Author name: Swaraj Paul Barooah

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Google may need to change their motto

/ By / Copyright

Coming this week, Google will be making what could be a ground breaking step in it’s search algorithm. Google will start downranking sites in proportion to the the number of valid copyright removal notices that the site receives. According to Google, “This ranking change should help users find legitimate, quality sources of content more easily”. While on the surface, this seems like a good anti-piracy move, I shall explain why I think it could be a major problem.  I had […]

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New Prize dwarfs Nobel prize money; Indian awarded

/ By / Innovation

Ashoke Sen A new annual prize called The Fundamental Physics Prize has been instituted by Russian internet mogul Yuri Milner and it’s prize money of $3 million each, more than doubles the Nobel Prize which is currently $1.2 million, which is usually shared by 2-3 people. Mr Milner personally selected this year’s winners but winners from next year onwards will be selected by the previous year’s winners. The prize was awarded to 9 people this year and for a change an

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Internet Association Lobby formed

/ By / Privacy

In what is bound to change the terms of negotiations of internet related legislation, 4 of the largest internet companies have come together with other undisclosed companies to form the Internet Association Lobby. The four are Google, Facebook, Amazon and Ebay, led by former (US) Congressional staffer Michael Beckerman. While the coming together of these 4 super-heavyweights is potentially scenery changing, the only common ground that I can see is net-neutrality and of course the stronger possibility for tax-breaks now. Net-neutrality, essentially

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India 64th in Global Innovation Index

/ By / Innovation

India dropped a couple of places from its last year’s ranking of 62 to rank 64 this year on the Global Innovation Index (GII) which is prepared by INSEAD and WIPO. India’s rank has consistently dropped over the years – 62nd in 2011, 56th in 2010 and 41st in 2009.   Switzerland, Sweden and Singapore once again took the top 3 places, while the Republic of Moldova was the top Lower Middle Income country at 50. China, which topped the Lower Middle group

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Yet another problematic acronym – the IPAA

/ By / Uncategorized

ACTA, SOPA, PIPA, CISPA, COICA, even TPP… and now IPAA. And that is without considering the various bilateral treaty negotiations (CETA being the newest one to hit the headlines). If there were points in life for trying to maximise IP regimes, it seems certain Hollywood lobbyists (and others) would be getting top scores. (For fun, try to read that top line out loud as fast as you can) While the EU is trying to push ACTA provisions in the backdoor (after rejecting it in

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Exit ACTA, Enter TPP

/ By / Copyright, Patent

Image from here “A secretive, multi-national trade agreement that threatens to impose restrictive intellectual property laws all over the globe”- sounds like ACTA, right? And ACTA effectively died a few days ago when the European parliament clearly rejected it, so there should be nothing to worry about.  Unfortunately, that quoted line is not about ACTA but rather describes the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP). It’s however more expansive than ACTA and potentially far more destructive. Here’s a brief update about it: 

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Declaration of Internet Freedom!

/ By / Uncategorized

The recent past has seen a spate of internet legislation across several different countries – sometimes attempted and foiled, sometimes successful – which have raised a number of issues which have unfortunately been discussed very minimally. I believe the SOPA and PIPA bills received the largest amount of publicity when several large websites and internet activists vigourously protested against it. More locally, the multiple website blocking Ashok Kumar (John Doe) orders garnered much attention as well, before it was clarified

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Obama admin actively opposes Nexavar compulsory license

/ By / Patent

While I shouldn’t be surprised at the arrogant nature in which the US treats the Indian IP regime, I was still slightly shocked at how superiorly the US behaved over India in this particular exchange between the USPTO and Congress. Teresa Stanek Rae, the Deputy Director of the USPTO testifies before Rep. Bob Goodlatte, in the House Subcommittee on Intellectual Property that the USPTO continues to actively try to ‘educate’ and persuade Indian officials to not grant any further compulsory

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SpicyIP Tidbit: Madras HC clarifies extent of URL blocking

/ By / Copyright

In an update to the seemingly random mass censoring of video and torrent sites about a month ago, an ISP consortium approached the Madras High Court for a clarification as to the extent of the Ashok Kumar interim injunction. According to MediaNama, who have a copy of the order issued on June 15th, 2012, the Madras HC clarified that only specific URLs containing the allegedly infringing content are to be hit by this injunction and not entire websites. This is

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New patent prevents textbook sharing (in US)

/ By / Copyright, Patent

Anti-piracy device from the good old days While silly patents are nothing new, now and then, there are certain patents that seem to cross certain lines. A new patent granted by the USPTO to economist Joseph Vogel, professor at University of Puerto Rico-Ria Piedras, will restrict textbook sharing amongst students in the guise of attempting to cut down on piracy.  The patent is designed to prevent “unauthorized access to copyrighted academic texts is provided in which trademark licenses, discussion boards,

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