Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Fwd: Re: [Foundation-l] Indian Minister Kapil Sibal wants to censor social media

2011-12-08 Thread Achal Prabhala
A useful update on the situation:

http://blogs.outlookindia.com/default.aspx?ddm=10pid=2665


On Wednesday 07 December 2011 10:36 PM, Srikanth Ramakrishnan wrote:
 Vickram, while I agree with you my point was something else. What I
 meant to say was that if you add a source, you make your point, you're
 being neutral, and thus what you're doing is factually correct.

 On 07/12/2011, Vickram Crishnavvcris...@radiophony.com  wrote:
 Exactly my point. I suspect that the addition of a line referring to the
 current controversy, where the hashtag #IdiotKapilSibal has been trending,
 and to quote some of the numbers over time during this crisis, would not be
 out of place.

 On Wed, Dec 7, 2011 at 5:29 PM, CherianTinu Abraham
 tinucher...@gmail.comwrote:

 Adding Kapil Sibal is an idiot on the Wikipedia article is vandalism

 http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kapil_Sibalaction=historysubmitdiff=464355055oldid=464353638


 Addling verifiable facts is acceptable ( including controversies and
 criticism

 http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kapil_Sibalaction=historysubmitdiff=464367647oldid=464366606


 Hope I clarified the difference.

 Regards
 Tinu Cherian

 P.S. On a lighter note, Please feel to add Kapil Sibal is an idiot , if
 you can provide/prove that with Verifiable references from Reliable
 Sources :)




 On Wed, Dec 7, 2011 at 5:20 PM, Vickram Crishna
 vvcris...@radiophony.comwrote:

 Oh, the mention of 'idiot' on that page is vandalism (no, I haven't done
 it - yet)? I thought we had a very interesting discussion about current
 affairs at WikiConf where there seemed to be a consensus that presenting
 every side of the picture is important.

 Is reporting the fact that major websites like Kafila.org and literally
 hundreds or thousands of Twitter users are tweeting the hashtag
 #IdiotKapilSibal wrong, in that case?

   On Wed, Dec 7, 2011 at 5:05 PM, CherianTinu Abraham
 tinucher...@gmail.com  wrote:

 On a related note, this has appeared on *The Economic Times* :

  Five reasons why India can't censor the Internet

 http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/internet/five-reasons-why-india-cant-censor-the-internet/articleshow/11018330.cms


 *Yes, Internet content has the permanence and public-impact potential
 that a phone call does not, but equally, it lends itself brilliantly to
 self-regulation. *
 *
 *
 *3. Peer review works: Wikipedia is the best example. Who could have
 imagined that a user-created encyclopedia could be so objective, and
 comprehensive? Yes, anyone can go in and edit anything (barring entries
 like Kapil Sibal, which have been locked due to vandalism!). *
 *
 *
 *If you make an inappropriate change, someone will come in and correct
 it.* 


 Regards
 Tinu Cherian


 On Wed, Dec 7, 2011 at 4:04 PM, Srikanth Ramakrishnan
 parakara.gh...@gmail.com  wrote:

 This is basically restriction of freedom of expression and it will
 hurt Wikipedia much more than it hurts Twitter or Facebook.

 On 07/12/2011, Srikanth Lakshmanansrik@gmail.com  wrote:
 On Wed, Dec 7, 2011 at 12:06, Achal Prabhalaaprabh...@gmail.com
 wrote:
 fyi

  Original Message 
 Subject:Re: [Foundation-l] Indian Minister Kapil Sibal Wants
 to
 Censor
 social
 Date:   Wed, 07 Dec 2011 12:02:10 +0530
 From:   Achal Prabhalaaprabh...@gmail.com
 To: Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List
 foundatio...@lists.wikimedia.org

 I just want to write that there was a community member who seemed to
 be of
 the notion ImageFilter is the technical fix for what Kapil Sibal is
 proposing(without probably understanding / knowing much) and
 connecting the
 two distinct things. Yes Sibal showed some images as examples for his
 support, but what Sibal means is much more and prescreening of every
 byte
 of user generated content. Please tell that member that linking up 2
 different things is not a good idea. ImageFilter needs to be
 discussed with
 its own merits / demerits and this thing that Sibal proposes means
 much
 more than images.

