From patrice at xs4all.nl Thu May 1 20:35:50 2008 From: patrice at xs4all.nl (Patrice Riemens) Date: Thu, 1 May 2008 17:05:50 +0200 (CEST) Subject: [Commons-Law] The 'Desiderata' case... Message-ID: <11075.87.194.2.170.1209654350.squirrel@webmail.xs4all.nl> Checking this out (fwd from Asiasource2 list/ Samer Azmy - orig to geek2live): as the title tells, it is a post by Richard Stallman, as he wants to save OLPC from Windows I Wonder if we can do someting http://geek2live.blogspot.com/2008/05/can-we-rescue-olpc-from-windows.html I found the 'Baltimore Desiderata' tucked in the right hand down corner - and checked the Wikipedia entry, since it's a favourite text of mine, and I had always assumed it was from 1692. It is apparently not. And it became a classic copyright case as well... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desiderata Cheers, patrizio and Diiiinooos! -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/commons-law/attachments/20080501/87a2ea09/attachment.html From prashantiyengar at gmail.com Tue May 6 10:36:36 2008 From: prashantiyengar at gmail.com (Prashant Iyengar) Date: Tue, 6 May 2008 10:36:36 +0530 Subject: [Commons-Law] SC refuses to interfere with HC order on RTI fees Message-ID: <908adbd0805052206h4620bd2eq93dc05d31a6a0cd7@mail.gmail.com> http://www.indianexpress.com/printerFriendly/305880.html SC refuses to interfere with HC order on RTI fees Tannu Sharma Posted online: Tuesday, May 06, 2008 at 2356 hrs IST NEW DELHI, MAY 5 Observing that high courts are "empowered and well within their jurisdiction" to frame rules with regard to the implementation of the Right to Information (RTI) Act, the Supreme Court on Monday refused to interfere with the Allahabad High Court's decision of levying Rs 500 as fees for seeking any information under the Act. Chief Justice of India K G Balakrishnan and Justice M K Sharma hearing a petition filed by an NGO, Lok Prehri, refused to issue any direction for setting aside or quashing the HC order. Contending that such an "hefty amount" charged as fees under the RTI Act was illegal, perverse and bad in law, S N Shukla who appeared for the petitioner said, "It virtually amounts to negating the Right to Information Act." The NGO in its application filed before the high court in July 2006 had sought two details from the court -- number of cases disposed of and information on administration of cases. The Supreme Court was told that the high court had declined to part with the information and an appeal was subsequently filed with the State Information Commission in September 2006. Meanwhile, the full bench of the high court came out with the rule specifying that for every information, a separate application has to be filed with the fee of Rs 500, the NGO claimed. Finding no infirmity with the high court decision, the CJI, speaking for the bench, observed, "We cannot interfere in the rules framed by the High Court. They are empowered to do so." From paivakil at yahoo.co.in Wed May 7 21:21:30 2008 From: paivakil at yahoo.co.in (Mahesh T. Pai) Date: Wed, 7 May 2008 21:21:30 +0530 Subject: [Commons-Law] SC refuses to interfere with HC order on RTI fees In-Reply-To: <908adbd0805052206h4620bd2eq93dc05d31a6a0cd7@mail.gmail.com> References: <908adbd0805052206h4620bd2eq93dc05d31a6a0cd7@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <20080507155130.GA16116@nandini.home> Prashant Iyengar said on Tue, May 06, 2008 at 10:36:36AM +0530,: > The NGO in its application filed before the high court in July 2006 > had sought two details from the court -- number of cases disposed of > and information on administration of cases. It is very unfortunate that this information has to be sought, rather than published. While we are not familiar with facts of the case, every High Court (is supposed to) publishes a document, the "Administrative Report" which contains such details. A separate report is issued in respect of every court which is under the administrative supervision of the HC. Way back in 1994, I recall seeing such a report of some HC in North India (sorry, forgot which), in the library of the Kerala High Court. A copy of this report was MARKED TO ONE OF THE IVY LEAGUE universities in the US of A, and another copy to a university in the UK - (Oxford?? I am not sure). I myself sought such a report of the Kerala HC another couple of years later, and I had to specify the reason (A research project sponsored by the legal fraternity and the ILI) and still it took two weeks for the decision. It is very strange that information which our own citizens have to run from pillar to post to obtain is handed over on a platter to non-Indian institutions. -- Mahesh T. Pai <<>> http://paivakil.blogspot.com/ If your mail client does not support HTML, click here From lawrence at altlawforum.org Thu May 8 17:28:00 2008 From: lawrence at altlawforum.org (Lawrence Liang) Date: Thu, 08 May 2008 17:28:00 +0530 Subject: [Commons-Law] Harvard votes for Open Access Policy Message-ID: <4822EAC8.10104@altlawforum.org> Good afternoon, The Berkman Center for Internet & Society is pleased to announce that the faculty of Harvard Law School has unanimously approved a motion for open access: articles will be made freely available in an online repository. With the success of this motion, Harvard Law becomes the first law school to make an institutional commitment to open access to its faculty's scholarly publications. In February, Harvard University's Faculty of Arts and Sciences unanimously passed an open access motion spearheaded by computer science professor and Berkman faculty co-director Stuart Shieber. Professor Shieber's work and leadership, along with that of Harvard library director Robert Darnton, paved the way for Berkman faculty director William Fisher and executive director John Palfrey to bring an open access proposal to Harvard Law School. The Berkman community is tremendously proud and excited about the success of these important initiatives. The full release from Harvard Law School can be found online at http://www.law.harvard.edu/news/2008/05/07_openaccess.php . Contact: Harvard Law School Office of Communications > The Berkman Center's announcement, including a link to the full text of the open access motion, can be found online at http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/node/4273 . Contact: Seth Young >, +1.617.384.9135 Seth Young Berkman Center for Internet & Society Harvard Law School +1.617.384.9135 *About the Berkman Center* The Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School is proud to celebrate its tenth anniversary as a research program founded to explore cyberspace, share in its study, and help pioneer its development. Founded in 1997, through a generous gift from Jack N. and Lillian R. Berkman, the center is now home to an ever-growing community of faculty, fellows, staff and affiliates working on projects that span the broad range of intersections between cyberspace, technology and society. More information can be found at http://cyber.law.harvard.edu. -- Berkman at 10 - http://www.berkmanat10.org - celebrating 10 years of exploring cyberspace, sharing in its study, and pioneering its development From prabhuram at gmail.com Fri May 9 09:13:38 2008 From: prabhuram at gmail.com (Prabhu Ram) Date: Fri, 9 May 2008 09:13:38 +0530 Subject: [Commons-Law] America's patent system- Methods and Madness Message-ID: <68752c9f0805082043x16734bc9l8dee0224f291db61@mail.gmail.com> http://www.economist.com/business/PrinterFriendly.cfm?story_id=11332744* America's patent system* *Methods and madness* May 8th 2008 | WASHINGTON, DC >From The Economist print edition *Patent reform may soon happen in the courts, if not on Capitol Hill* ONLY those inventions "worth to the public the embarrassment of an exclusive patent" should receive patent protection, declared Thomas Jefferson, himself an inventor and America's first commissioner of patents. Since his day some patents have proved to be more of an embarrassment than others. Most notorious are "business methods" patents, such as the patent held by Priceline , an online ticket agency, for the Dutch-auction method of selling tickets. Thousands of these patents have been issued since they were first recognised in 1998. But the federal court charged with hearing patent appeals has hinted that it may use a case, in which arguments were due to be heard on May 8th, to cut back the scope of patent protection for business methods. The patent application submitted by would-be inventors Bernard Bilski and Rand Warsaw is startling in its breadth and simplicity: it claims exclusive rights to the process of using transactions to hedge the risk that demand for a commodity will change. The United States Patent and Trademark Office ( USPTO) rejected the application because it was not limited to the use of a particular machine and did not describe any methods for working out which transactions to perform. Any device or method could be used, or none at all. As a result, the USPTO explained, the application amounted to an attempt to patent an abstract idea—the idea of hedging consumption risk using contracts. Mr Bilski appealed. But rather than hear the appeal in the normal fashion, the court took the unusual step of calling for the parties, and anyone else with an interest in the case, to address not only whether the patent should be granted, but also whether the court should overturn the 1998 case in which it first held that business-methods patents could be awarded. That opened the door to a legal free-for-all by academics, industry, and inventors. The American Civil Liberties Union, a free-speech advocacy group, made its debut appearance in the field of patent law to argue that allowing patents on mental processes would run afoul of the constitutional protection for freedom of thought. The outcome of the Bilski case could affect the validity of billions of dollars worth of business-methods, software, and financial patents. The firms that receive such patents are divided on their worth. Some companies that own lots of patents, including many business-methods patents, such as IBM and Microsoft, are nonetheless urging the court to cut back on "pure" methods patents and allow only patents on inventions that use machines or produce tangible, physical results. Other firms, such as Accenture and American Express, warn that the court will distort inventors' incentives if it restricts patents on useful methods for minimising risk or managing information. John Squires, the chief intellectual-property counsel at Goldman Sachs, an investment bank, says business-methods patents are an important way to safeguard the invention of innovative financial techniques. He says reformers should focus on urging policymakers to improve the quality of issued patents of all kinds. Some other Wall Street firms are more wary. Patents protect intellectual property, but they also breed lawsuits. Research by Josh Lerner of Harvard Business School found that patents on financial innovations were 27 times more likely than average to result in litigation. The defendants in these suits tend to be big investment banks and other financial institutions. Mr Lerner discovered that the most frequent plaintiffs in such lawsuits are patent-holding companies whose only line of business is the litigation of patent suits. Given the stakes, this week's hearing is unlikely to be the last exchange of words on Mr Bilski's case. Whichever side ultimately loses will probably appeal to the Supreme Court. While the arguments rage in the courts, Congress seems content to do nothing at all about patent reform. On May 5th the Senate removed the bipartisan Patent Reform Act from its calendar. Among other sensible proposals, it would have switched the United States from a "first to invent" to a "first to file" patent system, which the rest of the world uses. But it is now back on the shelf, which is a pity. Courts can twiddle with the edges of statutory language, but only Congress can rewrite broken laws. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/commons-law/attachments/20080509/3af20472/attachment-0001.html From prashantiyengar at gmail.com Fri May 9 10:26:04 2008 From: prashantiyengar at gmail.com (Prashant Iyengar) Date: Fri, 9 May 2008 10:26:04 +0530 Subject: [Commons-Law] PC-to-phone calls in offing Message-ID: <908adbd0805082156q6ae851d1s12be631c4abcc892@mail.gmail.com> PC-to-phone calls in offing http://www.financialexpress.com/printer/news/307109/ Rishi Raj Posted online: Friday , May 09, 2008 at 2236 hrs New Delhi, May 8Removing the last barriers in seamless connectivity, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) will soon allow connectivity between PC and fixed and mobile phones. This would mean that telephone calls could be made from a personal computer to a fixed phone or a mobile phone. These are currently not allowed. The move would bring about a steep fall in STD rates and redefine the national long distance (NLD) regime. Sources said Trai would release a consultation paper on the issue on May 12. Currently, voice over Internet protocol (Internet telephony) is permitted by licensed Internet service providers (ISPs), but such calls can only be made from PC-to-PC. For terminating such calls to phones, a special device has to be attached. There's a big market for PC-to-phone calls, as can be gauged by the traffic in the international long distance sector, where it's allowed; the usage is about 300 million minutes in a quarter. Once PC-to-phone calls are allowed, the NLD regime would go through an overhaul. It would also open up an entirely new business opportunity for ISPs. At present, NLD calls are carried through the network of BSNL, Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications and Tata Communications, as they are only major players having the network. The government charges a licence fee of Rs 2.5 crore for NLD telephony. Once Internet telephony is opened up, there won't be a need for players to go for NLD licences, as they can operate as ISPs, for which only a token licence fee of Re 1 is charged. New players can then have an option to either build an expensive NLD network or carry long distance calls via the cheaper IP network. Operators not having an NLD network have to pay a per minute carriage charge to the NLD operators for STD calls. Currently, the ceiling on carriage charge is 65 paise a minute. Though operators offer discounts, they can abruptly start charging a higher rate, as was done by Bharti recently. With steps taken on ushering in the MVNO regime, carrier access code and Internet telephony, the last barriers in the telecom sector would be broken, said an official. From rai.shailesh at gmail.com Sat May 10 15:16:45 2008 From: rai.shailesh at gmail.com (S Rai) Date: Sat, 10 May 2008 15:16:45 +0530 Subject: [Commons-Law] BBC sends legal threat over Dr Who knitting patterns Message-ID: <177e3ed00805100246u4f754ffata5e47eee2667256e@mail.gmail.com> http://technollama.blogspot.com/2008/05/doctor-who-partnerts-in-copyright-crime.html -- The good people at the Open Rights Group forwarded me an email they received from a Doctor Who fan that goes by the screen name Mazzmatazz, who has allowed me to tell his/her story. But beware, this is a scary tale of copyright abuse that will have you hiding behind the sofa, or perhaps it will send you into a Whogasm . Doctor Who series Four started a few weeks ago with the episode "Partners in Crime ". The episode featured a new creature generated from human fat called, what