August 1-October 15,2001

www.cyberlawcollege.com

A New TLD for Protected Zones on the Internet?

The fight between Net Supporters and the Real World Copyright Protectors would be a long drawn process since it involves the resolution of a conflict between two distinct civilizations-One which is established and having all legal support and the other which is emerging and holds the promise for the future of the Global Civilization but lacks any legal support.&

..in this connection that Naavi.com proposes that the Cyber World should create a “Protected Zone”.

Detailed Article Here

Google Keeps evidence that the Community Needs.

The increasing number of objections being raised on the Google search engine against its practice of caching web pages and serving them to the public has once again opened the debate whether Copy right Protection is being allowed to kill the technological innovations which has made Internet what it is today...

Detailed Article Here

Digital Copyright Issues in Canada

The Canadian Government has issued a consultative paper on Copytight issues in the Digital media for public comments. The paper and the comments make an interesting and educative reading.

Details Here

Google Under Attack

The popular Google search engine is under attack from Copyright supporters for "Caching" the searched pages in the Google server. This is a popular service which enables serving of search results quickly from the cached server. However many Copyright supporters have expressed a reservation that caching web pages without express permission of the owners of the page is a violation of Copyright principles . This view has reopened the basic debate on whether Copyright protection can be allowed to destabilize the Internet since caching is the basic feature of every web browser, proxy server and offline browser including Internet Explorer.

Privacy Compliance of Websites

Privacy advocates are developing a software agent that scans a website for Privacy violation possibilites and alert web surfers.

Details from ZDNET Here

Web Standards and Patent Regime

W3C, the web standards development organisation is proposing a new system where certain standards approved by them may involve patent rights of developers for which a royalty payment may be mandatory. The move has raised protests since the "Standardisation" and "Patent backed regimentation" has an inbuilt conflict.

Details From ZDNET Here

Beware of the Vote Virus

A new virus that comes via an e-mail asking the receipient to vote on whether USA should go to war or not over the September 11 terrorist attack is said to be on the prowl.

Details Here

Hackers and Terrorists

The proposed anti terrorist bill discussed in USA is expected to declare a Hacker as a "Terrorist" under certain circumstances and if so the hackers may end up with a life imprisonment.

Copy of the Patriot Act Draft

Anti Cyber-Terrorism Strategy Required

With the threat of increased Cyber terrorism on the wake of the US crusade against the Talibans, the need for international cooperation in Cyber patrolling as well as Cyber Crime prevention has assumed greater importance.

We suppose that Mr Pramod Mahajan will take the lead in setting up an Anti Cyber Terrorism taskforce in India and develop into a global force.

Related Article

Cyber Elections.. Is it feasible?

With the enactment of the Information Technology Act 2000 the electronic document have got legal recognition. The increasing use of 'Electronic Voting Machines' in the elections to record, process and store the votes cast to record the votes cast will probably bring section 2(t) of the Information Technology act 2000 into play...Will this lead to a better voting system?

Mr P.A.S.Pati Discusses the issues involved

Details here.

Related Article

Cyber Crime Treaty in Europe Takes Shape

The first international convention on Cyber Crime has been approved by the Council of Europe Ministers' Deputies. international convention on cybercrime. This will set a common criminal policy on the misuse of computer networks and electronic information for terrorist or illegal activity. The US will be one of the non-member states signing up to the agreement.

More in ZDNet

Internet Society opposes DMCA

The arrest of the Russian programmer Dmitry Sklyarov has raised the decible levels of protest against the DMCA. The latest to join in the protest is the Internet Society which overseas the Internet Standards.

More in ZDNet

Terrorist Attack on the Cyber World Could Shake you up

The recent attacks of terrorists on the "Symbol of America" has once again focussed the attention of the Global community on the dangers of Terrorism. .....

Americans can now expect similar attacks on their Cyber world. First there can be attacks on Yahoo.com, Hotmail,  Mcafee, or MSN  web sites  the symbols of Cyber world...

Details here.

The World Should Now Change For the Better

Naavi.com expresses its profound sympathies to the people of USA and the relatives of all affected people living elsewhere in the world, on the tragedy inflicted on them by the terrorist forces.

The tragedy which unfolded before our eyes on the TV on the evening (IST) of 11th September, 2001, has brought back the memories of the serial Mumbai Bomb blasts in India on March 12 1993. Today the attack on the World Trade Center has reminded the World of how Mumabaites and Indians must have felt during the Bombing of the Stock Exchange Building followed by several similar blasts. the whole world is now calling for counter action including a counter war to put an end to all acts of terrorism in the world.

