Hi,
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,
Protest at other cities associated with FSMK,
(1)* *In *Hyderabad, Swecha* will organize at* PEOPLES PLAZA, NACKLES ROADhttp://maps.google.com/maps?q=People%27s+Plaza,+Necklace+Road,+Hyderabad,+Andhra+Pradesh,+India&hl=en&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=37.871902,79.013672&oq=peoples+plaza+&hq=People%27s+Plaza,&hnear=Necklace+Rd,+Hyderabad,+Andhra+Pradesh,+India&t=h&z=14 * from 4-00p.m to 8-00p.m
(2) In *Chennai, FSFTN* will organize at *BESANT NAGAR BEACH, CHENNAI*http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Besant+Nagar+Beach,+in+chennai&hl=en&ll=13.000209,80.259247&spn=0.085471,0.169086&sll=36.879621,-79.365234&sspn=37.917271,86.572266&hq=Besant+Nagar+Beach,&hnear=Chennai,+Tamil+Nadu,+India&t=h&z=13from 4-00pm to 6-00 pm.
About other protesting groups
June 9th a call has been given by various other groups as well. Many of them are asking are we supporting them? We are supporting the issues related to internet freedom. We are not currently organizing a joint protest with any other group. We have been working on this issue in the past and were one of the organizations to ensure a debate in Parliament on this issue. Lot of young people are being drawn to these issues as they are valid. FSMK would also like to underline the validity of these issues.
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VIGNESH PRABHU