else, the Adipose(pictured below). While I did not particularly like the episode, I reckon that the Adipose made a good showing, and will probably become a memorable Doctor Who creature (much better surely than the lovable yet ludicrous Abzorbaloff ). The Adipose however, seem to me to be the Doctor Who equivalent of Ewoks - small and cute creatures which serve little purpose to the plot, and whose value seems to be mainly as merchandising fodder (I notice that others agree ). Enter Mazzmatazz. Mazz has a websitefeaturing photography and knitting. In a display of amazing knitting talent (and dare I say, too much time on their hands), Mazz has been making knitting designs of Doctor Who characters; see for example, the excellent Ood . Under normal circumstances, a fan who makes knitting designs of loved TV characters should not be the concern of copyright owners. However, these are not normal circumstances. The new Doctor Who series is merchandising gold, so much so that the BBC has been climbing up the world merchandise chart. This may confuse people in and outside of the UK. The BBC is not a commercial enterprise, is it? We in the UK have to pay licensing fees(costing a whooping £139.50 GBP per year) to support public broadcasting, so why are the BBC relying so much on their merchandising? This is a good time to get acquainted with how the BBC works. While the BBC in the UK is free of advertising and supported partially by the licensing fee, expensive quality programs such as Doctor Who and Torchwood require investment that goes above and beyond guaranteed funding through licence fees alone. The BBC therefore has an international commercial body called BBC Worldwide , which sells its valuable intellectual property to the world entertainment market. The wide success of titles such as Planet Earth and Doctor Who have pushed BBC Worldwide's salesto more than £800 million GBP, and merchandising is a key part of that strategy. Where does our friend Mazz fit in this picture of corporate success? Well, it seems that the Adipose knitting designs have hit a greed nerve somewhere at the Beeb. While I have a copy of the entire communication between Mazz and the BBC, I will reproduce it partially because the emails come with a confidentiality disclaimer (although I must point out that I believe, as others do, that those email disclaimers are not even worth the bits they are written on). The cease-and-desist letter reads: "We note that you are supplying DR WHO items, and using trade marks and copyright owned by BBC. You have not been given permission to use the DR WHO brand and we ask that you remove from your site any designs connected with DR WHO. Please reply acknowledging receipt of this email, and confirm that you will remove the DR WHO items as requested." Interesting choice of words to say the least. Further communication continues to stress the point that Mazz's designs constitute unlicensed merchandise, and that BBC Worldwide has every right to stop others from distributing their property. However, Mazz is not selling merchandise, he/she is providing a knitting design to tell others how to make their own versions of the Adipose. While commercial exploitation has no bearing on whether there is copyright infringement, I think that it should be a huge consideration for BBC Worldwide when deciding to prosecute a fan who clearly loves the show. What about the legal argument? Does the BBC have a case? On the face of it, the BBC would be correct in their assessment that Mazz is infringing their copyright. TV characters are protected by copyright, and all sorts of fan art would be found to be infringing. However, there is a growing body of literatureon the subject of the uneasy interaction between fandom and copyright, as many authors turn a blind eye to non-commercial use of their characters online. Of course, when the work becomes commercial, they will take action . However, Mazz's case is more complicated, as copyright is less clearabout transformative art. Nobody would claim that Andy Warhol does not have copyright over his iconic Marilyn portrait, or his Campbell's Soup montages, even if they use other's IP. Similarly, there have been various cases where the mere transformation for artistic purposes from one medium to another was deemed to have enough originality to warrant its own copyright protection (see for example Alfred Bell v Catalda). However, copy too much and you might be found to be infringing, the prime example is Roger v Koons , pictured above. While U.S. cases seem to be moving against transformative copyright, the same cannot be said for case law here in the UK. My first reaction when I read about Mazz's knitting case was that this was straightforward infringement, but something kept nagging me. I asked our resident copyright expert Charlotte Waelde, and she remembered some case law which blurs the picture even more. In King Features Syndicate v Kleeman [1941] AC 417, the defendant was accused of having copied cartoon strips depicting "Popeye the Sailor" and placing them in brooches and other media. Although the defendants lost, the issue of the independent design was explored. The Lords found that the figures could constitute designs as protected in the then Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1907. Another relevant case is Anacon v Environmental Research Technology [1994] FSR 659. This case has nothing to do with art, but with circuit design. In this case the defendants made a list of the components in a circuit and their interaction with one another, and then made a circuit on its own that looked completely different to the original. The defendants claimed that the their design was artistic, and therefore different. However, Jacob J found that the actual list was a literary work, and therefore it was subject to copyright protection as such. This is relevant to Mazz's design, as it proves that a knitting design is subject to its own protection, and that it may be dissimilar to the actual artistic depiction of the character. This issue was also explored in Sandman v Panasonic, where Pumfrey J astutely described the dichotomy between design and the item resulting from it to that of musical notation and the resulting tune. Each has its own type of protection. In other words, I strongly believe that BBC Worldwide's claims are over-reaching. While there could be infringement, I submit the hypothesis that Mazz has done enough transformation to the Adipose character to claim copyright over their design. The cease-and-desist letter also makes a claim on trade marks. I know next to nothing about this subject, but I would be extremely surprised if BBC Worldwide had managed to register the "Adipose" mark. I did a quick search in the UK-IPO Trade Mark database and I could not find it registered. Concluding, the BBC may not have a straightforward case if they decide to sue, and they could very well lose. I also believe that they are misplacing their energies pursuing a fan who has done nothing more than to display their love to the show by making a highly original design. While commercial use is not relevant to the infringement case, it should be noted that Mazz was not selling the design, and had actually licensed it under a Creative Commons licence. So, will the real Adipose please stand up? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/commons-law/attachments/20080510/d9b1b68d/attachment.html From prashantiyengar at gmail.com Wed May 14 13:08:43 2008 From: prashantiyengar at gmail.com (Prashant Iyengar) Date: Wed, 14 May 2008 13:08:43 +0530 Subject: [Commons-Law] Drug companies chasing profits, cheating patients Message-ID: <908adbd0805140038k3cd6d905m55c4292f145f807c@mail.gmail.com> Date:14/05/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/14/stories/2008051451520400.htm Back New Delhi Drug companies chasing profits, cheating patients Bindu Shajan Perappadan 'High-price Doxofylline being promoted as an alternative to low-price theophylline' Doxofylline bulk drug is not a patented medicine and can be purchased in tons in China NEW DELHI: Exploiting the ignorance of the common man, over half a dozen drug companies in the country have suddenly discovered the hidden virtues of an age-old, low-lying medicine called "doxofylline", claim experts. Before the aggressive promotion to sell the drug started last year, doctors were not even aware that such a molecule existed. Explaining what he claims is the real reason for doxofylline's entry into the country, the Editor of the medical journal, Monthly Index of Medical Specialities, Dr. C. M. Gulati, says: "The answer lies in the way drug prices are determined and controlled in the country. Doxofylline is being offered as a more profitable alternative to theophylline, prescribed to prevent and treat wheezing, shortness of breath, and difficulty breathing caused by asthma, chronic bronchitis, emphysema, and other lung diseases. It relaxes and opens air passages in the lungs, making it easier to breathe." "Theophylline and etofylline – molecules approved for sale in over 200 countries after having undergone rigorous post-marketing trials -- are scheduled drugs and subject to price control by the Government. By successive orders in 2006, all loopholes to sell theophylline products at high profit margins have been closed by the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA), the body that monitors medicine prices in India. Therefore, nearly all companies selling theophylline formulations have been scouting for similar molecules outside the price control system irrespective of whether they are similar, better or even worse than their current brands" adds Dr. Gulati. "The core issue is profits, not patients," asserts Dr. Gulati. "The strategy is to stop selling less profitable, price-controlled products and replace them with hugely profitable alternatives of the same class. Doxofylline fits into this tactic. A molecule which is not even considered fit for mention in standard textbooks is being paraded as if it is major advancement in the treatment of asthma," he notes. Doxofylline bulk drug is not a patented medicine and can be purchased in tons in China at a very low cost without any licence. Yet to give it an international foreign flavour, some drug companies in India have proudly announced that their brands are being produced "under licence" from overseas entities. Dr. Gulati has warned that patients in India are being made to pay excessively high price for a very ordinary medicine. "While the cost of a ten-tablet strip of theophylline-400 mg is Rs.6.40, the cost of a ten-tablet strip of doxofylline is Rs.80." After the discovery of aminophylline, a double salt of theophylline and ethylenediamine, in 1910, attempts were made either to isolate similar xanthine alkaloids from plants or to synthesize them in labs. Result: dozens of derivatives of theophylline were discovered such as etofylline, theobromine, oxtriphylline, dyphylline, enprofylline, etamiphylline, proxyphylline and pyridofylline. Doxofylline is just another derivative of theophylline in this chain and resembles the parent compound in its mode of action, efficacy and safety profile. (c) Copyright 2000 - 2008 The Hindu From namita at altlawforum.org Wed May 14 13:31:38 2008 From: namita at altlawforum.org (namita) Date: Wed, 14 May 2008 13:31:38 +0530 Subject: [Commons-Law] got automated copyright notice Message-ID: <482A9C62.8030108@altlawforum.org> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/commons-law/attachments/20080514/06d2673c/attachment.html From the.solipsist at gmail.com Wed May 14 13:46:23 2008 From: the.solipsist at gmail.com (Pranesh Prakash) Date: Wed, 14 May 2008 13:46:23 +0530 Subject: [Commons-Law] Foreseeability and Copyright Incentives Message-ID: <4785f1e20805140116u4df4236dg64e3c8f6f482d2f1@mail.gmail.com> Dear All, Prof. Shyamkrishna Balganesh of the University of Chicago Law School has written an article that takes us back to the bases of copyright law, and from that perspective looks at the directions that the present law is taking. Do go through the article, which is going to be published in an upcoming issue of the Harvard Law Review, and share your comments. Regards, Pranesh Foreseeability and Copyright Incentives Shyamkrishna Balganesh http://ssrn.com/abstract=1117655 http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm/SSRN_ID1117655_code583911.pdf?abstractid=1117655&mirid=1 *Abstract* Copyright law's principal justification has for long been the theory of creator incentives. Creators are presumed to be rational utility-maximizers and therefore induced to create by the mere prospect of controlling a future market for their yet-to-be-created works. Yet, current copyright doctrine does surprisingly little to give effect to this theory. None of its doctrines enable courts to circumscribe a creator's entitlement by reference to the idea of incentives and the limitations inherent therein. As a consequence, copyright's grant of exclusivity is presumed to extend to all markets and uses for a work, whether or not they were capable of forming any part of a creator's incentive. Limitless incentives thus translate into unbounded entitlements. Through its allocation of costs and benefits, the common law too relies on providing actors with incentives to behave in certain ways. Unlike copyright law however, the common law recognizes the existence of a clear outer limit to its incentive structure and attempts to give effect to this limit through the concept of "foreseeability". Premised on the idea that individuals are incapable of cognitively processing consequences that are temporally or causally far removed from their actions, foreseeability requires courts to eliminate from the liability calculus certain low-probability occurrences when they are unlikely to have influenced an individual's decision at the time of action. Foreseeability thus represents a cognition-based doctrinal limit to the behavioral modification that the common law attempts to induce. This Article argues that if copyright law is to remain true to its theory of incentives, it needs to pay closer attention to the way in which incentives actually influence creative decision-making and internalize the idea that creators, like actors elsewhere, are subject to cognitive imperfections that in turn limit the effectiveness of incentives. To this end, it proposes a test of "foreseeable copying" to limit copyright's grant of exclusivity to situations where a copier's use was reasonably foreseeable to the creator at the time of creation, the point when the incentive is meant to operate. Adopting a test of foreseeability is thus likely to better align copyright law with its underlying purpose and provide courts with a mechanism by which to give effect to copyright's theory of incentives in individual cases - thereby according it more than just rhetorical significance. Keywords: Copyright, Incentives, Foreseeability, Bounded Rationality -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/commons-law/attachments/20080514/601b8864/attachment.html From the.solipsist at gmail.com Thu May 15 13:27:23 2008 From: the.solipsist at gmail.com (Pranesh Prakash) Date: Thu, 15 May 2008 13:27:23 +0530 Subject: [Commons-Law] IPRS makes it to the front page Message-ID: <4785f1e20805150057u5ad3071bg3b4ae387b1d517b@mail.gmail.com> Dear All, The IPRS has been trying to publicise its efforts to rein in illegal performance of songs, but all its efforts (from shaadi's to hospitals) have been relegated to page 9. And, now it has finally hit the front page (of the *Hindu *at least) by taking the Kolkata Knight Riders to court over alleged copyright infringement. For more about IPRS and the PPL, check out this article . Cheers, Pranesh ------------------ http://www.ibnlive.com/news/knight-riders-taken-to-court-for-copyright-violation/65264-17.html Kolkata: Shah Rukh Khan's Kolkata Knight Riders were on Wednesday taken to court by Indian Performing Rights Society (IPRS) on alleged copyright infringement for playing songs of Hindi films at the Eden Gardens during Indian Premier League matches. Justice Sanjib Banerjee of the Calcutta High Court, however, refused to grant an injunction on the use of the songs and directed the parties in the case to file affidavits stating their position. IPRS alleged that the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) used 14 popular Hindi film songs like Om Shanti Om's Dard-e-Disco and Mauja hi Mauja from the film Jab We Met without its permission during the IPL matches at the Eden Gardens. Appearing for Kolkata Knight Riders, counsels Anindya Mitra and Debanjan Mondal submitted that they already had permission to play nine of the 14 songs at the stadium from Super Cassettes, which they said had the copyright. Justice Banerjee directed Kolkata Knight Riders and the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB), which has also been made a party in the case, to file affidavits in opposition within two weeks after the summer vacation and IPRS its reply in another week. