GIVEN ENOUGH EYEBALLS, ALL BUGS ARE SHALLOW

Open Source Software And 

Business Advantage

(Summary: The article explains what is open source; why it should be adopted; what are  the advantages in adopting it; and how money may be earned from it.

Picture courtesy OSI home page

This is text of the talk delivered by Justice Yatindra Singh, Judge Allahabad High Court, IIM Lucknow on 31.8.2012.
The text of talk in pdf format may be downloaded from here.)

WITH A MILLION EYES, ALL BUGS WILL VANISH

Open Source - Benefits And Challenges 

(Summary: On the 20th year of Linux, it explains what is open source and why it should be adopted. 
This is text of the talk delivered by Justice Yatindra Singh, Judge Allahabd High Court, in Computer Society of India, Ahemdabad on 13.6.2011.
Click here to download pdf format of the text.)

WHERE PENGUINS FLY

Open Source, Open Format – Allahabad High Court Experience

(Summary: This post explains importance open source and open format. It also explains why Allahabd High court uses them. 
 This talk was delivered by Justice Yatindra Singh, judge Allahabad High Court at IIIT, Hyderabad on 20 March 2011. 
The pdf format of talk can be downloaded from here)

नमस्ते, and a very good morning to all of you.


It is a privilege and honour to be here in this premier institute of information technology.


Is there a place, 'where penguins fly'? Or am I making it up.


To tell you the truth, the title is not original: I am not the first one to use it. It was earlier used about three years ago. At that time, the morning edition of British newspapers reported that while filming on King George Island, some 750 miles south of the Falkland Islands, the BBC Camera crew discovered a colony of Adélie penguins that could fly. The programme presenter had said:

'We'd been watching the penguins and filming them for days, without a hint of what was to come. But then the weather took a turn for the worse. It was quite amazing. Rather than getting together in a huddle to protect themselves from the cold, they did something quite unexpected, that no other penguins can do.'

The newspapers from the BBC sources had also reported,

'The film reveals nature's stunning glory exciting and unexpected ways, so much so that it defies belief. Not only did it create a vivid and emotional experience for the viewer, it also illustrated just how bold and simple Darwin's idea of natural selection was. The BBC viewers would be able to see that the penguins not only taking flight from the Antarctic wastes, but flying to the thousands of miles to the Amazonian rainforest to find winter sun.'

There was a BBC footage that showed penguins flying. This was to be, a part of its new natural history series, 'Miracles of Evolution'.

Here's the footage from the BBC

Nevertheless the penguins are a group of aquatic, flightless birds living almost exclusively in the southern hemisphere, especially in Antarctica; their wings are useless for flight: they have become flippers. They are well adapted to aquatic life. Their white belly and dark backs camouflages them. A predator in the sea looking them up from below has difficulty distinguishing between a white penguin belly and the reflective water surface. The dark back camouflages them from above.


The date this title appeared in the morning edition of British newspapers was 1st April 2008. Alas, it was a fools' day prank and not true :-( But I am not repeating that prank today.

RETURN OF VAMAN IN AN E-GOVERNED E-SOCIETY

R-2 D-2 from the film 'Star Wars'

Importance of Open Source and Open Format for better E-Governance

(Summary: This talk explains the importance of open source and open format. And why their use is crucial in e-governace and e-society.

It was delivered by Justice Yatindra Singh in the National Conference on 'E-Government & E-Society' on 11-12 December 2010 at Allahabad by the Computer Society of India, Allahabad Chapter.
A pdf format of this article may be downloaded from here.)

नमस्ते, and a very good afternoon to all of you.

I am proud to say that our website says,

'Allahabad High Court has taken a policy decision to work in Open Source Software and use open standards
…
We have chosen Linux, Firefox, Thunderbird and OpenOffice.org softwares as they are Open Source softwares. Our Website is also best viewed in Firefox.'

Ours is a success story of open source applications and my other Brother judges, who are at present concerned with Computer committee of the court will tell you about it . However the process of shifting over to open source and open format was done at the time when I was associated with the computer committee of the court and obviously I was requested to speak about their relevance in e-governance and e-society.

But what the heck, the fifth avtaar (reincarnation) of God Visnu (see Endnote-1), Vaman (see Endnote-2) doing out here. If he is to be born again then who would be the demon king Bali in the e-society, from whose clutches Vaman would free us?

And what is this robot doing out here—isn't he Artoo-Dtoo (R2-D2) from 'Star Wars'.  Oh, what a confusion? 

