Hare and Tortoise - Fable

This is the eight and the last post of the series 'FOSS INNOVATION IN INDIAN COURTS: Inspired by the Allahabad High Court'. It talks about why Allahabad High Court adopted FOSS.

FOSS INNOVATION IN COURTS: Inspired by the Allahabad High Court

Introduction|| Computerisation of Indian Courts|| FOSS Introduction - Allahabad High Court|| Further Inroads of FOSS in Allahabad High Court|| E-Committee Adopts FOSS|| Problem With Linux Desktop|| Reason for Adopting FOSS|| Hare and Tortoise - Fable|| 

इस चिट्ठी को हिन्दी में यहां पढ़ा जा सकता है। 

Reason for FOSS Adoption

This is the seventh post of the series 'FOSS INNOVATION IN INDIAN COURTS: Inspired by the Allahabad High Court'. It talks about why we adopted FOSS.

Statue of Mahatma Gandhi in Johannesburg, South Africa

FOSS INNOVATION IN COURTS: Inspired by the Allahabad High Court

Introduction|| Computerisation of Indian Courts|| FOSS Introduction - Allahabad High Court|| Further Inroads of FOSS in Allahabad High Court|| E-Committee Adopts FOSS|| Problem With Linux Desktop|| Reason for Adopting FOSS|| Hare and Tortoise - Fable|| 

इस इस चिट्ठी को हिन्दी में यहां  पढ़ा जा सकता है।

Problem With Linux Desktop

This is the sixth of the series 'FOSS INNOVATION IN INDIAN COURTS: Inspired by the Allahabad High Court'. It talks about why Linux desktop being economical, stable and virus free has not been able to join mainstream. 

FOSS INNOVATION IN COURTS: Inspired by the Allahabad High Court

Introduction|| Computerisation of Indian Courts|| FOSS Introduction - Allahabad High Court|| Further Inroads of FOSS in Allahabad High Court|| E-Committee Adopts FOSS|| Problem With Linux Desktop|| Reason for Adopting FOSS|| Hare and Tortoise - Fable|| 

इस इस चिट्ठी को हिन्दी में यहां  पढ़ा जा सकता है।

E-Committee Adopts FOSS

This is the fifth post of the series 'FOSS INNOVATION IN INDIAN COURTS: Inspired by the Allahabad High Court'. It talks about how E-Committee changed its attitude about computerisation of courts and switched over to FOSS. 

FOSS INNOVATION IN COURTS: Inspired by the Allahabad High Court

Introduction|| Computerisation of Indian Courts|| FOSS Introduction - Allahabad High Court|| Further Inroads of FOSS in Allahabad High Court|| E-Committee Adopts FOSS|| Problem With Linux Desktop|| Reason for Adopting FOSS|| Hare and Tortoise - Fable|| 

इस इस चिट्ठी को हिन्दी में यहां  पढ़ा जा सकता है।

Further Inroads of FOSS in Allahabad High Court

This is the fourth post of the series 'FOSS INNOVATION IN INDIAN COURTS: Inspired by the Allahabad High Court'. It talks about how FOSS made further inroads in the Allahabad High. 

FOSS INNOVATION IN COURTS: Inspired by the Allahabad High Court

Introduction|| Computerisation of Indian Courts|| FOSS Introduction - Allahabad High Court|| Further Inroads of FOSS in Allahabad High Court|| E-Committee Adopts FOSS|| Problem With Linux Desktop|| Reason for Adopting FOSS|| Hare and Tortoise - Fable|| 

इस इस चिट्ठी को हिन्दी में यहां  पढ़ा जा सकता है।

FOSS Induction - Allahabad High Court

This is the third post of the series 'FOSS INNOVATION IN INDIAN COURTS: Inspired by the Allahabad High Court'. It talks about how FOSS was introduced in the Allahabad High Court.

