http://www.business-standard.com/common/news_article.php?tab=r&autono=31800…
Govt against curbing piracy with policy
FICCI FRAMES 2008
BS Reporters / Mumbai March 26, 2008
In what is viewed as a setback for the film industry's efforts to stop
piracy, the government today rejected the recommendations of the draft
optical disk policy on grounds that it would lead to the creation of a
regime of inspectors, and thus go against the grain of the
liberalisation policy.
For the past few months, the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting
has been examining the draft optical disc law to check film piracy.
As the draft legislation, which included a code of regulations for
content, is being prepared by FICCI and members of the film industry
with the initiative of the government, a positive response is
expected.
However, addressing the FICCI-Frames 2008 convention here today, Union
Ministry of Information & Broadcasting Secretary Asha Swarup made it
clear that the government was not in favour of implementing the
recommendations.
Acknowledging that the menace of piracy in the entertainment and media
industry was huge, she said the problem had to be tackled by closing
the gaps in the supply. "A possible way," she said, "is to release
films in 'C' and 'D' class towns in digital formats."
Swarup expressed her content with Pakistani films being released in
India and Indian films like Taare Zameen Par making an entry into
Pakistan. She said she hoped that with a new democratic government in
Pakistan, more Indian films would be screened there.
The secretary also emphasised the need to develop content for TV,
especially for children.
Meanwhile, the FICCI-PricewaterhouseCoopers 2008 report, released
today, estimates the industry at Rs 51,300 crore in 2007 - a growth of
17 per cent from Rs 43,800 crore in 2006. The Indian entertainment and
media industry is projected to clock Rs 1,15,000 crore by 2011.
In his address, Yash Chopra, chairman, FICCI Entertainment Committee &
Yash Raj Films, said that Indian cinema had transcended geographical
boundaries. However, he added: "Piracy, IP protection in the animation
segment and censorship are hurdles that the Indian media and
entertainment industry have to overcome."
Rajeev Chandrasekhar, MP and president of FICCI, pointed out that the
industry today had reached a point of critical mass. "I believe this
industry is poised to achieve the scale and size required to have
global value and presence," he said. The challenge for the industry
over the next few years, he said, was to become globally relevant to
the capital markets and investors; relevant to producers and consumers
of entertainment all over the world.
Kunal Dasgupta, co-chairman, FICCI Entertainment Committee & CEO Sony
Entertainment Television, said: "We are in talks with the Academy of
Television Arts and Science in the US, which represents the popular
Emmy Awards, and hopefully we will able to present an Indian version
of the popular Emmy Awards by next year."
Amit Khanna, chairman, Reliance Entertainment & FICCI Convergence
Committee, said new digital technology would reshape the distribution
and exhibition business.
"On-demand entertainment will become a standard industry norm," he said.
* * *
FROM USIBC
Piracy in India's Entertainment Industry Causes Huge Losses to Indian Economy
March 27, 2008 Mumbai, India – The U.S.-India Business Council (USIBC)
has released a new study showing huge job and revenue losses to the
Indian economy as a result of piracy in India's burgeoning
entertainment industry. The study– 'The Effects of Counterfeiting and
Piracy on India's Entertainment Industry'– prepared for USIBC by Ernst
&Young India, shows as much as Rs. 16,000 crores are lost each year
due to piracy. As many as 800,000 direct jobs are also lost as a
result of theft and piracy, afflicting India's entertainment industry.
Speaking at the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry
(FICCI) FRAMES 'Business of Entertainment' Conference, USIBC
President, Ron Somers, said, "This study estimates that the Indian
entertainment industry loses some 820,000 jobs and about $4 billion
each year to piracy. This is an enormous and unacceptable magnitude of
loss – by any measure."