Those politicians and Human Rights Activists who condemned and continue to condemn the reactions to the Mumbai attacks more than the attack itself, will now have to find excuses why this attack on America is different. Policy makers in USA who have all along been following double standards and indirectly suportive of anti Indian forces promoting terrorism will have to now admit thier mistake.

Let's hope that from behind this great global tragedy, a new world order of understanding emerges where USA will shed its double standards and support India in its fight against terrorism.

Indian Posts- Creating A Potential Minefield ?

It is reported in some circles that the Department of Post plans to create a database of the Indian population in view of the massive marketing value attached to it

...The Concern is, Will this be leading to violation of Privacy Rights?

Detailed Article Here.

Violation of Copyright of Material on the Web

Web is an unique publication medium that has posed its own challenges to the Copyright world like no other medium has earlier done...

While protection of Copyright on digital medium not on the web is one issue which is being tackled through "Digital Padlocks", "Hidden Digital Explosives" etc, the protection of copyright on the web is complicated by the confusion as to whether the material is in "Public Domain" and whether its reproduction is a "Fair Use".

.. it should legally be mandated that the onus of proving that a material is "Not Meant for Public Domain" should be on the Digital Copyright owner.

Detailed Article Here.

Cyber Ethics under discussion

Following the further revelations on the means adopted by Tehelka.com the issue of Cyber Ethics has once again come for discussion in the Indian media.

More in bizpapertoday

VOIP still Banned in India

DOT has issued a show cause notice to Wipro Net for having allowed one of its clients who had a co-hosting facility use the facility for VOIP calls. While it is opined that VOIP can be used over an internal corporate network, it cannot be provided over a network under the ISP license.

More in Newsbytes.com

A New Principle on Copyright Ownership

The Supreme Court decision in the copyright case regarding the television serial "Yey Jo Hai  Zindagi has enunciated an important principle of law regarding the ownership of Copyrights.

This principle that "IP belongs to the Creator unless transferred by a valid contract" will also apply..in other cases.

Details here.

Cyber Police Station Inaugurated

In a development of significant importance to the Netizens of India, the Police authorities in Karnataka has announced the setting up a Cyber Police Staion (http://ccps.karnatakastatepolice.org)which will acept online Complaints from the public on Cyber Crimes. The Police Station is shortly becoming operational.

Related Story in The Hindu

Related Story in ET

Convergence Bill What's in Store?

Initial reports about the revised draft of the Covergence Bill to be presented in the Parliament indicates that separate licensing for Internet-enabled services like e-mail and telephony-based services as suggested in the initial draft of the bill is being delted. It is also reported that the provision on empowerment of Government officials to intercept e-mail, phone conversation or data transmission of non accredited journalists on any communication network has also been deleted. Full particulars of the revision are awaited.

More in Business Standard

The Great Battle of Copyrights

After the celebrated Napster case, which received a flak from the Internet Community despite the legal victory, the recording industry in USA is moving in the direction of introducing technological barriers to Copyright protection. Is it Fair? Legally permissible? Does it require new legislation?..

Read the Detailed Story here.

Internet banned in Afghanistan

In a predictable move, Afghanistan has banned the use of Internet to prevent free flow of information from and to this Taliban ruled country.

More in nando.net

Cabinet Approves Convergence Bill

It has been reported that the Central Cabinet has approved the Convergence Bill which is slated to be introduced in the Parliament shortly.

More in Sify.com

Beware of Human Rights !

In UK a human rights activists are questioning not only the rights of the employers to watch the e-mails of the employees but also the right of the employee to telephone the employees at residence. Is there a lesson here for the Indian law makers?

Article in bbc.co.uk

Is Reverse Discrimination Being Practiced on Netizens?

While Digital Divide is often a concern of regulators in many countries, some of the recent developments in Cyber Laws have raised a question of whether Computer Crimes are being treated with an unnecessary harshness. For example, if a you read through your neighbours papers kept in his filing cabinet, you may not be imprisoned. But if you read his electronic documents in a Computer, you may end up being accused of "hacking". Naavi.com had raised this issue while discussing the Bal Bharathi School boy case. A debate on this line has now ensued in Australia which may be interesting for the readers.

Related Article in Standard.comt

Spam Laws Coming to SMS Messaging

With Convergence concept catching on, text messages over telephonic instruments will soon come under the scope of Spam..or sending unsolicited messages.

Related Article in ZD Net

Mcafee's Patent ..A Defensive Move ?

