Communication Convergence bill-What's Wrong?

Having seen some of the positive aspects of the bill, let’s turn our attention on some of the negative aspects  of the Bill that needs some attention...

 Suggestions made by Naavi.com 

Communication Convergence bill-What's Right?

In the recent seminar held at Chennai to discuss the Communication Convergence Bill draft, many media passed highly critical comments on the draft. They held that the draft Bill is “Draconian” and should not be passed in its present form.

It is to be accepted that the purpose of law is to ensure that there is an equitable distribution of scarce resources in the society. If legislation does not “Regulate”, there will not be “Freedom for All” but only “Freedom for the Privileged”. It is one of the fundamental duties of any Government that society needs to be regulated if it has to remain “Civilized”. 

Read what Naavi.com has to say on What's Right in the Draft Bill? 

Seminar on Communication Convergence Bill

A seminar on Communication Convergence Bill was organized today at Chennai by the recently formed New Media Forum.

Some of the main points made during the seminar are summarised here 

Insurance Enters Cyber Services in India

With the growth of Internet as a medium of business, the possibilities of commercial loss arising out of default from the service providers has increased. Simultaneously, it has become necessary for the service providers to insure themselves against any claim of damages from affected persons. The privatized insurance industry in India has brought in a benefit to the Cyber Community with TATA AIG coming out with suitable products to provide insurance cover for the requirements of the E-Com industry in India. ..A development that will be welcomed by all those who want the industry to grow... Related Story in Rediff.com 

Virtual Negotiable Instruments.. A Fantasy?

It was reported in Economic times on the 20 th of this month that the Reserve bank of India is setting up a task force to study and suggest an amendment to the Negotiable Instruments Act-1881(NI Act) to make it feasible for issue of  Negotiable Instruments on the Internet...

The attempt to provide recognition to Virtual instruments is commendable. But is it to improve the lot of Netizens? Or Is it to provide more powers to RBI to control the Virtual world? ..remains to be seen.... Read the Detailed Story

Seminar on Convergence Bill

New Media Forum headquartered in Chennai is organising a seminar on Convergence Bill on 25th of this month at Chennai. See full details here.

Naavi 

All India Seminar on Copyrights

The School of Indian Legal Thought, from the Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam conducted a three day seminar on "Copyrights" on February 16, 17 and 18 at Kottayam. 

First of its kind, the seminar attracted the attention of several participants from law colleges from Mumbai, Goa, Hyderabad, Manipal, Dharwar, Mysore, Chennai, Madurai, Ernakulam and other places.

 Several eminent speakers including Dr N. S. Gopala Krishnan, Dr David Ambrose, Justice M.R. Hariharan Nair, Justice M.Ramachandran and others participated in the seminar. Naavi also presented a paper on Information Technology Law (Copy available here) Several advocates from Ernakulam, Kottayam, Trivandrum as well as Delhi and Calcutta presented their papers on various aspects concerning the challenges ahead of Copyright Law in the Digital Era. 

Dr Vikraman Nair, Director of the Institute, Dr V.D. Sebastin, Dean, Faculty of Law, Dr N. K.Jayakumar, legislative Secretary and several other members associated with the University made the programme a success. 

As a follow up of the seminar, it was suggested that a virtual forum of experts would continue to explore the possible changes that are required to be accommodated when the Indian Copyright Act is further amended or a New Act is drafted to clear some of the ambiguities in the law arising out of technological invasion of the media of expression. Since such a change should be for the Netizens, by the Netizens and of the Netizens, Naavi.com will provide the necessary platform for collating the views of Netizens on the subject. 

Every visitor to this site is welcome to submit his comments and suggestions on this proposed new legislation and we will create a special section in which they will be made available to the public. The suggestions along with a brief profile of the person sending them may be e-mailed to Naavi at naavi@vsnl.com with the heading New Copyright Law. 

Naavi 

February 20, 2001 

A Follow Up on the go2nextjob.com Vs Softweb Case

The directors of Softweb have been released on bail after spending six days in Tihar jail thanks to the efforts of Mr Pavan Duggal, the well known advocate in Delhi. Hopefully he would get the case be decided quickly in favour of Softweb. But who will prevent the Police from indulging in such wrongful confinement of innocent persons in jail? 

I request every reader of this piece to send a mail to Mr Pramod Mahajan honourable minister of Information Technology as per the specimen given herein. 

