The following are some important Media articles wherein Pavan Duggal, Advocate, Supreme Court of India and Asia’s & India’s leading authority on Cyber law, has been quoted as an expert on various issues and aspects of Cyber law, Cyber crime, Social Media, Privacy, Cyber Security and other elements in the law and technology ecosystem:-
1. Terror on Twitter: the life and crimes of MehdiIn this report, The Hindu has quoted Pavan Duggal as under:-
“Under the language of Section 66 F of the Information Technology Act a mere tweet alone does not fulfil the parameters of cyber terrorism” and this only shows “the need to revisit the law to define and bring into focus the use of social media for cyber terrorism,” he argued.
Mr. Duggal added that “the law was amended in 2008 and since then much has changed in terms of technology and this only shows that cyber laws need to keep pace with quick technological changes” and that there is an “urgent need to focus on mobile internet and social media misuse to redefine cyber terror, war or naxalism.”
2. Internet ‘a basic human right’?
TheAsianAge has quoted Pavan Duggal as under:-
“The Internet has been the most significant development in human history after fire,” asserts cyber expert and lawyer Pavan Duggal as he outlines the importance of the Internet as a medium of communication.
“No other event after the discovery and use of fire has had greater impact on the evolution of mankind. Once such a boundary-less medium has been created and nurtured, it is essential that it be acknowledged as global heritage that belongs to mankind at large and not to any particular nation. Giving access to it, therefore, needs to be recognised as part of a basic human as well as fundamental right. Today, if you do not have access to the Internet, you will no longer be able to live life to its fullest possible extent. Neither would it be possible for you to have a well-informed dignified existence.
“Whether it is access to communication, information or even social media, the Internet is now the basic architectural layer on which all these activities are based. There needs to be a legal recognition of a right to accessing it. Most countries do not have any specific legislations in this regard, but they do have general laws stipulating fundamental rights that are broad enough to incorporate such a right. And this assumes a far more paramount significance now, given that the world is already undergoing a mobile revolution. We have more mobiles than people on this planet and this number is constantly growing. More and more people are now accessing the Internet through their devices. So now, mobile web access presents yet another incentive or catalyst for legal recognition for the right to access to the Internet as a basic human right.”
3. How 66(A) of IT Act can be dangerous for an internet/technology user: Explained
In this report, Oneindia has quoted cyber law expert Pavan Duggal as under:-
Basically as cyber law expert Pavan Duggal puts it, "it only aims at fixing a leaking roof with a band aid."
According to Duggal the amendment only ensured that we were going back to square one. The IT Act of 2000 had stated that an officer in the level of a DSP could probe such cases. There was an amendment in 2008 which stated that an officer in the rank of an inspector general should probe the case.
4. Huawei to do 'anything it takes' to protect its patents
Cyber law expert and advocate Pavan Duggal has quoted by The Economics Times:-
"Patent litigation comes at a time when the commercial value is so viable that the holder starts looking at potential loss of revenue," said leading cyber law expert and advocate Pavan Duggal.
"Digital commerce (mcommerce and ecommerce) growth has increased the revenue pie exponentially, hence the protection of patent rights has caught the attention of right holders and they're increasingly going for litigation to protect and preserve their interest," Duggal said.
"Such changes in the digital landscape will start to have different ramifications, which is the reason why these litigations are coming now and this is one area of litigation which is going to grow exponentially."
5. Cyber bullying is a crime, but open to interpretation: Expert
In this report, The Economics Times has quoted cyber law expert Pavan Duggal as under:-
Under Section 66 (A) of the IT Act, 2000, cyber bullying is a bailable offence, punishable with three years of imprisonment and fine. However, the complainant and police can interpret what constitutes offensive behaviour, said cyber law expert Pavan Duggal.
6. Why did India fail to discover the ISIS Twitter handle?
Business-standard has cited Advocate Pavan Duggal in this report as under:-
“India’s surveillance system fails to track the servers of internet giants like Google or Facebook because these do not have servers in the country. Our system is only confined within the country,” says Pavan Duggal, a leading cyber law expert.
Dataquest had excerpted a conversation with Pavan Duggal as under:-
How would you explain cybercrime? In what forms is it flourishing?
Cybercrime has increased multifold in the last few years as more and more people have begun to use the Internet. Cybercriminals are after scapegoats and harnessing the weaknesses significantly. But there are different aspects of cybercrime. Basically cybercrime exists in three forms—Crime against property, crime against persons to defame or harass them, and crime against states or nations to wage cyber terrorism.
Is Indian law capable of handling the cybercrime instances which we often see occurring around?
Indian law lacks teeth to deal with cyber offenses. Ever since the Internet services were commercially launched in India on August 15, 1995, Indian law has not been able to deal with cybercrime. The existing IT Act 2000 and related sections of the IPC are not the distinct laws on cybercrime. Also, after the 2008 amendments in the IT Act, except for few cybercrimes, the rest have been made bailable. The law lacks strength to deal with cases.
Has the Indian law been able to set some examples through conviction in these cases?
This is an important point. Sadly, the IT Act is incapable of bringing offenders to justice. Till date there have only been seven convictions in cybercrime cases. Because of the conviction rate being so low, offenders are getting the wrong impressions. It is important that cybercrime becomes non-bailable. Only then, India will see decline in cases of this kind. At least there will be a fear. Only crimes which are non-bailable are cyber terrorism, child pornography and breach of protected cyber system.
In the area of cyber warfare what trends do you see emerging post the NSA snooping became public?
The biggest cyberlaw trend in 2014 would be the enhanced frequency and instances of interception, surveillance, and monitoring across the world. The recent Snowden revelations regarding the US surveillance program PRISM have exhibited how networks and computer systems of legal entities outside a particular jurisdiction have been subjected to surveillance without the knowledge of such legal entities.