 If at all the legislation comes and is being enforced, I think
 Wikimedia
 projects are better equipped *technically* than other social media
 sites
 cited to support the local laws(so that we need not be banned if that
 goes
 to that extreme) with a combination of ImageFilter / FlaggedRevisions
 and
 some more customizations, but thats not where we would like to go.
 Community is already not so strong and needs support, there is so
 much work
 to do in increasing content, censorship will cripple Indian community
 if
 such a thing happens.

 There are many questions that the communities need to decide as to
 submit
 to Indian laws (if at all they come through) and I hope the situation
 does
 not arise for us to take those tough calls.

 PS : I would not like to post / join foundation-l myself since it has
 high
 SNR IMO.

 --
 Regards
 Srikanth.L

 --
 Sent from my mobile device

 Regards,
 Srikanth Ramakrishnan.
 Wikipedia Coimbatore Meetup on December 10th.
 

Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Fwd: Re: [Foundation-l] Indian Minister Kapil Sibal wants to censor social media

2011-12-08 Thread Srikanth Ramakrishnan
Interesting to note that the article mentions Sunil and Pranesh of the
Centre for Internet and Society ...

On 08/12/2011, Achal Prabhala aprabh...@gmail.com wrote:
 A useful update on the situation:

 http://blogs.outlookindia.com/default.aspx?ddm=10pid=2665


 On Wednesday 07 December 2011 10:36 PM, Srikanth Ramakrishnan wrote:
 Vickram, while I agree with you my point was something else. What I
 meant to say was that if you add a source, you make your point, you're
 being neutral, and thus what you're doing is factually correct.

 On 07/12/2011, Vickram Crishnavvcris...@radiophony.com  wrote:
 Exactly my point. I suspect that the addition of a line referring to the
 current controversy, where the hashtag #IdiotKapilSibal has been
 trending,
 and to quote some of the numbers over time during this crisis, would not
 be
 out of place.

 On Wed, Dec 7, 2011 at 5:29 PM, CherianTinu Abraham
 tinucher...@gmail.comwrote:

 Adding Kapil Sibal is an idiot on the Wikipedia article is vandalism

 http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kapil_Sibalaction=historysubmitdiff=464355055oldid=464353638


 Addling verifiable facts is acceptable ( including controversies and
 criticism

 http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kapil_Sibalaction=historysubmitdiff=464367647oldid=464366606


 Hope I clarified the difference.

 Regards
 Tinu Cherian

 P.S. On a lighter note, Please feel to add Kapil Sibal is an idiot ,
 if
 you can provide/prove that with Verifiable references from Reliable
 Sources :)




 On Wed, Dec 7, 2011 at 5:20 PM, Vickram Crishna
 vvcris...@radiophony.comwrote:

 Oh, the mention of 'idiot' on that page is vandalism (no, I haven't
 done
 it - yet)? I thought we had a very interesting discussion about current
 affairs at WikiConf where there seemed to be a consensus that
 presenting
 every side of the picture is important.

 Is reporting the fact that major websites like Kafila.org and literally
 hundreds or thousands of Twitter users are tweeting the hashtag
 #IdiotKapilSibal wrong, in that case?

   On Wed, Dec 7, 2011 at 5:05 PM, CherianTinu Abraham
 tinucher...@gmail.com  wrote:

 On a related note, this has appeared on *The Economic Times* :

  Five reasons why India can't censor the Internet

 http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/internet/five-reasons-why-india-cant-censor-the-internet/articleshow/11018330.cms


 *Yes, Internet content has the permanence and public-impact potential
 that a phone call does not, but equally, it lends itself brilliantly
 to
 self-regulation. *
 *
 *
 *3. Peer review works: Wikipedia is the best example. Who could have
 imagined that a user-created encyclopedia could be so objective, and
 comprehensive? Yes, anyone can go in and edit anything (barring
 entries
 like Kapil Sibal, which have been locked due to vandalism!). *
 *
 *
 *If you make an inappropriate change, someone will come in and correct
 it.* 


 Regards
 Tinu Cherian


 On Wed, Dec 7, 2011 at 4:04 PM, Srikanth Ramakrishnan
 parakara.gh...@gmail.com  wrote:

 This is basically restriction of freedom of expression and it will
 hurt Wikipedia much more than it hurts Twitter or Facebook.

