The battle for internet
Jing Xiaolei

To Zhang Jie, a programmer at a Beijing-based information technology company, the greatest invention of the 21st century is the P2P download system provided by BitTorrent (BT). P2P refers to peer-to-peer, an Internet file sharing application.
Zhang’s computer desk is piled high with clusters of CDs that he has burned over the past five years. One of Zhang’s friends introduced BitTorrent to him and he loved it the moment he successfully downloaded a 600-megabyte movie in two hours.
“It is really exciting to find such a great Internet file sharing system: fast, convenient and rich in all kinds of content,” said Zhang. The first movie he downloaded via BT is a collection of New York underground short films. “You can never get this alternative and rare movie from a regular audio and video store, but BT has brought the resources on the Internet across the world to your doorway; what’s better, they are all for free!”
Over the past five years, Zhang has downloaded numerous movies, music, e-books, software, digital games, cartoons, TV shows, documentaries and other material. “BT can download almost everything that can be transformed into digital form,” he noted. Because of the limited storage capacity of his computer, he has to store what he has downloaded on CDs.
“We borrow quite a lot of stuff from Zhang Jie, as the movies he collected from the Internet can make a small movie database,” Zhang’s friend said. This enthusiasm on the part of Zhang and many others clashes with the intellectual property rights (IPR) of the owners of copyrights to movies, music and other artistic content to receive royalties and recognition for their work. The Chinese Government, however, recently launched a new campaign to protect IPR.
“The government again has begun to crack down on Internet piracy recently, but I don’t think the three-month storm will have any big success,” said Zhang.
The “storm” he mentioned refers to the 100-day anti-piracy campaign that was jointly launched by 10 ministries and national departments, including the Ministry of Public Security, State Administration of Press and Publication, National Copyright Administration (NCA) and Ministry of Culture, at the end of September.
The crackdown is aimed at the illegal downloading of films, music, software and textbooks, which has been described as “rampant.”
”IPR infringements on the Internet not only violate the interests of copyright holders but also stain the country’s reputation globally,” said Long Xinmin, head of the National Copyright Administration.
The intellectual property rights watchdog has vowed to clamp down on major websites that offer unauthorized downloads. While it has no authority to deal with foreign websites offering illegal material, it is targeting local sites that offer links outside the country or unauthorized downloads.
The administration collaborated with major IPR protection associations in the country to collect evidence for 302 Internet IPR infringement cases during a one-month investigation, according to Wang Ziqiang, head of the NCA’s copyright management department.
”The number is double that of last year, which means that Internet copyright infringement is still rampant,” Wang said.
Officials have tracked down the website operators and their details will be passed on to local copyright bureaus for action, said Wang.
Of the 302 cases, 123 are about software IPR infringement, followed by films and music. Most are in developed areas such as Beijing, Shanghai and Zhejiang Province.
“This year’s campaign involves authorized file uploaders but leave out the downloaders. But sooner or later, the big free meal on the Internet will be gone with the rising concern over IPR protection and enhancement of anti-piracy law enforcement,” said Zhang.
Troublesome technology
Bram Cohen, the American creator of the revolutionary piece of software called BitTorrent, is considered a hero in Zhang’s eyes, but to the IPR holders, the inventor is just like a nightmare. “I think we Internet file downloaders all owe thanks to Bram Cohen. This guy has broadened our eyes and provided everyone with much easier access to share human knowledge and civilization,” said Zhang.
Since the release of this technology in the summer of 2001, BitTorrent has quickly grown into one of the most preeminent file distribution methods. It lets users quickly upload and download enormous amounts of data, files that are hundreds or thousands of times bigger than a single MP3.
Three years after the birth of BitTorrent, analysts at CacheLogic, an Internet-traffic analysis firm in Cambridge, England, reported that BitTorrent traffic accounts for more than one third of all data sent over the Internet. In China, BitTorrent has become the fourth most popular Internet application after Internet Explorer, e-mail and instant messenger.
The power and potential of BitTorrent has the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) quite worried. In 2004, the MPAA launched a campaign against BitTorrent sites in the United States and Britain. An MPAA spokesman said Cohen is under scrutiny for continuing to develop the software “and making it easy to steal copyrighted material.”
Since then, BitTorrent has caused controversy worldwide. In October 2005, 38-year-old Hong Kong resident Chan Naiming was sentenced to a three-year prison term after he had uploaded illegal copies of the films Daredevil, Miss Undercover and Red Planet onto the Internet and spread them via BitTorrent. In October this year, 23-year-old American Grant Stanley was sentenced to five months in prison, followed by five months of house arrest, and a $3,000 fine for his role as a leading participant in the BitTorrent tracker site Elitetorrents. This ruling is the first BitTorrent-related conviction in the United States.
In China so far there have been no prosecutions of BitTorrent downloading but the country’s IPR watchdogs said they would purge the Internet illegal content-sharing area, including BT websites, during the three-month campaign.
Officials from the IPR law enforcement bureau in Beijing declined to provide further information on the crackdown, saying they were too busy to do so and that no additional information was available currently.
Resolving the controversy
It is a puzzling paradox. The Internet is supposed to reflect a “sharing spirit” but IPR holders definitely don’t want their rights to be infringed. Technologically, BitTorrent is a great invention of the Internet world, but at the legal level it is deemed to be an accomplice of IPR violators.
Rumors have circulated from time to time that China’s communications operators will ban BitTorrent downloading but it is still in force since it receives strong support from the mass of Internet users. According to a survey by China’s Web portal sina.com, 93.25 percent of the 20,826 respondents opposed the prohibition of BitTorrent use.
“Any invention has good and bad points and we don’t snuff it out just because of its shortcomings. Why can’t we treat BitTorrent just like we treat nuclear power?” said one netizen using the Internet ID Isbaal.
His view is echoed by Ye Lante, an IT commentator, “On the deeper level of thinking, the BitTorrent controversy is all about how we look at the new technology. If we kill the new technology just because it has some negative effects, that would be a tragedy.”
Ye also believes the traditional IPR system needs to be changed to fit the Internet era. “By that time, IPR will not be quite an issue for the development of BitTorrent. At present, we’d better show more tolerance towards the creative technology,” he added.
Not long ago, the Internet Society of China set up an organization to promote the use of P2P technology while conforming to IPR laws and regulations.
“P2P applications will play a leading role in the era of Web 2.0, which is featured in wider audio and video data trading and deeper interaction,” said Lei Zidong, General Secretary of the union, adding that P2P technology developers should make profits by collaborating with legal content providers.
Regarding the IPR issue, Lei thinks the Digital Rights Management (DRM) system is an operative approach. The DRM system controls every link of the distribution of digital products, making the products available only to authorized users.
“Technical management can’t solve all the problems, and enhancing IPR law enforcement is also necessary,” Lei noted.