Many countries are likely to put in place stringent regulatory regimes which will aim to prevent/curb the unauthorized access to their network and further make such acts as penal offenses. However, the challenge will be to ensure as to how continued interception, monitoring and surveillance is to be regulated in a manner so as to give a semblance of respect to the rights and obligation to individual users of computer systems and digital ecosystem.
As technology will only erode the basic essentials of the concept of privacy in the digital ecosystem, what are the areas which will be critical for authorities to take care of?
The year 2014 is likely to see more calls to protect and preserve as also strengthen the legal regimes to help protect not just data privacy but also personal privacy of the relevant stakeholders.
The government needs to pay attention to build and implement policy so that cybercrime taking place in areas such as cloud, social media and mobility can be handled properly. For a country like India, it is important to take these thing seriously because if the law has teeth, it will send a positive message in the business community.
How prepared do you think our security and investigative agencies are to deal with cybercrime?
We need major capacity building in order to handle cases. At present security and investigative agencies are not able to deal with cybercrime. We need to train them with the latest technology so that they can think the way cyber criminals think. It will help in effective crime detection and investigation.
8. Uber ceases operations in city
In this report, TheAsianAge has quoted Pavan Duggal as under:-Cyber expert Pavan Duggal said it may be difficult to implement the ban on Web-based cab services in the absence of an “appropriate law” on mobile apps in India. He said Uber can only restrict its app-based taxi booking service on its own as the government agencies do not have any mechanism to restrict it only to Delhi. “It is impossible to ban the Web-based cab services as there is no appropriate law under which mobile apps can be monitored and controlled. Besides, there is also no national policy to regulate such services,” said Mr Duggal.
“Since Internet is boundary-less and there is no law to control mobile apps in India, traffic police cannot completely ban such services,” Mr Duggal added.
9. Touchy Indians try to cut online risk to religion, reputation
Business-standard has quoted Advocate Pavan Duggal in this report as under:-
Cyber law expert Pavan Duggal points out to a simple aspect of the lacuna in Indian laws. "Defamation is a loose canon with every individual a global transporter, receiver of information. The word defamation has no mention in the Indian IT Act. The government did include it in the IT rules in 2011."
"The law enforcement agencies are working with archaic law. For them, rather than investigating the cases, it blocked is important to get content blocked," added Duggal. He also pointed out that the number of request that these transparency reports talk about in terms of government request when compared to the total population of the country, then these numbers are nowhere.
10. India's trouble with monitoring of social media continues In this report, Business-Standard has quoted Pavan Duggal as under:- “Twitter is now bound to demonstrate to the Indian authorities they have exercised due diligence while disseminating duties. If service providers are not cooperating with the law, they are as liable as the offender.” 11. It will be a test case In this report, The Hindu has cited Pavan Duggal as under:-“This is the first case of its kind under cyber terrorism in the country, and the way it is handled by the police will determine the usage of the Act for these offences,” said Pavan Duggal, a Mumbai-based advocate specialising in cyber law.
Apart from collecting digital evidence, tweets and information about followers — who may or may not be in the country — he believes the local police will be confronted with the challenge of proving intent. “The Act applies to striking terror in the minds of the people, or action likely to cause injury — which covers a broad range of activities. There is definitely a need to bring in more specifics,”
12. Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi cleans up its act
In today in this report has excerpted leading cyber law & e-commerce expert Pavan Duggal"This is a much bigger problem than it appears to be. Both state and non-state actors outside India have tremendous interest in Indian data as it will allow them to do things like track economic growth patterns."
India has a poor legal regime for data and privacy protection even after amendments to the IT Act of 2000. There is no dedicated data protection law," he said. Duggal pointed out that under Section 79 of the IT Act, "intermediaries" or service providers are required to exercise due diligence while discharging their obligations.
Experts like Duggal believe the ultimate solution lies in "data localisation", or ensuring that teh data of Indian citizens is retained in servers within the country. "The culture of cybersecurity is non-existent in the minds of lay Indians but such data harvested by other countries can play havoc on their lives and the collective interests of the nation," Duggal said.
13. National Cyber Security Policy a Mere Paper Tiger
The New Indian Express has quoted Advocate Pavan Duggal in this report as under:-“Terrorists strike at the roots of our sovereignty. We are pretty lost in the woods as far as cyber terrorism is concerned, which presently is an offence under Section 66 of the Information Technology Act. There are several legal challenges. We need both legal and cyber-savvy experts to deal with this issue. We cannot fight cyber terrorism with a single legal provision. So we also need to have several procedures in place,” said Supreme Court advocate and noted cyber law expert Pavan Duggal.
“We need to flex our political muscles and then go in for tackling cyber crimes. To tackle cyber crime, there is a need to address the shortage of security programmers as well. The role and responsibility of the stakeholders in the event of social media being utilised for criminal and terrorist activities should also be defined.”
14. The leak of things to come
The Asianage has cited Pavan Duggal in this report as follows:-Numerous precautions need to be taken by creative people while sharing their content online, suggests cyber expert and lawyer Pavan Duggal. He informs, “The complete content should never be shared on the Internet and it should, as far as possible, be protected by digital rights management. One should not trust strangers while dealing with one’s original content as behind the cloak of anonymity, there could be cyber criminals waiting to deprive you of your rights. Social media users should never trust any calls/emails asking for information/verification of their bank details or any such personal account details as the same could be a phishing attack.”
Also, if you are a well-known public figure with a considerable fan following, avoid publishing any content, the disclosure of which could embarrass you.
15. FIR against BJP leader for hurting religious sentiments
In this report, The Hindu Excerpt Pavan Dugal as under: Lawyer Pavan Duggal explained that sending any information from a computer or mobile phone, which is grossly offensive, is an offence, and even if it is subsequently taken off that doesn’t reduce the nature of offence. 16. Beware of impostors In this report,The AsianAge has cited Pavan Duggal as under:“Internet is a very fertile field which will always allow intrinsic new capacities and capabilities for impostors to keep on misusing the network.”