 On 07/12/2011, Srikanth Lakshmanansrik@gmail.com  wrote:
 On Wed, Dec 7, 2011 at 12:06, Achal Prabhalaaprabh...@gmail.com
 wrote:
 fyi

  Original Message 
 Subject:Re: [Foundation-l] Indian Minister Kapil Sibal
 Wants
 to
 Censor
 social
 Date:   Wed, 07 Dec 2011 12:02:10 +0530
 From:   Achal Prabhalaaprabh...@gmail.com
 To: Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List
 foundatio...@lists.wikimedia.org

 I just want to write that there was a community member who seemed to
 be of
 the notion ImageFilter is the technical fix for what Kapil Sibal is
 proposing(without probably understanding / knowing much) and
 connecting the
 two distinct things. Yes Sibal showed some images as examples for
 his
 support, but what Sibal means is much more and prescreening of every
 byte
 of user generated content. Please tell that member that linking up 2
 different things is not a good idea. ImageFilter needs to be
 discussed with
 its own merits / demerits and this thing that Sibal proposes means
 much
 more than images.

 If at all the legislation comes and is being enforced, I think
 Wikimedia
 projects are better equipped *technically* than other social media
 sites
 cited to support the local laws(so that we need not be banned if
 that
 goes
 to that extreme) with a combination of ImageFilter /
 FlaggedRevisions
 and
 some more customizations, but thats not where we would like to go.
 Community is already not so strong and needs support, there is so
 much work
 to do in increasing content, censorship will cripple Indian
 community
 if
 such a thing happens.

 There are many questions that the communities need to decide as to
 submit
 to Indian laws (if at all they come through) and I hope the
 situation
 does
 not arise for us to take those tough calls.

 PS : I would not like to post / join foundation-l 

Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Fwd: Re: [Foundation-l] Indian Minister Kapil Sibal wants to censor social media

2011-12-07 Thread Srikanth Ramakrishnan
This is basically restriction of freedom of expression and it will
hurt Wikipedia much more than it hurts Twitter or Facebook.

On 07/12/2011, Srikanth Lakshmanan srik@gmail.com wrote:
 On Wed, Dec 7, 2011 at 12:06, Achal Prabhala aprabh...@gmail.com wrote:

 fyi

  Original Message 
 Subject:Re: [Foundation-l] Indian Minister Kapil Sibal Wants to
 Censor
 social
 Date:   Wed, 07 Dec 2011 12:02:10 +0530
 From:   Achal Prabhala aprabh...@gmail.com
 To: Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List 
 foundatio...@lists.wikimedia.org


 I just want to write that there was a community member who seemed to be of
 the notion ImageFilter is the technical fix for what Kapil Sibal is
 proposing(without probably understanding / knowing much) and connecting the
 two distinct things. Yes Sibal showed some images as examples for his
 support, but what Sibal means is much more and prescreening of every byte
 of user generated content. Please tell that member that linking up 2
 different things is not a good idea. ImageFilter needs to be discussed with
 its own merits / demerits and this thing that Sibal proposes means much
 more than images.

 If at all the legislation comes and is being enforced, I think Wikimedia
 projects are better equipped *technically* than other social media sites
 cited to support the local laws(so that we need not be banned if that goes
 to that extreme) with a combination of ImageFilter / FlaggedRevisions and
 some more customizations, but thats not where we would like to go.
 Community is already not so strong and needs support, there is so much work
 to do in increasing content, censorship will cripple Indian community if
 such a thing happens.

 There are many questions that the communities need to decide as to submit
 to Indian laws (if at all they come through) and I hope the situation does
 not arise for us to take those tough calls.

 PS : I would not like to post / join foundation-l myself since it has high
 SNR IMO.

 --
 Regards
 Srikanth.L


-- 
Sent from my mobile device

Regards,
Srikanth Ramakrishnan.
Wikipedia Coimbatore Meetup on December 10th.
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Meetup/Coimbatore

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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Fwd: Re: [Foundation-l] Indian Minister Kapil Sibal wants to censor social media

2011-12-07 Thread Surya Prakash
How will it hurt WP most than FB or TWIT?


