The Freedom of Speech in Source Codes and Conferences

Richard Stallman was in Kolkata recently. He made the inaugural speech at a Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) conference held in Science City. Some of you may know Richard Stallman; he’s the man behind the GNU GPL (GNU’s Not Unix, General Public License) free software license. Free software is a big deal for some people, programmers, I.T. professionals, companies that deal in I.T. solutions and distributions.

He began a movement that declared that the source code behind the program be made free, too, for the User to manipulate and play around with the program and distribute it. For him, as a programmer at MIT, it was imprisonment and simply against our fundamental Right to Freedom to contract with and be bound by the terms of Click-wrap contracts and the like that some software licenses (Read: Microsoft™) abound in.

So at the FOSS conference, Richard Stallman came onto the stage and told us that there was no such thing as ‘Free and Open Source’. It was the Free Software Movement (FSM) that he spoke for, and he shed light on a past episode with Linus Torvalds that led to the branching of the FSM into the FSM & Open Source Software Movement that has given us Linux. His speech went on to describe the advantages of adopting Free Software and discussed its many merits, at the same time dismissing Microsoft™ as a dictatorship and the U.S. Government as a terrorist organisation. He said that there were four basic freedoms associated with the Free Software Movement: 0) to run the program as you wish; 1) to make changes to the code and run the program; 2) to be able to pass on the software to your friends; 3) to be able to pass on the altered or customized code to your friends. “Free as in mukhto,” he said.

The second day witnessed a lot of new inputs on the subject and its applicability in businesses, e-governance and the legal aspects of it. The IPR Chair of our University, Prof. Shamnad Basheer was there to make a presentation on the legal aspects of FOSS (“(de)coding the Law”) in the course of which he made some use of the phrases ‘Intellectual Property’ and ‘Intellectual Property Rights’. Naturally, you would say. But St. Ignucius here took serious umbrage to it, booing during the presentation, accusing our Professor of resorting to their terminology and thus persuaded by their beliefs and denied the existence of notions like Intellectual Property at all. And fireworks followed, and we all watched, and clapped, of course.

But the audience was mostly unresponsive on both days, and was only mildly discomforted each time the firebrand speaker (with the big belly and the flaming, open hair like a has-been rockstar) came onto the stage to make his point.

The conference was quite well organized, with a comprehensive kit for every participant, and lunch and tea and snacks served on both days. Also, the range of related subjects that were touched upon along with FOSS was impressive, like FOSS and Sustainable Development, FOSS and Information Technology, FOSS and businesses. Anyone interested enough in the topics would have learnt quite a bit.

K. C. Basu Endowment Lecture

The K. C. Basu Endowment Lecture is an annual lecture instituted by Dr. Kaushik Basu, Professor of Economics, Cornell University in his father’s name. The lecture is hosted by NUJS. The event has been graced in the past by stalwarts like Amartya Sen, Pranab Bardhan, N. R. Narayana Murthy and Joe Stiglitz. This year was no exception, with Lord Professor Meghnad Desai delivering a lecture on “Rule of Law and Indian Democracy”.

Addressing a moderately large gathering at the Science City Mini Auditorium on 23rd December 2008, Lord Desai deconstructed the fictional syncretic narrative on which many political theorists have sought to base post-independence Indian political identity. He said that the failure of this fiction is evident from the fact that so many of us today are “hyphenated Indians”, having a regional, caste-based or religious identity which competes with our national identity. The solution, he opined, is to construct a new identity based on the legal and constitutional fact that India is a unified political entity. Respect for the rule of law and the democratic ideal would reduce fragmentation. Individual identity, as opposed to group identity, would be given precedence, and individual rights and liberties would be better safeguarded.

At the end of the one hour-long lecture, there was a brief but thought-provoking question-answer session moderated by the Guest of Honour, State Finance Minister Mr. Ashim Das Gupta. The session closed with a vote of thanks from the Registrar, and the welcome announcement that light refreshments would be served outside to members of the audience.

NLS – NFCG corporate governance moot

After a series of delays and confusion, the team for the NLS Corporate Law moot (Prateek Datta, Rohan Sahai and Mayur Bhandari) was finally formed on 10th November 2008, which incidentally was also the last date of registration for the moot! In the two weeks we had for preparing the memo, it was only in the last week that we to move beyond the realms of ‘materiality’ and ‘independence of directors’ to the actual legal issues involved!

Then the action shifted to Bangalore. From a particular ‘all girl’ team expressing sarcasm and wonder at every stage of our progress, to a team randomly asking Rohan at the Xerox shop for a copy of one of the cases we had used, the two days were full of surprises for us. The most pleasant surprise of all, of course, was winning the moot after a tense final round. Cheers to Corporate Governance (moot!)