Related Story in Rediff.com

The  Issues behind E-Commerce Tax

In the hunt for avenues of taxation, Indian finance minister is looking forward to taxing “E-Commerce” this year...

The issues in Cyber taxation are therefore many. It is possible for the IT department to bring any of the above transactions under the “Tax Net”. But the confusions that such a provision may create in the legal definitions of various parties and the liabilities there-on are tremendous. 

Unless a  comprehensive view is taken on the legal status of different types of properties created on the virtual world, it will be premature to introduce Taxation on the E-Commerce ......Read the Detailed Story

First Case Under Information Technology Act...A Mistake gaining legitimacy???

Thanks to the mistake committed by the Delhi Police, the case of go2nextjob.com has continued to create confusion in the market place about the definition of "Hacking"...

Technically speaking, when a hosting service provider withdraws his service, he is not in any way damaging the content of the site. He is de linking the existing  default page of the relevant directory to the DNS and linking a new page...Read the Detailed Story

Convergence Bill- The Right of Way

One of the major concerns of the Infrastructure builders in the Telecom industry has been the delays in the implementation of  projects caused by legal hurdles in laying inter city and intra city cables. Hence the industry was keenly observing what was in store for them in the Communication Convergence Bill ......Read the Detailed Story

Convergence Bill- The Battle for the Spectrum

One of the important provisions of the Communication Convergence Bill refers to the policies regarding Frequency Spectrum Management covered under Chapter VI. ...Read the Detailed Story

First Case Under Information Technology Act... A Beginning on the Wrong Foot?

Unfortunately, Indian public has little respect for our law enforcement authorities. ...Now the news comes that in Delhi, two software professionals have been arrested on the charge of "Hacking".

If the Cyber Crime Wings of the Police departments have to draw respect from the community, then it is absolutely essential that they behave more responsibly than they have been doing at present. Along with the "E-Transformation" of the Police, there  is a need for transformation of their approach towards "Cyber Crimes".... Read the Detailed Story

Communication Convergence Bill.. Offences and Penalties

A cursory glance of the provisions indicates that the law has been framed rather aggressively to protect the licensees and their facilities from being tampered with and misused by criminals. To that extent it is a welcome measure. However a thought may be spared to think whether the laws place too much of power in the hands of officials and police which can be misused for harassing honest Citizens who may appear to have strayed into  usage of facilities which may turn out to be unlawful.....Read the Detailed Story

Communication Convergence Bill..The Regulatory Framework

The Communication Convergence Bill (CCB) will operate a regulatory mechanism that will revolve around....Read the Detailed Story

Communication Convergence Bill..The objectives

One of the basic objectives of this Act is to provide for a regulatory mechanism, which facilitates convergence.....Read the Detailed Story

Cyber Law Education getting its due

The importance of Cyber Law education is slowly gaining acceptance amongst the Lawyer community. As a pioneer in Cyber Law Education in India, naavi.com and its associate www.cyberlawcollege.com has been recently getting increasing attention from various parts of India. World wide too, Cyber Law trained Lawyers are looking forward to vastly improved careers. One of the students of the Cyber law College wrote some time back that.."...I am getting increased respect from my seniors since they have become dependent on me for Cyber law related matters..I feel my career has got a boost..". Hope the legal community in India realize the potential as well as the inevitability of Cyber law preparedness. 

The following article on globaltechnology.com captures the views in USA and should be of interest to the Lawyers in India too. 

Need for cyberlaw skills the latest 'gold rush' 

Communication Convergence Bill Draft is Now Here

The much awaited Communication Convergence bill draft is now available for public comments upto February 28. A Copy of the Bill is available Here.

Comments on the bill from naavi.com will be available through this column during the next few days. 

The New Media Forum which was recently formed at Chennai would be conducting a seminar in Chennai shortly on Convergence bill and collecting the views from industry experts on the Bill. A consolidated memorandum would then be submitted to the Ministry regarding the comments of the forum. 

Visitors who want to add their views are welcome to send their views to Naavi

Free Speech Vs Copyright Violation

A challenge has been mounted on the DMCA (Digital Miullennium Copyright Act) and the decision last August by a US Distriact Court holding DeCSS, a utility that enabled descrambling of Copyright related protection on multimedia files. It has been claimed in a submission by many Computer related organisations that the ruling violates "fair use" concept of Copyright in respect of "Source Code" which is a form of "Speech". 

Detailed Story at wired.com