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/commons-law/attachments/20080515/e211c0a5/attachment.html From prashantiyengar at gmail.com Fri May 16 09:47:55 2008 From: prashantiyengar at gmail.com (Prashant Iyengar) Date: Fri, 16 May 2008 09:47:55 +0530 Subject: [Commons-Law] NIFT to register UP crafts under GI Act Message-ID: <908adbd0805152117l4571d415t960d6811536199ef@mail.gmail.com> http://www.business-standard.com/common/storypage_c.php?leftnm=10&autono=323078 NIFT to register UP crafts under GI Act Virendra Singh Rawat / New Delhi/ Lucknow May 16, 2008, 3:15 IST The National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), Rae Bareli, is to register world-famous tradition crafts of Uttar Pradesh under the Geographical Indication (GI) Act. Besides, the Institute will design an insignia for each of these crafts and turn them into brands for better commercial value and marketability. NIFT Registrar R K Sharma told Business Standard that the survey and documentation process had already been completed and reports prepared. "We have completed the documentation for all the major crafts of UP, such as chikan work of Lucknow, Banarasi silk work of Varanasi, brassware of Moradabad and stone carving of Agra," he said. The survey was done by the first-year students of the institute as a part of their project. They visited the geographical clusters for these crafts and met the artisans and other stake holders to document the history of these arts and present status. The next step will be to select two of these famous crafts after thorough discussion and brainstorming, which needs to be protected and patented. "Later, we would submit a report to both the state and the central governments for final registration this is a time-consuming process," Sharma added. The patent would prevent the mass copying of these crafts and fetch better prices to the artisans and the units involved in such trade. GI is an insignia marked on such products having a unique geographical origin and evolution over centuries. "We have an onerous task of promoting the skills related to textile and handicraft in UP. NIFT is the implementing agency for patent under the GI Act," NIFT Associate Professor & Centre Coordinator Ashis Debnath said. India passed the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and protection) Act 1999 to protect the interest of artisans and weavers engaged in such trade. Since, GI provides insignia, it serves as a quality mark standing for authenticity and in turn helps in better marketing and exports of these crafts. The Rae Bareli's NIFT unit was inaugurated by the Congress president and local MP Sonia Gandhi on February 13, 2007 and it started its first academic session from July last year. In its second year, the Institute will intake 70 students in its Fashion Designing and Accessory Designing courses, up from 67 last year. From nicheant at gmail.com Sat May 17 13:26:41 2008 From: nicheant at gmail.com (=?UTF-8?Q?Nishant_?= =?UTF-8?Q?|_=E0=A4=A8=E0=A4=BF=E0=A4=B6=E0=A4=BE=E0=A4=81=E0=A4=A4?=) Date: Sat, 17 May 2008 13:26:41 +0530 Subject: [Commons-Law] Who Controls Your Data: Facebook or Google Message-ID: <4439ee330805170056i7458b553kb06d5a46883e9f4b@mail.gmail.com> Facebook, Google Square Off Over Who Controls Your Data(Hint: It's Not You) By Scott Gilbertson May 16, 2008 | 9:29:26 AM (http://blog.wired.com/monkeybites/2008/05/facebook-google.html) Here's a shocker for you: Facebook doesn't want to give up its tight-knit control of your personal information. The company has officially banned Google's recently-launched Friend Connect service, which would allow you to pull your personal data out of Facebook and use it elsewhere. Considering that the only value Facebook actually has is all the data you've entered into it, it shouldn't really surprise anyone that the site doesn't want to hand over control of that information, particularly to a competitor like Google. And if that means denying Facebook users the right to share their own information with other networks, so be it. This isn't really about your privacy, after all. This is about Facebook's data versus Google's data. Don't believe it? Read Facebook's terms of service (TOS). Facebook's TOS make no bones about who controls your data. The answer is: not you. It gets a little confusing because there's the TOS you the user agrees to, which is fairly benign, but then there's the Developer TOS, which, while it doesn't directly apply to you, does end up affecting what sort of tools you can use on Facebook. And Facebook's beef with Google Friend Connect centers around those Developer restrictions. Here's the relevant section of the Facebook Developer TOS: You may not store any Facebook Properties in any Data Repository which enables any third party (other than the Applicable Facebook User for such Facebook Properties) to access or share the Facebook Properties without our prior written consent. In other words, once a user has entered something in Facebook — a list of friends, a blog post, a status update, etc — it's effectively stuck in Facebook, since developers are not allowed to store that information outside of Facebook. By limiting what what developers can do with your data Facebook in turn limits your ability to pull out the things you put into Facebook. This is why we've always referred to Facebook as a black hole. When Facebook does make concessions and allow you to move data off the site, it's always on Facebook's terms — like the announced, but not yet launched, Facebook Connect. "We're disappointed that Facebook disabled their users' ability to use Friend Connect with their Facebook friends," a Google spokesman told Wired.com. But don't go getting idea that Google is really all that concerned with freeing up your data. Google, like every other site, wants a slice of the pie. If Google helps you gain a little control at the same time, consider it a happy coincidence, not a motivating factor. What's galling to many is that Facebook still tries to hide its blatant control complex behind the guise of protecting your privacy. Any time Facebook shuts down a service like Google Friend Connect it brushes off complaints with warm, fuzzy words about keeping you safe. This time the excuse was that Friend Connect "doesn't respect the privacy standards our users have come to expect." Yet Facebook's own failed Beacon ad platform effectively showed that, deep down, Facebook doesn't care about your privacy, it cares about making money off your data. And to do that it has to make sure it keeps that data locked up on the site. Letting Google siphon your info off to other social sites isn't going to help line Facebook's coffers. In this particular case Facebook claims that its issue with Friend Connect is that there's no way to turn Friend Connect widgets off from within Facebook. However, the reason for that is that Facebook doesn't offer such features in its developer API, so there's no way for Google to add that feature. If Facebook were really concerned about your privacy it could simply add in the API feature, and maybe it will at some point. But for now it strikes us as an awfully convenient way of keeping your data locked out of Friend Connect. Unfortunately for Facebook, it seems unlikely the site will be able to maintain that control for much longer. As Robert Scoble points out in his take on the Google-Facebook scuffle, tools like Minggl are already making an end run around Facebook's restrictions by simply screen-scraping what gets loaded into your browser. As far as I can tell there's no way Facebook can stop Minggl, short of suing the company out of existence. But this isn't just a case of Facebook being overly restrictive and forbidding you from taking your data with you when you leave the site. While much of Facebook's supposed concern for your privacy may be a desire to protect its own interests, it isn't all smoke and mirrors. The issues surrounding your ability to control your data are far more complex than that. Before you can really address control of your data, you have to first decide what actually *is* your data. As we've pointed out before, how much of your data can be said to be "owned" by you is debatable. Obviously your Facebook Wall posts, updates and personal notes are yours and should be available for export, but what about your friends and all the connections you have on Facebook? Just because you and I might be connected on Facebook, does that give you the right to export my e-mail and contact info and take it with you where ever you go? You didn't enter that data into Facebook, I did. So what gives you the right to take it with you when you leave? How you answer that question will more or less determine who you see as the good guy in this latest scuffle between Facebook and Google. That's the real take away from this latest tussle: If you're looking for a truly open, distributed social network that works across the web, don't look to existing sites for help. If we want an open social web, we're going to have to build it ourselves, using technologies that no one company controls. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/commons-law/attachments/20080517/534d039a/attachment-0001.html From prashantiyengar at gmail.com Tue May 20 09:14:19 2008 From: prashantiyengar at gmail.com (Prashant Iyengar) Date: Tue, 20 May 2008 09:14:19 +0530 Subject: [Commons-Law] Working in Govt labs, scientists can now set up their own firms, get equity Message-ID: <908adbd0805192044w4309a504y6e2a5db77710784@mail.gmail.com> http://www.indianexpress.com/printerFriendly/311934.html Working in Govt labs, scientists can now set up their own firms, get equity - IndianExpress.Com Tue May 20 2008 09:13:26 GMT+0530 (India Standard Time) Working in Govt labs, scientists can now set up their own firms, get equity AMITAV RANJAN Posted online: Tuesday, May 20, 2008 at 0031 hrs IST New Delhi, May 19 Until 1997, graduates and faculty of Massachusetts Institute of Technology set up 4,000 firms employing 11 lakh people and generated $232 billion in worldwide sales. If they had formed an independent nation, it would be the world's 24th largest economy. Taking a cue from this, the government will soon endorse a plan to "unleash the entrepreneurial skills" of its scientists, engineers and professors by permitting them to float private firms — while retaining their government jobs — to develop globally competitive technologies, processes and products. This proposal from the Council for Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) for the Cabinet's OK has been approved by the Prime Minister's Office who had first suggested this at the CSIR Society meeting in January 2007. As per the proposal, the research community will be freed from Central Civil Service Conduct Rules and be allowed to dip into the technology or knowledge pool of state-run organizations such as universities, academic institutions and research labs. In return, the start-up company would have to pay premium and royalty to the organisations which could opt for equity in lieu of the intellectual material. The scientist would be permitted hold equity — even up to a majority — in the company which has to be funded entirely by the promoters. To maintain "balance between public responsibility as an organisation employee and private responsibility as owner of the company," the scientist will not be involved in day-to-day management but could either be a chairman or non-working director. Professional staff will be engaged for managing the company. His carrot would be the option to quit the service and join the company on commercial success. The community would have the option to take up a stint with another academic institution, research unit or private industry but within the country. "One of the most effective mechanisms for developing entrepreneurial skills in scientists working in public institutions is prior exposure to industry environment," So far, scientists have preferred to cocoon themselves in safe government jobs not taking the risk to translate their research into commercial products. The choice before them was to quit service to start a development firm or join a private firm. CSIR says now is the time to lend a helping hand to the researchers in setting up science-driven enterprises. It has outlined steps which hinge on public-private partnership and call for a Scientific Entrepreneurship Scheme where a scientist would be permitted to set up a firm alone or in partnership with other scientists or private firms, while continuing to be in government service. "Such a measure will encourage creation of a new breed of innovators-entrepreneurs among scientists working in publicly funded R&D organisations, universities and help create new businesses, employment for highly skilled technical and scientific personnel," says CSIR. State-run organisations will also be allowed to set up Technology Incubation Centre within their premises for leasing out to private firms. The organization could use its spare built-up area or construct extra space to house these independent entities. Each of these centres would have to tie up with venture capital funds for financing start-up companies at the centre so that they become a "self-sustaining entity within 5 years". As for mobility of the scientists, the CSIR has suggested that any person who has served five years in the public-funded organization would be eligible to move to another organization for research, teaching, R&D etc. Each researcher may spend up to 10-15 percent of his service on mobility, but in small tranches of a minimum of two months and a maximum of two years. While the basic salary would be provided by the parent organization, the borrowing entity would have to pay a minimum dislocation allowance of 20 percent of the basic salary as well as dearness allowance and travel allowance. He would be allowed to retain government accommodation as well as be provided medical and other applicable facilities. The Scientific Entrepreneurship Scheme • Freed from Central service rules • Can set up a firm alone or in partnership with other scientists or private firms, while continuing to be in govt service • He would be permitted hold equity — even up to a majority — in the company which has to be funded entirely by the promoters. But he can only be non-executive chairman or non-working director with no say in day-to-day management. • Parent organisation can take equity in lieu of intellectual capital • Start-up can tap state-run universities, centres and lab by paying premium and royalty • Organisation can use spare built-up area or construct extra space to house these independent entities From prashantiyengar at gmail.com Wed May 21 09:52:05 2008 From: prashantiyengar at gmail.com (Prashant Iyengar) Date: Wed, 21 May 2008 09:52:05 +0530 Subject: [Commons-Law] =?windows-1252?q?Mayurbhanj=92s_Mudhi_to_get_GI_reg?