BANGALORE, INDIA — An amendment to India’s Information Technology Act 2000 is set to change the way the government responds to sexually explicit content online and deals with the material’s creators.Passed in 2000, Section 67 of the ITA prescribes punishment for publishing or transmitting in electronic form any material that depicts sexually explicit conduct. The amendment would split the section into two parts: one that prescribes punishment and one that defines offenses.
The amendment would reduce punishment for a first offense from five years’ imprisonment to two years and increase fines by a factor of five. Second offenses would carry a prison term of five years (instead of the current 10) and increase fines to five times what they are now.
As for offense definition, Section 67A separates text and email messages from online transmission of pictures and videos, counting the latter as the more serious crime. However, even in the case of images, arrests no longer may be made without a court warrant and fines may be substituted for jail time.
Another section of the ITA also will be changed by the amendment. Section 79 no longer will hold intermediaries responsible for publication unless they are found to have “conspired and abetted in the [criminal] act.” In order to attract liability, they must fail to remove offending images after they have been notified of the material’s indecency.
Not everyone is happy with the amendment. Conservative Indians see the move as an attempt to weaken social mores and law enforcement.
Under the current ITA, a total of 256 obscenity cases have been prosecuted: 88 in 2005, 69 in 2006 and 99 in 2007.
In addition to cyberporn, the ITA also prohibits breach of confidentiality, leakage of data by service providers, e-commerce fraud, identity theft, phishing, and sending “offensive messages” online or by SMS.