The piracy study was commissioned as part of the USIBC-FICCI
Bollywood-Hollywood Initiative. "This study covers film, music,
television and video games and has been funded by the Global
Intellectual Property Center of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which
aims to highlight the value of intellectual property, as well as
illuminate the adverse impact theft and piracy have on creativity and
innovation. The Bollywood-Hollywood Initiative promotes the
sustainable growth and convergence underway between the entertainment
industries in both our countries."
Presented with a copy of the study, FICCI Secretary General, Dr. Amit
Mitra, said, "This study shows that the best way to make the boom in
the Indian entertainment bigger is to stop the affliction of piracy.
For the average Indian who wants to increase his or her chances for
being employed in Bollywood and associated industries, fighting piracy
is a place where all our collective efforts must start." Dr. Mitra
went on to point out, "The Media and Entertainment industry in India
is an industry of the future. India's entertainment industry already
generates more than $11 billion annually for the country, growing at a
combined annual rate of over 18%. If we can stop piracy, these
industries will grow even faster and employ more Indian workers."
Also present at the media briefing was Ramesh Sippy, famed producer
and director of the all-time number-one blockbuster 'Sholay'. Sippy
said, "I know first hand the importance of fighting piracy to support
the growth of Bollywood. I commend the USIBC-FICCI Initiative for
enlisting all elements of the entertainment industry against piracy."
Farokh T. Balsara, National Sector Leader, Media and Entertainment for
Ernst & Young-India, said, "Our Mumbai office collected data for this
study from on the ground – via direct interviews with stakeholders
from the Bollywood entertainment industry. We looked at the industry
from every angle – films, music, TV, radio, and electronic games. The
story was the same across the board: if we can slow or stop piracy, a
direct correlation in the generation of wealth and employment will be
the result."
Commenting on the USIBC-FICCI Bollywood-Hollywood Initiative, USIBC
President Ron Somers said, "This study is only the beginning. Now that
we have documented the job and revenue losses to the Indian
entertainment industry from piracy, we intend to continue fighting
piracy across the board. We will strive to bring these findings to
the attention of the average person in India. We will attempt to
enlist more effectively the U.S. and Indian governments to cooperate
in fighting the scourge of piracy in India, as well as in the U.S. and
worldwide. We strongly support passage by India of optical disc
legislation that will thwart piracy in this important industry. We are
pleased to stand shoulder to shoulder with counterparts in India to
help protect jobs and revenues that are now being needlessly lost to
piracy."
Also previewed at FICCI FRAMES as a part of the Bollywood-Hollywood
Initiative was 'Illicit – The Dark Trade' – a special documentary that
airs world-wide, produced by National Geographic for the U.S. Chamber
of Commerce's Global Intellectual Property Center. This
made-for-television documentary shows that the problem of piracy is an
epidemic affecting many sectors of world-wide dimensions.
The U.S.-India Business Council, formed in 1975 at the request of the
Government of India and the U.S. Government to advance U.S.-India
commercial ties, is hosted under the aegis of the U.S. Chamber of
Commerce. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is the world's largest business
federation representing more than 3 million businesses and
organizations of every size, sector, and region. The U.S.-India
Business Council celebrates its 33rd Anniversary at the U.S. Chamber
of Commerce on June 12, 2008 in Washington, D.C.
--
----------------------------------------------------------
Frederick 'FN' Noronha | Ym/Gmailtalk: fredericknoronha
http://fn.goa-india.org | fred(a)bytesforall.org
Independent Journalist | +91(832)2409490 Cell 9970157402
----------------------------------------------------------
" NEW DELHI: Microsoft India today expressed disappointment over
Bureau of Indian Standards voting against the software giant's Open
XML, which is file format specification for electronic documents.
However, the company said that it would continue to work with the
Indian government to achieve its "stated goal of technology
neutrality".
Microsoft said that even though it is disappointed, the company is
encouraged by the support of the of industry players Nasscom, Tata
Consultancy Services, Wipro and Infosys, which voted in favour of Open
XML. Nasscom and the three IT companies formed a part of BIS LITD
committee.
