On May 18, 2012 10:42 AM, "Raj Mathur (राज माथुर)" <[email protected]> wrote: > > On Friday 18 May 2012, Senthil S wrote: > > [snip]
> > My assurance to this House is that I will request distinguished hon. > > Members to write letters to me objecting to any specific > > words. I will then call a meeting of the Members as well as the > > industry and all the stakeholders. We will have a discussion > > and whatever consensus emerges, we will implement it. > > That's not really enough, is it? The primary issue is of two different > laws applying to issues like defamation, language, etc. On the one hand > you have speech in any other medium, which needs to pass through a > process of law to be classified as defamatory or derogatory or likely to > inflame communal violence, and on the other hand you have writing on the > Internet, which some babu somewhere decides meets arbitrary criteria and > can get taken down. > > The same process of law, of proving your case in a court must apply for > classification of expression, regardless of the medium in which the > expression has taken place. > > I don't think the process is quite as described. The real situation is far worse, that anyone can send a takedown notice on various grounds, about which there is justifiable annoyance, given the use of undefined terms, and terms that do not find direct reference under the criminal code. Such notices may indeed need some sort of post-facto endorsement by the government or courts, but organizations hosting the impugned content must act within 72 hours. 'Taken down' is also a curious expression, as in fact the impugned content must be preserved for judicial examination. The manner in which the Minister has replied reflects the position (and also his attitude, that Constitutional matters can be settled by a cosy little clique) into which the DIT has placed the State, with the arbitrary formulating of these sad little Rules, themselves the actionable definition of an Act that fails to address the genuine needs of our country. Why is this discussion OT, btw? Do we see scope for free software in an environment where free speech is sought to be legally shot down?
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