Epaper
If the government has its way, posting a personal or private video on the Internet pertaining to oneâs birthday or anniversary or even a casual office party celebration could land one in serious trouble. In what looks like a move by the I. T. ministry to clamp down on piracy and cyber crimes, the government is now weighing its options about whether to ban the online posting of personal videos on the Internet and on mobile phones in India.
Apparently, the increasing cases of child pornography, MMS related scandals and defamation cases resulting from digitally morphed pictures were the impetus for the government to consider taking the step.
Mr N. A. Vijayashankar, an expert in cyber law and an e-business consultant says, “I am not aware of this new development, which is being considered by the government. But I can say that there is already a provision in the existing I. T. law which covers crimes like posting of obscene or pornographic material, invasion of privacy, copyright violation etc. For instance, transferring an obscene MMS from one cell phone to the other can lead to a sentence of upto 5 years imprisonment. So I do not see any requirement for imposing a ban on doing the same because these activities are already deemed illegal by the law. There is no logic to banning material that do not qualify as illegal content.”
Recently, online postings of videos and images created a stir when an I.T. professional based in Bengaluru was falsely implicated and arrested for allegedly posting an inappropriate image of Chhatrapati Shivaji on the net.
Mr Vijayashankar clarifies, “The man was arrested because of an incorrect I.P. address that was provided by a major mobile service provider who happened to be his ISP too. In fact, even we approached the I.T. ministry to take another offensive video pertaining to the Mahatma, off the Net, but nothing has happened with regard to it. So now we have approached the High court.”
Another recent case was when a major torrent site called demonoid.com was forced to shut down by the Canadian Recording Industry Association, which found the site as a party to copyright violation.
Adds Mr Vijayashankar, “In fact, when a certain video, which hurt the sentiments of the Brazilian government, was posted on Youtube.com, the Brazilian government restricted accessed to Youtube.com from any PC in the country.”
This is not an isolated case of banning content on the net. In the aftermath of the July 2006 Mumbai serial blasts, sites like Googleâs blogspot.com, wordpress.com and even Orkut also came under the scanner and got barred for access for a few days to prevent the proliferation of online terrorism.
But then, imposing a total ban on posting online videos could be detrimental to commercial and educational establishments who have begun using video as a dynamic mode of communicating ideas and concepts.
Mr Mahendran Balan, a banker says, “In my opinion, a majority of the videos posted online are intended for creative purposes. For instance, educational tutorials, technical training manuals, and even public interest videos of a similar nature have become so commonplace. A blanket ban means denying netizens the right to access such readily available information, which is not a right thing to do.”
Also there are many practical difficulties that come into play in the implementation of such a ban. Dr M. Sudhakar, assistant commissioner of police, cyber crime cell, Chennai city, said, “It is impractical to try monitoring every site that allows posting an online video. If someone posts an offensive content on a server situated in India, we can contact the webmasters and ask them to take such material off the Net. But when someone uploads a similar content on a site, whose server can be located anywhere in the world, bringing them to task can be quite tedious.”
Dr Sudhakar adds, “There are proposals to amend the I.T Act, which are yet to be set in place. But the concerned individuals in the I.T ministry should ensure that a right balance is struck between maintaining the law and allowing access to online information to Net users.”
Mr Vijayashankar says, “Instead of bringing in new laws and adding to the confusion, the I. T. ministry must try to strengthen the existing laws and mechanism. Procedural and bureaucratic bottlenecks should give way to an open-ended platform where citizens can directly approach the ministry and address their grievances and expect quick responses.”
Under the scanner
* Increasing cases of child pornography, MMS related scandals have prompted the government to take this step.
* An I.T professional in Bengaluru was falsely charged for posting an inappropriate image of Chhatrapati Shivaji online.
* After the Mumbai train blasts in 2006 social networking sites and blogs were barred for a few days to prevent terrorism.
Courtesy: Deccan
