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Netizens Arise…

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DQI Bureau
New Update

Turn-of-the-mill rumors have never fazed all and sundry. But this one has

sure caused heartache to the cyberdom populace--some members of the Internet

Service Providers’ Association of India (ISPAI), are planning to block popular

sites like Hotmail and Yahoo.

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Press reports claim that this is an attempt by the ISPAI to increase revenues

before its coffers run dry. Given that just a trickle of the moneystream is

flowing their way, ISPs have come up with an intelligent revenue sharing scheme

wherein these portals have to pay a part of their earnings to the ISPs if they

want traffic on their sites from India. With the number of subscribers growing

steadily, they apparently have reason to pose such a claim.

The move has been termed Internet extortion and is being booed down by users.

Also, given the lack of any legal provision to bar any ISP from blocking sites,

there is not much that one can do. So, will such a move by ISPs not choke the

Net access business ? Internet Telephony has lead to certain ISPs blocking their

rival’s net telephony services for more than two months.

But ISPAI has been quick in stating that the industry has no intention of

blocking popular websites. "Blocking does not solve any purpose," says

ISPAI secretary Amitabh Singhal. He adds that an ISP (read Data Infosys from

Rajasthan) had merely suggested an item (to ask for a revenue share from popular

portals) for discussion. "There were other items, including some suggesting

ways and means to resolve the core issues relating to Internet telephony.

However, any such issue, if at all taken up during our meetings does not reflect

either a consideration or consent on any matter," he said.

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The hue and cry stems from the fact that blocking and content is considered

to be under the discretion of the ISPs. In the past, some ISPs have refused to

carry out the instructions from authorities to block specific websites due to

‘technical reasons.’ ISPs have however been the beneficiaries of the

provisions under Section 79 of the ITA-2000 (In India) whereby they were

considered "intermediaries to communication" and absolved of the

responsibility for any "communication passing through them" if they

had exercised "due diligence" and "were unaware" of the

offending communication.

However, recent incidents point out that ISPs are now prepared to take

greater responsibilities in monitoring content viewed by their customers. While

VSNL had represented to the Mumbai High Court some time back (In the Cyber

Pornography at Cyber Cafe Case) that the technology is inadequate to block

specific websites, Satyam has indicated recently that it has the technological

capability and willingness to block specific websites. And Satyam’s blockage

of www.dialpad.com, www.net2phone.com etc has also added fuel to fire.

The argument is that ISPs should not exploit their rights of content

regulation and since they are only intermediaries in the real sense, they should

not infringe on the rights of netizens. If they do, it will be a suicidal move

since they would then assume full responsibility for the content delivered

including content from international porno sites, fraud sites, and hate sites,

and lose protection under Section 79 of the ITA-2000. They will also be open to

legal action from the consumers for violation of the ‘Right to Information’and

legal action from Hotmail and Yahoo for ‘Criminal intimidation and extortion.’

Courts can also take the view that it is possible to block identified sites at

the ISP level unless the ISP is deliberately not interested in such blocking.

There is still no confirmation on how this little item was leaked out to the

public and the ensuing debates and vocal fuming has left doubts about the

veracity of the reports and decision a section of the press claims was taken.

The ISPAI has clearly denied such an event and the feasibility of such an

occurrence in the future. But as for now, all we can do is cross our fingers and

hope our passwords still lead to our inboxes when we sign on next!

Dhanya Krishnakumar in New Delhi

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