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Chief of eBay's Indian Site Arrested, Released

Posted by timothy on from the stupid-lucky-high-school-kids dept.

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?"

10 of 347 comments (clear)

  1. +5 informative for the .torrent by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    someone's gotta have it

    1. Re:+5 informative for the .torrent by kaedemichi255 · · Score: 5, Funny

      why don't you check suprnova.org?

  2. My proposal by Ckwop · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

    1. Re:My proposal by Suchetha · · Score: 5, Informative

      india (and most of asia) is a dichotomy when it comes to sex. if you look at some of the south indian temples you;ll find LOTS of sex on the walls. si much so that the british flat out REFUSED to talk about the wonders you see there (i'm talking about the temples, not the sexual positions on their walls). that is why the northern states have more torist exposure than the southern (well the southern heat may have soemthing to do with it too)

      there are tales of temples where women who couldn't have children would spend the night and the god would come down to them and miraculously impregnate them (umm yeah.. god.. right..)

      i'm not even going to mention the kama sutra or the japanese and chinese pillow books.

      most asian cultures were sexually very liberal. we are talking bastardy, social recognition given to courtesans, the whole works.

      it is the western missionaries that brought sexual repression to the east. when the victorian missionaries showed up with their straitlaced attitudes, that was the end of the good times as far as most people were concerned.

      since then the cultures have been holding on to this prudery while AT THE SAME TIME screwing around.

      the east never had a sexual revolution like america did. its more of a gradual slide. and there are people who, like king canute, try to stem the tide by ordering it not to be.

      atb

      suchetha

      --

      learn from yesterday, plan for tomorrow, party tonight
      or one out of three ain't bad
    2. Re:My proposal by liangzai · · Score: 5, Interesting
      it is the western missionaries that brought sexual repression to the east. when the victorian missionaries showed up with their straitlaced attitudes, that was the end of the good times as far as most people were concerned.

      Not so. China had liberal attitudes toward sex before and under Tang (581-617), but thereafter declined into more social control. It has nothing to do with Christianity or westerners. Chinese people have always been sexually open, just that it is taboo talking about it. The Chinese prudence is on the surface and on the surface only. The same goes for most of Asia. Japan, although very influenced by the West, is probably the most extreme country in the world when it comes to sex. Yet there is prudence also in Japan.

      The impact of Christianity in China is virtually none. This is fortunate.

    3. Re:My proposal by Baroova · · Score: 5, Insightful

      My thoughts exactly. The public school has expelled the girl for something which she has not commited at the school site, nor has she misused the name of the school in any way. The school has in fact never educated any of its students on the do's and dont's of sex which gives it no right to judge the girl. The boy, on the other hand, deceived the girl. I have seen the video and it is evident from it that she was participating in it because it was private to the two of them. According to the news reports, when the girl broke up with the boy a few days later, the boy sold the video to his class mates and friends for a small fee to get even with the girl. The government has been active in addressing the issue in the most in appropiate way, arresting people for promoting pornography when this is a case of intrusion of privacy and trust, for which the boy should have been arrested as early as possible. But he was arrested only 4 days ago, almost 2 weeks after it all started! The govt. went overboard in arresting and lodging Bajaj in Tihar Jail, where only the hardened criminals are lodged. A heavy fine or a suspension of the site (www.baazee.com) for a few days would have been a more appropiate reaction.

    4. Re:My proposal by gunnk · · Score: 5, Insightful
      A heavy fine or a suspension of the site (www.baazee.com) for a few days would have been a more appropiate reaction.

      I have to disagree with you on that last point. Baazee took down the auction as soon as they became aware of it. They did the right thing from the very beginning as far as I can tell. There was no intent on the part of Baazee to distribute pornography.

      Suppose one day someone slid some child pornography under your front door. Would you believe that you should be fined or arrested for possession of those materials? You certainly never planned on possessing those materials any more than Baazee planned on selling pornographic materials.

      In situations like this there has to be intent in order for their to be wrongdoing.

      --
      Life is short: void the warranty.
  3. Insanity by Bioanarchism · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.
  4. Even more... by EvilStein · · Score: 5, Funny

    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.

    So this can only mean one thing - Hot Indian babes *do* put out!

    Can I outsource myself to India now? :D

  5. Are they going to arrest by halaloszto · · Score: 5, Insightful
    The CEO of the Postal Service for distributing drugs and weapons.

    The CEOs of the Railway companis for transporting criminals.

    The managers of several hotels for hiding criminals.

    This is insane. vajk