Code Swaraj
Bharat Ek Khoj, beautiful, beautiful show based on the discovery of India. Really, really nicely done. It was in the 1980s, when Doordarshan was a government agency; so we didn’t just put that online. We added subtides in a whole variety of different languages. Not for all the episodes, because we didn’t have enough money; but for five of the episodes, you can now have subtitles in Hindi, which they didn’t have. They had English. Also Urdu, and Telugu, and other languages. We’re trying to make it better and more useful.
[Anuj Srinivas] Sure, sure. Carl, some people view public domain advocacy work, the kind of work that you do, as completely opposed to copyright. They believe that sometimes you may or may not tread the line of piracy, for instance.
[Carl Malamud] I’m not a pirate. I’m not a pirate.
[Anuj Srinivas] Your own work, how do you decide when to jump into a project? Is it about public interest? Is that the test you consider when you—
[Carl Malamud] Well, it’s partly public interest. I look at a whole variety of things. First of all, let me say this. I made a living as a professional writer. Okay? I was a musician. I believe in copyright. I think it’s an amazing thing, but remember the purpose of copyright is to advance the useful arts. It’s to make knowledge more available, and there are limits and exceptions to copyright. If you have private property, you need public parks in the middle. You can’t have a city without both. You want commerce, but you want civic life.
I look at this, and I ask myself. Is it government data? Is the copyright assertion valid? Is it in the public interest? Is there a compelling need for this information? If it’s government information that regulates public safety, or the operation of corporations, or the official method of notifying citizens of the acts of the government; clearly public, absolutely clearly public.
I study it very carefully. You know a lot of people do this kind of stuff, and they think, “Oh, you’re a hacker.” Well, I have tech skills, there’s no doubt about it. Not as good as a lot of the kids that are out there, but I’ve been doing this a long time. I’m pretty good at big databases and textual stuff. I think very, very carefully before putting something online. I study it. I do a lot of research.
You know, with the Indian Standards, I didn’t just jump in. I spent a lot of time. I got that three-volume treatise on constitutional law, and I read very carefully. I’m not a lawyer, but I read that. I went and saw Sam Pitroda. I talked to a
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