India will host the Fourth International GPLv3 Conference in Bangalore, this August 23-24, 2006. A part of the world-wide drive to create awareness about the upcoming version three of the GNU General Public License (GPLv3), the two-day conference is expected to draw delegates from across the communities - legal, bureaucrat and academia. While the first day will see Richard M Stallman and Eben Moglen, the original architects of the GPLv3 license, communicating latest updates on the GPLv3 final draft, the second day holds panel discussions on localisation, awareness and adoption of GPLv3 and threat of Digital Restrictions Management (DRM).

Kailas Raghoji Bichhewar, Bharat Devsing Akde, Sahebrao Gopala Kapse, Vasudeo Deorao Pote, Ganesh Bhimrao Thakare, Manohar Wamanrao Kadu, Jaipal Bhaurao Kharkar, Pralhad Wamanrao Nalakande, Abhay Shyamrao Chavhan, Vikram Maroti Rajurkar, Punaji Natthu Nare, Raju Nanaji Thakre, Mahadeo Motiram…

And those are just 13 of 655. farmers suicides in vidarbha & it still continues…

what about wayanad..?

Jace summarises the indian internet censorship issue in a wonderful article here

“All the samples showed excessive levels of chromium, eight samples showed excessive levels of cadmium and six samples showed excessive levels of lead. The water samples were collected in November 2005,”: The Hazards Centre and the People’s Science Institute report
The Hazards Centre and the People’s Science Institute tested nine water samples within a one kilometer radius of the Coca-Cola bottling plant in the south Indian state of Kerala and concluded that “the total natural water resources surrounding the Coca-Cola plant in Plachimada are contaminated.”
All the water samples, collected from open wells, hand pumps and borewells in the area, failed to meet the safety standards for drinking water prescribed by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) - ensuring that the groundwater is no longer suitable for human consumption.

I came across this Great tool & campaign by Amnesty International against censorship on internet. Amnesties press release says

From Iran to the Maldives and Cuba to Vietnam, governments are both cracking down on those who use the internet to communicate their views and denying their citizens access to its wealth of information. Web users are locked up, internet cafes are shut down, chat rooms are policed and blogs deleted. Websites are blocked, foreign news banned, and search engines filter out sensitive results.

“The internet’s potential for change is being undermined — by governments unwilling to tolerate this free media outlet, and by companies willing to help them repress free speech”

I am looking at the media coverage on the blog ban. it is covered by all national & International press & channels. Times of india Dedicated a large chunk of its front page & wrote an Editorial. Indian Express also posted a Front page news that analysing content of blocked sites. NDTV & CNN-IBN are projected it as a top story for last 2 days. NDTV even conducted a poll with sms votting. And the news is slashdotted. Bloggers suceeded in making it as an international issue. Guardian, BBC, New York Times, WSJ , Asian age, washington post, list is very big.

At the same time bloggers setup alternate access mechanisms like inblogs & tools.superhit.in . worked out campaignes to popularise tools like tor & privoxy.

This is the 2nd time Indian state is controlling the civil society spaces in
internet. (hope you all remember the yahoo groups story). it is the
time to make a protest against state terrorism that denies the rights
to free speach of the people.

We need to have a clarity on the following questions

1) Are we against all type of censorship on blogosphere?

2) are you ok with banning some blogs which is a threat to national security?

In the discussion thread on NDTV poll question these questions came up.

what do India, Pakistan, China and Ethiopia have in common?

It’s not a love of cricket. Or even clandestine nuclear programs.
They are all - apparently - blocking blogspot.com.

India is the newcomer to this party, and it is unclear just what blogs are being blocked, whether all ISPs are complying, and whether all blogspot blogs will be blocked or just a subset of sites.

India is again playing with censorship on web just after china. The Department of Telecommunications passed an order to ISPs Friday to block several websites. The list is confidential. ISPs have been slowly coming into compliance. blogs & sites hosted on Blogger , Typepad & Geocities are not accessible now. The List of ISP’s that Blocked Blogger is here. Bloggers collective initiated protest by Bloggers. A new wiki is setup against censorship
Shivam Vij managed to talk to Dr Gulshan Rai, director of CERT-IN, the only body authorised to issue a blocking directive. His response: “Somebody must have asked for some sites to be blocked. What is your problem?”.