Hello Friends,
In the recently concluded session of Karnataka Assembly, the
government tabled and passed a new amendment to the Goonda Act,
which allows the government to 'preventively detain' people who it may
consider a threat to public order. Amongst a largely mixed bag of
disconnected offenses, it has also included IT and copyright
infringements as 'goonda-ism', for which even without a crime, the
police an arrest someone and keep them in custody 3 months or even upto
an year without trial, merely on the suspicion of a future wrong doing.
Although there are a few safeguards, it is
nevertheless a draconian law that puts a lot of us in danger and has
the potential to throttle free speech. To raise awareness we have
launched the campaign 'We The Goondas'[1].
As part of the campaign, we had like to invite you to the screening of
"Internet's Own Boy" a biographical documentary[2] on the life of
Aaron Swartz [3], a bright young mind who was not only a victim of a
system of unjust laws, but also a crusader who fought on behalf of all
of us. He was instrumental in stopping dangerous legislation like
SOPA in the US which would have allowed heavy censorship on the
Internet and had serious impact on all of our digital lives. As a
programmer, at a very early age, he built some very powerful tools
like RSS, Reddit, Watchdog.net, DemandProgress. Aaron's life and work
is one that inspires someone to do interesting things in life, be it
activism or entrepreneurship, politics or programming.
We will then discuss about issues around the Goonda Act amendment, to
understand and educate each other about the seriousness and impact on
general public like us. We are looking forward to you joining the
campaign and together, working towards changing the law for the better.
Date : 21st Sept, 2014
Time: 2:00 pm
Venue[4]: H.R Arakeri Auditorium,
Institute of AgriculturalTechnologists,
Queens Road, Bangalore
[1] https://facebook.com/wethegoondas
[2] http://www.takepart.com/internets-own-boy
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Swartz
[4]
https://www.google.co.in/maps/place/Institution+Of+Agricultural+Technologists,+Queens+Rd,+Vasanth+Nagar,+Bengaluru,+Karnataka+560051/@12.985631,77.597364,17z/
Regards,
Vignesh Prabhu
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