledge that: * Prostitution cannot be eliminated by penalizing sale and purchase of sex. * Prostitution can be tackled when carried out in public. * Prostitution between consenting adults falls within private domain and not to be interfered into by the State. * Futility of banning prostitution without effectively rehabilitating prostitutes, for whom commercial sex is a means of survival. Legislature's skepticism Fifty years ago when SITA was introduced, legislators cautioned: * The Act will push sex workers underground, making it difficult to control sexually transmitted disease. * With corruption endemic in police ranks, the law will strengthen their hands to further exploit sex workers. * Need to train special officers to exercise powers under the Act. Twenty years ago when the Act was amended, legislators noted that - Trafficking and/or prostitution cannot be eliminated without addressing root causes of poverty, gender inequality & the status of women in India. Dissonance in Legislative Intent and Implementation What was sought What has happened Prevent trafficking by inhibiting organized sex work Trafficking continues unabated in sex work and other sectors Punish those who thrive on prostitution of others, not sex workers Third parties evade law and most arrests / convictions against sex workers u/s 8 Protect trafficked persons by rescue & removal Police raids intensify violence & abuse against sex workers Rehabilitate sex workers in state run institutions Practically no homes and ineffective rehabilitation. ITPA - An Abject Failure * ITPA has only been implemented through S. 8 (solicitation) & S. 15 (raids) * The Act has failed to prevent forcible entry into sex work; provides removal of persons already in sex work. * The fears of legislators regarding police harassment have come true. * State run homes unable to rehabilitate rescued persons. General failure of rehab packages. * Not only has the Act failed to achieve its intended object; it has also hindered successful community led processes for controlling HIV and Trafficking e.g. Sonagachi (Kolkata) The Advent of HIV - NEED FOR A PARADIGM SHIFT * Sex workers are vulnerable to HIV making condom usage the only effective means of preventing them from getting infected with HIV. * Condom promotion is working in places even other than Sonagachi. * Use of condoms in transactional sex is influenced by factors (fear of interception by police, among other things) that affect negotiations between sex workers and clients. Unless there is an enabling environment, condom use cannot become universal. * This calls for a paradigm shift: from treating persons in sex work as criminals to working with them as change agents. ITPA Amendment Bill 2006 - Amendments at a glance * Consistent definition of child below 18 years. * Modification of definition of prostitution. * Enhanced penalty for brothel keeping. * Creation of offences of trafficking in persons. * Penalties for visiting brothels. * Removal of penalties against soliciting. * Increase period of corrective detention. * Lower rank of police authorised to arrest/search/raid. * Set up anti-trafficking authorities at centre and State. * Withdraw magisterial powers to remove prostitutes. * In camera trials. Critique New definition of prostitution u/s.2(f) - "sexual exploitation or abuse of persons for commercial purposes or for consideration in money or in any other kind" * By inserting the words "for consideration in money or in any other kind" , the proposed definition dilutes focus from commercial & exploitative aspects of sex work to potentially cover all sexual transactions, irrespective of exploitation or involvement of third parties for profit. * Further the definition will result in ambiguity in implementation as sexual exploitation is not been defined. Enhanced penalty for brothel keeping u/s 3(1) * Will not result in higher convictions. * Adverse implications for NACP III, which plans to promote condoms among 1mn sex workers. * Brothels double up as home and safe spaces for sex workers. Sex workers bear the brunt of eviction from brothels. E.g. Chakla Bazar, Surat (2003) and Goa (2004). Brothels were razed to the ground and sex workers were rendered homeless. Insertion of new s 5A to define trafficking in persons * Not in consonance with International Law that requires trafficking to be punished in all sectors & not just in prostitution. * Terms such as "position of vulnerability" have no clear meaning, likely to result in differential interpretation. * The section is poorly drafted and is grammatically incongruent. Insertion of S. 5C to punish persons visiting or found in a brothel - "whoever visits or is found in a brothel for the purpose of sexual exploitation of a victim of trafficking" * Sexual exploitation is not defined; could be construed to inclide all transactional sex. Esp. in light of new s. 2(f). * Visiting or being found in a brothel is sufficient ground for arrest. * Every client may be arrested, despite lacking knowledge of presence of trafficked victim and intention of having sex with trafficked victim. * Difficult to secure convictions; sex workers unlikely to testify against clients. * Likely to drive sex workers underground, resulting in: * No contact with social and medical services - disastrous implications for HIV/AIDS interventions. * Increased mafia control - more extortion and exploitative work condition. * Diminished ability to negotiate safer sex * Real danger of HIV seroprevalance rising again. Futility of Prohibitionist Model In 1999, Sweden introduced law penalizing purchase of sexual services. The law intended to curb demand for sex by punishing clients and consequently eliminate prostitution. However, independent assessments & reports of the Swedish Ministry of Justice & Police indicate: * Although sex work is less visible, it has not diminished but simply operates underground. * Dependence on mafia and criminal gangs has intensified for establishing contacts with clients. * Sex workers more vulnerable to violence and HIV as they are scattered and isolated hence have less bargaining power for safer sex. * Sex workers solicit and operate in hidden settings, beyond reach of medical, social and legal assistance. * The law is difficult to implement. Sex workers will never testify against their clients and without witnesses and victims, there can be no convictions. Lowering Rank of Police Personnel u/s. 13(2) * Will increase harassment against sex workers, undermining any respite gained from deletion of S. 8. * The move is inconsistent with letter & spirit of existing statute that allows only designated/high ranking officials to exercise powers to prevent widespread misuse. * Along with S. 5C, the provision will fuel corruption among police ranks, resulting in extortion & exploitation. Recommendations Without prejudice to the contention that the ITPA should be comprehensively reviewed mindful of both trafficking and emergent public health concerns, such as, HIV/AIDS, it is submitted that in alternative in the alternative in the Amendment Bill, 2006: * Delete definition of prostitution in 2(f) * Amend the definition of brothels tp decriminalize small brothels run by sex workers themselves eg. New Zealand. * Amend definition of trafficking in persons u/s 5A by deleting sub-clauses (b) & (c).from proposed section 5A. * Delete proposed S. 5C altogether. * Delete changes in S. 13(2) & insert protocols for conducting raids that respect rights of rescued persons. Lawyers Collective HIV/AIDS Unit -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/commons-law/attachments/20060925/445e6819/attachment.html