(The Daily Mail-Beijing Review  Articles Exchange Item)


Maoists and Indian agenda in Nepal
G. G. Khan

It is impossible for a leopard to change its spots or tame its predatory impulses but if Indian media and think tanks are to be believed, that is exactly what is transpiring in Nepal where Maoist Guerrillas, the longstanding Indian revolutionary protégées, are promising to doff their blood stained jungle fatigues and slip into civvies for hobnobbing with Nepal’s parliamentarians. It seems surreal that the Maoists’ ideologue, Comrade Prachandra, a declared terrorist, who had launched a bloody struggle in the footstep of the “Shining Path Guerrillas” in 1996, after killing at least 13000 Nepalese, now regularly visits the Prime Ministerial residence at Bluwataar in Kathmandu to sip coffee and unfold his vision for the future constitution of Nepal. Prachandra hasn’t accomplished such a transformation at his own. Indian support at the political and military planes is primarily responsible for the ascent of Maoists’ fortunes in Nepal and the guerrilla leader is obviously obliged. He even feels obliged enough to his masters in Delhi to take digs at Pakistan to camouflage the Indian contributions in his bloody campaign.
Speaking to newsmen after returning from India, after having attended a conference there , he alleged that Maoists turned down support from Pakistan’s Inter Service Intelligence (ISI) during the decade long insurrection. He also said that the King was encouraged to persist with the direct rule earlier this year with “moral support from countries like Pakistan.” In his diatribe Prachandra made two irreconcilable accusations. He alleged that Pakistan wanted to support his blood bath which aimed at paralyzing the administration and curtail the writ of the Monarchy and the Royal Nepalese Army (RNA) and then saying that Pakistan was involved in supporting the Monarchy through supporting the King’s attempts at wresting initiative to stabilize the Country.
Prachandra loose talk can be attributed to his gratitude for his Indian masters and the flush of success caused by the securing of an agreement with the political hierarchy in Nepal midwifed by India. According to the landmark Peace Agreement reached between the Maoists , the Seven Parties’ Alliance and the Nepal Government on 21 November 2006, all hurdles in the way of the Maoists’ grabbing of power, justifying their violent means , stand removed. The Agreement lays out the groundwork of dismantling of the Nepalese Army and placing the fate of Monarchy into a limbo that effectively seals its fate - two objectives defining the raison d’etre for the Maoist struggle in Nepal. it also provides a comfortable space for Maoists in the forthcoming Constituent Assembly to dictate terms and take care of not only their political objectives but of their Indian mentors as well.
Under the peace deal, the Maoists get 73 of the 330 seats in the Interim Parliament that would pave way for election of a Constituent Assembly, which in turn would decide the fate of the 238 - years old Monarchy. As being anticipated, one of the first matters to which the New Assembly is likely to concern itself is regarding the future of Nepal as a symbolic kingdom or a republic, through a vote of simple majority. In addition to securing a strangle hold over the fate of Monarchy, it is the dismantling of RNA’s operational capability that appears to be the highest priority of the Maoist Guerrillas and their Indian mentors. The deal envisages that the RNA, whose name has been changed to Nepali Army (NA) , will be confined to barracks in return for placing up to 35000 Maoist guerrillas in 21 camps in seven regions, where they will remain till elections next June. The Guerrillas have agreed to lock up their weapons , albeit under UN supervision, but the catch is that keys of the warlike stores would remain with with the Maoists and the Nepalese Army, too, would be constrained to place under confinement an equal number of weapons . Prachandra has made obvious his intentions to saturate the NA with his guerrillas, while indicating that its numbers would be heavily trimmed. “The Army (NA) needs to be democratized and our cadres need to be professionalized, so we have made a formula to make a smaller Army,” he said; indicating that the NA should be scaled down in strength from 90000 to around 30000. Neutralization of Palace and the RNA , two bulwarks that had stood in the way of Indian hegemony over Nepal , has placed India in a state of strategic dominance to call the shots in Nepal’s affairs of the state.