"While we are disappointed with the decision of the BIS LITD 15
committee, we are encouraged by the support of IT industry players
like Nasscom, TCS, Wipro and Infosys who voted in favour of Open XML
becoming an ISO standard," Microsoft India said in a statement..."
Story at http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/News_by_Industry/Microsoft_disappointed…
-----------
Is there anyway to get the details of these 15 member committee ?
CK Raju
Thrissur
2008/3/20, Nagarjuna G. <nagarjun(a)gnowledge.org>:
> India's BIS votes against ooxml. out of 19 members, five of them did not
> attend the meeting, one of them abstained, five voted in favor of ooxml, and
> the rest voted against.
Congratulations to all those who worked so hard for long hours, days
together to bring this victory!
For the rest of us, we should use this victory as a starting point and
join campaigns to save our country from the lock-ins and lead to a
knowledge society.
In Rabindranath Tagore's words,
Where the mind is without fear
and the head is held high,
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken
up into fragments by narrow domestic
walls;
Where words come out from the
depth of truth;
Where tireless striving
stretches its arms towards
perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason
has not lost its way into the
dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward
by thee into ever-widening
thought and action–
into that heaven of freedom,
my Father,
Let my country awake.
One such campaign which needs your support is SaveKarnataka campaign
http://groups.google.com/group/savekarnataka?hl=enhttp://savekarnataka.wordpress.com/
Regards
Praveen
--
പ്രവീണ് അരിമ്പ്രത്തൊടിയില്
<GPLv2> I know my rights; I want my phone call!
<DRM> What use is a phone call, if you are unable to speak?
(as seen on /.)
Join The DRM Elimination Crew Now!
http://fci.wikia.com/wiki/Anti-DRM-Campaign
On Thursday 20 Mar 2008, Nagarjuna G. wrote:
> India's BIS votes against ooxml. out of 19 members, five of them did
> not attend the meeting, one of them abstained, five voted in favor of
> ooxml, and the rest voted against.
Major win for the community, and I'd like to extend personal thanks to
the 3 people who I know have been putting in long hours into this
effort with no gain:
- Nagarjuna
- Venky (of Red Hat)
- Prabir Purkayastha
That isn't an exhaustive list by any means, and it'd be great if you
guys could enumerate the other people who have contributed to this win.
A request to the community: if you have the time and the inclination,
please take a few minutes and send a personal mail thanking these
front-line warriors. If we can come up with the list of organisations
who voted against OOXML and a contact person, a mail to each of those
organisations wouldn't go amiss either.
I'm convinced that if Prabir, Venky, Nagarjuna and the others in the
team hadn't worked like dogs for months on end, today we'd be seeing a
proprietary standard for all our documents. Must feel good to see all
that work pay off, huh? :)
Regards,
-- Raju
--
Raj Mathur raju(a)kandalaya.org http://kandalaya.org/
GPG: 78D4 FC67 367F 40E2 0DD5 0FEF C968 D0EF CC68 D17F
PsyTrance & Chill: http://schizoid.in/ || It is the mind that moves
On Thu, Feb 14, 2008 at 12:00 PM, <fsf-friends-request(a)mm.gnu.org.in> wrote:
> Today's Topics:
>
> 1. WORKSHOP by Moving Republic in vibgyor 2008 (MOBIN M)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Wed, 13 Feb 2008 21:59:39 +0530
> From: "MOBIN M" <mobstux(a)gmail.com>
> Subject: [Fsf-friends] WORKSHOP by Moving Republic in vibgyor 2008
> To: fsf-friends(a)mm.gnu.org.in, fsf-kerala(a)mm.gnu.org.in.
