SIVACRACY.NET: Siva Vaidhyanathan's Weblog

SIVACRACY.NET: Siva Vaidhyanathan's Weblog

"I am angry that so many sons of the powerful and well-placed. . . managed to wangle slots in Reserve and National Guard units. Of the many tragedies of Vietnam, this raw class discrimination strikes me as the most damaging to the ideal that all Americans are created equal and owe equal allegiance to our country."

-- from "My American Journey," Colin Powell's 1995 memoir

Wednesday, February 12, 2003

Now dancing to a funky beat will soon be impossible in urban India. As BBC NEWS reports, India will scrap hotel discos.
Discotheques in five star hotels owned by the Indian Government are to be shut down.

The Minister of State for Culture and Tourism, Bhavnaben Chikaliya made the announcement in the Indian parliament on Tuesday.

Ms Chikaliya, a recently appointed junior minister, said the closure plans had already begun.

She said the government-owned five-star hotels should promote Indian culture and values and guests should be introduced to Indian culture as soon as they entered them.

posted by Siva | 10:56 |

Here is the BBC NEWS story about Hindu and Muslim anger at Valentine's Day.

posted by Siva | 10:52 |

The Hindu reports:

New Delhi, Feb. 12. (UNI): Shiv Sainiks today made a bonfire of Valentine cards and threaten to disrupt the celebrations on the Valentine's Day which they claimed was being used by multi- nationals to corrupt Indian youth.

"The Valentine cards sold at Archie's are an indecent depiction of love and degrade women," Shiv Sena Delhi unit president Jai Bhagwan Goyal told reporters as Shiv Sainiks assembled at Jantar Mantar to protest the celebrations.

"Why Valentine's Day is chosen as a day to express love, aren't Diwali, Eid and Holi enough?" he asked, and said "this foreign festival" instigate people to take to crime like rape.

posted by Siva | 10:49 |

Balkinization has an important note about the dangers of electronic voting machines.

The question is not whether electronic balloting is a good thing or a bad thing. It is what kinds of electronic balloting have built in safeguards and checks against electronic fraud, and what kinds don?t. The recently passed Help America Vote Act (HAVA), includes $3.9 billion to help state and local goverments install hi-tech upgrades to their voting technology. What is being overlooked is that not all electronic voting systems are created equal. Some of the ones on the market, perhaps even most, have serious flaws that enable unscrupulous people to alter vote counts and commit massive electoral fraud. Some also are designed to leave no electronic backup or paper trail that would enable state officials to discover vote tampering or conduct recounts.

posted by Siva | 09:47 |

bio and contact

Siva Vaidhyanathan, a cultural historian and media scholar, is the author of Copyrights and Copywrongs: The Rise of Intellectual Property and How it Threatens Creativity (New York University Press, 2001) and The Anarchist in the Library (Basic Books, 2004). Vaidhyanathan has written for many periodicals, including The Chronicle of Higher Education, The New York Times Magazine, MSNBC.COM, Salon.com, openDemocracy.net, and The Nation. After five years as a professional journalist, Vaidhyanathan earned a Ph.D. in American Studies from the University of Texas at Austin. He has taught at Wesleyan University and the University of Wisconsin at Madison and is currently an assistant professor of Culture and Communication at New York University. He lives in Greenwich Village, USA.

You may reach him via: sivav at pobox dot com.

Read Siva's regular column, Remote Control: Life in America, at www.opendemocracy.net.

The Anarchist in the Library (Basic Books, April 2004)

Read an FAQ file about The Anarchist in the Library.

Check out a video clip of Siva presenting the introduction to The Anarchist in the Library.

Read an excerpt from Anarchist in the Library on Salon.com.

Praise for The Anarchist in the Library:

"What a thrilling discovery this book is: erudite, eloquent imaginative and personable all at once, The Anarchist in the Library will become not only the ur-text in an increasingly important field, but also the one that is certainly the most fun to read."
- Eric Alterman, MSNBC blogger, Nation columnist, and author of What Liberal Media?

"This beautifully written and widely informed work weaves together a thousand threads into a rich and convincing story about just what's at stake in the digital age. As Vaidhyanathan powerfully shows, what's at stake has ultimately little to do with things digital. We face a fundamental choice about the nature of cultural freedom. The Internet presents this choice. Against the background of the tapestry that this rising star of culture has crafted, the right choice seems clear."
- Lawrence Lessig, author of Free Culture and The Future of Ideas

"Siva Vaidhyanathan has done that rare thing--induced me to rethink my position, revise my conclusions, and enjoy doing it. (And he quotes me accurately.)"
- Randy Cohen, author of the New York Times Magazine column "The Ethicist"

"As the world cascades towards the internet and the entropic culture that it represents, you'll see the ideas that he's given us in this timely meditation become more than just truisms, but ways of living life in the information age. "Anarchist in the Library" is a signpost on a road that is getting more complex, and uncontrollable every day. People should take a look and understand which direction the traffic is flowing. Marshall Mcluhan meets the Sex Pistols anyone?"
- Paul D. Miller, AKA DJ Spooky

"Vaidhyanathan refrains from offering any quick-fix solutions, instead arguing that the friction between anarchy and the desire for control now highlighted by technology is an essential element in the creation of culture. Vaidhyanathan is a brilliant thinker and an energetic writer."
- Publishers' Weekly

"The technical, social, legal and cultural aspects of downloading music may not sound like a compelling read. But in the skilled hands of Siva Vaidhyanathan, these issues take on life and historical importance."
- The Minneapolis Star-Tribune

"Vaidhyanathan's book is loftier; the author intends not just to untangle the current debates on media but also to examine how these debates might affect other fights over information control -- the debate over secrecy and privacy in the war on terrorism, say, or questions of intellectual property surrounding biotechnology. It is an ambitious effort, and mostly engaging."
- Farhad Manjoo, in Salon.com

And:

Copyrights and Copywrongs: The Rise of Intellectual Property and How it Threatens Creativity (New York University Press, 2001)

"...this well-crafted and important book shows that there are graver concerns for the public in the entertainment industry's effort to tighten its grip on intellectual property. ... This book is simply the best on the subject to date, ..."
- Publishers' Weekly

"Siva Vaidhyanathan has done a big favor for the academic and library communities. In this book, he has spelled out in clear, understandable language what's at stake in the battles over the nation's intellectual property. The issues brought forward are critical to the future of scholarship and creativity. Librarians and academics are wise to purchase this book and add it to their 'must read' lists.' "
- Nancy Kranich, President, American Library Association, 2000-2001

"It has taken lawyers 200-plus years to morph copyright law from the balanced compromise that our framers struck to the extraordinary system of control that it has become. In this beautifully written book, a nonlawyer has uncovered much of the damage done. Copyrights and Copywrongs is a rich and compelling account of the bending of American copyright law, and a promise of the balance that we could once again make the law become. "
- Lawrence Lessig, Stanford Law School and author of Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace

"Copyrights and Copywrongs is an urgent information-age wake-up call to a public cocooned in belief that 'copyright' is a seal and safeguard for consumers and producers of culture-ware. This book guides us into the legal labyrinth of a new world of so-called intellectual property, in which 'fair use' isn't fair, where rights are waived and free speech -- when we can get it -- costs a great deal of money. From print books to video games, Copyrights and Copywrongs shows free expression in a legalistic chokehold. Clearly written, meticulously argued, this book is a must."
- Cecelia Tichi, author of Embodiment of a Nation: Human Form in American Spaces