Pavan adds, “However, we need to consciously follow certain dos and don’ts to prevent harm from such imposters. People must routinely search for their names online and especially on social networking sites. There are various search engines available which will allow you to monitor all mentions made about you on social media.
Adopting this methodology will enable you to be sensitive to what is being written by you, about you or people acting as impostors. If you find somebody who has created fake emails and social media accounts in your name, you must immediately report the matter to the police. You can report to your local police station else you can even send an email to the official website of your state police. Further, you should also write to social networking sites asking them to disable such account on the ground that the said account is an impostor.
You should also post it on your social media account that some unknown person is acting as impostor on the indicated links so that you can make people more aware that they do not get exploited by the illegal designs of the imposters. One should not give one’s username and password to any other third person. People need to realise that acting as an impostor tantamount to offence punishable with three years imprisonment and fine under Section 66C of the Information Technology At, 2000.
17.Experts say arrest of ISIS twitter handler a wake-up call
ANI news in this report, has excerpted leading cyber law expert & Advocate Pavan DuggalCyber terrorism was emerging as the biggest challenge. Mehdi Masroor Biswas's arrest at home came days after Britain's Channel Four identified him as the man behind "Shami Witness", the Twitter handle followed by thousands of people including most foreign fighters for the Islamic State.
18. Narendra Modi’s social media popularity reflects India’s significance: Cyber expert
In this report, cyberlaw expert Pavan Duggal has been quoted by BGRCyber expert Pawan Duggal on Thursday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi”s rising social media popularity reflects India’s significance under the latter’s leadership, and added it is a salutation to his eccentric understanding of the social media and internet.Duggal said Prime Minister Modi is having the second largest number of followers after U.S. President Barack Obama. “One single fact to tell you how significant India has become, but more significantly it”s also a salute and salutation to the eccentric understanding of this distinguished statesman who understands, lives and breathes social media and the internet,” Duggal said. “It is because of him giving the message in such crystal clear simple words that he is becoming extremely popular, and I believe very quickly his popularity is further going to increase,” he added.
Talking of the Digital India programme that was launched earlier in July to bridge the divide between digital ”haves” and ”have-nots”, Duggal said: “I believe it is going to irreversibly change India and transform India into a knowledge economy because this is the vision of the programme.” “If entire governmental services are going to be made available on the cloud, on the go, for people where participating governance is going to be the mantra governance, I believe, Digital India programme, if implemented properly can not just catapult India among the top group of nations, who are the top IT superpowers o f the world, but also can set an example to the world of how internet and social media can be used for the purposes of governance and participating governance.”
19. Will ask social networking sites to have servers in India: Centre to SC
Intoday in this report, has excerpted leading cyber law advocate Pavan Duggal as under:-
"Making overseas-headquartered sites set up a server in India is essential to protect sovereign rights. It helps in removal of undesirable, illegal and unwarranted content and we can prevent undesirable data on Indians from being illegally transferred outside the country's territorial boundaries. Germany is already working in this direction."
Duggal said the Information Technology Act does not make it illegal to view adult porn but watching child pornography is an offence under Section 67B of IT Act, added in 2008. "It is also an offence to cultivate, entice or induce children to an online relationship with other children for a sexual act," he said. "It is a non-bailable offence with a maximum jail term of seven years and a fine of up to `10 lakh. But the problem is that this law has never been invoked and there has not been any conviction till date."
20. Socializing with a virtual wallet
In this report , Livemint has quoted Pavan Duggal as under:-“Technically, it is possible to attack at the time of transfer,” said Pavan Duggal, a New Delhi-based cyber law expert. According to him, the current legal regulations have guidelines around electronic payments but not specifically for mobile payments. “We need to look at the contract and how it is drafted. We also need to see who will be responsible if money goes missing and what is the liability of the mobile network being used. There are many questions to be answered,” added Duggal. He expects the government to address the space soon.
21. Hiring: social media whiz-kids In this report , The Telegraph, India has quoted Pavan Duggal as under:- "It certainly is not good for the Indian government to be ranked second in terms of user data request. What needs to be seen is the legal basis of these requests. More importantly, if you look at last year, one thing is clear - the Indian cyber law is incapable of handling issues emanating from usage of social media," 22. Welcome to anonymity 2.0 In this report,The Times of India has cited Pavan Duggal as under: Cyber lawyer Pavan Duggal says the law in India is silent on anonymity."But intermediaries — that is the app or website facilitating the communication — can be held liable in case of misuse under the law." 23. Internet censorship- Is blocking the right approach? In this report , One India has excerpted Pavan Duggal as under:- Internet censorship in China is the most rigid and is known as the Great Firewall of China. However can India replicate this? The answer is no as India by and large represents two models of government. The vibrant constitution of India does not let the internet laws be that rigid. 24.Pakistan People's Party Website Hacker Revealed: 16-Year-Old Indian Claims Responsibility In this report, International Business Times has cited Pavan Duggal as under: - Though the Bl@ck Dr@gon claims to be taking revenge on Pakistani hackers and not causing any harm to Indian websites, they are still under legal purview. Cyber lawyer Pavan Duggal said that whatever they are doing is illegal and is "punishable under section 43 and 66 of the Information Technology Act." 25. Facebook, Google, Twitter and other social networks will have to host web servers in India: Centre to SC In this report, BGR has cited Pavan Duggal as under: -“Making overseas-headquartered sites set up a server in India is essential to protect sovereign rights. It helps in removal of undesirable, illegal and unwarranted content and we can prevent undesirable data on Indians from being illegally transferred outside the country’s territorial boundaries.”
