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Chief of eBay's Indian Site Arrested, Released
An anonymous reader writes "As reported, Avinash Bajaj, the CEO of Baazee.com, the Indian subsidiary of eBay, was arrested by the Indian police for distributing pornography. What really seems to have happened is that two high school students from Delhi Public School filmed themselves having oral sex, and this video was distributed through Delhi by email. Some time later, Ravi Raj Singh, a college student from IIT Delhi, offered his VCD of the 157-second clip for sale on Baazee. Avinash Bajaj has now been released on bail, but his U.S. passport is still impounded. AP report here." In reaction to the scandal, SoumyaRay writes, "the Indian government is planning a law based on the DMCA that would establish the responsibility of the corporation when dealing with copyrighted materials. The law 'would deal with four categories of functions by a service provider: transitory communications, system caching, storage of information on systems or networks and information location tools.' Does this differ in any major way with the DMCA? What is being overlooked and what is the potential for abuse? What would you propose?"
someone's gotta have it
Actually, India-GII - a mailing list/group of sorts which is a part of CPSR (Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility) has been discussing this for quite a while now.
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Check out this month's archive.
Particularly, see the threads MMS saga has unexpected consequences and Mahesh Murthy sends you Release the CEO of eBay India (Baazee) - a travesty of cyber-law and e-commerce Petition
People have been petitioning the release of Bajaj for a while, and this is going to have some very serious repurcussions, too.
My proposal? Let people have their pornography. Sex is something for everyone and I really don't understand how cultures get so upset about it; after all, it is the most important human function.. our society is built on the foundations of sexual relationships. India may be a democracy but theres no point in democracy if you're no more free than you would be under a tyrant. Freedom is not the same as democracy.
Simon.
A link to the .torrent?
This is utterly insane. Apparently the distribution of pornographic material doesn't constitute the rights for the authorities to arrest the CEO. Everyday auction sites around the world, not only Bazee, experience a new item submission every 5 minutes. In retrospect, how can anyone keep track of all incoming and outgoing items that registered users submit? This is totally absurd that the CEO is arrested based on this fact. Shouldn't the one who submitted the item be arrested instead? Or how about the people that appeared in the video? There is lawleness in these law.
Often we do not have time for our friends, yet all the time in the world for our enemies.
Reuters story said that the girl was sent to Canada, and the guy was in deeeep trouble at home. Both of them were students at a private school, too.
:D
So this can only mean one thing - Hot Indian babes *do* put out!
Can I outsource myself to India now?
The CEOs of the Railway companis for transporting criminals.
The managers of several hotels for hiding criminals.
This is insane. vajk
Any Indians been put in jail recently because of the Patriot Act? Never mind
She's furious because of the eBay connection.
1) The Police claim that Baazee.com did not take down the video clip, even after being notified of the complaint. This is why they arrested the CEO
2) This not regular old porno. The girl involved in this did not give her conest to the release of the video - nor did she know she was being filmed
3) Strict moral standards blah blah bullshit. It's just that in this particular case is publicised so the police had to act. The bottom line is, that these people got caught. Otherwise, sale of porno in India is rampant (but yes, it's illegal).
Feel free to post a few comments here
My Favourite Meme
In this case, it's India's IT Act which has allowed this crap of holding the service provider responsible for all acts of it's users. This story from the same newspaper shows the aptitude & intelligence of Indian cops and lawmakers when it comes to technology.
The entire issue has been blown out of proportions I believe.
What started off as a prank, teenage goofing, moment of madness - name what you like, was not only copied several times over, but also packaged and sold. So far, nothing out of the ordinary honestly. Such things have happened in the past elsewhere as well.
What really got things going was the sale of the content via a website, I guess. The ease of content transmission, coupled with the fact that it was two students from a well-known (and reputed, if i may say so myself) which were on camera, was what fuelled the controversy big time.
As has been the case with administration and police in India in the past, they appear to believe that the best means of solving a crime is to rake the muck and/or shoot in the dark, hoping something would give. Since they did not have the seller (or even his identity) initially, they resorted to the worst interpretation of the law - holding the owner of the website (www.bazee.com) responsible for the content!
