For the last couple of months, I’ve been at the receiving end of several emails and phone calls that ask: did you really say that on your blog. How could you? My short terse response is: But it wasn’t me! Please read the post again and the name of the author carefully. Pat comes the reply: but isn’t this your blog?
Well, I own the domain and the website and will naturally take the fall for defamatory statements and the like. But please do not ascribe authorship to me, unless the post has been specifically authored by me. We’re really a bunch of people with very different ideologies and takes on life and more importantly, on IP. So you’ll see very different perspectives being reflected on the blog…and often times conflicting opinions from our bloggers on the very same issue. Perhaps the only common ground we share is our love for transparency and for a good debate on IP issues.
If at all anything, I cherish this wide diversity of views and think that it adds a lot of vibrancy to the discussion. We don’t have a culture of censoring posts by our bloggers, unless they specifically violate a law of some kind or are completely untethered from any rational nexus with know facts or the law/jurisprudence.
Very often, many of our posts on the blog have come at the cost of friendships and alliances, but that is a cost we pay in our bid to foster transparency and enhance the discussion around IP issues. As I mentioned to an erstwhile friend who reacted to a post that was critical of his organisation (again the post was authored by a co-blogger and not by me), if you threaten to sever our friendship in a bid to quell free speech and the right to a fair discussion, it wasn’t worth it in the first place. And we parted ways.
So please help us continue this culture of a free and fair discussion, without ascribing authorship in all cases to me or someone else on the blog. We have a space for comments and value informed comments and discussion. If you’ve got an issue with any of the posts, please feel free to take the author to task in the comments section (within the bounds of civility of course). However, if you think the statement made by the concerned blogger is defamatory or completely untenable (legally or otherwise) or otherwise flouts a law or regulation, please write to me.
We would also welcome as many of you to please help enrich the discussion by contributing guest posts. So long as you make reasonably sound arguments in reasonably sound English, we’re more than happy to carry it. So please shy away from shyness and chip in with your perspectives and views on IP issues.
Thank you for understanding and helping us maintain this valuable diversity on the blog.
Dear Shamnad,
You say that the only common ground your bloggers share is your love for transparency and a good debate on IP issues. In the same breath you say that you don’t have a culture of sensoring what other bloggers write and that you have a culture of free and fair discussion.
How often do you read the blogs on spicy IP, the comments thereto and the discussions from your other bloggers to so confidently say that SpicyIP as a blog (as opposed to Shamnad Basheer as an individual) has a culture of free and fair discussion?
“If you threaten to sever our friendship in a bid to quell free speech and the right to a fair discussion, it wasn’t worth it in the first place.” too good.
Dear Anon,
I think I can state so fairly confidently. There may be some exceptions–but as a general rule this applies. Do you have reason to believe that our bloggers have, for the large part, failed to engage in a free and fair discussion?
Dear Anon,
I think I can state so fairly confidently. There may be some exceptions–but as a general rule this applies. Do you have reason to believe that our bloggers have, for the large part, failed to engage in a free and fair discussion?
One of our anonymous commentators has commented as below (I blank out all the names involved, until I get an email from him or her producing the magistrate summons):
“Shamnad,
I thought you report every spicy news on your blog. But now I have been proved wrong. A sensational news that you are in possession, has not been shared by you with your readers.
A Metropolitan Magistrate Patiala House courts in Delhi has issued summons in a criminal case involving Mr. ______, the ____ posted in Delhi TM Office along with the Directors of ____ India and also Directors of its parent Company in USA on account of the alleged committing of forgery with respect to the records of the registered trade mark of Colgate. You have been given the copy of the order passed by the Magistrate. What was expected of you that you would give a link to the said order for the benefit of your readers. “
I’m sorry Anon–but I was given or sent no such order. If you’d be kind enough to send this to me, we’ll certainly carry something on this. This is very much part of our mission to foster transparency and accountability amongst IP offices in India.
Shamnad – appreciate your candidness when you say that there are some exceptions. Perhaps, those exceptions are causing your readers to believe that Spicy IP is not what it used to be in its reporting.
I don’t have reasons to believe that your bloggers have, to quote from your own comment, “for the large part” (careful choice of words, eh?), failed to engage in a free and fair discussion. Perhaps, you can’t help it as blogs need to get posted out there everyday?
Transparency is great. Do you think it can be achieved in a hurry by surmising things or by making personal attacks and unfair generalisations? I am only referring to the ‘exceptions’ here.
Hi Shamnad
As an ardent fan of your blog (only recently turned commentator) let me just say I think it is amazing how enthusiastic your team is with posting regularly- some more than others.
Having said that, let me also say that from afar what worries us ardent fans is that some of the posts (some more than others) are extremely opinionated. The problem with that is we do not get to see the other side of the coin. With a popular blog like yours, what is expected of transparency and accountability i.e. both sides of the coin.
Please do feel free to let us know your mind bloggers, but give us a balanced picture of the story.
Dear Anons:
When I said “exceptions”, I meant myself as well. Sometimes, like most others, I rush to conclusions….I hope people like you will keep us in check then by taking us to task in the comments section. If there are specific posts you have in mind where you think we’ve not lived unto our promise of a free and fair discussion, please let me know. Thanks.
Dr. Shamnad Basheer,
The post with respect tot he Colgate matter is awaited where the Metropolitan Magistrate has issued summons against the DR of Delhi TM Office along with the directors of Indian and USA Company by order dated 2nd April, 2012, summoning for 27th June, 2012.
Shamnad,
Please refer your comments above @11.33 PM, where you say “If there are specific posts you have in mind where you think we’ve not lived unto our promise of a free and fair discussion, please let me know. “
I am pointing out. You have really failed in the mission of free and fair discussion. You have stopped publishing the comments sent by readers on the sensational news about the issuance of the summons by Metropolitan Magistrate, Delhi in the forgery case against an official of Delhi office.
Have’nt you got the copy of the order yet of 2nd April, 2012 passed by the Metropolitan Magistrate Patiala House Courts summing DR of Delhi TM Office and the Directors of the Company?