There is an attack on Internet Freedom from many quarters – the Ministry of IT, various state governments and the police and now certain major Internet Service Providers (ISP's) such as Reliance Communications, Airtel and MTNL. Major sites such as Vimeo, pastebin and various Torrent sites commonly used for exchange of large files are being blocked by these ISP's, even though no instructions have been issued by the Government.
We have already seen
the effect of the IT Rules in which a huge number of requests are now
being directed to intermediaries such as Google, Facebook, etc for
taking down statements critical of the Government and political figures.
Cases are being instituted by the Police under the IT Act against
circulating of cartoons, calling it a cyber crime. All this shows that
our democratic freedoms guaranteed under the constitution are currently
under attack.
Equally worrying is the tendency of courts to issue blanket orders -- called John Doe orders -- to protect the Intellectual Property of certain media companies. Reliance Communications, an ISP is acting in the interest of Reliance as a Media company to block a large number of Torrent sites.
FSMK(http://www.fsmk.org) is protesting for the internet freedom especially to add more emphasis against the John Doe orders, to bring attention to the Chennai court ruling in case of the petition by Copyright Labs and arbitrary block by Reliance and other ISPs.
So please join us in protesting against the various attacks on the freedom of internet.
Date & Venue:
5:00 pm, June 9th, Saturday at Mysore Bank Circle, Bangalore
More info:
>>To understand more about "John Doe" orders, please go through the following link,
http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/nation/a-ludicrous-ban
>>You can find the details to the previous protest by FSMK against internet censorship here,
(2) In Chennai, FSFTN will organize at BESANT NAGAR BEACH, CHENNAI from 4-00pm to 6-00 pm.
>>About other protesting groupsJune 9th a call has been given by various other groups as well. Many of them are asking are we supporting them?