*$U®¥∩*
http://goo.gl/RoMyo.com http://FirefoxSurya.blogspot.com
http://about.me/suryaceg



On 7 December 2011 16:04, Srikanth Ramakrishnan parakara.gh...@gmail.comwrote:

 This is basically restriction of freedom of expression and it will
 hurt Wikipedia much more than it hurts Twitter or Facebook.

 On 07/12/2011, Srikanth Lakshmanan srik@gmail.com wrote:
  On Wed, Dec 7, 2011 at 12:06, Achal Prabhala aprabh...@gmail.com
 wrote:
 
  fyi
 
   Original Message 
  Subject:Re: [Foundation-l] Indian Minister Kapil Sibal Wants to
  Censor
  social
  Date:   Wed, 07 Dec 2011 12:02:10 +0530
  From:   Achal Prabhala aprabh...@gmail.com
  To: Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List 
  foundatio...@lists.wikimedia.org
 
 
  I just want to write that there was a community member who seemed to be
 of
  the notion ImageFilter is the technical fix for what Kapil Sibal is
  proposing(without probably understanding / knowing much) and connecting
 the
  two distinct things. Yes Sibal showed some images as examples for his
  support, but what Sibal means is much more and prescreening of every byte
  of user generated content. Please tell that member that linking up 2
  different things is not a good idea. ImageFilter needs to be discussed
 with
  its own merits / demerits and this thing that Sibal proposes means much
  more than images.
 
  If at all the legislation comes and is being enforced, I think Wikimedia
  projects are better equipped *technically* than other social media sites
  cited to support the local laws(so that we need not be banned if that
 goes
  to that extreme) with a combination of ImageFilter / FlaggedRevisions and
  some more customizations, but thats not where we would like to go.
  Community is already not so strong and needs support, there is so much
 work
  to do in increasing content, censorship will cripple Indian community if
  such a thing happens.
 
  There are many questions that the communities need to decide as to submit
  to Indian laws (if at all they come through) and I hope the situation
 does
  not arise for us to take those tough calls.
 
  PS : I would not like to post / join foundation-l myself since it has
 high
  SNR IMO.
 
  --
  Regards
  Srikanth.L
 

 --
 Sent from my mobile device

 Regards,
 Srikanth Ramakrishnan.
 Wikipedia Coimbatore Meetup on December 10th.
 http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Meetup/Coimbatore

 ___
 Wikimediaindia-l mailing list
 Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
 To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit
 https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l

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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Fwd: Re: [Foundation-l] Indian Minister Kapil Sibal wants to censor social media

2011-12-07 Thread Srikanth Ramakrishnan
Adding Kapil Sibal is an idiot is definitely vandalism, but saying
1000s of Twitter users and internet activists described him as an
idiot with a citation to back it up is not. ;-)

On 07/12/2011, CherianTinu Abraham tinucher...@gmail.com wrote:
 Adding Kapil Sibal is an idiot on the Wikipedia article is vandalism
 http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kapil_Sibalaction=historysubmitdiff=464355055oldid=464353638


 Addling verifiable facts is acceptable ( including controversies and
 criticism
 http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kapil_Sibalaction=historysubmitdiff=464367647oldid=464366606


 Hope I clarified the difference.

 Regards
 Tinu Cherian

 P.S. On a lighter note, Please feel to add Kapil Sibal is an idiot , if
 you can provide/prove that with Verifiable references from Reliable
 Sources :)




 On Wed, Dec 7, 2011 at 5:20 PM, Vickram Crishna
 vvcris...@radiophony.comwrote:

 Oh, the mention of 'idiot' on that page is vandalism (no, I haven't done
 it - yet)? I thought we had a very interesting discussion about current
 affairs at WikiConf where there seemed to be a consensus that presenting
 every side of the picture is important.

 Is reporting the fact that major websites like Kafila.org and literally
 hundreds or thousands of Twitter users are tweeting the hashtag
 #IdiotKapilSibal wrong, in that case?

