June 2016

Supreme court on decriminalising defamation – the long and short of it

/ By / Others

On May 13, 2016, by way of a 268 page judgement (as uploaded on the SC website), the Supreme Court not only upheld the constitutional validity of criminalizing defamation under the Indian Penal Coe, 1860, but also created a new fundamental right of reputation under Article 21. As explained by Gautam Bhatia here, this is a dangerous move. This is also a ‘long’ answer to a straightforward question. I had written about the need to decriminalise defamation in a post […]

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How the Internet broke after losing a ‘left-pad’

/ By / Copyright, Innovation

Around two months ago, thousands of applications ran into errors. All due to the actions of one man. Over the course of this piece, I will be aiming to do three things: Help you understand how one single coder could break so much havoc. Help you understand how copyright works in relation to open source software. And finally, help you understand how software development actually works. I have dealt with this in the final section because it is a bit

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Ritu Kumar v. Biba : Designs free at 50?

/ By / Copyright, Design

Ambiguity surrounding the “design” and “artistic works” relationship continues to plague the industry, especially the fashion industry. The fashion industry has long been touted as one of the most ‘creative’ industries. One of the reasons for innovation and creativity in this industry is the market itself. This paper title “piracy paradox” and Shamnad’s blog here, reveal that in practise this industry suffers/benefits from the “piracy paradox” i.e. “Copying enables designs and styles to move quickly from early adopters to the

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