In this report, The Asian Age has quoted Cyberlaw expert Pavan Duggal as under: -
“There are ramifications which users need to know of. Firstly, this could have impact on your privacy. ‘Do you want to be a passive recipient or do you want to be an active participant in a conversation’ should remain in the exclusive control of the individual user. But by providing this feature WhatsApp has violated the personal and data privacy of an individual because I as an individual may want to read certain things but may not want this to be known to the sender. Secondly, and more significantly, you can use this feature to prove in a court of law that a person has read the content, which could then potentially expose the reader to legal consequences. For e.g. if a person sends some content which involves child pornography and if the receiver has viewed the content then it automatically means that he has browsed the content and that is an offence under Section 67B which involves imprisonment and fine. And it can also be used for entrapment purposes as well.”
In this report, The Times of India has quoted advocate Pavan Duggal as under: -
"It takes one casual online encounter for cracks to appear in a committed relationship. In America, Facebook is the cause of one in five divorces, in India it is one in 20." 28. Manual acknowledges tax sleuths’ shortcomings on digital caches In this report, Livemint has cited advocate Pavan Duggal as under: -“In today’s context, the government departments in India lack capacity in terms of their sensitization of the digital format. Consequently, we find that the kind of cutting-edge developments that should be taking place in forensics are not taking place.”
29. Rapists in India shame victims with online videos
In this report, Stuff.co.nz has cited advocate Pavan Duggal as under: -
"There is a lot of homegrown revenge porn in our small towns, and we are seeing a revenge-porn economy emerging in India." 30. India wants to nix Internet porn – will it work In this report, WND World has cited advocate Pavan Duggal as under: - “When any country blocks porn, it is a form of internet censorship,” “This specific issue is problematic because India doesn’t have a universal definition of porn. Indian cyber law doesn’t use the word pornography.” 31. Why many states are using the 1923 Goondas Act to curb digital piracy In this report, The Scroll.in has quoted advocate Pavan Duggal as under: -Scroll.in quoted when the companies whose digital assets are being infringed upon want to take criminal action, they have to rely on police. Further cited “But clubbing technology-related laws and the Goonda Act is a bad idea with disproportionate punishment.”
32. Revenge porn makes private videos a public disgrace
In this report, Business-Standard has quoted advocate Pavan Duggal as under: -
“Revenge porn is not a cottage industry; it is a specialised industry,” “I have seen it being committed at school by children below 18,” “In most of the cases, the woman is the victim, though I have also dealt with cases where the man was victimised,” lastly “A higher number of cases are being reported from smaller cities where it is far easier to defame a person,”
33. Emerging global cyberlaw trends in 2014 In this report , Business-Standard has excerpted Pavan Duggal as under:-Globally, the year 2014 was a year that was dedicated to cybercrimes and hacking. In fact, cybercrime as a phenomenon loomed large and predominant on the firmament of cyberspace landscape. Looking at the predominant events that happened in 2014 across the world, one gets an intrinsic feeling that the year 2014 was a year to remind the world that cyber criminal activities and breaches of cybercrime are going to be an integral part of our day-to-day lives.
Seen from another perspective, the predominant existing landscape also demonstrates an ongoing struggle between the digital haves and the digital have-nots. The worlds saw one of the biggest hacking attacks in the form of Sony hacking. In the said case, hackers reportedly infiltrated the computer network of Sony Pictures Entertainment, a major Hollywood movie studio. The attackers apparently stole a huge number of confidential documents, which are now being downloaded (primarily by journalists) from file-sharing networks. This event led to political events and war of words between the US and North Korea.
The year 2014 was also remarkable for the iCloud hacking whereby nude photographs of various celebrities were hacked and put up onto the Internet. The year was full of important hacking attacks which were targeted at different computer systems and resources located in different parts of the world.
Turkey saw a major hacking which involved a Turkish hacker group called RedHack attacking the systems of the Turkey Electricity Company and claiming to have deleted $796 billion of electricity bills of Turkish citizens in protest about the Turkish government’s censorship of the internet.
The Gmail hacking in September month of 2014 led to 5 million Gmail usernames and passwords being compromised and about 100,000 were released on a Russian forum site. The year 2014 saw the eBay hacking which led to cyber attacks in late February and early March leading to the compromise of eBay employee log-ins, allowing access to the contact and log-in information for 233 million eBay customers. This led eBay to issue a statement asking all users to change their passwords. The year 2014 also saw the Russian hacking which led to Russian hackers stealing 1.2 billion user names and passwords in a series of Internet heists affecting 420,000 websites. The messages in 2014 were loud and clear that no computer system or network in the world was safe and the cyber criminals and cyber terrorists were increasingly targeting computer networks across the world for various political, vested and ideological purposes.
This was the year where projections concerning Cybercrime propagation and its frequency touched the roof top. As per latest projections, in 2014, it was projected that global losses connected to “personal information” breaches are estimated to reach $160 billion. Forty million people in the U.S., roughly 15 percent of the population, have had their personal information stolen by hackers. One study conducted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) tracked high-profile breaches around the world: 54 million in Turkey; 20 million in Korea; 16 million in Germany; 8.5 billion in Italy and more than 20 million in China and number of cybercrimes costs nearly $445 billion quantum worldwide.
2014 was also the year of the Home Depot hacking. An attack that led to the compromise of 56 million credit-card accounts and stealing of around 53 million customer email addresses.
2014 was the year when the Heartbleed virus was discovered. Heartbleed is a security bug in the OpenSSL cryptography library, which is a widely used implementation of the Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol. Malware, spyware and spam continued to predominate in the year 2014. New kinds of virii came to be disseminated the world and more cybercrime activities loomed large.
Bitcoins movement received a jolt when Mt Gox Bitcoins exchange collapsed due to malicious trading of Bitcoins. This was also the year when internationally the governments of the world continued to be living in an atmosphere of distrust and mistrust.
