The
Controversy on the Title of the book_ISBN 9780333938171
Handbook: Cyber Laws for Every Netizen, Author Vakul Sharma,
Publsiher: MacMillan
ISBN:
9780333938171
The following webpage was
brought to my attention recently by one of my associates.
As indicated in the web page, a book by the name
"Handbook: Cyber Laws for Every Netizen" authored by Vakul Sharma
had been published by MacMillan publishers. According to this site
the date of publication was indicated as 2009 (I was later informed
that the date of publication was 2002 though this does not make much
change in what is being discussed here).
As the author of the book "Cyber Laws for Every
Netizen in India' which was published in December 1999 when the IT
Bill 1999 was being presented in the Parliament, I was disturbed
that this book by Vakul Sharma carried a title which is confusingly
similar to my book. My book was a matter of historical significance
because it was the first book on the subject in India and was also
adopted as a text book in some courses in Madras University. The
title of the book became instantly recognizable because it was for
the first time the term "Netizen" was popularized in India.
While there have been many authors of books since
1999 and they might have come up with much superior content than
what my book represented, the book "Cyber Laws for Every Netizen in
India" remained a significant milestone in Cyber Law education in
India.
It is unthinkable that any serious author of
Cyber Law might have been ignorant of the publication of this book a
soft copy of which is also available free on this site for many
years now.
It was therefore unethical for anybody, more so
an experienced advocate to make use of a confusingly similar title
and for a reputed publication such as MacMillan to publish the title
without bothering to check for any permission or intimation to me or
my publishers.
Whether this is an infringement of some IPR and
whether I can claim any damages are secondary and will be examined
in due course.
However to prevent any further misuse of the
title and dilution of the value of my title, it is necessary for me
to register my protest and this is part of such recording of my
disagreement about the publication of the confusingly similar title.
Naavi
October 24 2010