Don't worry, just sit, relax, and enjoy. I will connect them up.

EVERY FORT CAN BE BREACHED

Still from the film 'Independence Day'

(Summary: This post explains  policy issues and emerging trends in field of Cyber Laws.

It was delivered delivered by Justice Yatindra Singh, Judge Allahabd High Court, on 'Cyber Law: Policy Issues & Emerging Trends' at Dr. Ram Manohar Lohiya National Law University on Lucknow 27.03.2010. 

A pdf format of the talk can be downloaded from here) .

THE TORTOISE AND THE HARE

Protection of Computer Software, Open Source and Copyright

From Wikipedia

{Summary: The paper explains how computer software is protected and the relationship between open source software and copyright.

It is text of the talk delivered by Justice Yatindra Singh (Judge, Allahabad High Court, email: ysingh@allahabadhighcourt.in) in the seminar 'Intellectual Property Rights & Open Source Software - Issues & Challenges' organised by Centre for Intellectual Property Rights & NRCFOSS/ AU-KBC Research Centre Anna University Chennai at Srinivasa Ramanujan Hall, Mathematics Department, Anna University Chennai (Main Campus) Guindy, on 3rd March 2010.

A pdf fromat of this article can be downloaded from here.}

I had occasion to interact with NRC FOSS Academia in different conferences; I was also a part of the conference organised by them at Moti Lal Nehru National Institute of Technology, Allahabad: I am happy to have met them.

When my programme was finalised, I checked up the home page of Anna University where NRC FOSS is situated. To my surprise and happiness, I found that it has numerous patents in its name. These patents are not only process, but product patents too. This could not have happened without help from the cell for IPR at the University. These patents are in diverse fields. All of them are good but the ones that I liked most are in the field of environment and helping the physically challenged. After all we have not inherited mother earth from our parents but have borrowed it from our children. It is our duty to return it in good condition to them and the physically challenged require our maximum attention.

GOOD SEED, MAKES A GOOD CROP

{Summary: This paper explains moral and legal implications of open format and suggests ways to implement it.

This text of Talk was to be delivered by Justice Yatindra Singh on August 26, 2009 in the Third International Open Document Format User Workshop organised by SERPRO (Federal Service for Data Processing - Ministry of Finance, Brazil) and Caixa Econômica Federal in collaboration with the OpenDocument Format Alliance (ODF Alliance), at Brasilia, Brazil. However due to unavoidable circumstances, he could not participate in the workshop but this text was sent for circulation.

To read it in Portuguese (titled as 'Uma Boa Semente Faz Uma Boa Colheita') in pdf format - click here}

If there is any country that I wanted to visit in 2009, it is Brazil. And there is a reason for the same.

Charles Darwin in 1881

About 175 years ago, on 27th Dec 1831, HMS Beagle started its second voyage. Aboard was a naturalist, born on 12th Feb 1809. The first important stop of Beagle was at Bahia, a north eastern part of Brazil. The naturalist was struck by the beauty of the Brazilian forests. In 1939, he published his memoirs—'The Voyage of the Beagle'. He wrote, 

'BAHIA, OR SAN SALVADOR. BRAZIL, 29thFeb.—The day has past delightfully. Delight itself, however, is a weak term to express the feelings of a naturalist who, for the first time, has wandered by himself in a Brazilian forest. The elegance of the grasses, the novelty of the parasitical plants, the beauty of the flowers, the glossy green of the foliage, but above all the general luxuriance of the vegetation, filled me with admiration. A most paradoxical mixture of sound and silence pervades the shady parts of the wood. The noise from the insects is so loud, that it may be heard even in a vessel anchored several hundred yards from the shore; yet within the recesses of the forest a universal silence appears to reign. To a person fond of natural history, such a day as this brings with it a deeper pleasure than he can ever hope to experience again.'

So much awe-stricken was he, that he started his own journey: a journey that changed the World; changed our thinking how we came about. The young naturalist was Charles Robert Darwin, one of the greatest scientist of all times. And irrespective of faith, his theory on 'The Origin of Species' changed perception of our origin. The World over, this year is being celebrated as his bi-centenary birth year. It is for this reason that I wanted to be in Brazil, to see the beauty of the country that inspired him to take that extraordinary journey.

Thank you so much for giving me an opportunity to be in Brazil in this memorable year.

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND THE LEGAL PROFESSION

The three generation in legal profession

(Summary: This paper explains how information technology may be used by the persons pursuing legal profession.