= =?windows-1252?q?istration?= Message-ID: <908adbd0805202122n52ac5a5escb4bf0aa963dd40b@mail.gmail.com> http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/thscrip/print.pl?file=2008052156290300.htm&date=2008/05/21/&prd=th& Wed May 21 2008 09:51:08 GMT+0530 (India Standard Time) Staff Reporter OUAT IPR Cell initiates efforts to get exclusive rights for three products BHUBANESWAR: Many people in Orissa have relished the taste of Mudhi (puffed rice) of Mayurbhanj or 'moong' bean of Nayagarh or 'urad' bean grown in plateaus of Malkanagiri and Keonjhar districts umpteen times before, but attempts are now being made to protect their exclusivity. Intellectually Property Right (IPR) Cell of Orissa University of Agriculture Technology (OUAT) has now decided to to seek Geographical Indications (GI) registration of these three products. GI is recognition to manufactured product or a natural or agriculture produce from a geographical region or locality within the region that has unique qualities and reputation linked to the place of its origin. "Though there are several unique agriculture products or their byproducts available in our State, we will start working on three products such as 'mudhi' of Mayurbhanj, 'moong' dal of Nayagarh and Biri Dal of plateau region of Malkanagiri and Keonjhar districts," Baburam Singh, in-charge of IPR Cell, said. The registration would help provide protection to these products, he said. Commercial rights "The registered grower will have exclusive commercial rights to market the product in national and international level, nobody other than registered producers will be allowed to trade the commodity in the same registered name," Mr. Singh said. Similarly, 'Rasabali' of Kendrapara district, turmeric of Kandhamal and scented rice of Kalahandi district are some other agricultural products are in radar of scientists, who are out to seek GI registration. The GI registration efforts have recently gained momentum in the State with the IPR Cell of OUAT informing the scientists working in district level to start working on documentation of best practices or unique agricultural products of the State. Awareness The university is now in process of making aware their officials deputed in Krishi Vigyan Kendras (KVK) and farmers about the necessity of such registration and how should they proceed. In national level, Darjeeling Tea of West Bengal, Kangra Tea of Himachal Pradesh, Mysore sandal soap, Mysore betel leaf, Pheni, the unique liquor of Goa and overall Basmati rice of greater Punjab and Tarai region have got registered in Geographical Indication Registration and Protection Act 1999. (c) Copyright 2000 - 2008 The Hindu From kislay.3 at gmail.com Thu May 22 00:36:30 2008 From: kislay.3 at gmail.com (Kislay Bihari) Date: Thu, 22 May 2008 00:36:30 +0530 Subject: [Commons-Law] Subscription Message-ID: <916689a50805211206s539c6a6dlff03b9fc88ddd6dc@mail.gmail.com> *Hi,* ** *Can you please add the following email address to you mailing list for Commons Law?* ** *kislay.bihari at gmail.com* ** *Thanks,* *Kislay* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/commons-law/attachments/20080522/69479a3e/attachment.html From the.solipsist at gmail.com Thu May 22 01:27:58 2008 From: the.solipsist at gmail.com (Pranesh Prakash) Date: Thu, 22 May 2008 01:27:58 +0530 Subject: [Commons-Law] Subscription In-Reply-To: <916689a50805211206s539c6a6dlff03b9fc88ddd6dc@mail.gmail.com> References: <916689a50805211206s539c6a6dlff03b9fc88ddd6dc@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <4785f1e20805211257v7d10ae31q94ec35c91886075@mail.gmail.com> Dear Mr. Bihari, You need to go to https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/commons-law Since you are already subscribed using kislay.3 at gmail.com, you would need to go to bottom of the page, where it says, "To unsubscribe from commons-law, get a password reminder, or change your subscription options enter your subscription email address". Enter your current e-mail address (and your current Sarai GNU Mailman password, on the next page). This will lead you to page where can type in a new address. Just fill in kislay dot bihari at gmail dot com over there. Hope that helps. Cheers, Pranesh On 5/22/08, Kislay Bihari wrote: > > *Hi,* > > > > *Can you please add the following email address to you mailing list for > Commons Law?* > > > > *kislay.bihari at gmail.com* > > > > *Thanks,* > > *Kislay* > > _______________________________________________ > 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/20080522/065c75f4/attachment.html From siddharth.narrain at gmail.com Thu May 22 14:19:05 2008 From: siddharth.narrain at gmail.com (siddharth narrain) Date: Thu, 22 May 2008 14:19:05 +0530 Subject: [Commons-Law] The Other Side of Democracy: The Implications of the Continued Detention of Dr. Binayak Sen In-Reply-To: <1773a06d0805220139p5d55e8fbrba91fc0b5ce21e0e@mail.gmail.com> References: <52cddec0805220123h2b64d740n3f062a681daf48dd@mail.gmail.com> <1773a06d0805220139p5d55e8fbrba91fc0b5ce21e0e@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <1773a06d0805220149n5a185ae0w9178089808fa6b4c@mail.gmail.com> ---------- *The Other Side of Democracy: The Implications of the Continued Detention of Dr. Binayak Sen* *The Committee for the Release of Dr Binayak Sen* invites you to "The Other Side of Democracy: The Implications of the Continued Detention of Dr Binayak Sen", a talk by K. Balagopal. *Venue:* Ashirvad (Lloyola Hall, Ground Floor) No. 30, St. Mark's Road Cross, Bangalore 560001. *Time*: Monday, 26th May from 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm K. Balagopal is a well-known human rights lawyer based with the Human Rights Forum in Hyderabad. He has been centrally associated with combating practices of state impunity through practices like 'encounters' as well as draconian laws. *For further information contact Siddharth or Ponni at 22356845* ----------- The arrests of Dr. Binayak Sen and Ajay T. G. of the People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) - Chhattisgarh, has brought to the fore the ugly face of Indian democracy – repressive laws and state machinery that continue to be used to suppress political dissent. Chhattisgarh is a state in turmoil. South Chhattisgarh has a history of peasant and tribal mobilization spanning three decades, culminating in Naxalite organisations setting up their own governance in parts of this area. According to the Government's own estimates 18,000 sq km in Bastar, Dantewada, Narayanpur and Bijapur were controlled by Naxalites. The Chhattisgarh government's Salwa Judum policy has led to the displacement of thousands of people in Dantewada district, and the destruction of their lives and livelihood. The Chhattisgarh government has persisted with its policy despite drawing heavy flak from human rights organisations and more recently from the Supreme Court and the Planning Commission. In 2005, Chhattisgarh Government enacted the Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act, with barely any debate in the Chhattisgarh State Assembly. The law, one of the most draconian security legislations in the country, criminalizes any kind of association with a Naxalite. Among those detained under this Act of 2005 are Chandrakanti Toppo, a 22 year old student from Ambikapur, for allegedly providing hospitality to the Maoists in her house, from where she lived and studied; an electrician named Gupta from Ambikapur, who has allegedly provided technical assistance to the Maoists; a Doctor from interiors of Rajnandgaon district, whose prescription was said to have been found among the materials seized from the Maoists; 63 year old free-lance journalist Prafulla Kumar Jha, who has done remarkable work on tribals living in South Chhattisgarh the then Bastar District, Asit Kumar Sen, a 60-year old writer who has many years of editing and publishing experience, two Cloth Merchants named Naresh Khubnanai aged about 40 years, and Ramesh Sudhomal aged 45 years, for allegedly selling "camouflage coloured" cloth in bulk for uniform; one 50-year old tailor Dayaram Sahu for allegedly stitching uniforms for the Maoists, and medical doctor Binayak Sen. Dr. Binayak Sen is a medical doctor who has been actively involved in reaching health care to the poorest people as well as monitoring the health and nutrition status of the people of Chhattisgarh. As General Secretary of the Chhattisgarh PUCL, he has helped organize numerous fact-finding campaigns about human rights violations in the state including custody deaths, fake encounters, hunger deaths, dysentery epidemics, malnutrition, and other similar violations. In recent times he has worked intensively to bring to national and international attention large-scale oppression within the Salwa Judum in Dantewara. Besides the Chhattisgarh Special Public Security Act, Dr Sen was also charged under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act and the provisions relating to conspiracy to wage war against the state and sedition in the Indian Penal Code. On 4th May, a few days after the first few hearings of Dr Binayak Sen's trial in Raipur, the Chhattisgarh police arrested film maker and PUCL state executive committee member Ajay T G under the Arms Act. Ajay was one of the few PUCL activists is one of the few human rights activists from Chhattisgarh who had the courage to attend Dr Sen's trial. His films include 'Living Memory', a documentary about labour migration, religious conversion, and changing marriage patterns in Andhra Pradesh, 'Safar', a documentary about the struggle of migrant citizens in Bhilai steel city. Dr Sen's and Ajay T G's vigorous opposition to the anti-constitutional measures by the state government of Chhattisgarh has exposed them to the full fury of state retribution with the government arresting him on charges of conspiracy to wage war against the state and sedition, among others. Their arrest is part of a concerted attack on the civil liberties and democratic rights movement in the country. The state clearly wants to make an example of Dr Sen and Ajay T G in a bid to outlaw all forms of political dissent. This event will be a follow-up to the well-attended candlelight vigil held on May 14 to mark one year of Dr Sen's arrest. Dr Sen's arrest has important implications for human rights defenders in Karnataka. The Karnataka police's warning to 'supporters and sympathisers of Naxalites by releasing a 'list' of organisations that supported Naxalites in India, and the increasingly arbitrary arrests of terror suspects in the state are signs of things to come. When human rights defenders are treated as a threat to the Indian state and put into jail on charges of waging war against the state, it is time for us to look more critically at the dark side of Indian democracy. ------- -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/commons-law/attachments/20080522/90765650/attachment-0001.html -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: balagopal talk .doc Type: application/msword Size: 42496 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/commons-law/attachments/20080522/90765650/attachment-0001.doc From k.ravisrinivas at gmail.com Fri May 23 11:58:03 2008 From: k.ravisrinivas at gmail.com (ravi srinivas) Date: Fri, 23 May 2008 11:58:03 +0530 Subject: [Commons-Law] commons-law Digest, Vol 58, Issue 4 In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: "Until 1997, graduates and faculty of Massachusetts Institute of Technology set up 4,000 firms employing 11 lakh people and generated $232 billion in worldwide sales. If they had formed an independent nation, it would be the world's 24th largest economy." I dont know the reference for this. But the figures include graduates and faculty of MIT , past and present, i.e till 1997. Obviously these firms used technologies developed by those firms and technologies acquired or licensed from other companies/institutions besides technologies developed in MIT. But where is that break up in this news report. One should look at the number of scientists at CSIR and the patents granted to CSIR and publications emnating from CSIR labs to get a perspective. Of late the hype in news reports on intellectual property rights borders on nonsense. Such an overkill sooner or later will bommerang, eroding the credibility of the news reports. ravi srinivas -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/commons-law/attachments/20080523/f4644742/attachment.html From prashantiyengar at gmail.com Fri May 23 14:56:25 2008 From: prashantiyengar at gmail.com (Prashant Iyengar) Date: Fri, 23 May 2008 14:56:25 +0530 Subject: [Commons-Law] RTI activists sore over curbs Message-ID: <908adbd0805230226l64bf4baey77a30216fabb2afc@mail.gmail.com> http://www.business-standard.com/common/storypage_c.php?leftnm=10&autono=323790 Fri May 23 2008 14:56:06 GMT+0530 (India Standard Time) RTI activists sore over curbs BS Reporter / Chennai/ Mysore May 23, 2008, 3:59 IST Consumer activists across Karnataka are unhappy over an amendment brought about by the state government curbing the right to seek information under the Right to Information (RTI) Act. Following a recommendation by the Karnataka Information Commission, a new rule has been inserted to the Karnataka RTI Rules 2005 limiting information to 'one subject matter' and the request not to exceed 150 words. Following the new Rule 14, which has come into effect from March 17, a person has to seek information on only one subject matter now and his poser should not exceed 150 words. If he wants information on more than one subject, he should make a separate application by paying fee of Rs 10 again. Around 50 consumer activists working in the area of RTI in Karnataka discussed at a seminar in Bangalore on May 18 the impact of the amendment and strategies to keep RTI strong and campaign against Rule 14. The Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) of New Delhi and Bangalore's Consumer Rights Education & Awareness Trust (CREAT) had jointly organized the programme. The RTI activists noted with concern that the recommendation to amend the rules has been made by the Karnataka Information Commission itself against its objective of protecting the interests of the information-seekers. The reason given by the Commission was that the Public Information Officers (PIOs) are receiving a very large number of applications seeking voluminous information. The activists took strong exception to the Commission's recommendation to impose restrictions on the admissibility of questions. They criticized the Governor for amending the rule in the