[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

[FYI] (Fwd) FC: Indian court rules that search engine liable for lin




------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent:      	Tue, 05 Dec 2000 00:53:17 -0500
To:             	politech@politechbot.com
From:           	Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
Subject:        	FC: Indian court rules that search engine liable for links to porn
Send reply to:  	declan@well.com

[We have a writeup here: 
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,40432,00.html A quick glance
says rediff.com is a fairly standard portal/news site, with original
articles, free email, and online shopping. --Declan]

*******

>From: "David Burt" <dburt@n2h2.com>
>To: "Declan McCullagh" <declan@well.com>
>Cc: "James S. Tyre" <jstyre@jstyre.com>
>Subject: Indian Judge: Search Engine Access to Porn Makes Provider
>Liable Date: Sun, 3 Dec 2000 16:21:55 -0800
>
>
>Copyright 2000 FT Asia Intelligence Wire
>All rights reserved.
>Copyright 2000 Business Line.
>BUSINESS LINE
>
>November 30, 2000
>
>LENGTH: 501 words
>
>HEADLINE: India: 'Rediff purveying pornography'
>
>BODY:
>
>
>PUNE, Nov. 29. IN a landmark order, a Pune judge has held Rediff.com
>responsible for spreading pornographic material on the Internet.
>
>In an order dated November 27, the First Class Judicial Magistrate,
>Mr S. Bhosle, held that there was enough evidence to place the
>Directors of Rediff Communications Ltd on trial for offences under
>Section 292 of the Indian Penal Code (distribution of pornographic
>material) and Section 109 of the Indian Penal Code (abetment).
>
>According to the order, if convicted, the Directors of Rediff 
>Communications Ltd - Mr Ajit Balakrishnan (Chairman, accused No. 1),
>Mr Arun Nanda, Mr Abhay Havaldar, Mr Sunil Phatarphekar, Mr Charles
>Robert Kaye and Mr Tony Janz (accused No. 2 to 7) - could face
>imprisonment for up to two years.
>
>In his five-page order, the magistrate held that the search facility
>offered by Rediff.com could be used to view Web sites containing
>pornographic material. The Directors have been summoned to the
>Criminal court in Pune on December 30.
>
>The order has been issued on a complaint filed on June 21 by a
>Pune-based law student. Mr Rohas Nagpal, President of the Asian
>School of Cyber Laws from Pune, represented the complainant.
>
>The student, who accessed the Net from a local Internet cafe, found
>that pornographic and obscene materials were easily available and
>could be viewed by using the search facilities of Rediff.com.
>
>The complaint had also alleged that the company was providing the
>facility of the search engine.
>
>Mr Nagpal said that he had verified the complaint, adding that an
>investigation by the police had become necessary.
>
>He pointed out that the investigating officer had supported the facts
> stated by the complainant but differed in the opinion only on the
>point that these sites were based in the US and that currently, there
>was no machinery available which could separate the obscene sites
>from other information sites.
>
>The officer had said that "viewing" of such sites totally depended on
>the viewers and submitted his report that the accused were not
>responsible for the offence.
>
>But Mr Nagpal said that two Web sites, 123india.com and
>Compuserve.com, had successfully filtered all obscene materials from
>their sites and access through their search engines for such
>materials was not possible.
>
>He noted that the technology for filtering the obscene material was
>available and that Rediff.com should also utilise it.
[snip --DBM]

>---------------------------------------------------------------------
>--------------------------------------- | David Burt, Market Research
>Manager dburt@n2h2.com http://www.n2h2.com/ | | Intelligent
>Technologies For A Safe and Productive Internet | || Phone 206
>892-1130  Fax: 509 271-4226 |
>|--------------------------------------------------------------------
>--------------------




----------------------------------------------------------------------
--- POLITECH -- the moderated mailing list of politics and technology
You may redistribute this message freely if it remains intact. To
subscribe, visit http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This
message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/
----------------------------------------------------------------------
---

------- End of forwarded message -------