INDIAN CYBERLAW IN 2005 - SOME PREDICTIONS
pduggal
I am enclosing herewith my latest article on the Indian Cyberlaw and
the trends that are likely to emerge therein during the year 2005.
I hope that you would find this post useful.
With warm regards
Pavan Duggal,
Advocate, Supreme Court of India,
Cyberlaw Consultant,
President, CYBERLAWS.NET
Head, Pavan Duggal Associates
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INDIAN CYBERLAW IN 2005- SOME EXPECTATIONS
BY
PAVAN DUGGAL,
ADVOCATE, SUPREME COURT OF INDIA,
CYBERLAW CONSULTANT,
PRESIDENT, CYBERLAWS.NET
The year 2004 was remarkable for Indian cyberlaw. We saw the invocation
of various provisions for registering different cybercrimes. The law
also zeroed in on the liability of network service providers.
As far as 2005 is concerned, the Indian cyberlaw is expected to
consolidate the trend of jurisprudential growth on the basis of
developments that took place last year. And so it is likely that there
will be more cases registered invoking the liability of network service
providers.
Law enforcement agencies might rely upon the expanded definition of
network service providers, as detailed in Section 79 of the Information
Technology Act 2000, to rope in new categories of corporates within the
canvas of criminal liability. Companies that were traditionally not
considered to be network service providers might face the brunt.
It may be mentioned here that the Indian cyberlaw holds network service
providers liable for any third party information or data made available
by them in all cases, barring two.
This is therefore the right time for all corporates engaged in
businesses involving computers, computer systems and computer networks
to ensure compliance with some mandatory requirements of the Indian
cyberlaw and maintain due diligence.
This year is also likely to see a surge in cybercrimes, especially
those related to new technologies such as MMS, wireless and broadband.
The cyberlaw, in its current form however, is thoroughly ill-equipped
to deal with such cybercrimes. The government will have to come up with
specific provisions to regulate newly-emerging cyber crimes in India.
I believe that 2005 is going to be the year of broadband in India. We
will see a rise in broadband services and connectivity, just like the
cable TV industry boomed in the earlier 90's. The broadband boom is
likely to boost computer sales.
However, there might be some major legal challenges in this area too.
The law needs to specify and amend its position on liability and
culpability issues relating to content, violation of intellectual
property rights, etc, in the converged broadband environment.
The year 2005 may also see some amendments in the IT Act 2000 relating
to important current issues, including data protection. There may also
be some developments in Indian jurisprudence relating to domain names
since the Indian country code top-level domain name .IN was launched on
January 1.
A high level of registration of .IN domain names is expected, and there
may be disputes regarding some of them considering that cyber squatting
is highly prevalent.
The year 2005 is also expected to see an increased focus on information
security. Since the 9/11 attacks and the December 13 Parliament House
attack in India, information security is increasingly beginning to
occupy centre stage. Increased denial of service attacks and malicious
software programmes and viruses are likely.
This should provide the necessary impetus for companies to ensure
compliances with the provisions of the Indian cyberlaw, various rules,
regulations, notifications or orders made in dealing with information
security.
The year 2004 saw many cases, including those of Jolly Technologies and
Quark, where there were violations of intellectual property rights. I
believe India needs to strengthen its intellectual property rights
regime and its effective implementation this year in order to provide
effective remedies to victims of infringement of such valuable rights.
Already, there is discussion within the industry on the need for
effective steps by the government in this regard. I believe this trend
will be further strengthened in 2005. Effective remedies need to be
made available to corporates, who are victims of theft of software and
of violation of intellectual property rights.
Spam will continue to get increased attention in 2005 since its volume
is continuing to grow with each passing day. India cannot sit back and
relax in this atmosphere. Indian law needs to proactively tackle
spammers in the way countries like the US and Australia have done.
India can also learn from the experience of other countries with
anti-spam laws what the drawbacks of the existing legislations are.
This would help it come up with more effective legislation to fight
spam.
This year we are also likely to see an increased convergence of
technologies throwing up new situations and creating the need for
effectively regulations. This year might see the convergence of
information technology and biotechnology and the regulation governing
these fields.
In business process outsourcing industry, one expects an increased
focus on compliance with various international and national laws. The
year therefore, promises to be an extremely exciting year for cyber
legal developments in the India and law makers and the government are
likely to be repeatedly called upon to provide for more effective legal
remedies for the various situations that is likely to come up.
The author Supreme Court Advocate, Pavan
Duggal can be contacted at his email pdu...@gmail.com .You can also
visit www.pavanduggal.org ,www.cyberlaws.net .
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