The year 2002 was an eventful year for the Cyber
Regulations observers. Working under the after shock of the 9/11/2001
terrorist attack on New York, there was a realization that "Terrorism"
would soon hit the Cyber Space not only to destroy the Cyber economy but
also to target the real world economy through the Cyber Space. As a
result, there were attempts at tightening up laws, development of Cyber
Security policies and initiatives and an attempt to forge international
cooperation in fighting Cyber Crimes.
To understand what is in store for Cyber Citizens /
Netizens in the year 2003, let us take a brief review of the happenings in
2002 and see which way the wind is blowing.
The Year 2002, the perspective of a Cyber Regulation
Observer:
Changes in Indian Regulation:
Nearly after two years after the ITA-2000 was enacted,
the Government of India made its first moves to amend the act first on
September 19 to correct some drafting errors and again on
December 3 (Notification Due) to enable Electronic cheques.
The rules for the Semi Conductor Integrated Circuits
Act were released in draft form during the year but no action has since
been taken on this legislation.
Communication Convergence Bill is still pending in the
Parliament with a standing committee. The ministries of Telecom and IT
were however merged to form a single Ministry under the leadership of Mr
Pramod Mahajan. The passage of the
Cable Television Amendment Act in December indicated that the
Convergence Bill is not likely to be a law in the near future.
The draft
Post Office Amendment Act which is in the Parliament was yet another
pending legislation that can have a widespread impact on the Netizens of
India.
Towards the fag end of the year, a draft
Telemedicine Law was released for public comments with wide
ramifications to the Health Industry as well as the IT industry.
During the year Digital Certificates as per Indian law
became a
reality with the licensing of four Certifying authorities.
In an yet to be confirmed move, the Government is
contemplating designation of all State IT secretaries as "Adjudicating
Officers" under ITA-2000 following a suggestion from Mumbai high court.
Cyber Space Security Initiatives at the National
Level
When Naavi raised the issue of
Cyber terrorism prospect in September 2001, it was a mere
academic forecast. But USA soon realized that its critical services
with a high dependency on IT which were the very strength of its economy
were relatively easy targets for the terrorists. As a result, USA took
several steps during the year to shore up its own Cyber security measures
and also urged other countries to take Cyber security seriously. Cyber
terrorism therefore became a global issue which even India started to take
seriously.
India has realized the need for a national policy on
Cyber Security and a means to achieve them. The Government of India has
formulated an Inter Ministerial Working Group to address all issues of
Cyber Security. Dr Abdul Kalam's brainchild the Society for Electronic
Transactions an Security is also getting ready to be one of the prime
movers in this area. The Ministry of Information Technology is also
working through another working group focussing on Cyber Security
education.
Naavi has initiated a public discussion on the
requirements of Cyber security in India which should help in getting
the best inputs to the Government for ensuring a successful Cyber Security
Plan for the country. Naavi has also drawn the attention of the policy
makers on the adverse
impact of IPR on the security of the information assets of the
country.
ICANN Changes Colour
In the domain name administration area, ICANN gave a go
by to its
policy of involving public in its Board by revising the At large
representation policy. After a series of strategic moves, ICANN board and
it president manipulated the existing system to get a transition clause
introduced in the bye laws of ICANN effectively pushing the public
participation to the background.
This also brought to the fore fresh discussions on the
alternatives to ICANN. Naavi has been highlighting the lack of a
coordinated effort from NSCT in promoting the use of the
Indian domain name system and calling for suitable legislation to
protect the Indian domain name space.
Copyright Issues- A Mixed Bag
The impact of IPR pursuits leading to adverse Trade
Mark, Copyright or Patent decisions continued during the year. However
towards the end of the year, the release of Elcomsoft from the charges
made by Adobe was a significant development that put a brake on the IPR
predators. British Telecom also lost its case on a Patent for Hyperlinking
technology. Spielberg attacked a Keralite on a domain name issue while
Bharti Telecom enforced its rights on an individual who held a similar
domain name because his name happenned to be Bharti.
Deeplinking came under threat once again in a Danish Court.
