Changing Perceptions about "Copy-Right"

Is Copyright a legislation meant to protect the commercial rights of publishers? or meant to protect and promote authors? is often a doubt that crosses our minds.

 Recent application of Copyright in practice indicate that publishers use it as a tool to generate profits, and increase the cost of consumption of literature. The author gets only a small part of the public loot. Part of this public loot is reinvested on bribing authorities from time to time to conduct raids and punish some intermediaries who are engaged in "Piracy" so that the copyright owners can continue to exploit the market.

When such exploitation is directed towards a product such as "Harry Potter" or a "Music CD" we may ignore the same since these products are not critical to the society. If we donot have it, it is fine. If a few wants to buy it at fancy prices, so be it.

But when copyright exploitation also reaches out to "Knowledge" and makes scientific articles in-accessible except at a hefty "Fee per reading", "Operating Systems" of computers impose monopolistic conditions etc, then there is a need to re think whether IPR protection has gone too far and needs to be reined in in the digital millennium.

When a county like India is thinking of making major changes in its copyright law, it is time for all IPR specialists to get together and advise the Government to change the law for the better. But it appears that no such thing is happening. Specialists are keeping silent while the Government is making arrangements to push through its own version of DMCA. I urge public to take a look at the proposed amendments to Copyright Act and debate on the changes proposed. In the meantime, this article Copyright,or not  by Gautama Copy right, or not may make an interesting reading for all IPR observers.(300707)

Software Engineer Arrested under Section 66

A software engineer has been arrested by TN police under charges of hacking into a server of the employer using the password of a co-employee. It is stated that the accused had gained access to the company’s server headquartered at Peoria in Illinois, US, using another employee’s user ID and password and downloaded over 4,000 confidential documents. A closed circuit camera had visuals of him accessing the server at the time when the files were downloaded. A user log reflected the password and user ID used for gaining entry into the server...Report in Hindu

Swiss Cash Phishing Surfaces

Close on the heels of the Swiss Cash activities which itself is considered  an international scam, Phishing frauds have started riding on the Swisscash activities. Just as the e-bay and Paypal phishing, mails have started arriving in the name of "Swiss Cash Consultant" asking the investors to og in to their account. These phishing mails provide a link to http:// secure.swisscashs.com/verify/ which is a replica of the corresponding page in secure.swisscash.net. Naavi.org has already alerted investors about the swisscash.net activities and advise investors to keep away from this investment as it is considered illegal.

Flaws found in Encase and Sleuth kit

Technical experts have announced that the leading Forensic software Encase and an open source software Sleuth Kit have vulnerabilities that can seriously affect their functionalities.  It is also reported that the Sleuth Kit bugs have been since patched. The flaws in the forensic software could seriously damage the reputation of forensic analysis as a reliable evidence in a Court of Law and hence it is necessary for the bugs to be removed at the earliest. Report in techworld

Hacking into the SIM Card

A report has been received by Naavi.org from a customer of Hutch which raises certain serious issues of security in the Mobile Industry and the lack of proper response from the Mobile Service Operators.. Details

Orkut Invites users to report abuse

Material that is offensive, threatening or fraudulent, that breaches copyright, or infringes the terms and conditions of Orkut in some other way, is likely to be removed if it gets flagged up, according to Google....Details in Gulfnews

Cyber Cafe Owners in Chandigarh ordered to maintain records

District magistrate Chandigarh Administration, has prohibited the use of cyber cafes by unknown persons, whose identifications could not be established by the owners of the cafés... Details at IE

Swiss Cash..a scam brewing

Of late a new scam is brewing in the Indian Cyber Space. It is the invitation for an international mutual fund investment through the website www.swisscash.net. The scheme is offering a return of 300% p a and has attracted attention of many investors. Since the scheme also operates on the basis of 5% referral commission, advises are flowing freely from those who first become members.

We have been informed by some investors that  ICICI Bank has been making foreign exchange remittances from intending investors. There are some investors who are also confirming that they have received some payment.towards returns.