Post-Snowden revelations, governments of the world were extremely concerned about potential interception, monitoring and surveillance happening or impacting their computer systems or networks as also resources. No major movement took place across the world in terms of concluding with any international dialogue or treaty towards protection and preservation of cyber security. The International Conference on Cyberlaw, Cybercrime & Cyber Security took place in November 2014 in India highlighted the significant issues impacting the intersection of Cyberlaw, Cybercrime and Cybersecurity and came up with various recommendations for international stakeholders. The year 2014 once again underlined the inefficacy of cyber legal regimes across the world to deal with emerging kinds of cyber challenges.
The year 2014 was also the year of the emergence of the dark web. This was the year when dark web started emerging and where Cybercrime as an economy model available in the dark web came to the forefront. This was also the year when the FBI was successful in shutting down Silk Road 2.0 after shutting down Silk Road 1.0 in late 2013.
This year also demonstrated how cyber legal regimes across the world are likely to face immense problems in terms of getting convictions done in cybercrime matters given the transnational nature of cybercrimes and given the transnational nature of the incriminating electronic evidence that has to be collected from different centers.
34. How not to get arrested under 66A for your online chatter
In this report , Citizenmatters.in has excerpted Cyberlaw Expert Pavan Duggal as under:- How can you not get arrested under section 66A? Since the ambit of the section 66 A is very vast, that anything and everything can come under it. It is advisable to be careful and not to flirt with danger. It is advisable to be extremely careful while making use of Computer, Computer System, Computer Network or using Mobile Phone, Smart Phone, iPhone, iPad, Tablet, Smart Devices, Personal Digital Assistants, BlackBerry or any other communication devices. Is 66A dangerous? Pavan Duggal calls section 66A, a whirlpool in which if you get caught, it is very difficult to get out. Section 66 A is perceived as ‘draconian’ by many. Because, 1) An individual's basic right of freedom of expression and speech is curbed at the behest of someone’s perception. 2) Punishment under this section can extend up to imprisonment upto three years. 3) It is cognisable i.e. anyone can be arrested without an arrest warrant. Section 66 A of the IT act 2000 needs to be re-visited. It is unconstitutional and goes much beyond the scope of Article 19(1) of the constitution that guarantees Freedom of Speech and Expression. “There is no need for such a provision as there are already reasonable restrictions stated in the article 19(2) that states freedom of speech and expression shouldn’t affect the sovereignty and integrity and security of the country, friendly relations with foreign states, public order, decency or morality or in relation to contempt of court, defamation or incitement to an offence.”Therefore, the section 66 A needs to be struck down. Giving the police officers such discretionary powers, makes it more dangerous and a potent weapon to use against anybody. 35. Vodafone lets snoop cat out, says India sought access to its network even as it admits to existence of 'direct wires' In this report , Indiatoday has excerpted Cyberlaw Expert Pavan Duggal as under:-"The amendment in the Information Technology Act in 2008, makes it mandatory for all telecom companies to provide government access to data, voice and other means of communication services provided by them to their consumers." "On the other hand, the government is not transparent about the mechanism on phone-tapping. There have been many cases where the government agencies have not followed the procedure required for approval. This could mean that orders for phone tapping may not have been taken from the authority concerned."
36. How not to get arrested under 66A for your online chatter
In this report , Bangalore Citizenmatters has excerpted Cyberlaw Expert Pavan Duggal as under:-
How can you not get arrested under section 66A? Since the ambit of the section 66 A is very vast, that anything and everything can come under it. It is advisable to be careful and not to flirt with danger. It is advisable to be extremely careful while making use of Computer, Computer System, Computer Network or using Mobile Phone, Smart Phone, iPhone, iPad, Tablet, Smart Devices, Personal Digital Assistants, BlackBerry or any other communication devices. Is 66A dangerous? Pavan Duggal calls section 66A, a whirlpool in which if you get caught, it is very difficult to get out. Section 66 A is perceived as ‘draconian’ by many. Because, 1) An individual's basic right of freedom of expression and speech is curbed at the behest of someone’s perception. 2) Punishment under this section can extend up to imprisonment upto three years. 3) It is cognisable i.e. anyone can be arrested without an arrest warrant.
Section 66 A of the IT act 2000 needs to be re-visited. It is unconstitutional and goes much beyond the scope of Article 19(1) of the constitution that guarantees Freedom of Speech and Expression. “There is no need for such a provision as there are already reasonable restrictions stated in the article 19(2) that states freedom of speech and expression shouldn’t affect the sovereignty and integrity and security of the country, friendly relations with foreign states, public order, decency or morality or in relation to contempt of court, defamation or incitement to an offence.”Therefore, the section 66 A needs to be struck down. Giving the police officers such discretionary powers, makes it more dangerous and a potent weapon to use against anybody.
India needs stricter child abuse laws, say activists It is clear that the Internet cannot be ever rid of the poison of child abuse. We can make efforts to get it reduced to the barest minimum possible. We have to realise that pornography is the biggest mover of e commerce in the world. And therefore child abuse and paedophiles are constantly going to be invading the internet and cyber space. So its going to be a constant fight and the more we are able to minimise them towards marginalisation that is the better way going forward. The trends reveal a "maturing of the country's cybercrime economy." "Hacking is no longer done to assert technological superiority , but for monetary gains, pointing to the case of hacker Amit Tiwari from Pune, who was arrested earlier this year for compromising over a 1,000 email accounts both in India and abroad. He was a part of a global network of hackers.
37. Dodge the doxers
In this report , The Asian Age has excerpted Pavan Duggal, Advocate, Supreme Court of India, as under:-
Any act of releasing personal information without a user’s consent for vested reasons – noble or otherwise – is legally punishable with a fine and a three-year jail term. He elaborates, “Such an acitivity does not comply with the parameters of laws anywhere and would be classified as cyber crime. In the specific context of India, personal information is protected by the Information Technology Rules 2011. Indian thresholds for data protection are still less strict than they are in Europe, where the laws are much more absolute in their implications.”