absence of an elected government in the State, and without inviting public objections. CREAT's Y G Muralidharan said the new rule placed unlawful limitations on the fundamental right to information and had potential for misuse. He felt that measures to handle voluminous information could have been considered within the scope of the Act itself., under Section 7 (9) of the Act. Bangalore's Kriya Katte Convener M V K Anil Kumar said the amendment came in the way of RTI objective of transparency. Chikmagalur's Save Western Ghat Movement organising secretary G Gorasukudige observed it imposed further burden on the PIOs and the Commission. K N Venktagiri Rao of Consumers' Education and Welfare Trust, Sagar, said limiting words to 150 was unscientific. Explaining the legal situation, Bangalore's Vivekananda Law College Principal K B Kempe Gowda said the new rule curtailed the right to information, but did not take it away. However, the principles of natural justice was ignored. The seminar unanimously demanded withdrawal of the amendment failing which it decided to initiate steps to oppose it. From prashantiyengar at gmail.com Fri May 23 15:49:12 2008 From: prashantiyengar at gmail.com (Prashant Iyengar) Date: Fri, 23 May 2008 15:49:12 +0530 Subject: [Commons-Law] Isro aims to rival Google Earth Message-ID: <908adbd0805230319t6ab7f2f5x71244b412baa5e52@mail.gmail.com> http://www.business-standard.com/common/storypage_c.php?leftnm=10&autono=323829 Isro aims to rival Google Earth Fri May 23 2008 15:48:52 GMT+0530 (India Standard Time) Press Trust Of India / Kolkata May 23, 2008, 0:07 IST Adding a feather to its cap, the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) will launch its own satellite imagery on the internet six months from now, rivalling popular mapping service Google Earth. "Our images will be on our website six months from now," Isro Chairman G Madhavan Nair told reporters here after receiving the Rammohan Puraskar. Pointing out that certain locations with high security risks were prohibited by law from being imaged, he said, "We are figuring that out. The remaining places, of course, would be on the net." Earlier, while receiving the award, Nair pointed out that India had the world's largest constellation of remote-sensing satellites. "With seven satellites in orbit, our remote-sensing satellites provide imagery of the earth in a variety of spectral bands and with a resolution of better than one metre. Data from our remote-sensing satellites are received at about 20 stations across the globe, including the US and Europe," he said. Nair said the Village Resource Centres (VRC) established in 2004 were providing a variety of space-based products and services, including tele-education, tele-medicine and information on natural resources. There were 400 VRCs in the country and of these seven are located in West Bengal, he said, adding there were plans to set up 20 more in the state. From lawrence at altlawforum.org Sat May 24 08:55:53 2008 From: lawrence at altlawforum.org (Lawrence Liang) Date: Sat, 24 May 2008 08:55:53 +0530 Subject: [Commons-Law] The Pirate Bay killer Trade Agreement Message-ID: Hi all some of you must be following the developments on the negotiation of the ACTA. Here is a story on the ACTA with its kill pirate bay clauses From http://www.zeropaid.com/news/9511/US+Proposes+%27Pirate+Bay+Killer%27+Trade+Agreement For more information see the IP Justice page on the ACTA http://ipjustice.org/wp/2008/05/22/leaked-us-govt-discussion-paper-on-proposed-anti-counterfeiting-trade-agreement-acta-from-wikileaks/ US Proposes 'Pirate Bay Killer' Trade Agreement posted by *soulxtc* in bittorrent // 12 hours 27 minutes ago If adopted, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) treaty would impose a strong, top-down enforcement regime imposing new cooperation requirements upon ISPs, including perfunctory disclosure of customer information, as well as measures restricting the use of online privacy tools. The US is proposing a multi-lateral intellectual property trade agreement proposal called the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) "Discussion Paper on a Possible anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement", circa October 2007. The agreement covers the copying of information or ideas in a wide variety of contexts. For example page three, paragraph one is a "Pirate Bay killer" clause designed to criminalize the non-profit facilitation of unauthorized information exchange on the internet, which would also negatively affect transparency sites such as Wikileaks. The document details is a proposal for a multi-lateral trade agreement of strict enforcement of intellectual property rights related to Internet activity and trade in information-based goods. If adopted, a treaty of this form would impose a strong, top-down enforcement regime, with new cooperation requirements upon internet service providers, including perfunctionary disclosure of customer information and a ban on anti-circumvention measures. The proposal also specifies a plan to encourage developing nations to accept the legal regime. The source states that trade representatives intend to formalize the agreement at the G-8 summit in July 2008. The following summary of the trade agreement issue is from IP Justice, an international group directed from San Francisco group that fights for a just world intellectual property regime: FROM WIKILEAKS: In 2007 a select handful of the wealthiest countries began a treaty-making process to create a new global standard for intellectual property rights enforcement, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). ACTA is spearheaded by the United States, the European Commission, Japan, and Switzerland — those countries with the largest intellectual property industries. Other countries invited to participate in ACTA's negotiation process are Canada, Australia, Korea, Mexico and New Zealand. Noticeably absent from ACTA's negotiations are leaders from developing countries who hold national policy priorities that differ from the international intellectual property industry. After the multi-lateral treaty's scope and priorities are negotiated by the few countries invited to participate in the early discussions, ACTA's text will be "locked" and other countries who are later "invited" to sign-on to the pact will not be able to re-negotiate its terms. It is claimed that signing-on to the trade agreement will be "voluntary", but few countries will have the muscle to refuse an "invitation" to join, once the rules have been set by the select few conducting the negotiations. The US is negotiating ACTA through the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR), an office within the Bush Administration that has concluded more than 10 "free trade" agreements in recent years, all of which require both the US and the other country to increase intellectual property rights enforcement measures beyond the international legal norms in the WTO-TRIPS Agreement. As of 25 March 2008, no draft text has been published yet to provide the public with substance of the proposed international treaty. A "Discussion Paper on a Possible Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement" was reportedly provided to select lobbyists in the intellectual property industry, but not to public interest organizations concerned with the subject matter of the proposed treaty. Once again the entertainment industry is doing all it can to meddle in the affairs of sovereign countries and make ISP into gatekeepers of data rather than than conduits to it. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/commons-law/attachments/20080524/0aa10e4f/attachment.html From mitrawaghmare at gmail.com Sun May 25 17:56:53 2008 From: mitrawaghmare at gmail.com (Mitra Waghmare) Date: Sun, 25 May 2008 17:56:53 +0530 Subject: [Commons-Law] Communal Harmony Schemes Message-ID: <2f895caa0805250526h7bcce320if9e88c026cc76cfa@mail.gmail.com> HI, Could any one help me by informing me on the number and status of communal harmony schemes available in India and abroad?More by providing me with links and review... I'll be obliged Mitra -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: application/defanged-288 Size: 353 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/commons-law/attachments/20080525/75573720/attachment.bin From lawrence at altlawforum.org Mon May 26 14:10:40 2008 From: lawrence at altlawforum.org (Lawrence Liang) Date: Mon, 26 May 2008 14:10:40 +0530 Subject: [Commons-Law] One Kilo of Cannabis versus One Kilo of Pirated CD's Message-ID: <483A7788.7060601@altlawforum.org> Hi all So here is a report with an interesting claim about piracy form the european Commision It says that One killo of Cannabis brings in 2000 euros while one kilo of pirated cd's brings in 3000 euros, and that it is more profitable to engage in CD piracy than in drugs: Wow But since i was not sure of the maths of a kilo of CD's works out and checked for myself, that a kilo of CD's is around 40 cd's The article says that from 'a profit point of view, the trade in fake CDs and DVDs is giving drug trafficking a run for its money. "One kilo of cannabis sold in Europe will bring in less than €2,000, a kilo of pirate or counterfeit CDs will bring in €3,000," the report said. It also say that the pirated CD's are sold for around half a euro each, which means that you earn around 20 euros from the sale of 40 pirated CDs, so how does this leap happen where it suddenly becomes more profitable than selling cannabis? I am presuming that they mean that if the legit CD had been sold (50 euro x 40= 2000 euros), then it would be 2000 euros, so will someone slightly better than me at maths explain this curios phenomenon... Alternatively it is also possible that the report was written after sampling one kilo of cannabis and one kilo of pirated CD's Lawrence http://hardware.silicon.com/storage/0,39024649,39117084,00.htm Pirated CD seizures fall 70 per cent More profitable than drugs and evading customs Printer Friendly Email Story RSS By Christophe Guillemin Published: 26 November 2003 14:30 GMT Show related articles According to the latest statistics from European customs, seizures of pirate CDs, DVDs and video tapes have fell by 70 per cent last year compared to 2001. Entertainment is still second on the fake products list, just behind the humble cigarette. A statement from the EC has revealed the figures from customs at the EU's external borders. "The numbers of CDs, DVDs and [video] cassettes seized were down significantly, from 40 million in 2001 to about 12 million in 2002," it said. The annual report from the Commission's tax and customs authorities continued: "This fall can be put down to the scope for downloading off the internet but also to customs action against the traffic in blank CDs." Even if seizures have fallen, CDs, DVDs and videos are still among the most common counterfeit goods turning up at European borders. In 2002, customs authorities confiscated nearly 12 million of them – around 14 per cent of their total haul, with cigarettes leading the way at 36.9 per cent. The countries most often found to be 'exporting' counterfeit goods are in Asia – with Thailand and Malaysia each producing 22 per cent - but the third place goes to Belgium with 16 per cent. Brussels isn't giving out any details on the Belgium's counterfeiting operations but waxes lyrical about what it calls the "CD-Thai connection". The report explained that customs are often led to discover many tens of thousands of pirated CDs in a single commercial consignment, very often packaged in the same way – around a hundred discs packed in rolls that weigh under two kilos. From a profit point of view, the trade in fake CDs and DVDs is giving drug trafficking a run for its money. "One kilo of cannabis sold in Europe will bring in less than €2,000, a kilo of pirate or counterfeit CDs will bring in €3,000," the report said. The average value of a disc for a games console on the European market will vary between €55 and €60. The selling price for a counterfeited version of the same disc is around half a euro each, the report continued. The tax authorities have also noted that the figures have shown up a significant rise in counterfeiting in the area of mobile phones. It's a key development, they believe, saying: "The figures show a rise of almost 503 per cent in the number of seizures in 2002, compared to 2000… This can be explained by the success of the mobile" – a theory borne out by the recent scare over exploding Nokia batteries . IT hardware, on the other hand – PCs, monitors, printers and so on – represents "only" 0.1 per cent of the goods seized by customs in 2002. /Christophe Guillemin writes for ZDNet France./ Add Comment Add comment Printer Friendly Print story Email Story From prashantiyengar at gmail.com Wed May 28 10:33:27 2008 From: prashantiyengar at gmail.com (Prashant Iyengar) Date: Wed, 28 May 2008 10:33:27 +0530 Subject: [Commons-Law] =?windows-1252?q?Telugu_film_industry_seeks_transpo?= =?windows-1252?q?rt_dept=92s_help_to_curb_piracy?= Message-ID: <908adbd0805272203l61a8771eka96440d020460406@mail.gmail.com> http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2008/05/28/stories/2008052850712100.htm Back "We have identified as many as one thousand small shops in Chennai where the copies of the recently released movies are being made in thousands." K.V. Kurmanath Hyderabad, May 27 Having identified Chennai as the primary source of piracy of Telugu films, the Telugu film industry has written to the Andhra Pradesh Transport Department and the State-owned public transport utility to keep tabs on smuggling of the DVDs from Chennai and Bangalore. The letters also sought their cooperation in keeping a whistle on screening of these pirated DVDs and CDs by some transport operators. "We have identified as many as one thousand small shops in Chennai where the copies of the recently released movies are being made in thousands. The consignments, then, enter into Andhra Pradesh by transport operators, particularly from Chennai and Bangalore," Mr P. Keshava Reddy, former SP and Chief Co-Ordinator of Anti Video Piracy Cell of AP Film Chamber of Commerce, told Business Line. Showing the copies of pirated prints of Pawan Kalyan-starrer Jalsa and Krishna (of Raviteja), he said the DVDs, each comprising at least three latest releases, were being sold at a price as low as Rs 10-15, offering a very attractive proposition to the film goers. Interestingly, they carried a Britain address -- which the police claim is a pseudo one. He, however, admitted that the time-to-copy a new release had definitely increased from 2-3 days a few months ago to at least two weeks now. The former cop felt that there should be a concerted and continuous effort to tackle this menace. "Recently Motion Pictures Association of America had approached us and wanted mutual cooperation. It is not just the Telugu films, Hollywood movies too are facing the problem," he pointed out. The anti-piracy cell, though started in 2005, had stepped up activity of late. "We have so far booked 5,000 cases and got 4,960 people resorting to piracy arrested," he said. The anti-piracy activity in the State had got a shot in the arm with the State starting a special court to try the piracy-related cases. (c) Copyright 2000 - 2008 The Hindu Business Line From patrice at xs4all.nl Wed May 28 10:40:10 2008 From: patrice at xs4all.nl (Patrice Riemens) Date: Wed, 28 May 2008 07:10:10 +0200 Subject: [Commons-Law] Telugu film industry seeks transport dept?s help to curb piracy In-Reply-To: <908adbd0805272203l61a8771eka96440d020460406@mail.gmail.com> References: <908adbd0805272203l61a8771eka96440d020460406@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <20080528051010.GD86001@xs4all.nl> Hi Prashant, "The former cop felt that there should be a concerted and continuous effort to tackle this menace. "Recently Motion Pictures Association of America had approached us and wanted mutual cooperation. It is not just the Telugu films, Hollywood movies too are facing the problem," he pointed out." LOL! Reminds me of headlines before WWII in England: "Thick fog over Channel, Continent isolated". (probably an urban myth...) Cheers, patrizio and Diiiinooos! From prashantiyengar at gmail.com Wed May 28 10:46:47 2008 From: prashantiyengar at gmail.com (Prashant Iyengar) Date: Wed, 28 May 2008 10:46:47 +0530 Subject: [Commons-Law] IIT Bombay, Microsoft at loggerheads over standards Message-ID: <908adbd0805272216w70db15bey88a715ffbfbbe14f@mail.gmail.com> http://www.business-standard.com/common/storypage_c.php?leftnm=10&autono=324294 Wed May 28 2008 10:46:21 GMT+0530 (India Standard Time) IIT Bombay, Microsoft at loggerheads over standards Leslie D`Monte / Mumbai May 28, 2008, 5:53 IST Embers from the fiery debate over the International Organisation for Standardisation's (ISO) acceptance of Microsoft's Office Open XML (OOXML) file format as an international standard refuse to die out in India. The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay, has taken strong objection to the fact that despite a "No" to OOXML by a majority of the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) members, the software giant "continued to make representations to the top Indian leadership (read Ministry of Consumer Affairs), pressuring them to change the Indian vote". The BIS represented India as a participating member of the ISO. Its LITD 15 committee — of which IIT-Bombay was a part — was responsible for examining OOXML and deciding on a "No" regarding India's position at the ISO. India's negative vote could make it difficult for Microsoft to get government business since governments worldwide, including India, are wary of holding digital data in proprietary formats. Deepak B Phatak, who represented IIT-Bombay along with three other professors, has written an open letter to all BIS members, expressing unhappiness over Microsoft's "accusation" that his institution and the National Informatics Centre (NIC), among others, have an "ODF alliance" bias (ODF stands for Open Document Format). The OOXML format is backed by Apple, Novell, and closer home by Wipro, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), and Nasscom. ODF, the other format, is supported by IBM, Sun Microsystems, Red Hat, Google, and in India, by the Department of Information Technology (DIT), National Informatics Centre (NIC), CDAC, IIT-Bombay and IIM-Ahmedabad. States such as Delhi, Kerala and others from the North-East are heavy adopters of ODF file formats which are open and free (excluding maintenance and support). Pathak insists that there is no reason for any ODF bias since academic institutions have no commercial interests. "... the complaints have painted these organisations and their representatives, including the Indian delegation which attended the Ballot Resolution Meeting (BRM in Geneva this February), as acting against Indian national interests. This is the most derogatory accusation to any Indian...," he wrote. The letter adds: "I have a special word of thanks to the officials of Microsoft, some of whom have been personal friends for years...I, of course, still await the action from Microsoft which I have requested, viz., formal withdrawal of all complaints, and a formal apology to my Institute." Microsoft, noted Pathak, has sent him a personal apology which he said is not sufficient. Microsoft declined to comment on the specific issue of withdrawing the complaint. A spokesperson, however, said: "We would just like to reiterate our respect for both IIT Bombay as an esteemed echelon of learning, and Dr Pathak as one of its the most respected educators. The issue raised with the government about certain members of the BIS committee having a possible bias was an issue we were genuinely concerned about and had fair grounds to believe. It was not targeted at a specific organisation or individual. " ODF proponents oppose OOXML on grounds that " multiple standards " are not good while Microsoft argues that OOXML is a response to evolving technology formats. A January 2008 independent study by research and consulting firm Burton Group indicated that although moving to OOXML file formats involves some administrative challenges, the opportunities for improved content management and productivity outweigh the short-term inconvenience of migrating from binary file formats. Internationally, too, the debate does not appear to have ended. OOXML was approved as an international standard this April. However, there's a two-month period during that countries can appeal against the decision. The South African Bureau of Standards has already challenged "...the validity of a final vote that we contend was based upon inadequate information, resulting from a poorly conducted BRM (Ballot Resolution Meeting)". From anilg at sristi.org Wed May 28 10:59:51 2008 From: anilg at sristi.org (anilg at sristi.org) Date: Wed, 28 May 2008 05:29:51 +0000 Subject: [Commons-Law] IIT Bombay, Microsoft at loggerheads over standards In-Reply-To: <908adbd0805272216w70db15bey88a715ffbfbbe14f@mail.gmail.com> References: <908adbd0805272216w70db15bey88a715ffbfbbe14f@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <1426629198-1211952514-cardhu_decombobulator_blackberry.rim.net-1778281639-@bxe004.bisx.produk.on.blackberry> Its distressing to hear about what prof phatak says. I support iitb and others on this position Keep it up Anil Anilg at sristi.org Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device -----Original Message----- From: "Prashant Iyengar" Date: Wed, 28 May 2008 10:46:47 To:"Commons law" Subject: [Commons-Law] IIT Bombay, Microsoft at loggerheads over standards http://www.business-standard.com/common/storypage_c.php?leftnm=10&autono=324294 Wed May 28 2008 10:46:21 GMT+0530 (India Standard Time) IIT Bombay, Microsoft at loggerheads over standards Leslie D`Monte / Mumbai May 28, 2008, 5:53 IST Embers from the fiery debate over the International Organisation for Standardisation's (ISO) acceptance of Microsoft's Office Open XML (OOXML) file format as an international standard refuse to die out in India. The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay, has taken strong objection to the fact that despite a "No" to OOXML by a majority of the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) members, the software giant "continued to make representations to the top Indian leadership (read Ministry of Consumer Affairs), pressuring them to change the Indian vote". The BIS represented India as a participating member of the ISO. Its LITD 15 committee — of which IIT-Bombay was a part — was responsible for examining OOXML and deciding on a "No" regarding India's position at the ISO. India's negative vote could make it difficult for Microsoft to get government business since governments worldwide, including India, are wary of holding digital data in proprietary formats. Deepak B Phatak, who represented IIT-Bombay along with three other professors, has written an open letter to all BIS members, expressing unhappiness over Microsoft's "accusation" that his institution and the National Informatics Centre (NIC), among others, have an "ODF alliance" bias (ODF stands for Open Document Format). The OOXML format is backed by Apple, Novell, and closer home by Wipro, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), and Nasscom. ODF, the other format, is supported by IBM, Sun Microsystems, Red Hat, Google, and in India, by the Department of Information Technology (DIT), National Informatics Centre (NIC), CDAC, IIT-Bombay and IIM-Ahmedabad. States such as Delhi, Kerala and others from the North-East are heavy adopters of ODF file formats which are open and free (excluding maintenance and support). Pathak insists that there is no reason for any ODF bias since academic institutions have no commercial interests. "... the complaints have painted these organisations and their representatives, including the Indian delegation which attended the Ballot Resolution Meeting (BRM in Geneva this February), as acting against Indian national interests. This is the most derogatory accusation to any Indian...," he wrote. The letter adds: "I have a special word of thanks to the officials of Microsoft, some of whom have been personal friends for years...I, of course, still await the action from Microsoft which I have requested, viz., formal withdrawal of all complaints, and a formal apology to my Institute." Microsoft, noted Pathak, has sent him a personal apology which he said is not sufficient. Microsoft declined to comment on the specific issue of withdrawing the complaint. A spokesperson, however, said: "We would just like to reiterate our respect for both IIT Bombay as an esteemed echelon of learning, and Dr Pathak as one of its the most respected educators. The issue raised with the government about certain members of the BIS committee having a possible bias was an issue we were genuinely concerned about and had fair grounds to believe. It was not targeted at a specific organisation or individual. " ODF proponents oppose OOXML on grounds that " multiple standards " are not good while Microsoft argues that OOXML is a response to evolving technology formats. A January 2008 independent study by research and consulting firm Burton Group indicated that although moving to OOXML file formats involves some administrative challenges, the opportunities for improved content management and productivity outweigh the short-term inconvenience of migrating from binary file formats. Internationally, too, the debate does not appear to have ended. OOXML was approved as an international standard this April. However, there's a two-month period during that countries can appeal against the decision. The South African Bureau of Standards has already challenged "...the validity of a final vote that we contend was based upon inadequate information, resulting from a poorly conducted BRM (Ballot Resolution Meeting)". _______________________________________________ commons-law mailing list commons-law at sarai.net https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/commons-law From prashantiyengar at gmail.com Wed May 28 11:11:03 2008 From: prashantiyengar at gmail.com (Prashant Iyengar) Date: Wed, 28 May 2008 11:11:03 +0530 Subject: [Commons-Law] Government may decide to scrap BlackBerry services Message-ID: <908adbd0805272241j46590537w204fb64c2c879091@mail.gmail.com> More news that might distress you particularly Anil :) http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/thscrip/print.pl?file=2008052855781300.htm&date=2008/05/28/&prd=th& Government may decide to scrap BlackBerry services Sandeep Joshi Security agencies unable to read e-mails of its users BlackBerry vendor does not possess a 'master key' NEW DELHI: Inability on part of the Canada-based firm Research In Motion (RIM), the vendor of 'BlackBerry' smartphones, to allow Indian security agencies to read messages or e-mails of its users is likely to further complicate matters, and could even lead to scrapping of BlackBerry services in the country. According to RIM: "The BlackBerry security architecture for enterprise customers is based on a symmetric key system whereby the customers create their own key and only the customer ever possesses a copy of his encryption key. "RIM does not possess a 'master key,' nor does any 'back door' exist in the system that would allow RIM or any third party to gain unauthorised access to the key or corporate data. "The BlackBerry security architecture for enterprise customers is purposefully designed to exclude the capability for RIM or any third party to read encrypted information under any circumstances. RIM would simply be unable to accommodate any request for a copy of a customer's encryption key since at no time does RIM, or any wireless network operator, ever possess a copy of the key," the company has said. RIM's reply comes after the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) asked the Canadian firm to allow it and Indian security agencies access to messages and e-mails transferred through its system. After objections from the security agencies, the Union Home Ministry had asked DoT to ask RIM to provide the 'master key' so that it could access the contents transferred over the handheld device. Stating that the BlackBerry security architecture was also purposefully designed to perform as a global system independent of geography, RIM said the location of data centres and the customer's choice of wireless network were irrelevant factors from a security perspective since end-to-end encryption was utilised and transmissions were no more decipherable or less secure based on the selection of a wireless network or the location of a data centre. "All data remains encrypted through all points of transfer between the customer's BlackBerry Enterprise Server and the customer's device [at no point in the transfer is data decrypted and re-encrypted]." "RIM understands and respects the concerns of governments. RIM operates in over 135 countries today and provides a security architecture that has been widely scrutinised over the last nine years and has been accepted and embraced by security-conscious corporations and governments around the world. Governments have a wide range of resources and methodologies to satisfy national security and law enforcement needs without compromising commercial security requirements," it said. Though DoT and RIM have been holding talks to resolve the issue, the recent advisory by the latter to its BlackBerry subscribers might force the government to take some harsh steps. This could include scrapping of the service in India altogether, said sources in DoT. DoT has been demanding RIM to set up its servers in India so that its traffic could be monitored by the security agencies, but RIM has so far ruled out any such possibility. According to telecom industry sources, there are over 4-lakh BlackBerry subscribers in India and their numbers are increasing fast. Leading operators like Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Essar and Reliance Communications are offering this service. (c) Copyright 2000 - 2008 The Hindu On Wed, May 28, 2008 at 10:59 AM, wrote: > Its distressing to hear about what prof phatak says. I support iitb and others on this position > > Keep it up > > Anil > Anilg at sristi.org > Sent from my BlackBerry(R) wireless device > > From prashantiyengar at gmail.com Wed May 28 11:13:02 2008 From: prashantiyengar at gmail.com (Prashant Iyengar) Date: Wed, 28 May 2008 11:13:02 +0530 Subject: [Commons-Law] Seven crafts of Guj go for GI Message-ID: <908adbd0805272243h62660519nd0dacc2596224ba1@mail.gmail.com> http://www.business-standard.com/common/storypage_c.php?leftnm=10&autono=324270 Seven crafts of Guj go for GI Wed May 28 2008 11:12:28 GMT+0530 (India Standard Time) Vinay Umarji & Ritu Khatri / Mumbai/ Ahmedabad May 28, 2008, 5:05 IST Gujarat is reviving its traditional crafts. At least seven crafts from the state including Bandhani (tie