Showing posts with label IP Rights. Show all posts
Showing posts with label IP Rights. Show all posts

Thursday, May 31, 2012

Ten Issues - 23

1- Retuning Alha Udal : The lustrous versatility of film music, and change wrought by time. Gulzar knows our culture more than anybody in music industry.

2- Evaluating responses to India's macroeconomic crisis by Shubho Roy and Ajay Shah.

3- Not an April Fool: We are encouraged to over-share, for commercial reasons (just as we are encouraged to over-consume, but that's an issue for another time).

4- वक्‍त की छलनी में चेहरे गुम हो जाते हैं, गीत अमर रहता है ♦ जावेद अख्‍तर - पिछले दिनों जावेद अख्‍तर को राष्‍ट्रपति ने राज्‍यसभा की सदस्‍यता दी। 17 मई 2012 को जावेद साहब ने संसद में अपना पहला भाषण दिया।

5- Sheryl Sandberg’s Inspiring Speech At Harvard Business School. Sandberg urged the new graduates to think of their careers as a “jungle gym,” jumping around instead of following a preordained progression. She urged her listeners to take similar leaps, perhaps accepting a job that’s a step down from what one is currently doing if it offers the chance to learn something new. “If you’re offered a seat on a rocket ship,” she said, “don’t ask what seat—just get on.”

6- Graduate Student: To Be or Not To Be by Karthik Shekhar who is a graduate student at MIT. He earned a Dual Degree in Chemical Engineering in 2008 from IITB.

7- An Open Letter to India’s Graduating Classes - The author is a partner with KPMG.

8- We are now going to uncloak the anonymous man and tell the story of Stephen Ridley. Life is short - you're young, you're old, you're dead. React to that knowledge. You have nothing to lose.

9- Why People Should Not Be Poor by Neera Chandhoke - Can we reflect on the right not to be poor without taking on these background inequalities? Arguably, the right not to be poor is best articulated as a subset of the generic right to equality. The concept of equality is, however, not self-explanatory. In many circles, redistributive justice has replaced equality. It is therefore time to ask the question – equality for what? Unless we are careful about the way we approach the poverty debate, we will land up not with equality, but with “sufficientarianism”.

10- ARTICLE 17 is a campaign launched by Video Volunteers on April 14th, 2012, to urge the National Commission for Schedule Castes, (the government body that is constitutionally appointed to direct and implement the safeguards against untouchability), to prosecute cases of untouchability.

Thought of the Day : - “The worst illiterate is the political illiterate, he doesn’t hear, doesn’t speak, nor participates in the political events. He doesn’t know the cost of life, the price of the bean, of the fish, of the flour, of the rent, of the shoes and of the medicine, all depends on political decisions. The political illiterate is so stupid that he is proud and swells his chest saying that he hates politics. The imbecile doesn’t know that, from his political ignorance is born the prostitute, the abandoned child, and the worst thieves of all, the bad politician, corrupted and flunky of the national and multinational companies.” ― Bertolt Brecht

Saturday, December 4, 2010

Ten Issues - 8

1- Media and mobs – Arundhati Roy versus the terrorists by Razarumi.

2- Fables of Nationalism by Razarumi.

3- Why Marxism Has Failed , And Why Zombie-Marxism Cannot Die & Zombie-Marxism : What Marx Got Right by Alex Knight.

What Marx Got Right : Class Analysis, Base and Superstructure, Alienation of Labor, Need for Growth, Inevitability of Crisis and A Counter-Hegemonic World-view.

What Marx Got Wrong: Linear March of History, Europe as Liberator, Mysticism of the Proletariat, The State and A Secular Dogma.

4- Copyleft and the theory of property: A bitter battle is underway between the supporters of intellectual property and those who defend the notion of the commons. Legal historian Mikhail Xifaras traces the history of the concept of "exclusive rights" and evaluates the emancipatory claims of the copyleft movement today.

5- Unlikely Stories, or the Making of an Afghan News Agency :Reporting is a challenge in Afghanistan, where power brokers are skilled at crafting politically expedient stories

6- On Social Networking: Three essays worth reading on online social networking—how it is transforming us and what to make of it.

7- Professors (and Learners) of the Year :It’s probably not unusual for junior professors to hear they should devote their time to research rather than waste it on teaching. What may be more uncommon is for one of them to do the opposite.