  On Wed, Dec 7, 2011 at 5:05 PM, CherianTinu Abraham 
 tinucher...@gmail.com wrote:

 On a related note, this has appeared on *The Economic Times* :

  Five reasons why India can't censor the Internet

 http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/internet/five-reasons-why-india-cant-censor-the-internet/articleshow/11018330.cms


 *Yes, Internet content has the permanence and public-impact potential
 that a phone call does not, but equally, it lends itself brilliantly to
 self-regulation. *
 *
 *
 *3. Peer review works: Wikipedia is the best example. Who could have
 imagined that a user-created encyclopedia could be so objective, and
 comprehensive? Yes, anyone can go in and edit anything (barring entries
 like Kapil Sibal, which have been locked due to vandalism!). *
 *
 *
 *If you make an inappropriate change, someone will come in and correct
 it.* 


 Regards
 Tinu Cherian


 On Wed, Dec 7, 2011 at 4:04 PM, Srikanth Ramakrishnan 
 parakara.gh...@gmail.com wrote:

 This is basically restriction of freedom of expression and it will
 hurt Wikipedia much more than it hurts Twitter or Facebook.

 On 07/12/2011, Srikanth Lakshmanan srik@gmail.com wrote:
  On Wed, Dec 7, 2011 at 12:06, Achal Prabhala aprabh...@gmail.com
 wrote:
 
  fyi
 
   Original Message 
  Subject:Re: [Foundation-l] Indian Minister Kapil Sibal Wants
 to
  Censor
  social
  Date:   Wed, 07 Dec 2011 12:02:10 +0530
  From:   Achal Prabhala aprabh...@gmail.com
  To: Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List 
  foundatio...@lists.wikimedia.org
 
 
  I just want to write that there was a community member who seemed to
 be of
  the notion ImageFilter is the technical fix for what Kapil Sibal is
  proposing(without probably understanding / knowing much) and
 connecting the
  two distinct things. Yes Sibal showed some images as examples for his
  support, but what Sibal means is much more and prescreening of every
 byte
  of user generated content. Please tell that member that linking up 2
  different things is not a good idea. ImageFilter needs to be discussed
 with
  its own merits / demerits and this thing that Sibal proposes means
  much
  more than images.
 
  If at all the legislation comes and is being enforced, I think
 Wikimedia
  projects are better equipped *technically* than other social media
 sites
  cited to support the local laws(so that we need not be banned if that
 goes
  to that extreme) with a combination of ImageFilter / FlaggedRevisions
 and
  some more customizations, but thats not where we would like to go.
  Community is already not so strong and needs support, there is so much
 work
  to do in increasing content, censorship will cripple Indian community
 if
  such a thing happens.
 
  There are many questions that the communities need to decide as to
 submit
  to Indian laws (if at all they come through) and I hope the situation
 does
  not arise for us to take those tough calls.
 
  PS : I would not like to post / join foundation-l myself since it has
 high
  SNR IMO.
 
  --
  Regards
  Srikanth.L
 

 --
 Sent from my mobile device

 Regards,
 Srikanth Ramakrishnan.
 Wikipedia Coimbatore Meetup on December 10th.
 http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Meetup/Coimbatore

 ___
 Wikimediaindia-l mailing list
 Wikimediaindia-l@lists.wikimedia.org
 To unsubscribe from the list / change mailing preferences visit
 https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediaindia-l



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[Wikimediaindia-l] Fwd: Re: [Foundation-l] Indian Minister Kapil Sibal wants to censor social media

2011-12-06 Thread Achal Prabhala
fyi

 Original Message 
Subject:Re: [Foundation-l] Indian Minister Kapil Sibal Wants to Censor 
social
Date:   Wed, 07 Dec 2011 12:02:10 +0530
From:   Achal Prabhala aprabh...@gmail.com
To: Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List foundatio...@lists.wikimedia.org



Some updates on this, for anyone interested:

http://india.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/06/any-normal-human-being-would-be-offended/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/blogpost/post/facebook-google-tell-india-they-wont-screen-for-derogatory-content/2011/12/06/gIQAUo59YO_blog.html

http://blogs.ft.com/beyond-brics/2011/12/06/indias-dreams-of-web-censorship/#axzz1fpN86lWI

http://www.legallyindia.com/201112072434/Regulatory/kapil-sibal-to-sterilise-net-but-cis-sting-shows-6-out-of-7-websites-already-trigger-happy-to-censor-content-under-chilling-it-act

http://www.livemint.com/2011/12/06130244/Govt-wants-to-scrub-the-Intern.html

There's still no clarity on what Kapil Sibal meant/means; whether he's
serious; and the rules of the proposed IT act are still worrying; but at
least the outcry is now entrenched.