It's a travesty that the CEO had to spend time in one of the most notorious jails of India (the Tihar Jail).
http://efil.blogspot.com/
Actully all of India's computer related activities are covered by a single 'IT act'. As you might imagine, it's quite primitive. It doesnt take into account automated sites like auction sites or forums. In a developed country lawmakers think about things like this in advance and make laws, but in a country where computer users form a small minority, laws are modified only after an incident like this. The law needs a serious overhaul. But the phrase "based on DMCA" is scaring me (I'm an Indian). I just hope they only take the non-abusive part of DMCA.
Take off that American blindfold of yours.
there are plenty of countries where the age of consent is much much lower.
http://www.ageofconsent.com/
Your culture and views are not globally accepted, and that is how it should be.
Exercise caution when modding this message up: the author acts like a jerk when his karma is excellent.
The arrested student (Ravi Raj) is from IIT-Kharagpur and not IIT-Delhi.
The students (both minors legally) are from a school in Delhi.
-- Raj
Honestly, I can't see what the hassle is about?
It's not like this is some kind of kiddy rape, these are consentual activities by young adults having fun.
The girl, while punished by her parents, has accused the attackers of hypocrisy, saying "who doesn't do it? Don't you have sex?"
In many countries they both would be considered not minors, as 16-17 years is a perfectly good age of consent, and they could get married against the will of parents, have sex without repercussions, etc.
I understand that child porn laws might apply to some pervert uncle seducing his 12 year old relative, but it is clear that 16 year old having consentual sex with a 17 year old is NOT what these laws should apply to. Same thing with a 19 year old with a 17 year old 'minor'.
"...two high school students from Delhi Public School filmed themselves having oral sex..."
;)
"a college student from IIT Delhi, offered his VCD of the 157-second clip"
157 seconds... sheesh, they really need to learn to take their time and enjoy it
According to this, age of consent in India is in fact 16.
I'm not disagreeing with the parent post, but I hope that they don't "throw the book" at the guy that was in the video.
Child porn laws are there to protect children from predators, not punish kids for stupid mistakes they make while they're teenagers. I know several people who did stupid stuff like that, taking "racy" pics when they were in high school, which were probobly technically illegal. Kids on hormones do stupid things like that, putting them in prison will not help them at all.
Let me tell you about a different issue arising out of the whole situation.
The IIT student Ravi Raj is still not pronounced guilty! But still the Indian Hypocrite media did what they should never do. They published his name (Nobody knows the names of the guy and girl who had sex), his dad's name, his dad's profession and his home address in headlines! Now my narrow-minded Indian society won't let this guy or his family live easily. This guy even if pronounced not guilty by the court, will not be able to live a clean life in the future. His IIT degree is already taken away, now his career is in shambles.
Oh by the way, almost all IITians see porn in their dorms (they usually have 5% girls in their batch). This guy's only crime was he tried to act over-smart. But shouldn't he be given another chance? For God's sake, he is not a criminal who's whereabouts to be told to the whole world!
For more info: check http://riteshm.blogspot.com/2004/12/iit-and-dps.ht ml
This has to be the most ignorant and trollish post on /. ever
Kama has found mentioned in texts as early as the Vedas. Initially he was regarded as a creative spirit who welled out of Purusha, the supreme male element. Some parts of the Vedas go even farther and say that Kama himself was the supreme creative being, self-existent and sprung out of the cosmic waters at the beginning of time. In this context he was the supreme god who created everything else and whose first emanation was desire and whose second was the power to achieve that desire.
The Vedas are texts prepared over long lengths of time by diverse persons and the older versions were modified frequently. Thus Kama is found mentioned in many forms, all of them being some aspect of creativity.
Later, as Hindu Mythology progressed and developed into what it is today, Kama became identified with sexual desire, a more frivolous aspect of his creativity. Kama is depicted as a handsome youth who carried a bow entwined with flowers and shot arrows that produced love in their targets - That's your cupid.