38. Expect more legal spats with low-cost 4G phones: Experts
In this report , Times of India has quoted Cyberlaw Expert & Advocae Supreme Court of India Pavan Duggal as under:-
"In telecom, patent litigation is going to be huge all across the world and India is no exception,"
As device makers, running on tight margins, look to cut costs, the potential to copy designs and "the other element of not using the right licences, cannot be ruled out"
Vendors may also look to circumvent expensive R&D investments and choose the more "economically viable" option of copying the technology, and then face potential risk of patent litigation as part of business risks.
39. Forget typing, go live-streamIn this report, The Asian Age has quoted Pavan Duggal as under:-
Cyber expert Pavan Duggal, on his part, send out a word of caution to Indian users in particular. “With live video streaming services or apps, there is going to be a huge amount of personal data that could be potentially accessed by anyone with hacking skills while it is being streamed from your system to a secure server. With a lot of apps now coming in that allow you to stream videos directly from your phone, a lot of locational information is also being collected. For example, almost all smartphones today capture your latitude-longitude location. People need to be extremely careful because expecting the social media layer to protect your security when you’re doing live-streaming is not a legitimate expectation. I think people need to be sensitised also about the legal ramifications of this phenomenon. It looks cool to live stream, but it can have security ramifications and the law is far, far behind in India. It hasn’t reached the point where it can protect you from breaches in this context. Here, if your sensitive data gets exposed on account of live-streaming, you’ll find that the IT Act is completely silent on the issue. The call of the hour would then also be for us to revisit our laws and update them. Till such time that happens, it is up to users to protect and safeguard themselves,” he concludes.
40. Indian Domain Experts Gather at Second World Domain Day ConferenceIn this report The Whir has quoted Pavan Duggal an expert in cyberlaw and ecommerce law as under: “Domain names are not only about domaineering – they can also lead to communal riots,” Pavan Duggal explained how cybersquatting has been prominent ever since domaineering was introduced.
He also explained the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy and how anybody can file a petition under this policy and a domain name can be transferred. If the applicant who files the petition wants his/her domain name back the applicant will have to prove:
The domain is similar to the complainant’s domain. The respondent has no legitimate rights or interests to the concerned domain. The domain name is being/ has been registered in bad faith.Speaking about the vastness of registrations made in bad faith, he gave several examples where petitions were filed under the UDNDRP and the points under which the complainant had filed his petition in the process explaining the ramifications of details not being accurately filled during the registration of domains.
41. Violation of privacy through CCTV cameras rampant, say experts In this report Business Standard has quoted cyber law expert Pavan Duggal as under:-"Our law is patently wanting because this is not the first time this has happened; cases are being reported every now and then. The lack of quantified damages emboldens the offender,"
However, the provision is a "toothless wonder", as it is a bailable offence, with only three years of imprisonment and a fine of Rs 2 lakh, says cyber law expert and Supreme Court advocate Pavan Duggal. He adds since there are no clear guidelines on how to capture (the format), preserve (the duration) and present the CCTV camera footage, investigations into such crimes aren't done properly, leading to no convictions so far.
42. Govt may favour net neutrality; final call to be taken in May 2nd weekIn this report, Hindustan Times has quoted leading Supreme Court lawyer who specialises in IT Pavan Duggal as under:-
“The telecom regulator can only recommend. The IT Act does not mention anything on net neutrality, the telecom policy on it is ambiguous and there is social concern. The issue is bound to go to courts,” 43. India to come out with its internet neutrality In this report ANI has excerpted leading Cyber Law expert Pavan Duggal as under: “Cyber laws expert, Pavan Duggal, urged the government to take pro-active steps so that Internet service providers (ISPs) treat all data that travels over their networks equally.” 44. Net Neutrality: Internet Is A Global Heritage, Not Preserve Of Select FewIn this report News Hub has reproduced the expert views and perspectives of Pavan Duggal, leading expert and authority on Cyber law & Mobile Law, expressed in an interview with OneIndia, as under:
We have to quickly realize that internet is a global heritage. It cannot seize to be a preserve of a selective few. Therefore, one needs to ensure that the internet should not be captive to commercial or other interests. The argument looks attractive on paper but has huge ramifications. It aims not to use net as an equalizer, but as discriminator and divider. There will be two kind of users those who can splurge money and those who cannot. But can it be done at the cost of those who cannot splurge money? The fundamental principle to net neutrality is that the network must be neutral and net must be a common platform for all. The current controversy is thanks to an event of March 2015. The Supreme Court hands a thumping victory for online speech in its verdict on Section 66A. Three days later on March 27th, the TRAI publishes a consultation paper on its website which aims to get responses from various stake-holders on various issues of net neutrality. If you look at the paper, the paper appears to be troubled that the new technologies like over the over the top applications are eating into profits of service providers. This consultation paper has sought comments till April 24th. Some other initiatives like Airtel zero and internet.org have made offerings in which service providers we will give websites for free. However if you go beyond the bouquet of services then you will be preferentially charged. When I as a consumer buy a 1 GB data pack, I pay for the same and it is my my choice where I want to go. Under the new scheme the service provider decides where the consumer goes free or is preferentially charged. Consumers will be deterred to go to preferentially charged websites as it would cost him money. There are various legal challenges pertaining to net neutrality and need to be considered now before proceedings ahead. The first challenge is network neutrality not defined under the IT Act of 2000. Also, the first biggest challenge for us as an Indian nation is to define net neutrality. We need to protect the consumer so that his choice is not inhabited or restricted. Also the entire issue needs to be seen from the aspect that such proposed initiatives should not lead to curtailment of online freedom including freedom of speech and even online liberty including the right to chose. Intermediaries should understand that if they put consumes at a disadvantage it will have an impact on their future. These are interesting times and far too complicated to be decided by consultation paper. Fortunately the TRAI can only recommend and it is entirely up to the government of India to decide on the issue. We cant do a cut and paste of an American example. India needs to evolve its own approach to net neutrality. 45. Net Neutrality debate: Three opinions that provide an alternate view In this report Firstpost, has quoted Pavan Duggal, leading and prominent authority on Cyber law as under:-:-“There is no reason for India to be hastening up any kind of action on net neutrality. The government needs to be well-informed of the inputs, views and thought processes of various stakeholders and then take a customized approach depending upon the specific customized requirements of Indian nation and the expected growth of the Indian mobile web,
There are arguments about how net neutrality is important for India’ Digital dream. It is also important for small businesses and startups, especially considering that India is becoming a breeding ground for startups and entrepreneurs.