On Tuesday 06 December 2011 10:24 PM, Bishakha Datta wrote:
  On Tue, Dec 6, 2011 at 9:07 PM, Kim Bruningk...@bruning.xs4all.nl   wrote:

  On Tue, Dec 06, 2011 at 09:25:03PM +0530, Achal Prabhala wrote:
  On Tuesday 06 December 2011 08:27 PM, Kim Bruning wrote:
  I do not  believe that the Indian internet community shares Kapil
  Sibal's position. Though they'll have to speak for
  themselves, of course! :-)
  They have:

  http://blogs.outlookindia.com/default.aspx?ddm=10pid=2664

  and Mr Sibal's passing thought of yesterday is probably not going
  anywhere.

  And hurrah for that!  :-)

  A cautious hurrah.

  In April this year, the Indian government tried to restrict web content by
  holding sites and service providers - or 'intermediaries' liable for
  content.
  
 http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/28/technology/28internet.html?_r=2scp=1sq=india%20onlinest=cse

  These new rules will be considered by Parliament in the winter session -
  and continue to pose a huge threat to online freedom of expression in India.

  Best
  Bishakha
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Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Fwd: Re: [Foundation-l] Indian Minister Kapil Sibal wants to censor social media

2011-12-06 Thread Vickram Crishna
I don't know whether a discussion on social networking is really directly
on-topic for this list, but the reality is that the provisions of the law
as it stands right now are certainly of dire portent for a free and
fearlessly neutral Wikipedia and its associated projects. What Mr Sibal
appears to be suggesting goes much further than the law, and as has been
argued by several lawyers and Constitutional experts already, goes beyond
the Constitution. Today social networking, tomorrow any other online
content.

To take the subject most tiresomely and hotly debated during our recent
Wikipedia Conference in Mumbai, maps. Those of us online in the 90s had to
suffer the anachronistic and quite patently ridiculous rules of the GoI
regarding maps in those days: publishing of anything faintly accurate about
India was well-nigh impossible, publishing sensible guidebooks totally
impossible for anywhere off the beaten track. To get a detailed map of
anywhere Indian, one had to pose as a student and trek to Calcutta's
(that's what it was in those days) Survey Institute where you could get a
physical copy for a few rupees. Reproducing verboten, in any form, a
jailable offence.

Google Maps was deemed against national security, until our Air Chief
Marshal went public saying he had no objections, that any 'enemy's'
airfields were as liable to be exposed as ours.

In this particular case, pretty well all the 'proprietary' social networks
have a very clear policy that legally objectionable content will be taken
down upon receipt of a complaint. Obviously this does not happen overnight,
and this is not what Mr Sibal objects to anyway. No, he wants the content
to be pre-screened. If the same rule of thumb was applied to cases
instituted by the Government of India against ordinary citizens  (in
criminal and civil matters) in court, a great many would be dismissed
immediately, I daresay, as the evidence is found to be wanting once the
case is heard. If it was applied to arrests by the police, the situation
would be much worse, and the police would be almost completely incapable of
carrying out any work at all.

To some extent, the pressure on our public servants (elected or otherwise)
is psychologically enormous, they deal with incredibly complex problems
almost routinely. And most matters do get dealt with reasonably well. It is
the silliness of autocracy that stands out most sharply in an increasingly
online and increasingly less nationalistic world. Just as being cut off
from connectivity can sometimes turn out to be a welcome relief, perhaps
some of these fellows need a break from politics. It is a shame that our
system of governance does not seem to allow for such breaks, as many of
these jobs are also under the hidden pressure of internal competition.