and dye) cloth of Bharuch, Silk Patola of Surendranagar, Kutch woolen shawls, Mashru industry in Patan, Tangaliya handloom cloth of Surendranagar, Silk Gharchola and Panetar sarees of Khambat and Sujini cloth of Bharuch are being registered under the Geographical Indication (GI) system. "Protection of GI has, over the years, emerged as one of the most contentious Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) issues in the realm of the WTO's Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights(TRIPS). Which is why, the Ministry of Textiles has come out with 5,000 products for GI registration in India which is an imperative step to save the dying art of India. Out of which almost seven textile products have been identified for GI registration in Gujarat," said R M Sankar, principal scientific officer at Ahmedabad Textile Industry's Research Association (ATIRA). The crafts are getting registered through the assistance of institutes like ATIRA and National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), Gandhinagar. While ATIRA is acting as a catalyst for bringing Bandhani industry of Jamanagar under GI system, NIFT has been assisting craftsmen of Surendranagar to register Tangaliya craft of weaving. Once registered, the crafts would get an international recognition which could take them into the fashion industry in Paris and London, said Sankar, adding that the production of Bandhani, which is estimated to be around 60,000 units per annum, could rise up by four times post-GI registration. Around 75,000 traders and producers are involved in Bandhni industry, while about one lakh females are involved in tying activity in Jamnagar. Registration of Tangaliya, on the other hand, is being carried out by a Chennai-based attorney through NIFT. Unlike embroidery which is a post-loom process of embedding design on the fabric, Tangaliya is a loom process wherein craftsmen hand weave designs in the form of tiny dots at the time of weaving. To further facilitate sustenance of Tangaliya and other dying arts like Single Ikat, Khadi, Sand Stone and Brass, the 2000-odd artisans and crafsmen have formed around 174 self help groups (SHGs) with the help of the institute, said Nitesh Vyas, director of NIFT, Gandhinagar. Besides creating SHGs, the artisans have also set up a federation titled Surendranagar Vankar Samaj (SUVAS). Speaking about the importance of having a federation of artisans, Vyas said, "Setting up of a federation and GI registration are part of the SGSY project which aims at reviving traditional crafts and making them commercially viable. NIFT will be involved in this project with the artisans and craftsmen for about two and a half years. But once the project gets over, it is important to sustain the crafts of the artisans along with its collective marketing, for which they are being trained at our various centres." The crafts are marketed and promoted through exhibitions and fairs, display at Gram Haat in Ahmedabad, NIFT's 'iM' store in New Delhi and other stores like Fab India, Vanilla, Harita Kapur, and 360 degrees. GI registration has already been sucessfully done for 'Pochampally Ikat' of Hyderabad, 'Kanchipuram' silk sarees and 'Rumal' and other silk sarees of Banaras. Due to the registration Pochampally sales have gone up by almost 40 per cent while the production went up by three crore units per month . On getting an international recognition, the Pochampally industry got an order for sarees from Air India and Indian Airlines for their air-hostesses, said Sankar. From prashantiyengar at gmail.com Wed May 28 12:18:20 2008 From: prashantiyengar at gmail.com (Prashant Iyengar) Date: Wed, 28 May 2008 12:18:20 +0530 Subject: [Commons-Law] Madras High Court orders notice on BCCI plea Message-ID: <908adbd0805272348t27ffe6c8ie8159362cf434c7f@mail.gmail.com> http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/28/stories/2008052861041900.htm Back National High Court orders notice on BCCI plea Special Correspondent CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has ordered notice on a petition by the Board of Control for Cricket in India to restrain one Sandeep Goel and Rediff.com India Ltd., Mumbai, from displaying or using the domain name/title indianfantasyleague.com or indianfantasyleague and logo or any other domain name or trademark deceptively similar to its trademark — Indian Premier League. The Board prayed for an interim injunction directing the defendants to render a true and faithful account of all the profits earned by them using the impugned trademark IFL or the logo. It sought a direction to them to pay Rs. 10 lakh as damages. Mr. Goel was the owner of the website www.indianfantasyleague.com. The Board said it had acquired the proprietary rights in the said name, title and trademark under the common law and was entitled to exclusively use the same. The defendants had mischievously created the website and were using the trademark IFL and logo both of which were visually, structurally and phonetically deceptively similar to the IPL trademark. (c) Copyright 2000 - 2008 The Hindu From prashantiyengar at gmail.com Thu May 29 11:45:56 2008 From: prashantiyengar at gmail.com (Prashant Iyengar) Date: Thu, 29 May 2008 11:45:56 +0530 Subject: [Commons-Law] Licensing proposed for telecom content providers Message-ID: <908adbd0805282315o779fbe13seb265d48238d5c0b@mail.gmail.com> http://www.indianexpress.com/printerFriendly/315871.html Licensing proposed for telecom content providers - IndianExpress.Com Thu May 29 2008 11:41:47 GMT+0530 (India Standard Time) Licensing proposed for telecom content providers ENS ECONOMIC BUREAU Posted online: Thursday, May 29, 2008 at 2357 hrs IST New Delhi, May 28 The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) today initiated a move to bring value added service (VAS) providers under a licensing regime. Ring tones, video clippings, games and SMS-based services are value-added services. In a consultation paper released today, the regulator has sought industry's views on "need to bring content provider/aggregators called Value Added Service Providers (VASPs) under the licensing regime." In India, the revenue from mobile VAS is anywhere between 10 per cent and 14 per cent of the total revenue. It is expected to cross 30 per cent of the mobile telecom service provider's revenue in the next 5-7 years, say experts. Today, SMS constitutes major a portion of the VAS revenue. While entertainment services have become popular with consumers, there is scope for utility-based services such as location information, mobile commerce (M-Commerce) for transactions. The government is keen to bring transparency in the revenue share arrangement between content developers and telecom service providers and other players in the value added service chain. VAS content developers and VASPs allege they do not get enough revenue for developing services. Customers access their services through telecom service providers who collect the fee and retain a chunk of it. The telecom regulator also wants clarity on protecting copy rights, including digital rights management, and infringement of other laws of the country on value added service licensees. Since the VAS industry in India is at nascent stage, it does not have a code of practice. There have been no coordinated efforts so far to grow the industry and it also lacks transparency as consumers are not fully aware of the nuances of services being offered. "Considering the market potential for VAS in the coming years and the multiplicity of value added services that the Next Generation Network (NGN) and 3G will offer, there is a need to harmonise the licensing framework for ushering growth in all the segments of the value added service viz content development, technology platform, content aggregation including copy right protection," said TRAI in its consultation paper. From prashantiyengar at gmail.com Thu May 29 13:46:58 2008 From: prashantiyengar at gmail.com (Prashant Iyengar) Date: Thu, 29 May 2008 13:46:58 +0530 Subject: [Commons-Law] Panel: unified cultural policy not desirable Message-ID: <908adbd0805290116g30d5941w1d0d7d851d0942f3@mail.gmail.com> http://www.indianexpress.com/printerFriendly/315821.html Panel: unified cultural policy not desirable - IndianExpress.Com Thu May 29 2008 13:46:30 GMT+0530 (India Standard Time) Panel: unified cultural policy not desirable Amitabh Sinha Posted online: Thursday, May 29, 2008 at 2320 hrs IST New Delhi, May 28 The Government is likely to abandon its idea of framing a national culture policy with a majority of members of a 19-member committee — that was formed to look into the feasibility of such a proposition — expressing their views against it. The committee, which held a meeting on Wednesday, was unanimous in its opinion that a uniform cultural policy in a multi-cultural country like India was neither desirable nor feasible. Instead, the committee was of the view that there was a need to define a broad roadmap for effective management and administration of cultural institutions in the country. "A national culture policy is sort of a misnomer. What the committee would be attempting at is to recommend a policy for public action in cultural institutions. This would not infringe upon the multi-cultural character of the country," said Ashok Vajpayee, chairman of the Lalit Kala Akademi, and one of the members of the committee. Another member, on condition of anonymity, pointed out that in no other country of the world, even in the most repressive regimes, any such policy had been envisaged. "However, our cultural institutions badly need reforms and the members were in agreement to frame guidelines for effective management of these institutions," he said. The member said any uniform cultural policy was liable to be misused for political interests and there were hardly any benefits accruing out of the move. The national cultural policy has been a non-starter right from the time the idea was mooted by the Culture Ministry towards the end of 2006. It had asked this committee to give recommendations for such a policy to be framed. The six-month deadline for the committee had expired in April last year. Only one meeting was held in the first six months of its tenure and that too, was attended by only half of the members. With a number of members questioning the rationale for such a move, the idea was almost junked, but the committee was not dissolved. Recently, the ministry revived the idea and asked the committee to hold fresh discussions and appraise it of its views. The committee includes prominent personalities like U R Ananthamurthy, Girish Karnad, Shyam Benegal, M T Vasudevan Nair, Ramachandra Guha, Mallika Sarabhai. Only nine or 10 members could attend Wednesday's meeting. Some members had also submitted their written submissions. From prashantiyengar at gmail.com Thu May 29 15:40:28 2008 From: prashantiyengar at gmail.com (Prashant Iyengar) Date: Thu, 29 May 2008 15:40:28 +0530 Subject: [Commons-Law] Matrix buys 13 technologies from Guj's tribal innovators Message-ID: <908adbd0805290310q6e48f5b7w132b2373143d4a2b@mail.gmail.com> http://judis.openarchive.in/bomba/archives/20080529/rough/hindu324364.htm Thu May 29 2008 15:38:41 GMT+0530 (India Standard Time) Matrix buys 13 technologies from Guj's tribal innovators Chitra Unnithan / Mumbai/ Ahmedabad May 29, 2008, 5:23 IST Gujarat's tribal innovators are going global. Hyderabad's Matrix Biosciences has bought rights of 13 technologies — six herbal pesticides and seven veterinary products — from grassroot innovators associated with Society for Research and Initiatives for Sustainable Technologies and Institutions (SRISTI)-National Innovation Foundation (NIF). What's more, Matrix, which plans to market these products under its own brand names plans register in Thailand, Hong Kong, Indonesia and Phillipines. "The products are marketed as our own brands with names given by us, as part of the deal. We were approached by many NGOs for the commercialisation of their products, but the unique thing we appreciate about SRISTI is that they actually want to bring out the name of the original innovator. Every bottle of the products contains the names and photographs of the innovators," Ramesh Chouhan, President (Technical), Matrix Biosciences. Under the initiative, the rights of six herbal pesticides and seven veterinary products for curing ailments have been transferred to the company. The herbal products — SRISTI Krushak, SRISTI Rakshak, SRISTI Shastra, SRISTI Shakthi, SRISTI Prayas and SRISTI Suraksha — and seven veterinary products to cure ailments like coccidiosis, immunity in birds, mastitis, lactogogue diarrhoea, wound and bloat were licenced to the company. The product coccicure to control coccidiosis, a protozoal ailment is a unique product as it attacks the life cycle of the disease causing protozoa and also protects the epithelial lining of the intestine. This specific product will protect the birds through prevention as well as treatment of the ailment. The agricultural pesticide were tested against leaf curl, cotton pest, sucking pest, shedding of flower, termite infestation and promoting plant growth. These products are a result of the combination of technological innovations by farmers and tribals, who are identified by SRISTI through its various 'Shodh Yatras' across the remotest parts of the country. This is the first time that SRISTI has given way to group patenting of more than 10 people, replacing their tradition of patenting individual innovations. Anil Gupta, president of SRISTI and professor at Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) said, "More number of innovators are coming under the group licensing with each passing day. These herbal technologies, that are already out in the market are developed by farm labourers and tribals, who have the traditional knowledge but lack a platform to market them to their advantage. Instead of patenting one herbal technology, we decided to weave together a few technologies to have maximum impact." A token amount of Rs 50,000 was given to these innovators by the company at the organic food festival organised by the NGO. Besides, five per cent of on sale is given as royalty to SRISTI. In consultation with the innovators of these products, SRISTI and NIF have made a formula for the sharing of royalty through commercialisation of the products, which includes 30 per cent of the benefits to the innovator or the traditional knowledge holder, 20 per cent to the innovation fund, 15 per cent each for overhead and research and development and five per cent each to preserve environment, for the community, women of the community and contingency. The formulations were tried globally in countries like Canada, Eastern Europe and Asian countries and apparently found promising results. These herbal medications were documented by SRISTI and requisite value addition was made over each product like preparation of liquid medications, correct combination of the medications. From the.solipsist at gmail.com Fri May 30 02:52:39 2008 From: the.solipsist at gmail.com (Pranesh Prakash) Date: Fri, 30 May 2008 02:52:39 +0530 Subject: [Commons-Law] FBI gag order withdrawn: Archive.org record demand case can now be discussed by Kahle, et al. Message-ID: <4785f1e20805291422h4107623dvd4bbd1803d3dc80b@mail.gmail.com> >From the EFF: http://www.eff.org/press/archives/2008/05/06 THE INTERNET ARCHIVE, along with its counsel EFF and the ACLU, successfully challenged a national security letter issued