-Mayur Bhandari (Class of 2011)

SILP Movie Screening

The Society of International Law and Politics organised a movie screening on 11th December 2008 to commemorate World Human Rights Day on 10th December. A documentary purportedly on state sponsored terrorism, “Terror Storm” was screened in Room 006. However, the documentary turned out to be more of a conspiracy theory, holding the US, UK and Israeli governments responsible for all acts of terror occurring in the world over the past half century. The Bush and Blair administration were singled out for special mention for their role in 9/11 and the London bombings. While red-faced directors rued their mistake in screening a film without watching it first, the audience of mostly First Year students seemed to enjoy the more radical of the conspiracy theories being propounded by the maker of the documentary.

NUJS-Herbert Smith Corporate Law Moot Court Competition

The first NUJS-Herbert Smith National Corporate Law Moot Court Competition was organised by the NUJS Moot Court Society in early December this year. The competition, sponsored by London-based firm Herbert Smith LLP, saw participation from twelve premier law schools from across the country. The moot problem revolved around the legality of derivative contracts in the wake of a hypothetical RBI Circular—an issue of great current relevance.

The competition was inaugurated on 5^th December. The preliminary rounds and the quarterfinals were held the following day, while the semis and finals were held on 7^th December. Several luminaries from the legal world, including High Court judges, practising advocates and partners of law firms consented to judge the speaking rounds.

NALSAR, Hyderabad and GLC, Mumbai met in the finals, where NALSAR emerged victorious. NLU, Jodhpur won best memo, and Parnika Chaturvedi from NLU was awarded Best Speaker. Mr. Balai Chandra Roy, Advocate General, West Bengal was the chief guest for the finals, which were held in Vidyut Bhavan, Karunamoyee. Ironically for a corporate law-related moot sponsored by a corporate law firm, the Chief Guest in his valedictory speech emphasised the importance of graduates from national law universities joining the Bar instead of being lured into the corporate world.

After three hectic days, the organisers, volunteers and participants got a chance to unwind at the after-moot party held at the Nicco Super Bowl. NUJS has always been a force to reckon with in the field of mooting, but the efficient way in which the NUJS-Herbert Smith Moot was conducted will no doubt add to the prestige of the college.

Moot Corpus Fund

The days of penurious mooters are over. No longer may they be seen tearing their hair and gnashing their teeth at the sight of flight charges and registration fees or compiling Indian GDP stats in order to apply for Rego-waivers from tournament organizers. In a landmark move, the University has decided to allocate the surplus funds from the CLAT registration fees to fund ALL mooting competitions which it participates in. For subsequent years, these funds shall be placed in a special Moot Corpus, whose interest shall be utilized to fund future competitions. From Manfred Lachs to MP Law, all Moot teams have been heard to whoop and yell in joy at this move, and veterans have been seen to shake their heads in disbelief and wonder why this had not been their comeback year.

IPTLS Career Workshop

At a time where AMSS is planning to downsize, becoming a lawyer with a leading IP firm or an IP policy maker seems to be far more exciting. All this and much more was shared by IP expert Prof. Shamnad Basheer, who is currently IPR chair at the University, in a talk on career options in Intellectual Property Laws. The talk, which witnessed an unprecedented turnout, was organized by the Intellectual Property and Technology Laws Society (IPTLS) on 28^th November.

In an extremely informal yet informative session, Prof. Basheer enlightened us about the myriad opportunities that lay ahead of us in this exciting field. Starting off on a humorous note, Prof. Basheer delved into the various forms of legal work in the field of IP. What could otherwise have been a boring session was considerably enlivened by Prof. Basheer’s many interesting titbits about the legal industry and practice.

Responding to queries, Prof. Basheer emphasized on a J.D instead of an L.LM especially in the field of IP and if working in the U.S. is on your priority list. He also cautioned the students about choosing foreign universities carefully, taking into consideration both general and specific field rankings. Prof. Basheer ended the session asking the students to follow their passions and assured them that the perks would follow automatically.

Workshop on Banning of Exit Polls

The Constitutional Law Society organized a workshop on ‘Banning of Exit Polls: An Attack on Freedom of Speech?’ The workshop was held in Room 006 on 27^th November 2008. Members of the faculty and students had an intense and extremely informative discussion over the various issues concerning the topic viz. accountability, credibility, the actual informative content of exit polls, the staggered form of elections and their possible impact upon the Indian voter. The legal aspect of the discussion revolved around reconciling the right to information, the right to freedom of free speech and expression and the right to free and fair elections.

Legal Aid Street Plays

The Legal Aid Society organized three Street Plays to raise awareness about important issues. The play staged at Parinati (a city based NGO) highlighted aspects relating to disability while two other plays staged at Chandanagore and Machlandpur dealt with women’s rights. Minor inconveniences like a bust diesel tank on the crew bus failed to deter our intrepid thespians as they wooed the crowd with their consummate art. The plays were also notable for the presence of two LLM students, and several non-Bengali speaking (as well as non-Bengali-understanding) students who managed to deliver their lines in flawless Bong.