FOSS INNOVATION IN COURTS: Inspired by the Allahabad High Court

Introduction|| Computerisation of Indian Courts|| FOSS Introduction - Allahabad High Court|| Further Inroads of FOSS in Allahabad High Court|| E-Committee Adopts FOSS|| Problem With Linux Desktop|| Reason for Adopting FOSS|| Hare and Tortoise - Fable|| 

Computerisation of Indian Courts

 This is the second post of the series 'FOSS INNOVATION IN INDIAN COURTS: Inspired by the Allahabad High Court'. It talks about how computerisation and digitisation of records is being done in the courts.

FOSS INNOVATION IN COURTS: Inspired by the Allahabad High Court

Introduction|| Computerisation of Indian Courts|| FOSS Introduction - Allahabad High Court|| Further Inroads of FOSS in Allahabad High Court|| E-Committee Adopts FOSS|| Problem With Linux Desktop|| Reason for Adopting FOSS|| Hare and Tortoise - Fable|| 

FOSS INNOVATION IN INDIAN COURTS

 Inspired by the Allahabad High Court

Inspired and led by the Allahabad High Court, Indian courts have adopted Free/Open Source Software (FOSS) as standard software to deploy. In the 40^th year of establishment of Free Software Foundation (FSF), it is relevant to narrate this story. 

It will be narrated in different posts. This is the first post and is introduction of the same.

Examples of FOSS

FOSS INNOVATION IN COURTS: Inspired by the Allahabad High Court

Introduction|| Computerisation of Indian Courts|| FOSS Introduction - Allahabad High Court|| Further Inroads of FOSS in Allahabad High Court|| E-Committee Adopts FOSS|| Problem With Linux Desktop|| Reason for Adopting FOSS|| Hare and Tortoise - Fable|| 

ALLAHABAD HIGH COURT LEADS THE WAY

Allahabad High Court has always supported open source software and has led judiciary in the field of computerisation, to be followed by the E-committee and other courts. 

Allahabad High Court has adopted an open source software for argument of cases by video conferencing in contrast to other courts that have adopted proprietary and closed source software.
This post explains why they should change and follow the Allahabad example.

इलाहाबाद उच्च न्यायालय कि वेसाइट

इलाहाबाद उच्च न्यायालय ने हमेशा ओपन सोर्स सॉफ्टवेयर का समर्थन किया है और कम्प्यूटरीकरण के क्षेत्र में न्यायपालिका का नेतृत्व किया है। जिसे बाद में, ई-समिति और अन्य न्यायलयों के द्वारा  अनुसरित किया गया। 

वीडियो कॉन्फ्रेंसिंग से बहस के लिए, जहां अन्य अदालतों ने, मालिकाना और क्लोस़ड सोर्स  सॉफ्टवेयर का चयन किया  है, वहीं इलाहाबाद उच्च न्यायालय ने एक ओपेन सोर्स सॉफ्टवेयर का चयन किया है। यह निर्णय अन्य अदालतों के निर्णय से बेहतर है। 
यह पोस्ट बताती है कि अन्य अदालतें को क्यों अपने निर्णय बदल कर,  इलाहाबाद उच्च न्यायालय के उदाहरण को अपनाना चाहिये। 

Security Concerns - Cashless Transactions

This is a part of the talk 'Cyber law and Security Concerns' delivered on 18th January 2017 at the SGT University, Gurugaon. It explains safeguards to be taken in order to avoid cyber frauds.

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.

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.

BEGINNING AND END OF PRIVACY

Evolving Strategies for the Enforcement of Cyber Laws

The storming of the Bastille from Wikipedia

( Text of talk delivered by JusticeYatindra Singh, Judge High Court, on 'Launching of Cyber Law Enforcement Programme, National Consultation Meeting' at AP Shinde Hall NASC complex New Delhi on 31.01.2010. 
A pdf format of the article may be downloaded from here.)

With due apologies to Charles Dickens, it is the time when boundaries are zealously guarded: it is the time that boundaries have become meaningless; it is the age of reality: it is the age of virtuality; it is the beginning of privacy: it is the end of privacy. This paradox not only shows the difficulty in enforcing cyber laws but also explains the genesis of cyber crimes. People are emboldened to commit a cyber crime because they mistakenly assume that they are anonymous but nothing can be farther than this. There is nothing private in the cyber space: it is the end of privacy.

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.