to the Archive's digital library. The NSL, which had unconstitutionally gagged the Archive for months, was withdrawn, and we are now able to bring this story to the public for the first time. This settlement -- and the extensive dialogue about the case -- are critical supplements to widespread reports of NSL abuse. -------------------- May 7th, 2008 FBI Withdraws Unconstitutional National Security Letter After ACLU and EFF Challenge Gag Order Lifted on Internet Archive, Allowing Founder to Speak Out for First Time San Francisco - The FBI has withdrawn an unconstitutional national security letter (NSL) issued to the Internet Archive after a legal challenge from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). As the result of a settlement agreement, the FBI withdrew the NSL and agreed to the unsealing of the case, finally allowing the Archive's founder to speak out for the first time about his battle against the record demand. "The free flow of information is at the heart of every library's work. That's why Congress passed a law limiting the FBI's power to issue NSLs to America's libraries," said Brewster Kahle, founder and Digital Librarian of the Internet Archive. "While it's never easy standing up to the government -- particularly when I was barred from discussing it with anyone -- I knew I had to challenge something that was clearly wrong. I'm grateful that I am able now to talk about what happened to me, so that other libraries can learn how they can fight back from these overreaching demands." The NSL was served on the Archive -- a digital library recognized by the state of California -- and its attorneys in November of 2007. The letter asked for personal information about one of the Archive's users, including the individual's name, address, and any electronic communication transactional records pertaining to the user. Kahle, who is also a member of EFF's Board of Directors, decided to fight the NSL because it exceeded the FBI's limited authority to issue such demands to libraries. The Archive responded to the letter by handing over only publicly available documents and simultaneously filing a lawsuit challenging the letter. This lawsuit is the first known challenge to an NSL served on a library since Congress amended the national security letter provision in 2006 to limit the FBI's power to demand records from libraries. The NSL included a gag order, prohibiting Kahle from discussing the letter and the legal issues it presented with the rest of the Archive's Board of Directors or anyone else except his attorneys, who were also gagged. The gag also prevented the ACLU and EFF from discussing the NSL with members of Congress, even though an ACLU lawyer who represents the Archive recently testified at a congressional hearing about the FBI's misuse of NSLs. "This is a great victory for the Archive and also the Constitution," said Melissa Goodman, staff attorney with the ACLU. "It appears that every time a national security letter recipient has challenged an NSL in court and forced the government to justify it, the government has ultimately withdrawn its demand for records. In the absence of much needed judicial oversight – and with recipients silenced and the public in the dark – there is nothing to stop the FBI from abusing its NSL power." "A miscarriage of justice was prevented here because the Archive decided to fight the unlawful demand for information and unconstitutional gag," said EFF Staff Attorney Marcia Hofmann. "The big question is, how many other improper NSLs have been issued by the FBI and never challenged?" NSLs are secretly issued by the government to obtain access to personal customer records from Internet Service Providers, financial institutions, and credit reporting agencies. In almost all cases, recipients of the NSLs are forbidden, or "gagged," from disclosing that they have received the letters. The ACLU has challenged this Patriot Act statute in federal court in two other cases where the judges found the gags unconstitutional: one involving an Internet Service Provider (ISP); the second a group of librarians. In the ISP case, the district court invalidated the entire NSL statute. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit is expected to hear oral arguments in the government's appeal of that case next month. Since the Patriot Act was passed in 2001, relaxing restrictions on the FBI's use of the power, the number of NSLs issued has seen an astronomical increase, to nearly 200,000 between 2003 and 2006. EFF's investigations have uncovered multiple NSL misuses, including an improper NSL issued to North Carolina State University. Last year Representative Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) introduced H.R. 3189, the "National Security Letters Reform Act of 2007." Senator Russell Feingold (D-WI) introduced a Senate bill of the same name (S. 2088). Both bills are aimed at narrowing the statute by enacting limits on when and how NSLs can be used and bringing the gag order provision in line with the Constitution. In addition to Goodman and Hofmann, attorneys on the case are Jameel Jaffer and Danielle Tully of the ACLU National Security Project, Ann Brick of the ACLU of Northern California, and Kurt Opsahl of EFF. For the newly unsealed documents (still partially redacted): http://www.eff.org/cases/archive-v-mukasey?docs For more information about this case: http://www.eff.org/cases/archive-v-mukasey For more information on NSLs: http://www.eff.org/issues/foia/07656JDB -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/commons-law/attachments/20080530/dd473a94/attachment-0001.html From anivar.aravind at gmail.com Fri May 30 09:07:01 2008 From: anivar.aravind at gmail.com (Anivar Aravind) Date: Fri, 30 May 2008 09:07:01 +0530 Subject: [Commons-Law] IIT Bombay, Microsoft at loggerheads over standards In-Reply-To: <908adbd0805272216w70db15bey88a715ffbfbbe14f@mail.gmail.com> References: <908adbd0805272216w70db15bey88a715ffbfbbe14f@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: <483F765D.8050304@gmail.com> for more details on Indian review process of OOXML read Venky's blog http://osindia.blogspot.com Prashant Iyengar wrote: > http://www.business-standard.com/common/storypage_c.php?leftnm=10&autono=324294 > Wed May 28 2008 10:46:21 GMT+0530 (India Standard Time) > > IIT Bombay, Microsoft at loggerheads over standards > Leslie D`Monte / Mumbai May 28, 2008, 5:53 IST > > Embers from the fiery debate over the International Organisation for > Standardisation's (ISO) acceptance of Microsoft's Office Open XML > (OOXML) file format as an international standard refuse to die out in > India. > > The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay, has taken strong > objection to the fact that despite a "No" to OOXML by a majority of > the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) members, the software giant > "continued to make representations to the top Indian leadership (read > Ministry of Consumer Affairs), pressuring them to change the Indian > vote". > > The BIS represented India as a participating member of the ISO. Its > LITD 15 committee — of which IIT-Bombay was a part — was responsible > for examining OOXML and deciding on a "No" regarding India's position > at the ISO. > > India's negative vote could make it difficult for Microsoft to get > government business since governments worldwide, including India, are > wary of holding digital data in proprietary formats. > > Deepak B Phatak, who represented IIT-Bombay along with three other > professors, has written an open letter to all BIS members, expressing > unhappiness over Microsoft's "accusation" that his institution and the > National Informatics Centre (NIC), among others, have an "ODF > alliance" bias (ODF stands for Open Document Format). > > The OOXML format is backed by Apple, Novell, and closer home by Wipro, > Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), and Nasscom. ODF, the other > format, is supported by IBM, Sun Microsystems, Red Hat, Google, and in > India, by the Department of Information Technology (DIT), National > Informatics Centre (NIC), CDAC, IIT-Bombay and IIM-Ahmedabad. States > such as Delhi, Kerala and others from the North-East are heavy > adopters of ODF file formats which are open and free (excluding > maintenance and support). > > Pathak insists that there is no reason for any ODF bias since academic > institutions have no commercial interests. "... the complaints have > painted these organisations and their representatives, including the > Indian delegation which attended the Ballot Resolution Meeting (BRM in > Geneva this February), as acting against Indian national interests. > This is the most derogatory accusation to any Indian...," he wrote. > > The letter adds: "I have a special word of thanks to the officials of > Microsoft, some of whom have been personal friends for years...I, of > course, still await the action from Microsoft which I have requested, > viz., formal withdrawal of all complaints, and a formal apology to my > Institute." > > Microsoft, noted Pathak, has sent him a personal apology which he said > is not sufficient. > > Microsoft declined to comment on the specific issue of withdrawing the > complaint. A spokesperson, however, said: "We would just like to > reiterate our respect for both IIT Bombay as an esteemed echelon of > learning, and Dr Pathak as one of its the most respected educators. > The issue raised with the government about certain members of the BIS > committee having a possible bias was an issue we were genuinely > concerned about and had fair grounds to believe. It was not targeted > at a specific organisation or individual. " > > ODF proponents oppose OOXML on grounds that " multiple standards " are > not good while Microsoft argues that OOXML is a response to evolving > technology formats. > > A January 2008 independent study by research and consulting firm > Burton Group indicated that although moving to OOXML file formats > involves some administrative challenges, the opportunities for > improved content management and productivity outweigh the short-term > inconvenience of migrating from binary file formats. > > Internationally, too, the debate does not appear to have ended. OOXML > was approved as an international standard this April. However, there's > a two-month period during that countries can appeal against the > decision. > > The South African Bureau of Standards has already challenged "...the > validity of a final vote that we contend was based upon inadequate > information, resulting from a poorly conducted BRM (Ballot Resolution > Meeting)". > _______________________________________________ > commons-law mailing list > commons-law at sarai.net > https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/commons-law From the.solipsist at gmail.com Fri May 30 23:28:05 2008 From: the.solipsist at gmail.com (Pranesh Prakash) Date: Fri, 30 May 2008 23:28:05 +0530 Subject: [Commons-Law] International copyright talks seek BitTorrent-killer laws Message-ID: <4785f1e20805301058q5b041269u3872580d210d887@mail.gmail.com> Dear All, >From *The Register*: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/05/27/acta_leak/ International copyright talks seek BitTorrent-killer laws Plan to torpedo Pirate Bay-style freedom claims By Chris Williams → More by this author Published Tuesday 27th May 2008 13:57 GMT A new international trade agreement could seek to strengthen criminal sanctions against BitTorrent tracker sites that claim not to profit from internet users sharing music, movies and software. Many major tracker sites say advertising revenues and user donations are used to pay server and bandwidth costs. The operators of the Pirate Bay, currently on trial in Sweden, claim their chief motive is to destroy copyright law. Rights holder organisations charge that BitTorrent administrators make a handsome living exploiting copyright material online. Now, a discussion paper circulated among the US, EU, Canada, Japan, Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, and Switzerland regarding the proposed Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) has been leaked online. It includes a proposal to ditch any requirements under national law that copyright infringers must be seeking to profit in order to be judged criminal. Plans for ACTA were announced last Autumn, but negotiations have taken place behind closed doors. The discussion paper lists "the types of provisions that could be included in the agreement". The Office of the US Trade Representative's (USTR) ACTA announcment from October last year is here. It makes no mention of internet piracy, although it's reported that the USTR drafted the leaked discussion paper. The document suggests "criminal sanctions to be applied to [Intellectual Property Rights] infringements on a commercial scale [where there are] significant willful infringements without motivation for financial gain to such an extent as to prejudicially affect the copyright owner (e.g. internet piracy)". Governments should apply "deterrent-level" penalties against criminal copyright infringment, the discussion paper suggests, as well as powers to seize and destroy equipment. For ordinary filesharers accused of civil infringement, the ACTA proposals include plans for rights holders to claim compensation, "including measures to overcome the problem of rights holders not being able to get sufficient compensation due to difficulty in assessing the full extent of the damage". In the landmark successful civil prosecution of Jammie Thomas by the Recording Industry Ass. of America last year, the jury awarded$9250 in damages for each of the 24 songs in her Kazaa-shared directory, a total of $222,000. ISPs might be enouraged to read that while an ACTA framework would hope to encourage them to cooperate with rights holders, it would offer safeguards from liability in exchange. ACTA might also seek to reanimate the corpse of DRM software by proposing legal "remedies against circumvention of technological protection measures used by copyright owners and the trafficking of circumvention devices". At time of writing the EU had not responded to a request for clarification of its involvement in the process. The Canwest News Service reportsthat the proposals are expected to be discussed at the G8 meeting in Tokyo in July. A European Commission fact sheetreleased in October contradicts this, stating that ACTA will not be pursued through the G8. Signs of an emerging international copyright consensus abound already, however. The so-called "three strikes" planto combat filesharing by forcing ISPs to cooperate is being pushed simultaneously in the UK, France and Japan. You can grab a copy of the ACTA discussion paper hereat Wikileaks. (R) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/commons-law/attachments/20080530/39276cc1/attachment.html From k.ravisrinivas at gmail.com Sat May 31 15:24:25 2008 From: k.ravisrinivas at gmail.com (ravi srinivas) Date: Sat, 31 May 2008 15:24:25 +0530 Subject: [Commons-Law] Kerala IP Policy Message-ID: Kerala has come out with an IP policy http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/004200805311340.htm The draft version of the policy was announced earlier.It is available in the web.I hope that the approved one will also be available soon. If anyone has access to that and if that can be shared it will be fine. ravi srinivas -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/commons-law/attachments/20080531/798bcc68/attachment.html