Amazon Seller Services Private Limited ("Amazon") runs the eCommerce marketplace at www.amazon.in, and among other products, Amazon facilitates sale of eBooks and/or eBook subscription licenses on the platform at its Kindle eBook Store at https://www.amazon.in/Kindle-eBooks/b?ie=UTF8&node=1634753031. In my opinion, Amazon's business and approach with respect to eBooks does not comply with the recent FDI eCommerce guidelines by virtue of the following:
By exclusively permitting only its group company Amazon Asia Pacific ("Amazon APAC") to sell eBooks on its marketplace;
By…
My colleague, Ashwini Arun, brought an interesting post on Spicy IP on SareGama's take down notice to my attention. The post talks about take down of one of its articles, and may be read at: https://spicyip.com/2019/02/saregama-pa-rdon-me-you-have-the-wrong-address-on-the-perils-and-pitfalls-of-notice-and-takedown.html. It is unfortunate that SareGama decided to include an article from Spicy IP, renowned for its well-researched articles and contributions to IP discourse, in its Take Down list. I am assuming that the inclusion of the link by SareGama was an inadvertent act of…
Amazon's Kindle eBooks need no introduction. Everyone is aware of them, and since the launch of the Kindle eBook store in India, Amazon claims that its publisher and customer base is growing fast. In 2018, Amazon also launched Audible, its audio book store in India. So far, I have used the term Amazon loosely to refer to several of its entities. For purposes of this post, two entities of Amazon are relevant. One, Amazon Asia Pacific Holdings Private Limited (Amazon…
Note: This is not an IP post, and has only one reference to copyright protection.
It comes; It changes; And it goes.
It changes lives, lives of farmers, who provide food to the world. For many of us, the wind is nothing more than a phenomenon. But for farmers and their families, it is a life changing event.
Seventy two years after independence, farmers in India continue to live uncertain lives. Their struggles are not much different from those before independence. The protests,…
As a part of the Fourth International Conference on Creativity and Innovation at/for/from/with Grassroots [ICCIG 4] at IIM, Ahmedabad, Professor Arul George Scaria organized a session on 'Fostering Open Science.' I was fortunate to participate in the well organized panel discussion and learn from its proceedings. From my knowledge,Professor Arul is the only scholar in India researching on Open Science from the legal perspective. His emperical study driven report on Open Science will be released soon, and his insights about…
I write in response to Dr. Sunanda Bharti's post on Spicy IP, which talks about rights granted to copyright owners of literary works, and which right is involved in converting a literary work to Braille. In my opinion, the answer is not so complex as it seems. Braille is not a language, it is a form of expression of a language. It has the same alphabets as the language and nothing changes except the way in which letters are represented. So, converting a work…
In my earlier post, I spoke about the legal framework for access of information and data to persons with blindness and other disabilities from the copyright and disabilities statute perspectives. In the article, I pointed out that access has been placed at less than one (1) percent and that the proportion of access is diminishing as the universe of information is expanding at a rapid rate. Sources and forms of information are changing so fast that that accessibility is finding…
Marrakesh is a busy city in Morocco. It is a popular tourist destination. The Marrakesh Treaty to facilitate accessibility of published works to persons with blindness was signed in and named after the city.
Marella Gunta Palem is a small, agricultural village in the State of Andhra Pradesh, India. Less than hundred families live in the village, which has basic information and communication infrastructure.
It has been approximately six years since the Marrakesh Treaty was signed, and just more than two years…
We’re fundamentally an Intellectual Property resource. However, we believe the verdict in question here, striking down Section 377, is a historic moment in our vast legal landscape, and thus worthy of mention. Further, this verdict has implications on privacy laws, and hopefully on a societal outlook that will spur changes in a multitude of other areas of law, many of which are yet to be analyzed in this specific respect.
On September 6th, 2018, the Supreme Court of India struck down…
Sinapse takes great pleasure in announcing the Winner of the Student Blog Idol contest of 2014! Without much ado, here are the Winners:
First place: Nitish Chaudhary (decided based on quality and penmanship; adherence to topic and flow; ease of readability)
5 Second place holders: Neerja Gurnani, Archit Gupta & Ankit Agarwal (co-authors but taken as 2), Pallavi Singh and Amrita Vasudevan
Congratulations to all winners! You will receive your prizes shortly. As promised, all participants will receive certificates of…