While the hacktivist group Anonymous calls for a nation wide protest on Saturday, netizens mull over the reason for the recent bans on websites
It all started when a small Chennai-based firm expressed their Kolaveri and filed a petition against online copyright infringement on behalf the Tamil film 3. As a consequence, it led to the blocking of file hosting and file sharing websites like Dailymotion, Vimeo and The Pirate Bay by some of the Internet Service Providers.
The blocking of these websites has not only led to widespread displeasure among netizens but the Indian wing of the international hacktivist group Anonymous has called for a nationwide protest on June 9. Their message was loud and clear earlier when they hacked into the Supreme Court, All India Congress, BJP as a mark of protest. Apart from Mumbai where the protestors wore black outfits with a Guy Fawkes mask, a tour across ten other Indian cities, including Hyderabad, are also on board.
While internet censorship is a sore issue with the authorities, even film and music production houses and distributors have been grappling to take the bull by its horn as far as internet piracy is concerned. But most netizens agree that blocking these sites will not solve the piracy or copyright issues, as there are ways to get around to these blocked sites. One of the users Arnab Choudhury, an Economics student, points out cheekily, “It only took a day for few of the internet savvy users to find an alternate solution after these websites were blocked.”
In fact, these websites are used for sharing files which doesn't always include films and movies. “For any independent first time filmmaker, some of these sites are a perfect platform to promote their films. Also, people share their private albums among friends and family,” explains Arjun N who is a software engineer. He points out the copyright infringement with regards to one film does not give the license to block entire websites. Sometimes, entire movies are available on websites like YouTube also but no one points that out. While Rashida B. a student asks, “Why just block these websites? Why not focus on the numerous pornographic websites which are easily accessible to all?”
While the debate rages on, most of the internet users are not happy with the constant scrutiny on the issue of internet censorship and freedom. Anonymous assuresit will be a peaceful protest on Saturday.
> Why just block these websites? Why not focus on the numerous
pornographic
> websites which are easily accessible to all?
This is exactly the kind of thing Anonymous is protesting against.
This is no different from censoring Vimeo or TPB or any other file
sharing service. And the Indian Penal Code, actually allows accessing
pornography privately.
Most of the candidate belonging to research and education related field have been severely affected by blocking gigapedia.org or library.nu. People download the books which cost around 100s and 1000s of dollar, by paying zero dollar. Although I can understand the problem of privacy but now the affected people of third world countries will be filling deprived of resources. At least we have to develop some alternate resource sharing protocol at international level so that deprived community can progress. The fact behind the support is that our 99% colleges are hardly having standard library facility which can provide development of even last 10 years. Costing affordable amount of money would also makes some sense.
release the movies / video with advertisments in theatres,will reduce the theatre fees also,producer will be free from copyrights issues and he make up the money with ads which will present in video sites / downloaded files / torrents files. make sure google and others ads cannot inserted into videos by a regulation pass.
The Problem with Indian leaders / managers in Govt ,Central , PSUs is that most of them don't have a technical expertise to carry on in managerial /decision making roles .The decisions that they take is half baked and is not the optimal solution . Copyright infringement needs laws and measures to prevent .Blocking websites won't help - for hackivists ,who can so easily log into the websites of prominent Indian organisations ,blocked websites should only be a matter of seconds !! COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT IS BAD !! BUT ,That is what the INDIAN Education SYSTEM teaches !! Apart from 1 % of the elite Indian education systems ,most others run their livelihood by plagiarism ,akin to privacy .many Final year projects are bought out ,many school 'summer' projects are sold !! The teachers/professors (not all) encourage this !! Afterall , you can only expect a mango to grow out of a mango seed !! REFORM INDIAN EDUCATION SYSTEM .
'Anonymous' has the right motives, and deserves to be supported.
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