Trying to understand the bogus Cyber Crime Act 2009

6 views
Skip to first unread message

Awab Alvi

unread,
Jul 19, 2009, 10:36:07 AM7/19/09
to Pakgrid, TGP Group, AGABBIP
With the trumpted 14 years prison sentence for anyone found disrespecting the Local leadership - I believe we need to understand the issue in detail - I present this short write up mostly as a query to understand if my facts are correct - am open to corrections so that the public at large should know what they are up against
  1. The only Cyber Crime Bill that is found publicly is at best the 2007 version [http://www.t2f.biz/events/wp-content/prevention-of-electronic-crimes-act.pdf] which was a draft
  2. A careful look through the entire PDF document there is NO MENTION OF THE WORD 'SMS' the closest defense in regard to what the ministry of Information might use is
  3. 13. Cyber stalking.—(l) Whoever with intent to coerce, intimidate, or harass any person uses
    computer, computer network, internet, network site ,electronic mail or any other similar means of
    communication to.—
         (a) communicate obscene, vulgar, profane, lewd, lascivious , or indecent language, picture or
         image;
         (b) make any suggestion or proposal of an obscene nature;
           (c) threaten any illegal or immoral act;
           (d) take or distribute pictures or photographs of any person without his consent or knowledge;
           (e) display or distribute information in a manner that substantially increases the risk of harm
           or violence to any other person, commits the offence of cyber stalking.
    (2) Whoever commits the offence specified in sub-section (1) shall be punishable with imprisonment
    of either description for a term which may extend to seven years or with fine not exceeding three
    hundred thousand rupees, or with both:
    Provided if the victim of the cyber stalking under sub-section (1) is a minor the punishment may
    extend to ten years or with fine not less than one hundred thousand rupees, or with both.
  4. The 2007 version under the Cyber Stalking section had stipulated a penalty of 7 years or a a loop hole of 10 years [as indicated above]
  5. An interesting clause of Spamming also does come into the grey area but it entails "electronic messages in bulk to any person" so unless the local leadership is in direct recipient of those messages no one can be charged with Spamming
  6. 14. Spamming.—(1) Whoever transmits harmful, fraudulent , misleading, illegal or unsolicited
    electronic messages in bulk to any person without the express permission of the recipient, or causes
    any electronic system to show any such message or involves in falsified online user account
    registration or falsified domain name registration for commercial purpose commits the offence of
    spamming.
    (2) Whoever commits the offence of spamming as described in sub-section (1) shall be punishable
    with fine not exceeding fifty thousand rupees if he commits this offence of spamming for the first
    time and for every subsequent. commission of offence of spamming he shall be punished with
    imprisonment of three months or with fine , or with both.
  7. The 14 year sentence is at best still a figment of someones imagination or is there a successive bill that may support the 14 year term
  8. The latest attempts to contact anyone associated or linked to the drafting of the bill has more or less passed on the buck or refrained from commenting > Shahzad? - can we maybe have a list of people who you may have contacted 
  9. There were only two times that this Cyber bill was brought in as an ordinance - first was on December 31st 2007 when Musharraf signed it as an ordinance and the second time was during the Khanani and Kalia case - both times the ordinance relapsed after 120 days and is not a part of the law [or is it]
I thought Id run these facts across this community to ensure that the facts are as I perceive them.  If they are then I believe its time to take the irresponsible leadership to the bleachers - I could easily charge them with Cyber Terrorism under the same bill as it reads as

17. Cyber terrorism.—( 1) Any person, group or organization who, with terroristic intent utilizes,
accesses or causes to be accessed a computer or computer network or electronic system or electronic
device or by any available means, and thereby knowingly engages in or attempts to engage in a
terroristic act commits the offence of cyber terrorism.
Explanation 1.—For the purposes of this section the expression “terroristic intent” means to act
with the purpose to alarm, frighten, disrupt, harm, damage, or carry out an act of violence against
any segment of the population, the Government or entity associated therewith.


Hows that for a trump card - please enlighten me

Awab Alvi

Blog: http://teeth.com.pk/blog
Twitter: http://twitter.com/DrAwab

Inspirex

unread,
Jul 19, 2009, 11:04:55 AM7/19/09
to AGA...@googlegroups.com
hehe...doc....thats what we all have been tweeting about...but thanks for opening up the bill as well and reminding us all that SMS wasnt at all mentioned!

jehan ara and i were discussing a couple of days back, that this (draft) bill only allows for a 7 year sentence and 10 at most if the crime is perpetrator against a minor.

Thats about it.

Also, Jehan Ara also shared today that FIA has issued a clarification. They will not be acting gestapo. Rather, they will only investigate once an official complaint is lodged.

So whats mr rehman dakait and mr a2z talking about??

:P
--
- Inspirex

Awab Alvi

unread,
Jul 19, 2009, 5:00:22 PM7/19/09
to AGABBIP
Any link or press release to the FIA story? Its strange but if FIA is distancing itself from Mr RD then its weirdly mysterious does it spell disaster for the trio on top (A2Z / Rehman Malik / hussain haroon)

Awab


From: Inspirex
Date: Sun, 19 Jul 2009 20:04:55 +0500
To: <AGA...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [AGABBIP] Re: Trying to understand the bogus Cyber Crime Act 2009

Kyla Pasha

unread,
Jul 19, 2009, 6:19:27 PM7/19/09
to AGA...@googlegroups.com
If anyone finds the full text of this act, can you please post the link or file here? Thanks.

Kyla
--
Kyla Pasha
Asst. Prof. Liberal Arts - Cultural Studies,
Beaconhouse National University, Lahore.

http://www.kylapasha.com
Reply all
Reply to author
Forward
0 new messages