“However, the conditions in India are dramatically different. India is a Sovereign, Socialist, Secular, and Democratic Republic under the Indian Constitution. With second-largest population in the world, we are constantly growing and evolving Mobile Web where increasing majority of Indian are only accessing the Internet through their mobile devices,” he said.
Duggal believes the American experience on net neutrality could indeed provide various learnings for the Indian experience. However, the fact still remains that India will need to carve out its own specific way, going forward in the context of the net neutrality.
46. Facebook's Internet.org affected as India debates net neutrality In this report Channel News Asia, has quoted Asia’s top most Cyber law Expert Pavan Duggal as under:- Cyber laws expert and activist Pavan Duggal says the government cannot allow service providers to decide price in an arbitrary manner: "Common consumers will suffer. It is necessary to take proactive steps to prevent this." 47.10 guiding principles on net neutrality in IndiaIn this article on Pavan Duggal’s Blog, Asia’s and India’s foremost expert and authority on Cyber law, writes his thoughts on the legalities concerning net neutrality as under:-
The recent uproar on net neutrality has demonstrated in no uncertain terms, the voice and power of the netizen community. On 27th March 2015, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) put up on its website a consultation paper in a quiet unannounced manner. The said consultation paper is titled “Consultation Paper On Regulatory Framework for Over-the-top (OTT) services”. The said consultation paper was drafted in a manner wherein lot of questions was sought to be asked from specific perspectives. The said paper has since now been known in the public domain as Net Neutrality Consultation Paper of TRAI.
At the time of writing, the said paper had generated immense amount of debate. Seen from another angle, the paper has brought up certain proposals, which if implemented could have an ultimate impact upon curtailment of online freedoms of Indian citizens and netizen community.
The entire issue of net neutrality has certainly become very important. Net neutrality is a principle that is dedicated to making the Internet a neutral platform for the proliferation of all kinds of services offered by all stakeholders.
While there is lot of discussion and debate about net neutrality in India, I believe that there must be some common Guiding principles, which should show the way forward on net neutrality in India.
In my opinion, the following 10 Guiding principles concerning net neutrality in India can enable stakeholders to have a holistic approach to net neutrality:
Internet is a global heritage of mankind as a whole. We need the Internet to further contribute to the growth of human mankind in society and not leading to divisions within society. Internet needs to be protected as Internet is the common paradigm platform which allows the hosting of creative, innovative approaches of communication, dissemination and transmission of thought processes as also data and information in the electronic form whether in the form of audio, video, image or text. Any initiative on net neutrality should not have impact, to the detriment of the ultimate consumers/netizens of the Internet. Consumer protection issues become critical and most significant in the context of Net neutrality. Initiatives violating Net neutrality should not create an ecosystem of digital haves and digital have-nots, where the digital haves, by might of their money power can access better quality of services on the Internet at the expense of the digital have-nots, who stand disenfranchised by differential payments for various services and schemes. Today people’s lives are dependent on the Internet. People today have a fundamental right to access the Internet. I personally believe that the right to access the Internet is part of the fundamental right to life under Article 21 of the Constitution of India and is sacrosanct in nature and can only be curtailed, in accordance with the procedure established by law. This intrinsically means that any kind of net neutrality has to only come through the legal route in the form of legislation not otherwise. The complicated legal, policy and regulatory issues concerning net neutrality need to be examined in great detail, more so given the fact that the Information Technology Act, 2000 and rules and regulations made thereunder are completely silent on the issue of net neutrality. Net neutrality violative schemes should not become a tool of service providers to legitimately deny or violate the people’ online freedom including their freedom of speech and expression. Net Neutrality, if not handled properly, could prejudicially impact the Digital India Programme of the Indian Government. We need to be consciously careful that the victories obtained for Internet freedom of speech and expression by the Supreme Court in the Section 66A case should not given up on the table in net neutrality debates. Net neutrality needs to be understood in the context of the lay’s user of the Internet in India. Any enhancement of billing for a lay Internet or mobile’s user is not only going to intrinsically harm the financial interests of the Indian consumer but could also impact the further penetration of Internet apart from prejudicially impacting the confidence and trust that users have in the Internet regulation regime.The aforesaid are some important guiding principles that could guide stakeholders when they proceed forward in the direction of addressing net neutrality issues.
48.Calm down! India shouldn’t jump the gun on net neutrality Pavan Duggal, Advocate, Supreme Court of India, Asia’s & India’s leading expert and authority on Cyber law & Mobile Law, in his recent column at First Post seeks to examine the various legal and policy issues concerning Net NeutralityMarch 2015 was a historic month in the history of independent India in the context of Information Technology, where significant events happened which have a profound long-term impact upon various stakeholders.
