Two decades after its advent changed our lives, the world wide web - as we know it - faces a grave threat. Not from governments alone, but also from tech companies seeking to play gatekeepers
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Why the urgency? Is the internet broken? Jarvis says it is not. "The net is operating no differently today than it was a decade ago. But we see so many efforts to fix it - to regulate it under the cloak of privacy, piracy, decency, security, and even civility," he says. "I believe legacy institutions, including governments, are waking up to the extent of the net's disruptive force... they are trying to control the net and govern the change it causes."
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Unlike the web, which makes it easy for anyone to access a service - and, more importantly, offer a service - the world of apps is a controlled one. Companies that control the app ecosystem act as gatekeepers. For example, Apple's guidelines suggest developers cannot offer apps that compete with the company's own services. Then, there is restriction on the content that is perceived by Apple as pornographic, obscene, violent or racist. Microsoft and Google have a similar set of rules for their app stores, though Google's store is perceived to have more relaxed guidelines. Last week, Facebook announced it would open an app store.
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Ever since India introduced a set of new IT rules in April last year, web activists have been up in arms. The rules put a lot of liability on intermediaries - such as internet service providers (ISPs) - for the conduct of users and make it easier for authorities to remove content from the web. Recently P Rajeev, a CPM MP from Kerala, moved a motion in the Rajya Sabha seeking annulment of the rules. Rajeev's motion is likely to come up for discussion on Tuesday.
Seeing a window of opportunity, web activists have kicked off a fresh campaign against the IT rules. Lawyer Prasanth Sugathan, counsel to Software Freedom Law Centre (SFLC), says, "We do need laws but not the ones that the Indian government framed last year. These IT rules are plain arbitrary."
The SFLC is running an online signature campaign. And the Centre for Internet and Society has asked Indian web users to bombard their MPs with emails explaining why the new IT rules need to be scrapped. Sugathan says many organizations have joined hands for the cause; meetings have been held in several cities to raise awareness about the issue. Volunteers of one group called Save Your Voice protested through a hungerstrike at Jantar Mantar in Delhi last week.
Click here to read more ......
Solutions : www.xcyss.in
......
Why the urgency? Is the internet broken? Jarvis says it is not. "The net is operating no differently today than it was a decade ago. But we see so many efforts to fix it - to regulate it under the cloak of privacy, piracy, decency, security, and even civility," he says. "I believe legacy institutions, including governments, are waking up to the extent of the net's disruptive force... they are trying to control the net and govern the change it causes."
......
Unlike the web, which makes it easy for anyone to access a service - and, more importantly, offer a service - the world of apps is a controlled one. Companies that control the app ecosystem act as gatekeepers. For example, Apple's guidelines suggest developers cannot offer apps that compete with the company's own services. Then, there is restriction on the content that is perceived by Apple as pornographic, obscene, violent or racist. Microsoft and Google have a similar set of rules for their app stores, though Google's store is perceived to have more relaxed guidelines. Last week, Facebook announced it would open an app store.
......
Ever since India introduced a set of new IT rules in April last year, web activists have been up in arms. The rules put a lot of liability on intermediaries - such as internet service providers (ISPs) - for the conduct of users and make it easier for authorities to remove content from the web. Recently P Rajeev, a CPM MP from Kerala, moved a motion in the Rajya Sabha seeking annulment of the rules. Rajeev's motion is likely to come up for discussion on Tuesday.
Seeing a window of opportunity, web activists have kicked off a fresh campaign against the IT rules. Lawyer Prasanth Sugathan, counsel to Software Freedom Law Centre (SFLC), says, "We do need laws but not the ones that the Indian government framed last year. These IT rules are plain arbitrary."
The SFLC is running an online signature campaign. And the Centre for Internet and Society has asked Indian web users to bombard their MPs with emails explaining why the new IT rules need to be scrapped. Sugathan says many organizations have joined hands for the cause; meetings have been held in several cities to raise awareness about the issue. Volunteers of one group called Save Your Voice protested through a hungerstrike at Jantar Mantar in Delhi last week.
Click here to read more ......
Solutions : www.xcyss.in
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