Ever since Nepal signed the “Treaty of Peace and Friendship” with India in 1950, it has been the unhappy recipient of the her overbearing neighbor’s hegemony. The ignominious dependence has resulted into a strong backlash in Nepal which has come to hate India but has few alternatives.Nepalese political system, led by its octogenarian politicians, most of whom take dictation from their southern masters, has shown no spine to thwart Indian designs aimed at using the Maoists to create a situation of anarchy where by Nepal becomes a vassal state bearing sovereignty only in name. Indians have been instrumental in forging the Seven Party Alliance and then steering it toward an understanding with the Maoists who have no credentials, or relevance, to command a position of dominance in the Nepalese political dispensation.
Indian ecstasy, induced by Maoists’ success, is certainly going to be a short affair. In the form of ruthless Maoists, Indians have created a Frankenstein Monster which is likely to turn upon its creators after transforming Nepal into dreaded “killing fields” of Cambodian vintage. The situation is hauntingly reminiscent of 1970 when King Sihanouk in Cambodia was dethroned and the Khmer Rouge, inspired by Pol Pot (Prachandra’s ideal figure) captured the Capital Phenom Penh. A genocidal blood bath followed in which millions vanished. Indian sponsored Maoists of Nepal, through their wanton acts of inducing terror have shown themselves to be true inheritors of Pol Pot’s bloody legacy - uneducated peasants turning into brainwashed followers of a bloody insurgency. In Nepal , the Indians have ruthlessly maneuvered to let people who have slaughtered innocents without recriminations, destroyed state infrastructure with abandon, abducted children into their merciless ranks and terrorized the urban population at a mass scale, find a foot in the door of the Nepalese democracy. it is amply manifest that Indians are planning to create a state of such anarchy which would justify landing of Indian troops in Nepal - a long held ambition. But if Indian experience with LTTE and Sri Lanka is any guide the bush fire of instability is likely to set alight the Indian hinterland as well, which is bustling uneasily with teeming Naxalites, clamoring for a better social contract from the ‘largest democracy in the world’.

universal lessons of Haj
Faisal Kutty

Millions of pilgrims from all over the world will be converging on Makkah in the coming days. They will retrace the footsteps of millions who have made the spiritual journey to the valley of Makkah since the time of Adam. Haj literally means, “to continuously strive to reach one’s goal.” It is the last of the five pillars of Islam (the others include a declaration of faith in one God, five daily prayers, offering regular charity, and fasting during the month of Ramadan). Pilgrimage is a once-in-a-lifetime obligation for those who have the physical and financial ability to undertake the journey.
The Haj is essentially a re-enactment of the rituals of the great prophets and teachers of faith. Pilgrims symbolically relive the experience of exile and atonement undergone by Adam and Eve after they were expelled from Heaven, wandered the earth, met again and sought forgiveness in the valley of Makkah. They also retrace the frantic footsteps of the wife of Abraham, Hagar, as she ran between the hills of Safa and Marwa searching for water for her thirsty baby (which according to Muslim tradition, God answered with the well of Zam Zam). Lastly, the pilgrims also commemorate the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice his son for the sake of God. God later substituted a ram in place of his son. Yet, the Haj is more than these elaborate rituals. The faithful hope that it will bring about a deep spiritual transformation, one that will make him or her a better person. If such a change within does not occur, then the Haj was merely a physical and material exercise devoid of any spiritual significance.
As all great religions teach, we are more than mere physical creatures in that we possess an essence beyond the material world. Indeed, this is why all great religions have a tradition of pilgrimage. In the Islamic tradition, Haj encapsulates this spiritual journey toward this essence. The current state of affairs — both within and outside the Muslim world — greatly increases the relevance of some of the spiritual and universal messages inherent in the Haj. As Islamic scholar, Ebrahim Moosa, asks rhetorically: “After paying homage to the two women Eve and Hagar in the rites of pilgrimage, how can some Muslims still violate the rights and dignity of women in the name of Islam? Is this not a contradiction?”