On 24 March, 2015, the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India, in the landmark case of “Shreya Singhal v/s Union of India” struck down Section 66A of the Information Technology Act, 2000 as being constitutionally invalid. The said judgment hailed the sacrosanct nature of the freedom of speech and expression on the Internet and found Section 66A of the Information Technology Act, 2000 violating the parameters enumerated under Article 19 (2) of the Constitution of India. The said judgment also upheld the issue pertaining to intermediaries’ liability in India. The said judgment generated huge response from all stakeholders, because the Internet freedom was being hailed upon.
On 27 March 2015, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) put up on its website a consultation paper in a quiet unannounced manner. The said consultation paper is titled “Consultation Paper On Regulatory Framework for Over-the-top (OTT) services”. The said consultation paper was drafted in a manner wherein lot of questions was sought to be asked from specific perspectives. The said paper has since now been known in the public domain as Net Neutrality Consultation Paper of TRAI.
At the time of writing, the paper had generated immense amount of debate. Seen from another angle, the paper has brought up certain proposals, which if implemented could have an ultimate impact upon curtailment of online freedoms of Indian citizens and netizen community.
The entire issue of net neutrality has certainly become very important. When one looks at the existing laws in India, one finds that the issue of net neutrality has not been mentioned in the existing laws of India. India has place in its mother legislation being the Information Technology Act, 2000. The Information Technology Act, 2000 has been sought to be supplemented by means of various rules and regulations which the Government of India has promulgated from time to time. Neither the Information Technology Act, 2000 nor any rules and regulations made thereunder, have any reference to net neutrality. It is in this context that the entire issue of net neutrality becomes more significant.
The fundamental question that comes up for consideration is what exactly net neutrality is. net neutrality is a principle that is dedicated to making the Internet a neutral platform for the proliferation of all kinds of services offered by all stakeholders. Wikipedia defines net neutrality as the principle that Internet service providers and governments should treat all data on the Internet equally, not discriminating or charging differentially by user, content, site, platform, application, type of attached equipment, or mode of communication.
The principle of net neutrality has already begun to engulf therein various complicated legal, policy and regulatory issues. Lot of work has already been done in the US on net neutrality. The FCC has recently in the US ruled in favor of net neutrality by reclassifying broadband access as a telecommunications service. FCC’s Open Internet rules are designed to protect free expression and innovation on the Internet and promote investment in the nation’s broadband networks.
The TRAI Consultation Paper on Regulatory Framework for Over-the-top (OTT) services including ‘Net Neutrality’ comes in India at the time when there have been some initial experiments among service providers towards feeling the turf in this direction.
The first thing one needs to appreciate that net neutrality is extremely complicated and complex issue. It is not an issue which can be solved with the press of a button. Various competing claims need to be taken into consideration. All appropriate discussions with all relevant stakeholders offering all kinds of services in the digital ecosystem need to be examined before proceeding forward.
However, India needs to be cautious of the fact that it should not adopt the cut-and-paste approach. The American experience on net neutrality could indeed provide various learnings for the Indian experience. However, the fact still remains that India will need to carve out its own specific way, going forward in the context of the net neutrality.
The conditions in India are dramatically different. India is a Sovereign, Socialist, Secular, and Democratic Republic under the Indian Constitution. India has the second-largest population in the world. India has a constantly growing and evolving Mobile Web where increasing majority of Indian are only accessing the Internet through their mobile devices.
In such a scenario, the entire net neutrality debate has to be seen from the perspective of ensuring that the following principles are safeguarded and complied with:
Internet is a global heritage of mankind as a whole. We need the Internet to further contribute to the growth of human mankind in society and not leading to divisions within society. Internet needs to be protected as it is the common paradigm platform that allows creative, innovative approaches of communication, dissemination and transmission of thought processes as also data and information in the electronic form whether in the form of audio, video, image or text. Any initiative on net neutrality should not have impact, to the detriment of the ultimate consumers/netizens of the Internet. Consumer protection issues become critical and most significant in the context of Net neutrality. Initiatives violating Net neutrality should not create an ecosystem of digital haves and have-nots, where the digital haves, by might of their money power can access better quality of services on the Internet at the expense of the digital have-nots, who stand disenfranchised by differential payments for various services and schemes. Today people’s lives are dependent on the Internet. People today have a fundamental right to access the Internet. I personally believe that the right to access the Internet is part of the fundamental right to life under Article 21 of the Constitution of India and is sacrosanct in nature and can only be curtailed, in accordance with the procedure established by law. This intrinsically means that any kind of net neutrality has to only come through the legal route in the form of legislation not otherwise. The complicated legal, policy and regulatory issues concerning net neutrality need to be examined in great detail, more so given the fact that the Information Technology Act, 2000 and rules and regulations made thereunder are completely silent on the issue of net neutrality. Net neutrality violative schemes should not become a tool of service providers to legitimately deny or violate online freedom including freedom of speech and expression. Net Neutrality, if not handled properly, could prejudicially impact the Digital India Programme of the Indian Government. We need to be consciously careful that the victories obtained for Internet freedom of speech and expression by the Supreme Court in the Section 66A case should not be given up on the table in net neutrality debates. Net neutrality needs to be understood in the context of the lay user of the Internet in India. Any enhancement of billing for a lay Internet or mobile user is not only going to intrinsically harm the financial interests of the Indian consumer but could also impact the further penetration of Internet apart from prejudicially impacting the confidence and trust that users have in the Internet regulation regime.The aforesaid are some important thoughts that need to be at the back of every stakeholder’s mind when they proceed forward in the direction of addressing net neutrality.
There is no reason for India to be hastening up any kind of action on net neutrality. The government needs to be well-informed of the inputs, views and thought processes of various stakeholders and then take a customized approach depending upon the specific customized requirements of Indian nation and the expected growth of the Indian mobile web.
Schemes in violation of net neutrality should not become a handle to derail the Indian mobile web, its growth and to inhibit the unrestricted and unhindered access to the Internet by the common man of India.