8- The Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode has doubled its core faculty and augmented its executive education and distance learning programmes with a vision to globalise Indian thought and showcase a humane B-school that churns out competent and compassionate managers, says its Director Debashis Chatterjee in an interview to G. KRISHNAKUMAR.

9- Land largesse for corporate universities :- When the Orissa High Court on Tuesday described the Vedanta Group’s acquisition of 6,892 acres for its university project in Puri “illegal and void”, the judges were merely articulating a widespread concern.

10- Ironies of the Left by Gurcharandas.

Quotes of the Day:
-He who reforms himself has done more toward reforming the public than a crowd of noisy, impotent patriots. – Johann Kaspar Lavater

-The good life means cherishing freedom -- in the knowledge that it is an interval between anarchy and tyranny -John N. Gray

-“For hatred is corrosive of a person’s wisdom and conscience; the mentality of enmity can poison a nation’s spirit, instigate brutal life and death struggles, destroy a society’s tolerance and humanity, and block a nation’s progress to freedom and democracy. I hope therefore to be able to transcend my personal vicissitudes in understanding the development of the state and changes in society, to counter the hostility of the regime with the best of intentions, and defuse hate with love.

Freedom of expression is the basis of human rights, the source of humanity and the mother of truth. To block freedom of speech is to trample on human rights, to strangle humanity and to suppress the truth. I do not feel guilty for following my constitutional right to freedom of expression, for fulfilling my social responsibility as a Chinese citizen. Even if accused of it, I would have no complaints. Thank you!” – Liu Xiaobo (excerpts from his “Final Statement”).

Friday, October 8, 2010

Overviewing Society

1- Human Values Unite, Religious Values Divide!

There are many different initiatives to strengthen the dialogue between cultures and religions, but they have not let to the desired results. The prominent Palestinian professor of philosophy Sari Nusseibeh see the weak points of such dialogue.

Nusseibeh: Whenever we talk about such a dialogue, we only ever mean the dialogue between the monotheistic religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam, and we never speak about the relationship between Buddhism and Hinduism, where there aren't any very serious problems. On the contrary: Shintoism was originally the dominant religion in Japan, and when Buddhism came from China, the Japanese didn't give up their Shintoism, but became Buddhists as well and united the two religions.

The problems seem to emerge primarily between Judaism, Christianity and Islam, because they are so similar and have the same origin. Buddhism and Shintoism could co-exist precisely because they are so different.

The solution lies above all in the abandonment of all religious fanaticism, and in our orienting ourselves on human values, and not on religious values, because everyone can agree on the former. And if a religious principle is in conflict with a human principle, then we have to uphold the latter. That's the only way we will come to mutual acceptance.

2- ‘The Social Network’ and the case against intellectual property rights

Ideas — in this case, an online student network — bear none of the qualities of property. They are abstract and intangible. They don’t exist in any physical sense. If another thinker has the same idea, the original thinker is not suddenly deprived of access to the idea; it simply multiplies.

This is not the equivalent of stealing your friend’s apple. It’s the equivalent of having an apple exactly identical to your friend’s appear in the palm of your hand. Your friend still has his apple.

Defenders of intellectual property protections will object to your apple on the grounds that its existence lowers the value of your friend’s apple; your friend won’t bother to grow apples if you can obtain yours for free. This creates a free rider problem, they allege, in which nobody grows apples and there are none to be copied.

But such thinking ignores that fame can be as compelling a reason to produce something as fortune.

During a legal hearing, Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg makes the ultimate statement against intellectual property rights, asking, “Does a guy who makes a really good chair owe money to anyone who ever made a chair?” If people value Facebook and the system that made its development possible, the answer should be a resounding no.

3- The Others Talk: Women's issues, sexual issues, female genital mutilation, virginity problems and "honour killings” are all related to patriarchy and class. Rape is the result of the lack of dedicated societal attention to the safety, respect, and prosperity of women in peace time, as well as in war. That is why empowering women is so necessary to preserve and reform our culture.

Here is an inspiring lecture in which "Kavita Ramdas talks about three encounters with powerful women who fight to make the world better—while preserving the traditions that sustain them." On her bio page is this quote: "Being a philanthropist doesn't mean necessarily writing a huge check. It can mean mobilizing your community to start asking questions." Kavita Ramdas directs the Global Fund for Women, the largest foundation in the world supporting women's human rights across all borders.