This was read by Justice Yatindra Singh, judge Allahabad High Court Allahabad at Kerala Law Academy Trivandum on 12.3.09 and before Karnataka Judicial Academy Bangalore on 23.3.2008.)

OPEN FORMAT, OPEN SOURCE AND THE ALLAHABAD HIGH COURT

{This talk was to be delivered in the convention held on 26-28 December 2008 in Calcutta by the Institute for Open Technology and Applications, a society formed under Department of Information Technology, Government of West Bengal (IOTA) to create awareness to create awareness in Free and Open Source Software (FOSS). However due to unavoidable circumstances it could not be done but was circulated in the convention.}

We, at the Allahabad High Court, not only use but advocate open source software (OSS) and open formats. Many raise the question,

'Why is it so? Why do you do it?'

Let me take this opportunity to explain it. 

BE THE CHANGE – YOU WANT TO SEE IN THE WORLD

(Summary: This paper not only provides legal implications of open format but also explains its advantages, problems and how to make them more popular.

Text of Talk delivered by Justice Yatindra Singh on 09.10.2008 in the Second International Open Document Format User Workshop organised by the E-Documentation committee chaired by South Africa's Department of Home Affairs in collaboration with ODF Alliance at Pretoria.)

It is honour and priviledge, to participate in the 2nd ODF workshop, and to be in South Africa – a country that Indians owe a lot.

One hundred and fifteen years ago (1893), a young 23 years old Indian barrister, took his maiden but fateful South African train journey from Durban. He was coming to Pretoria to defend a legal case. He could not complete the journey that night: he was thrown out of his first class compartment at Peter Maritzburg, despite the fact he had first class compartment ticket. His only fault was that he was coloured. He spent that cold winter night at the railway station but started his journey from Mohan Das Karam Chand Gandhi to Mahatma Gandhi. It was during his 21 years stay here at South Africa that he realised importance of human dignity and started struggle against racial descrimination; It was here that he realised importance of non-violence (Satyagrah) and started quest for our independence.

Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity to visit this wonderful country that I always wanted to visit.

WHERE CAN PENGUINS FLY?

(Summary: This paper explains what is open source and open format; why they should be used; and talks about some good open source programmes that run on Windows.

Text of Talk delivered by Justice Yatindra Singh on 20.09.2008 on the Software Freedom Day at the University of Allahabad, Allahabad.)

Two of my finest years have been spent roaming around the corridors of the science faculty of the Allahabad University. Thank you for giving me this opportunity to renew those memories. I am happy to be here to talk about open source,  open formats, and some popular open source programmes  on windows.

Mahatma Gandhi's   philosophy was,

'Means are more important than the end:  it is only with the right means that the desired end will follow.'

To the charge that  'means are after all means', he would say,

‘Means, after all, are everything’.

CHARMS AND DANGERS OF HARRY POTTER'S WORLD

(Summary: This post is about problems relating to intellectual property rights on the Internet.
This talk was delivered by Justice Yatindra Singh, Judge Allahabad High Court on 4.5.2008 in National Judicial Seminar on 'Cyber Law: Current developments and Key Issues for the District Judiciary' at National Judicial Academy Bhopal)

Harry Potter's world is the world of fantasy; he takes Hogwart's express to reach the Hogwart's castle where the school of Witchcraft and Wizardry is situate—some where in Dufftown near Scotland. It is impossible for any muggle (i.e. non-magical person like us) to locate the castle as it has charms, spells and dangers around it; we can see only the ruins and danger warnings.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - Courtsey: Warner Brother Studios

We, the muggles, can reach our own fantasy world, riding our Hogwart's express—the Internet. It has its own charms, spells, and dangers. One of them is, the Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs). Before we talk about this danger, a few words about our Hogwart's Express—the Internet and the Web.

SANJEEVANI BOOTI: PROTECTION, PROBLEM AND SOLUTION

(Summary: This post is about traditional knowledge, how it is being legally protected and the problems relating to its protection.
This talk was delivered by Justice Yatindra Singh, Judge Allahabad High Court, Allahabad on 4.5.2008 National Judicial Seminar on 'IPRs: Current developments and Key Issues for the District Judiciary' at National Judicial Academy Bhopal)

Sanjevani Booti! ... Am I supposed to talk about traditional knowledge or Sanjevani Booti?