On Wed, Dec 7, 2011 at 12:06 PM, Achal Prabhala aprabh...@gmail.com wrote:

 fyi

  Original Message 
 Subject:Re: [Foundation-l] Indian Minister Kapil Sibal Wants to
 Censor
 social
 Date:   Wed, 07 Dec 2011 12:02:10 +0530
 From:   Achal Prabhala aprabh...@gmail.com
 To: Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List 
 foundatio...@lists.wikimedia.org



 Some updates on this, for anyone interested:


 http://india.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/06/any-normal-human-being-would-be-offended/


 http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/blogpost/post/facebook-google-tell-india-they-wont-screen-for-derogatory-content/2011/12/06/gIQAUo59YO_blog.html


 http://blogs.ft.com/beyond-brics/2011/12/06/indias-dreams-of-web-censorship/#axzz1fpN86lWI


 http://www.legallyindia.com/201112072434/Regulatory/kapil-sibal-to-sterilise-net-but-cis-sting-shows-6-out-of-7-websites-already-trigger-happy-to-censor-content-under-chilling-it-act


 http://www.livemint.com/2011/12/06130244/Govt-wants-to-scrub-the-Intern.html

 There's still no clarity on what Kapil Sibal meant/means; whether he's
 serious; and the rules of the proposed IT act are still worrying; but at
 least the outcry is now entrenched.


 On Tuesday 06 December 2011 10:24 PM, Bishakha Datta wrote:
   On Tue, Dec 6, 2011 at 9:07 PM, Kim Bruningk...@bruning.xs4all.nl
 wrote:
 
   On Tue, Dec 06, 2011 at 09:25:03PM +0530, Achal Prabhala wrote:
   On Tuesday 06 December 2011 08:27 PM, Kim Bruning wrote:
   I do not  believe that the Indian internet community shares Kapil
   Sibal's position. Though they'll have to speak for
   themselves, of course! :-)
   They have:
 
   http://blogs.outlookindia.com/default.aspx?ddm=10pid=2664
 
   and Mr Sibal's passing thought of yesterday is probably not going
   anywhere.
 
   And hurrah for that!  :-)
 
   A cautious hurrah.
 
   In April this year, the Indian government tried to restrict web content
 by
   holding sites and service providers - or 'intermediaries' liable for
   content.
 
 http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/28/technology/28internet.html?_r=2scp=1sq=india%20onlinest=cse
 
   These new rules will be considered by Parliament in the winter session -
   and continue to pose a huge 

Re: [Wikimediaindia-l] Fwd: Re: [Foundation-l] Indian Minister Kapil Sibal wants to censor social media

2011-12-06 Thread Srikanth Lakshmanan
On Wed, Dec 7, 2011 at 12:06, Achal Prabhala aprabh...@gmail.com wrote:

 fyi

  Original Message 
 Subject:Re: [Foundation-l] Indian Minister Kapil Sibal Wants to
 Censor
 social
 Date:   Wed, 07 Dec 2011 12:02:10 +0530
 From:   Achal Prabhala aprabh...@gmail.com
 To: Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List 
 foundatio...@lists.wikimedia.org


I just want to write that there was a community member who seemed to be of
the notion ImageFilter is the technical fix for what Kapil Sibal is
proposing(without probably understanding / knowing much) and connecting the
two distinct things. Yes Sibal showed some images as examples for his
support, but what Sibal means is much more and prescreening of every byte
of user generated content. Please tell that member that linking up 2
different things is not a good idea. ImageFilter needs to be discussed with
its own merits / demerits and this thing that Sibal proposes means much
more than images.

If at all the legislation comes and is being enforced, I think Wikimedia
projects are better equipped *technically* than other social media sites
cited to support the local laws(so that we need not be banned if that goes
to that extreme) with a combination of ImageFilter / FlaggedRevisions and
some more customizations, but thats not where we would like to go.
Community is already not so strong and needs support, there is so much work
to do in increasing content, censorship will cripple Indian community if
such a thing happens.

There are many questions that the communities need to decide as to submit
to Indian laws (if at all they come through) and I hope the situation does
not arise for us to take those tough calls.

PS : I would not like to post / join foundation-l myself since it has high
SNR IMO.

-- 
Regards
Srikanth.L
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