At a time India
is debating a major revision of the ITA-2000, it is interesting to observe
that Bangladesh is all ready to enact a law which is a replica of the Indian
ITA-2000.
With India and
Pakistan being the two other Countries in the Indian sub continent it is now
the turn of Bangladesh and Sri Lanka to make this subcontinent a region with
individual cyber laws in each of the countries. Sri Lanka has developed a
draft act a long time ago but has not been able to convert the draft into a
law. Now Bangladesh is in the process of enacting the Cyber Laws for the
Country.
While India was
the earliest in this region to enact Cyber Laws and therefore had to put
up with a less than ideal draft of the law, Pakistan and Sri Lanka took
advantage of the experience of other countries and drafted laws incorporating
some improvements. In the light of the above, it is interesting to analyze the
approach of Bangladesh which had the experience of all the other Countries of
the region behind it.
At first glance
however, it appears that the Information Technology (Electronic Transactions)
Act 20XX (referred to here after as ITETA) is a close replica of the Indian
ITA-2000.
It is
disappointing to note that ITETA has even failed to take note of the newer
versions of the Indian ITA-2000 and has worked with the older version.
The provisions
regarding recognition of electronic documents, the method of authentication
using digital signatures, attribution, time and place of contract, the system
of certifying authorities etc has been adopted as in ITA-2000.
As regards the
"Contraventions", provisions of sec 43 of ITA-2000 has been adopted as Section
45 of ITETA.
The provisions
of adjudicator, Cyber Apellate Tribunal and Cyber Regulatory Advisory
Committee has been adopted as in India.
As regards the
offences, Section 65,66,67 of ITA-2000 are adopted in toto as Sections
66,67+68,and 69 respectively. Sections on protected system and other sections
on digital signature misuse are also retained. Present section 72 of ITA-2000
on "Privacy:" is also retained.
The only
notable addition to the list of offences is under Section 83 where "Assistance
to commit an offence" is being provided with punishments similar to the
offence itself.
It is ironic
that while a huge debate is going on in India on the "Liabilities of the
Intermediaries", ITETA appears to have been drafted in total ignorance of the
Indian debate.
Additionally
there appears to be some debatable provisions under Section 36 regarding the
"Issue of Digital Signature Certificates" where by " An agent can procure a
private key for a prospective subscriber" and a Certifying Authority may
function "Without a Certification Practice Statement".
The law fails
to address issues such as Cyber Squatting, Spam and Cyber Terrorism which
ITA-2000 had missed.
In summary it
can be said that the ITETA has failed to take advantage of the experience of
the neighboring countries in the drafting of the law and exhibits a lack of
vision.
Naavi
December 04, 2005