In a related development India has been rocked by the
ICC controversy on the "Ambush Marketing Rights" which could set new
precedents in the IPR law including in the Cyber arena. It also
threw light on the need for some laws contemplated in the proposed
Indian convergence act.
The
anti piracy drive in India continued during the year forcing the
Indian companies to look at
alternate open source software. The pressure for using of Open source
software persuaded Microsoft to announce its readiness to share the
Windows source code to India.
Polaris Shakes the Indian IT industry from
Complacency
December 2002 also opened the eyes of the Indian
corporate world to the legal risks in corporate administration. Last year
when Naavi.com had highlighted the unfair treatment meted out to Radiant
Software on a Copyright dispute, neither the industry nor the Nasscom
appreciated that the central issue at dispute was conversion of a
contractual dispute to a Criminal offence requiring jailing of officials
of the company.
Polaris suffered a similar fate albeit in a foreign
country and the CEO had to face a short stint in a foreign jail. This time
however, Nasscom was shaken from its slumber and mobilized Government
intervention to get the release of the executives.
Hopefully, the change in the policy adopted by Nasscom
is a distinct policy shift and not a reflection of double standards based
on the personalities involved.
We are glad to know that there is now an attempt to
make changes to the Criminal Procedure Code itself so that Indian Police
do not jump to put entrepreneurs behind bars for either contractual
disputes or even business failures.
If we expect the foreign Governments to respect Indian
IT professionals, we need to first show the way by respecting them in
India.
One good thing that has followed the Polaris episode is
that the IT industry has at last started realizing that "Law
Compliancy" is an essential part of corporate Governance and hopefully
the frequent alerts sounded by Naavi.com on the need to make "Cyber Law
Compliancy" a part of Corporate culture and "Quality Programme" will now
get a better support.
Cyber Law Enters More Countries
During the year several new countries introduced laws
to regulate Cyber transactions in their country.
Thailand,
Pakistan and
South Africa were amongst such countries.
Naavi's Initiatives
During the year, Naavi continued his efforts at
"Building a Responsible Cyber Society" both through the free information
portal
http://www.naavi.com/ as
well as the education portal www.cyberlawcollege.com.
He has undertaken initiatives in
IT Empowerment of SMEs, and mobilization of
E-Bridge Centers to ensure that Digital Divide in the country does not
widen with the developments in the IT field.
Naavi.com also launched the prototype services of
Verify4lookalikes.com and
Cyber Evidence Archival as well as a
Cyber Democracy initiative to catalyze the Indian Cyber society to
follow up and develop these personal initiatives into a Cyber Society
movement.
Naavi also raised a call for a
War against Cyber Pornography following the Dr L.Prakash episode in
Chennai and has been highlighting the legal and community efforts required
to save the Indian youth from the ill effects of Cyber pornography.
The Mumbai highcourt decision to call for public views
on the issue of Cyber Cafe regulation marked a new ground in the
development of
Cyber Democracy in India though the public might not have taken full
advantage of the opportunity. The issue is related to the
Cyber Cafe regulation and became a point of discussion in the
community through out the year. The
E-Bridge Center concept promoted by Naavi is a step towards resolving
the issue in a manner which is satisfying for all the concerned parties.
Naavi is also working with the Computer Society of
India to bring Cyber Security and Cyber Law under one school of education
so that a new breed of Cyber Law conversant Cyber Security specialists can
be developed.
Indications for 2003
The developments of 2002 indicate that 2003 will be
an year of increased focus on "Cyber Security". There will be national
initiatives on education, regulations and application development in the
area. The commercial opportunities in the field will also be growing by
leaps and bounds. IT Companies which have some footing in the Cyber
security market will therefore be making clear commercial gains during the
year.
Public need to keep their vigil on the new
regulations and ensure that vested interests do not hijack the opportunity
for their selfish gains and leave the Indian public in the lurch.
Naavi.com re-dedicates itself to keep its mission
for increasing the Cyber regulatory awareness in the common man going and
at the same time provide assistance to the Government in the formulation
of Netizen friendly regulations and also work towards projects that make
the IT companies provide critical services to the community required for
IT empowerment at affordable cost.
Naavi personally requests support from all well
wishers to make this mission a success.
Naavi
January, 1,
2003
