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"The country's existing information framework is scattered, with each state establishing its own data centre for automating land records, transport and municipal applications, among others. The PII plans to host all software applications on a cloud (internet), increasing efficiency and speed as well as slashing costs. "Government schemes costing about Rs 130,000 crore annually exist in silos. There is no single delivery point for citizens," said a presentation highlighting the PII's need. "The PII will consolidate about 100 schemes of India, spread across 75 departments and 35 states into a single information infrastructure." Mr Pitroda said duplicity in data will thus be removed. "Each department in the country wants to make its own software, even if it does exactly the same thing," he said. "

"In fact, more than combating corruption, the RTI campaign can serve as an effective tool to control the arbitrary use of power, and combat the failure of regulatory mechanisms in maintaining the rule of law. In all arenas - whether in economic policy or human rights - the need to make the matter public can act as a constraint on misgovernance. In this framework, the right to information is both a basic principle and a tool to enhance the political participation of ordinary citizens, where ethics and accountability work both ways - for the government to inform and people themselves to be more ethical in public life. By reinserting public ethics into our political discourse, it reinforces a position that no real alternative politics is possible without firmly establishing public ethics."

"While appreciating the need for stopping "Software Piracy", the attention of the Government should however be drawn to long term strategies to make Piracy un economical to both the "Pirate" and the "Consumer". The industry has seen a dramatic reduction of pirated copies of Windows since its prices were brought down. The continuation of piracy in other software is to a large extent a result of unreasonable pricing by manufactures. Prices are being determined by them based on their costs and profit requirements rather than the utility value of the software. For example, how many home users can justify the need to buy a Office 2000 paying say around Rs 20,000 which is the cost of the entire hardware system they have bought?. Most offices would find it uneconomical to buy software at such costs. "

"This paper investigates the conditions of the manufacture of low-cost technology in China with the examples of 'pirated' VCD players, 'no-name' DVD players, and Shenzhen's development as a techno-urban city. It emphasizes the significance of the cultural logic of original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and argues that the various transformations and deflections that are derived from ubiquitous OEM experiences have gone beyond the original model of an authorized OEM, experiences that are to some extent embodied in the transgression of brand name and patent hegemonies, which are mainly controlled by high technology companies. OEMs have been associated with China's current imperative and uninhibited development of low-cost technology capitalism. 'Made in China' signifies the production of any product, legal or illegal, for transnational high technology giants or domestic technology manufacturers. Learning to 'become an OEM' in China has partly resulted in excessive technological mimesis that may be part of an unauthorized, underground economy that is based on low-cost technology. Based on the Shenzhen experience, part of this study will show industrial production-oriented OEM cultures in which illegal operations and counterfeit trade are incorporated, even in city projects that are shared by municipal governments and Chinese technological companies, and undergo spatial restructuring in the development of the economy, consumerism, and urbanism. "

"But what's missing from the whole debate is some data. Just how much unlawful file-sharing is going on in the UK and what effect is it having on the creative industries? It's hard to be sure really - the music industry often says that twenty unauthorised tracks are downloaded for every one that's paid for, but I'm not sure how that figure was worked out. The government, too, seems hazy, unable to say how it will know when file-sharing has been reduced by 70%, the target to be attained by the initial deterrence campaign before stronger measures are contemplated."

"In this article the author examines the impact that copyright law has on the issue of censorship and government regulation of mass media. The author states that copyright legislation pits international media conglomerates that control the availability of their products, against the consumer right to have access to information resources at a reasonable charge. It is suggested that the court cases Huntsman v. Soderbergh and Universal Studios v. Reimerdes tilted the advantage toward the proprietors of mass media outlets and away from consumers."

The government recently released Decree 47, raising the maximum fine for copyright infringement from 70 million to 500 million dong. The highest fine will be imposed in the following cases: appropriating copyrights, directly or indirectly copying shows, directly or indirectly copying visual and audio recording works, copying broadcasting programmes, appropriating related rights. The decree also stipulates supplementary forms of punishment and measures to repair damages. Vietnam Literary Copyright Centre Director Doan Thi Lam Luyen said: "The new decree is harsher but it is insufficient if only a fine is applied. While someone who steals a chicken or a cow faces imprisonment, stealing intellectual products only results in a fine." The new decree will take effect on June 30, 2009.