Naavi.org warns investors that the scheme is a budding scam and India is a recent entry into the scam net. Hence a few  early investors may receive payments. However the chain is likely to break soon and a large number of gullible investors will lose their hard earned investments.... Details

Naavi as Chairman of PR Syndicate

Naavi has accepted an invitation from PR Syndicate, a professional PR and Corporate Communication organization headquartered in Chennai. More at www.prsyndicate.wetpaint.com

Data Protection, a perspective

“Data Protection” is a buzz word for all Information security executives. Increasing data theft incidents in several parts  of the country have threatened to damage the reputation of the Country as a preferred BPO destination . At a time Business Managers are looking at a business transition from Business Process outsourcing to the value added Knowledge Process Outsourcing, the need to re assure the world about information security status in India has become paramount. CEOs are therefore questioning the Information Security Managers how they propose to implement a Data Security Plan for their Company which will be good enough to re assure current customers and also provide a  brownie point for their marketing team or an additional justification for a better price for the finance manager.

Naavi explores the Indian perspective in this article published in Infosecurity Magazine.

Naavi Moves to Bengalooru

Naavi who was hitherto operating with his headquarters at Chennai has now moved to Bangalore and all his activities will now be administered from Bangalore. Naavi will continue to provide service at Chennai through his branch office.

Naavi has already initiated several initiatives in Karnataka such as "Karnataka Cyber Law Awareness Movement", with statewide network for Cyber Law Education through an associate relationship with several leading Law Colleges. Additionally, Naavi has established a Cyber Law Consultancy Center in Mysore which is undertaking several pioneering activities in the region around Mysore. Now, in association with ITPF, Naavi has undertaken further initiatives to take Cyber Law Awareness to Cyber Cafes, High Schools, IT Professionals and common public.

At this point of time when Bengalooru is making global headlines for the wrong reasons, we invite all those who have similar interests to join hands with Naavi in making Karnataka a globally respected place for "Techno Legal Security in Cyber Space".

For all those who can understand Kannada, Naavi's dream is captured in the accompanying poem. The essence of the poem is that Techno Legal security will contribute to the blossoming of a prosperous Cyber Society. Building a Techno Legal Security infrastructure requires Cyber Law awareness to all and Naavi invites all to join hands in this endeavour.(120707)

ITPF submits memorandum to IT Secretary, Karnataka

In the face of the city coming under scanner following the botched UK terror plot bid, the Information Technology Professionals' Forum (ITPF) submitted a memorandum to the IT, BT and science and technology department on Thursday in order to re-define and tighten up cyber policing and laws.. Full story at TOI ;Copy of Memorandum

Cyber Terrorists in UK jailed for 10 years

While Indian Cyber Crime Law is being softened to reduce sentences from three to two years in most cases, UK showed an opposite trend when a court sentenced three Cyber Terrorists who used the Cyber media for jihadi propaganda for 6 to 10 years imprisonment.

The three men were the first in Britain to be successfully prosecuted for inciting murder entirely on the basis of distributing material on the world wide web. They were convicted under new anti-terror legislation that has made a crime of ‘inciting another person to commit an act of terrorism wholly or partly outside the United Kingdom, which would, if committed in England and Wales, constitute murder’ (1). The prosecution claimed the men were not punished for their political beliefs but rather for the fact that they ‘firmly believed and supported and set about inciting others to [execute] holy war against so-called disbelievers’ (2).

This should be an eye opener to the Indian legislators and law enforcement personnel who have been criminally negligent in handling the anti terrorist operations. The politicians in particular should stop supporting the terrorists for vote bank politics. Police should be alert to propaganda meetings and protest meetings which indicate radical leanings. When there was a huge rally in Bangalore after Sadam Hussain was hanged, Police failed to notice that people like Kafeel were in the forefront of the rally. This failure of the intelligence at that time could be considered as a contributory factor to the image of Bangalore being tarnished in the eyes of the world. Hopefully, Police will now wake up. Related Article in spiked-online.com :Related Article in BL 1607

BPOs in India watch out..DPA will now be even more relevant

The transitional relief period given to DPA-1998 of UK ends on 27th October. The relief applied to manual data held in relevant filing systems ‘subject to processing which was already under way immediately before October 24, 1998’. It must be noted that India had already recognized such documents for Section 66 and Section 43 protection where by any misuse of the data was punishable with 3 year imprisonment and Rs 1 crore damage liability...though many in India might not have observed the same.... Related Article in mondaq.com

Orkut bows before Brazil Laws

Orkut has agreed to remove offensive content identified by Brazillian Government and has also agreed to set up a hot web link through which a Government agency can record their requests for removal of the content. This is a significant development which India should take note of. We also urge Orkut and You Tube as well as other social networking sites to make similar arrangements with a suitable law enforcement agency in India. Report in HT : Mumbai HC on Orkut