The Times of India: Regulations Proposed by Parliament Would 'Kill' the Internet in India

By Prabhala Ranga Sai

TMCnet Contributing Editor

 

Some observers of Internet regulation in India are growing concerned that new restrictions proposed by a Parliament standing committee will make it very difficult or impossible for service providers to offer Internet services.

 

The Times of India on Wednesday published an editorial strongly criticizing the proposed regulations, claiming they pose a clear and imminent danger to Internet services in India. What’s all the fuss about? The proposed regulations would hold Internet service providers liable for copyright violation or other damages associated with third-party content.

 

This is an unrealistic set of regulations and shows the committee does not understand how the Internet works, Times of India said, noting that more than 85 percent of Internet transactions involve third-party content.

 

“This includes search engines, mail services, messengers, blogs, communication and community sites,” The Times of India said in its report. “If they were to be held responsible for the sites searched, mails sent, blogs filed or scraps on community sites then service providers would be hauled up by the police for acts they are not even faintly responsible for.” 

 

The Times of India called on the committee to cease its development of the proposed regulations, which were developed based on the false idea that Internet content is on par with newspaper and TV content that goes through several checks for accuracy and compliance before reaching the user.

 

“There’s no difference between the phone and the postal service and the net — it’s just that one delivers voice or post and the other data,” The Time of India said in its report. “Both deal with third party content which is impossible to verify.”  

 

Some background on this topic: in 2004, the CEO of auction site Baazee.com was arrested when the site auctioned a CD containing pornographic material. This launched debate regarding the liability of ISPs and Web site owners for third-party content.

 

Section 79 of the IT Act of 2000 states that service provides can’t be held liable for third-party content if they can prove that any offenses relating to the content were committed without the knowledge of the provider.

 

The Times of India noted that European Union laws on this matter do no impose obligation on service providers to monitor the content they transmit or store. Similarly, in the U.S. courts and legislation broadly reduce the liability of service providers when it comes to charges like copyright infringement and defamation.