The news that McAfee has been granted a patent on its technology and business model for delivering software as a service through Web browsers has created lot of commotion in the IT industry....

we hope that Mcafee would not go the Amazon way in antagonizing the public with an unfair use of the Patent as it could hurt the progress of the Company inspite of the best of technology and services

Details here.

Naavi To Join Hands with Deltagram

In a decisive move to expand the scope of his activities, Naavi has now joined hands with Deltagram, a Company based in Chennai which is in the process of creating a Communication network in India and carry various Communication enabled products and services.

Details here.

Wireless Local Loop Launched

In a development of far reaching consequence, public telephone service on a local wireless loop was launched in Patna on the Indian Independence Day. Battling the various legal challenges from Mobile operators, Mr Ram Vilas Paswan, the Minister of Telecommunication moved the Supreme Court and has taken the bold initiative in launching the service.Mr Paswan has also said that the ministry was taking steps for providing telephone facility to every village in the country by the end of the year 2002.

This development along with the private sector initiative of companies like Deltagram which are trying to bring many communication enabled services in the rural sector, promises to take the digital revolution right to the villages of India.

With such a vast expansion in the Telecom services the impact of the Convergence Bill assumes even more importance for the society.

Let's keep our fingers crossed and watch whether the Bill will be rushed through the Parliament and if so with what modifications.

A Declaration of Independence by Netizens?

Cyber Space which was born free is today a fertile ground for all kinds of regulations. India is unfortunately in the forefront of such restrictive legislation through the proposed Convergence Act...Mishandling of the regulations by people who donot understand the nature of the Cyber Space has only contributed to alienation of the Netizen population from the regulatory regime.

The seriousness of the problem can be seen from the emergence of a community of Netizens who have expressed their desire to "Declare Independence" (Visit http://www.atlantys.org/).....

Naavi.com is interested in developing an acceptable model of Cyber Democracy which is built on the principle of Rule of the Netizens, by the Netizens and for the Netizens...

The difference that we advocate is that unlike the Atlantys.org scheme, the suggested Cyber Democracy scheme should not declare independence from the existing legal regimes as this is confrontationist and  inconstent with the practical requirements.

I would invite suggestions and participation from the public in India and elsewhere on the feasibility of this proposition.

Naavi

August 7, 2001

Detailed Story here.

New Nasscom Chief Identified

After a considerable gap of time Nasscom has finally found a candidate for the prestigeous post of the President. According to the chairman Mr Phiroz Vandrevala, former head of Discovery Communications India and ISRO official Mr Kiran Karnik will assume office as President shortly. He is likely to be assisted by three Vice Presidents to look after different responsibilities.

Naavi.com wishes the new appointee a successful tenure at the office and hopes that the aspirations of the IT industry would be fulfilled to make India an IT super power on a global scale.

Consequent to the expected passage of the Convergence Bill the IT industry is in great danger of being engulfed under a host of regulations primarily aimed at the Visual media which also become applicable to the Internet media.

Naavi.com urges Mr Karnik to keep the Cyber Space in India free from debilitating regulations now planned through the proposed Convergence Bill and the amendments to the Income Tax Act..

Naavi

August 5, 2001


E-Governance is not E-Purchase only. 

Several State Governments have been pursuing various projects under E-Governance....However most of the current activities of the State Governments seem to stop at buying Computers at various departments. Without an adequate computerization of the work content, most of the Computers end up as mere status symbols on the desk top of executives....

Low cost last mile connectivity is the key to increased public participation in E-Governance initiatives....Low Initial Cost and pay as you use concepts alone can generate better adoption rate for the new technology rather than high cost technical gizmos.

It is time that E-Govenance projects of such nature are identified and implemented first so that the officials and the public start experiencing the benefits of technology. On the other hand if the emphasis is more on "Huge Investments" because this is attractive for sanctioning authorities, then the E-Governance projects just become "E-Purchase" projects.

Detailed Story here.

Taxing E-Commerce-India to set precedent that can Boomerang

We have all heard of the story of the "Goose That Laid the Golden Egg". Time has come to remind the Indian Government about this story as some of the steps that the Government is trying to initiate on the E-Commerce Taxation front is likely to destroy the foundation of the industry itself.

According to a report which recently appeared in Times of India, Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) chairman A. Balasubramanian has  said that the definition of "Permanent Establishment" envisaged in Income Tax laws has to be changed as many of the foreign companies engaged in e-commerce may operate in India without having a physical presence here....

This idea of re-defining "Permanent Residence" to include parts of "Cyber Space" is ill-advised and needs to be dropped.

Detailed Story here.

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