Parivarik Mahila Lok Adalat at NUJS

The concept of Parivarik Mahila Lok Adalat (PMLA) has been evolved by the National Commission for Women (NCW) to supplement the efforts of the District Legal Service Authority for redressal and speedy disposal of matters pending in various courts related to marriage and family affairs. Other advantages of the PMLA are that it is cheaper, it helps encourage the public to settle their disputes outside the formal set-up, it empowers the public (especially women) to participate in the justice delivery mechanism, and ideally, cases are amicably settled by the parties in a harmonious atmosphere. Interestingly, an award of the Lok Adalat has the same force as a decree by a Court of Law.

NUJS was the venue for a recent session of the PMLA, held on 7^th November 2008. This was actually the second time that NUJS hosted the PMLA, the first being way back in 2003. The event was efficiently and enthusiastically conducted by the Legal Aid Society, NUJS.

But NUJS students’ involvement was not restricted only to the event itself: research assistants from the University assisted in preparing brief case histories. In the weeks leading up to the event, they compiled files consisting of applications, relevant facts, findings of the Commission, etc., and in some cases even suggested remedies.

On the day of the event, proceedings commenced with a protracted inauguration session. Justice (Retd.) Ruma Pal, Malini Bhattacharya (Chairperson, NCW), and Prof. M.P. Singh (Vice-Chancellor, NUJS) were the guests of honour. They discussed the role of the NCW and praised PMLA as an effective and desirable way of settling disputes.

The proceedings themselves were fraught with interest. Retired trial court judges, NCW members and social activists sat in as judges in the four “courtrooms”. The cases scheduled for the day were mostly related to maintenance and Section 125 of the Criminal Procedure Code. There was also the occasional mutual consent divorce case up for hearing. One unusual case involved a daughter who was filing a case against her parents for discriminatory treatment as against her brother.

The informal and amicable nature of proceedings was highlighted when, in a particular dispute, one party had an advocate who tried to plead the case, but the judges disapproved. They observed that PMLA was meant to be simple informal, not fraught with legal technicality.

In another case related to maintenance, the husband had initially said he could give no maintenance because he was unemployed, and later agreed to a figure of only Rs. 300. Judges, naturally dissatisfied with the paltry amount, were about to record a finding of non-disposal of the case, when at the very last moment the husband agreed to a figure of Rs. 1000. The case thus ended happily for all concerned.

There were even some lighter moments, such as when a certain Judge spilled tea over an order sheet.

The delegates from NCW professed themselves by and large satisfied with the arrangements and expressed their gratitude to the college for providing the venue. At the end of the day, pretty much everyone went home happy, except possibly some of the volunteers from college who did not get non vegetarian food packets. But then, nothing ever works out perfectly.

(With inputs from Shayonee Dasgupta)

Mock US Parliamentary Debate at USIS

An American diplomat wished everybody a happy Halloween through his false specs and nose, kick starting what was to be a fun filled evening at the American Library, as students from various Kolkata colleges (Jadavpur University, Calcutta International Academy, City College and NUJS) participated in a mock US Presidential debate on 31^st October 2008.

People felt that the “McCain-guy” looked more like Obama and vice-versa...Each began with lines of the actual first Presidential debate. McCain talked about Democrats and Republicans coming to sit together and decide the future of the country. Obama stressed on how they needed change from the last eight years of the Bush rule. The first five minutes felt like one was watching a quick replay of the three presidential debate rounds. Once they had to start fielding the panellists’ questions though, things finally spiced up. The questions ranged from terrorism and Iraq to the recession, tax cuts and questions on finance policies. Some questions also came from obscure corners such as what would Obama’s policy be on the extraction of Shale oil and what was McCain’s stand on a woman’s reproductive choice. Policy towards China was questioned, and issues of illegal immigration, nuclear power and racial discrimination were also discussed. As one panellist from Jadavpur University said, in indignation at “McCain” having corrected her facts, “The panellists have done their homework.”

In all fairness, the two contestants knew their statistics excellently well and knew perfectly the real senators’ stands on all issues broached. Both the “candidates” were quick on their feet and there were enough jibes from Obama to McCain in reference to his “failing memory” to keep the interest running. Obama kept going out of order by interrupting McCain’s speech, which was fun to watch (not the speech: the interruptions) and they drove the moderator to slip them a slip requesting them to not speak out of turn…

Amongst other things, it was funny when McCain spoke of the “abortion of women,” and also how badly he felt about the war in Iraq. “I was in the army. So were my fathers and grandfathers…”

“Obama” won the mock debate by 42 to 22 votes.

Some things are just fore-ordained.