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Draft E-Commerce Policy Has a Long Way To Go

  The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) issued a notification announcing the Draft National E-Commerce Policy on 23rd February, 2019 and inviting comments and suggestions from stakeholders. The Policy recognises the substantial growth of e-commerce and some of the opportunities and regulatory hurdles that accompany it. The Policy addresses the various concerns that have accompanied the rapid digitization of the economy and has chosen certain key areas that needs prioritization. Additionally, the Centre has highlighted the importance…
March 21, 2019 General, Intellectual Property, Privacy / Data Protection 0Comment 787Views 0Like
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amazon Kindle India non compliance on FDI law

Kindle eBooks, Amazon and Business of Licensing: Section 33 Non-Compliance?

Over the years, the copyright law was amended several times to achieve different objectives ranging from inclusion of new works and rights to protecting interests of authors. One of the amendments to Indian copyright law in 1994 related to creating an exclusive business zone for copyright societies, whose objective is to manage works of authors, publishers and owners and facilitate ease of licensing and royalty sharing. The amendment provided in Section 33 of the Copyright Act that only copyright societies…
February 25, 2019 Copyrights, General, Intellectual Property, Trademarks 0Comment 1732Views 0Like
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Amazon Marketplace Non Compliance

Kindle eBooks, FDI eCommerce Policy and Amazon Marketplace – Non-compliance Continues Contd.

Amazon Seller Services Private Limited ("Amazon") runs the eCommerce marketplace at www.amazon.in, and among other products, Amazon facilitates sale of eBooks and/or eBook subscription licenses on the platform at its Kindle eBook Store at https://www.amazon.in/Kindle-eBooks/b?ie=UTF8&node=1634753031. In my opinion, Amazon's business and approach with respect to eBooks does not comply with the recent FDI eCommerce guidelines by virtue of the following: By exclusively permitting only its group company Amazon Asia Pacific ("Amazon APAC") to sell eBooks on its marketplace; By…
February 15, 2019 Copyrights, General, Intellectual Property, IP Commercialization/Licensing, Trademarks 0Comment 791Views 0Like
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Intermediaries, Marketplaces and Take Down Actions

Intermediaries, Marketplaces and Take Down Actions

My colleague, Ashwini Arun, brought an interesting post on Spicy IP on SareGama's take down notice to my attention. The post talks about take down of one of its articles, and may be read at: https://spicyip.com/2019/02/saregama-pa-rdon-me-you-have-the-wrong-address-on-the-perils-and-pitfalls-of-notice-and-takedown.html. It is unfortunate that SareGama decided to include an article from Spicy IP, renowned for its well-researched articles and contributions to IP discourse, in its Take Down list. I am assuming that the inclusion of the link by SareGama was an inadvertent act of…
February 14, 2019 Copyrights, General, Intellectual Property, Privacy / Data Protection 0Comment 652Views 0Like
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Kindle eBooks and Amazon Marketplace The Non Compliance Continues x

Kindle eBooks and Amazon Marketplace – The Non-Compliance Continues

Amazon's Kindle eBooks need no introduction. Everyone is aware of them, and since the launch of the Kindle eBook store in India, Amazon claims that its publisher and customer base is growing fast. In 2018, Amazon also launched Audible, its audio book store in India. So far, I have used the term Amazon loosely to refer to several of its entities. For purposes of this post, two entities of Amazon are relevant. One, Amazon Asia Pacific Holdings Private Limited (Amazon…
February 11, 2019 Copyrights, General, Intellectual Property, IP Commercialization/Licensing 0Comment 1542Views 0Like
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Padamati Gali

The Wind from the West: Playwright Ananda Rao’s Padamati Gali

Note: This is not an IP post, and has only one reference to copyright protection. It comes; It changes; And it goes. It changes lives, lives of farmers, who provide food to the world. For many of us, the wind is nothing more than a phenomenon. But for farmers and their families, it is a life changing event. Seventy two years after independence, farmers in India continue to live uncertain lives. Their struggles are not much different from those before independence. The protests,…
February 9, 2019 Copyrights, General, Intellectual Property 0Comment 784Views 0Like
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ICCIG 4

Open Science and its Facets – ICCIG 4 at IIM, Ahmedabad

As a part of the Fourth International Conference on Creativity and Innovation at/for/from/with Grassroots [ICCIG 4] at IIM, Ahmedabad, Professor Arul George Scaria organized a session on 'Fostering Open Science.' I was fortunate to participate in the well organized panel discussion and learn from its proceedings. From my knowledge,Professor Arul is the only scholar in India researching on Open Science from the legal perspective. His emperical study driven report on Open Science will be released soon, and his insights about…
January 31, 2019 Accessibility, General, Intellectual Property 0Comment 762Views 0Like
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Literary Works to Braille – Which Exclusive Right?

  I write in response to Dr. Sunanda Bharti's post on Spicy IP, which talks about rights granted to copyright owners of literary works, and which right is involved in converting a literary work to Braille. In  my opinion, the answer is not so complex as it seems. Braille is not a  language, it is a form of expression of a language. It has the same alphabets as the language and nothing changes except the way in which letters are represented. So, converting a work…
January 29, 2019 Accessibility, Copyrights, General, Intellectual Property 0Comment 679Views 0Like
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Accessibility

Accessibility of Science to Persons with Blindness: Miles and Miles To Go

In my earlier post, I spoke about the legal framework for access of information and data to persons with blindness and other disabilities from the copyright and disabilities statute perspectives. In the article, I pointed out that access has been placed at less than one (1) percent and that the proportion of access is diminishing as the universe of information is expanding at a rapid rate. Sources and forms of information are changing so fast that   that accessibility is finding…
January 28, 2019 Accessibility, General, Intellectual Property, Traditional Knowledge 0Comment 1002Views 0Like
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The Marrakesh Treaty

Blindness and Accessible Books: From Marrakesh to Marella Gunta Palem

Marrakesh is a busy city in Morocco. It is a popular tourist destination. The Marrakesh Treaty to facilitate accessibility of published works to persons with blindness was signed in and named after the city. Marella Gunta Palem is a small, agricultural village in the State of Andhra Pradesh, India. Less than hundred families live in the village, which has basic information and communication infrastructure. It has been approximately six years since the Marrakesh Treaty was signed, and just more than two years…
January 24, 2019 Accessibility, General, Intellectual Property 0Comment 1162Views 0Like
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