The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Creating awareness on cyber crime

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Dec 25, 2006
ePaper

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Creating awareness on cyber crime

Loopholes exist in the evolving field of cyber laws, young lawyer Venkatesh D. Pastay tells K. Satyamurty

Many police personnel and lawyers are still not fully aware of the implications of the Information Technology Act of 2000, says this young lawyer specialising in the new field of "cyber laws".

While working at one of the largest law firms here, Venkatesh D. Pastay once had to handle a case involving the use of two similar "domain names" on the Internet.

The larger firm had contended that the smaller one's name was different by only one letter and could, therefore, cause confusion among users.

"The question was whether the existing trademark registration laws could be applied to domain names on cyberspace. Though the Karnataka High Court ruled that names registered on cyberspace had to be treated differently from those registered in physical space, the Supreme Court reversed it. Other arguments too could have been raised. I argued that the registration of two similar sounding domain names could take place within seconds of each other and it would be difficult to determine who had done it first," Mr. Pastay says.

The case created a fascination for him in the legal requirements of our increasingly "digital society" and led him to carry out a deeper study of laws that have been enacted more recently, and their lacunae. It was the first such case in the country, in 2004.

India was the fourth country to enact laws relating to the regulation of online business transactions.

"Some loopholes still remain in the system, and a consumer may not always get a fair deal," Mr. Pastay says. If an online shopping experience goes sour, the best recourse is the Consumer Redressal Forum, as it involves less expense and better access to the law.

The stealing of digital data, unauthorised accessing of data or selling of stolen data are also offences under the law. There is also a new type of cyber crime which has not been specified as yet under the existing laws. It relates to "fishing" from the data of major banks. "It amounts to creating a web page very similar to that of a particular bank, and luring unwary customers into conducting transactions on it. The criminal can steal the user's password and login ID and later misuse them on the bank's actual web page," he explains.

This young lawyer has teamed up with a colleague based in Chennai to start the Digital Society Foundation, which is dedicated to creating awareness among citizens on cyber laws and cyber crimes that they unwittingly become party to.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Karnataka