1. The AI Revolution: The Road to Superintelligence, Tim Urban, Wait But Why.
2. Searching for Sex, Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, The New York Times.
The Curious Case of Academic Journals
One of the prominent ways of ‘decorating’ our Curriculum Vitae (CV) is lacing it up with published research papers or articles in renowned academic journals. Not just students, but also teachers, scientists and academicians prefer submitting their works to noteworthy journals of their respective academic disciplines. In cases of public-funded research, the journals get the research almost free of cost, but they charge exorbitant amounts in giving access to these academic articles. Elsevier, the biggest academic journal publisher, made a profit of $1.2 billion on revenues of £2.1 billion in 2011. Yes, it does make Murdoch look like a socialist! In this blog post, I will discuss two possible solutions to this significant problem, first, getting rid of the system of journals altogether and secondly, open access journals along with their pros and cons.
Spotify v. "Music"?
Controversy surrounded popular online music-streaming service Spotify after artist Taylor Swift pulled her entire catalog from it, and other prominent artists like Thom Yorke of Radiohead criticized it. The artists’ main issue with the service seems to be the fact that its revenue model is not artist-friendly, and threatens the music industry.
[SpicyIP Cross-post] The Fault in our Intermediary Liability Laws
This post was first published on SpicyIP here.
Over the course of 2014, we have seen a multitude of blocking orders pass through the hallowed walls of our courts. Some of the most curious things about these orders are that they were, mostly, ex-parte, John Doe orders, aimed at websites rather than specific content, and the cause of actions was that infringement was ‘likely’ to occur. I’m going to be dealing with the last two of the issues in detail, while the first issue has already been dealt with by Prof. Shamnad Basheer here.
[SpicyIP Cross-post] Online Piracy – The Way Forward?
This post was first published on SpicyIP here. Image Source: https://flic.kr/p/BXwqH.
One of the greatest issues that the Old Guard of the media production realm has had with the Internet is the copyright infringement that it facilitates. As such, there have been multiple attempts at restricting the internet to protect copyright in various ways, the most notable international examples of which are the DMCA, SOPA and PIPA, MPAA’s structured siege against Google, the essentially pointless litigation against Pirate Bay, and the story of Aaron Swartz. The Indian examples include litigation on Section 81 of the Information Technology Act, and thespate of troubling orders that have been passed in the last year alone.
Editors' Picks (18/1/15)
1. Drug-buying robot arrested in Switzerland, Patrick Howell, DailyDot.
2. Flipkart content ‘objectionable’ for Telangana, Anandita Singh Mankotia, TheEconomicTimes.
Editor's Picks (11/1/2015)
1. The Creepy ‘Black Mirror’ Universe Could Be Closer Than You Realize, Sara Bobitz. Huffington Post.
2. A Cyberattack Has Caused Confirmed Physical Damage for the Second Time Ever, Kim Zetter, Wired.
Net Neutrality Violations in India: On BluWiFi and OTT Services
I have written some posts about Net Neutrality before, here and here (the second is the 101). And recently, the now-aborted Airtel VoIP plans has kick-started serious discussions on the topic by TRAI, prompting the regulatory agency to issue a statement saying it will be releasing a consultation paper on the issue soon.
But it would seem that Airtel is not the only ISP that openly violates Net Neutrality in India. Interestingly, this Reddit thread brings to our attention the service terms of an Andhra Pradesh ISP BluWiFi’s Ultraband service. The relevant part here is their section on Peer-to-Peer connections, reproduced below:
Editors' Picks (04/01/15)
1. Net neutrality: Trai’s paper to give insight into what future holds for freedom of internet in India, Romit Guha, EconomicTimes.
2. A Robot Really Committed A Crime: Now What?, Ryan Calo, Forbes.
December, 2014: Fireworks and more!
December, 2014, has been the month when the Indian community received a multitude of shocks, one after the other and each one more powerful, on the issue of internet-related legal problems.
First, we had the lamentable Uber issue, which was followed by Airtel announcing (and later withdrawing) its VoIP-data plan, which violated Net Neutrality down to the first principle. This also inspired TRAI to work on a consultation on Net Neutrality. Soon after, we learnt that SoI had filed a case against Google for “displaying an incorrect map” of India. And just as the month was wrapping up, Airtel and Hathway accidentally blocked all of imgur rather than just a single image.