> Message-ID:
> <1f2cf8b50802130829oe636d86kb9bbfcd3c3527b0b(a)mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> WORKSHOP BY MOVING REPUBLIC
> http://movingrepublic.org/
>
>
> Date : February 14 and 15
> Event: Vibgyor 2008- short and documentary film festival
> http://2008.vibgyorfilm.com/
>
>
> Schedule :
>
> Workshop1- Towards hactivist media culture; Introduction to
> free software video production
>
> Date : February 14
> Time :10-12A.M
> Place : Town Hall, Thrissur
>
> Workshop2- Towards hactivist media culture; Introduction to
> free software audio production
>
> Date : February 15
> Time :10-12A.M
> Place : Town Hall, Thrissur
>
>
> Talkers: Anivar Aravind
> Hiran Venugopal
> Suresh P
> Krishnanunni
>
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Senthil S <senthilsos(a)yahoo.com>
Date: Mon, Mar 17, 2008 at 10:31 AM
Subject: Re: [Fsf-friends] IT@School, Kerala in News
Though i might sound like a conspiracy theorist..
the ndtv coverage doesnt talk about free software
..thought the students are using gnu/linux if u
carefully see ;)
cheers
senthil
> Message: 4
> Date: Thu, 6 Mar 2008 11:50:55 +0530
> From: "Vimal Joseph" <vimalekm(a)gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [Fsf-friends] [X-POST] Kerala schools to go completely
> FOSS
> To: raju(a)linux-delhi.org
> Cc: linux-india-general(a)lists.sourceforge.net, The Linux-Delhi mailing
> list <ilugd(a)lists.linux-delhi.org>, fsf-friends(a)mm.gnu.org.in
> Message-ID:
> <81428c130803052220p3e8b108bvb685ede2076e24d4(a)mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
>
> On Wed, Mar 5, 2008 at 8:12 PM, Raj Mathur <raju(a)linux-delhi.org> wrote:
> > Congratulations to our friends in Kerala are in order, I think:
> >
> > Kerala shuts windows, schools to use only Linux
> >
> > http://www.indianexpress.com/story/280323.html
> >
> > I'd like to get my hands on a copy of the courseware... is it freely
> > available?
>
> The latest books are not available online but you can send a request
> to IT@School Project
>
> Executive Director
> IT@School Project
> SCERT Building
> Poojappura
> Thiruvananthapuram-12
> Kerala
> Tel: 0471-2348274, 2343261
> Fax: 0471-2343261
Hi Vimal,
First of all thank you for providing the info. Are u by any chance
in Thiruvananthapuram? It would be nice if the Executive Director also
had an e-mail address. I do understand its not a good idea to give
somebody's e-mail address without his permission on an open mail list.
(i.e. if he/she has one) . Either way it would be nice to see what
these guys are serving as content/courseware.
--
Regards,
Shirish Agarwal
This email is licensed under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/
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Hi all,
I work with companies & non-profits who want to take up/use
free & open source software within their institution as well as
promote its usage in the world using outreach programs. For doing this
I've been trying to compile a list of logos which could be used in
banners as well as elsewhere for either letting people know these
alternatives exist or/and to show which alternatives already exist.
While compiling/downloading the logos I came across range of
issues. Some of the issues are as under :-
1. The logos are all scattered over different places, couldn't there
be a repository from where people could download these logos?
2. Most of the logos range from having no license information, having
some restrictive license information to having some free content
license. Having such a barrage of differing licenses, there are bound
to some incompatible licenses, in such how does one use them in an
outreach program?
3. An extension of the above, how do non-profits who generally have no
skill-sets in understanding licensing as well as other issues supposed
to cope with the matter?
4. Some of the logos are not clear or are or bad quality. Some don't
have .svg filetype which could be used for printing either on paper,
cloth, flex or whichever material & scales up easily.
So can we as a community come up with some solution to the above
issues & make it easier for people who want to show off some of the
work done by the global community & feel to be part of the community?
Feel free to comment, suggest and/or flame on the topic :)
--
Regards,
Shirish Agarwal
This email is licensed under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/
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