The aim of Kama in Indian literature deals with pleasure and love. It is hypothesized that Kama teachings came into existence because of frustration in married life in a patriarchal society where marriages were arranged for convenience, while marriages of love were uncommon. The Kama literature was written in a technical format and is thought to have been written for the people of the higher castes because the social atmosphere of the time permitted very little private time for a husband and wife. Sexual relations were seen as the only allowable token of affection a husband could show his new bride, but at the same time, sex was a source of anxiety for the couple because it was one of the only activities privately shared by the couple and stood as the grounds for which the relationship was based. The lower castes did not have such problems because the men and women interacted on a daily basis, and therefore were able to develop relationships not solely based on sexual performance.
The best known of the Kama literature is Vatsyayana's Kamasutra, which was written around the third century C.E. It is a technical account of the social structure dealing with manners, morals, sexology, and culture in the third century.
This has now been bastardised by a western interpretation, that translates the very connotation of Kama to fucking.
If you've had a girlfriend, I'm sure you'd know there's a difference between sex and making love.
You can read more about Eastern Indian mythologies and beliefs at:
www.deliriumsrealm.com
www.pantheon.org
I could write about "Soma" or "Sura", but I'm sure you'd conveniently choose to ignore that, just like you'd this post
http://efil.blogspot.com/
Baazee's CEO is not being held for selling porn!! Nor is this about moral standards in India!!
First, read the law. The IT Act 2000 says:
Section 67
===========
Publishing of information which is obscene in electronic form
Whoever publishes or transmits or causes to be published in the electronic form, any material which is lascivious or appeals to the prurient interest or if its effect is such as to tend to deprave and corrupt persons who are likely, having regard to all relevant circumstance, to read see or hear the matter contained or embodied in it, shall be punished on first conviction with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to five years and with fine which may extend to one lakh rupees and in the event of a second or subsequent conviction with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to ten years and also with fine which may extend to two lakh rupees.
79. Network service providers not to be liable in certain cases
For the removal of doubts, it is hereby declared that no person providing an service as a network service provider shall be liable under this Act, rules or regulations made thereunder for any third party information or data made available by him if he proves that the offence or contravention was committed without his knowledge or that he had exercised all due diligence to prevent the commission of such offence or contravention.
Explanation.- For the purposes of this section,-
(a) "network service provider" means an intermediary;
(b) "third party information" means any information dealt with by a network service provider in his capacity as an intermediary;
Baazee(eBay India) published the sale of the child pornographic material and benefitted from such sale by means of commissions earned. Since they benefit from the sale of the material they should be held liable for the material sold through them. Also, it unlike AT&T which does not intend to benefit from the usage of their service for illegal purposes. In this case, allegedly, Baazee did not remove the porn sale item even after being informed, thereby indicating that they had no qualms from benefitting from such sale.
It really dint make sense to me that they arrested the CEO of the company for this.For that matter those pictures was exchanged through mms last month,why dont u blame nokia CEO for making phones that enabled this sharing or even the Hutch/Airtel networks that enabled these gprs connections.
fifteen jugglers, five believers
Yea, and that site is a crock of shit. I think this is a slightly more credible source.
My Favourite Meme
I can't say I disagree. She got dinner at the same time.
The art. confuses me: How would a DMCA-style law which spells out copyright obligations of ISPs, users, etc have any impact on porn?
I don't see that DMCA has stemmed the tide of porn in the US. FAIK, the laws against porn in the US have an unintended consequence of reducing access and penalizing copying in ways that DMCA was supposed to provide for legit content and thus the ultimate beneficiary of the laws is the producers and scum-runners who don't have to compete with as much free copies of their "product" as do the musicians and legal movie industry.
Have you seen a smut-peddler's equivalent of MPAA going to judges and slapping subpoena's on file sharers?...maybe they don't need to do that?
SLASHDOT: news for people who can't concentrate on work or have no life at all and got tired of yelling back at the TV.
"Although in the video the girl is smiling and stuff."
I think you better get a lawyer...
The clip might be 157 seconds long, but 130 of those are the musical numbers.
What a pathetic attempt to use a media event / scandal to promote something unrelated to it! No one in India or elsewhere is worried about copyright here. The boy certainly hasn't made a claim for lost revenues! Whoever the shill is who is claiming that the MMS incident justifies an Indian DMCA ought to be embarrassed to be selling this bunk. There really is only one thing to say to an argument like this:
"We reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals." --The American President (20.1.2009)