The Information Technology (Amendment) Act, 2008 was passed by both the Houses of Parliament on 23.12.08. The Act was notified after the assent of the Hon'ble President on 5.2.2009. The Depertment has prepared following draft rules under the IT(Amendment) Act., 2009 : 1. Section 52 - Salary, allowances and other terms and conditions of service of Chairperson and Members. 2. Section 54 - Procedure for investigation of misbehaviour or incapacity of Chairperson and Members. 3. Section 69 - Directions for Interception, Monitoring and Decryption of Information 4. Section 69A - Blocking for public access of any information generated, transmitted, received, stored or hosted in a computer resource 5. Section 69B - Monitoring and Collecting Traffic Data or information 6. Section 70B(1) - Appoint an agency of the Government to be called the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team 7. Section 70B(5) - The manner in which the functions and duties of agency shall be performed. Your comments/feedback may be forwarded to Dr. Gulshan Rai at grai@mit.gov.in

From Thimpu: We have our own Pirate Bay: the Indian city of Jaigoan, where Bhutanese films and music are rampantly pirated by Indian vendors. Local film and music producers would like to see similar action taking place against these pirates, but the problem is they are not operating on Bhutanese territory. Therefore, being outside the copyright law enforcement abilities of our government, our authorities have not taken any legal action, nor are there any plans to do so.

The National Election Watch (NEW) is a nationwide campaign comprising of more than 1200 NGO and other citizen led organizations working on electoral reforms, improving democracy and governance in India. National Election Watch is active in almost all states of India and has done election watch for all states and Lok Sabha elections since ADR, along with couple other organizations, won the PIL in Supreme Court in 2002 to making disclosure of educational, financial and criminal background of electoral candidates mandatory. Mapunity is a partner.

The Portal for Public Grievances run by the Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances, Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances & Pensions.

The emphasis in MGNREGA is now on ensuring public accountability, strengthening transparency and encouraging activities that tap the productive potential of works undertaken so that it becomes a platform for sustainable development. In order to enforce transparency at the grass root level, the Ministry Of Rural Development intends to use ICT devices, especially Biometrics and integration with UIADAI to introduce biometric attendance on site and to improve the overall delivery system in the implementation of MGNREGA by capturing all the processes right from registration, demand of work, issue of dated receipt, allocation of work, attendance at worksite with GPS coordinates, measurement of work and wage payments.

"The Census Bureau has modified or suppressed some data on this site to protect confidentiality. Title 13 United States Code, Section 9, prohibits the Census Bureau from publishing results in which an individual's or business' data can be identified. The Census Bureau's internal Disclosure Review Board sets the confidentiality rules for all data releases. A checklist approach is used to ensure that all potential risks to the confidentiality of the data are considered and addressed. For more information on how the Census Bureau protects the confidentiality of data, please explore the following links."

Expenditure and procurement information.

Information generated and collected by public sector entities represents a veritable minefield; it might make a much greater contribution to EU economies and societies, if current legal barriers to access and re-use were removed. The LAPSI (Legal Aspects of Public Sector Information) project intends to build a network apt to become the main European point of reference for high-level policy discussions and strategic action on all legal issues related to the access and the re-use of the PSI namely in the digital environment. The debate is to be organized around four focal points: (1) implementation and deployment issues; (2) design of the incentives for public bodies and private players, both in the for-profit and non-profit sectors, to make available and, respectively, to re-use public data; (3) special consideration of infra- and supra-national levels of access and re-use policies and practices, intended to enlist the dynamic forces of regulatory competition and to bring out the full potential of cross-border, EU-wide services; and crucially (4) strategic vision and occasions for out-of-the box thinking for the next steps ahead in policy making.