Hanumaan and Sanjevani Booti: Photograph courtesy Ramanand Sagar's TV serial Ramayan

Who does not know the Laxman-Meghnath episode in Ramayan. Lakshman was wounded by Meghnath and Hanumaan was send to Himalayas to fetch Sanjevani Booti, a plant having medicinal properties. In botanical terms the plant is known as Selaginella bryopteris and this episode is nothing but traditional knowledge.

COMPUTER SOFTWARE AND INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS

(Summary: This paper discusses, how intellectual property rights operate in the field of computer software.
It was read by Justice Yatindra Singh Judge Allahabad High Court on 15th March 2008 at National Conference on Advancements in Information Communication Technology Allahabad)

Justice Michael Kirby picture from Wikipedia

Justice Michael Kirby is a puisne judge in the High Court of Australia, the highest court there. On 21st February 2008, Justice Kirby was the chief guest in the annual dinner meeting of Internet Industry Association Sydney, Australia. The audience here, reminds me of his speech on that occassion,

'The people who built the Internet ... have ... extra dimension. I asked tonight when I came in here and saw you all: why is this such a male dominated audience? Why are there so few women?
If I were to go to a Law function tonight, about half the audience would be women – and the same in most professions. But here, this is overwhelmingly a male domain.
My conversationalist said, it all goes back to the fact that to be good in this type of technology, you have got to have that very strange mental quirk. And that’s a male phenomenon. It’s on the Y chromosome, in the male genes. That’s probably why they are mostly men here.
I don’t know that I accept that.
It may be a power thing. You may be just a little bit behind the rest of us in society. But it’s a thing for you to look to. Women are the great networkers. And toilers in the Internet are in the business of the greatest network of them all.'

Even I don't accept the explaination offered by the conversationalist however, it is not only a thing to look to but a thing to be look into. With this preliminary, Let's come to today's topic.

MEANS ARE MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE END

(Summary: This paper provides legal implications of formats and explains why it is better to adopt format based on open standards. Guidelines for implementing open formats are also provided.)

Mahatma Gandhi - from Wikipedia

The beginning of the last century witnessed the emergence of a semi-clad Indian, referred to as 'half naked Fakir' by Winston Churchill. His philosophy was, 'means are more important than the end: it is only with the right means that the desired end will follow' (see Endnote-1). To the charge that 'means are after all means', he would say, ‘means are, after all, everything’. His name, Mohandas Karamchandra Gandhi – known to the World as Mahatma Gandhi, father of the Indian nation.

Gandhi's philosophy is still relevant, in all walks of life. In the context of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT), the end is - dissemination and communication of information: the means are - how to achieve it; how to implement it; what kinds standards to employ; what kinds of formats to adopt; what kind of software to use?

TRADE SECRET, CONTRACT AND REVERSE ENGINEERING

(Adopted from the speech 'Intellectual Property Rights in Computer Software' delivered by Justice Yatindra Singh Judge Allahabad High Court on 31st July 2005 at Judges' Round Table Conference on IPR held at Kolkata)

1890 advertisement of Coca cola - the best kept secret  - from Wikipedia

TRADE SECRET AND COMPUTER SOFTWARE

TRADE SECRET/ UNDISCLOSED INFORMATION

Trade secret or undisclosed information is an area of intellectual property required to be protected under TRIPS. Trade Secret, as its name suggests, is a secret.

A NEW CHAPTER IN JUDICIARY AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

(Text of speech delivered by justice Yatindra Singh on 9.7.2007 on the occasion of inauguration of the Allahabad High Court Website and launching of E-court project)

MAKE LOVE, NOT WAR: Except on a Slightly More Abstract Level

{Text of speech delivered in the Consilience 2006 - a two day event focussing Free/Open Source Software - at NLSUI, Bangalore on 26.7.2006 and in the International symposium 'Owning the Future: Ideas and Their Role in the Digital Age' jointly hosted by the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi (IITD) and Red Hat, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA at New Delhi on 24.08,2006.

Summary: It talks about how software is protected.}

OPEN DOCUMENT FORMAT

The world over, a debate is brewing over open document format (ODF) (see Endnote-1). In order to understand it, we have to consider,

• What is the proprietary format?
• How is the proprietary format protected?
• What is the open standard?
• Why open standards are being advocated over proprietary format?
• What is open document format?

PROTECTION OF SEMICONDUCTOR TOPOGRAPHY

(Speech delivered at the IPR conference held on 4th February 2006 at the National Judicial Academy Bhopal.
Summary: It talks about how designs on semiconductors are protected.)