http://www.wirednews.com/news/print/0,1294,40432,00.html

WIRED NEWS

Porn a Thorn for Indian Portal
by Manu Joseph

2:00 a.m. Dec. 4, 2000 PST
MUMBAI, India -- In a court order that could have serious legal
ramifications in India, a judge in Pune has put six directors of a premier
portal called Rediff.com on trial for "giving access to pornographic
material."

If convicted, the directors face up to two years imprisonment.

The chairman of the portal, Ajit Balakrishnan -- a high profile business
figure in India -- is among those summoned for a Dec. 30 hearing. A
high-level Intel executive, Tony Janz, was also summoned.

Legal experts here were surprised that the judge called the hearing at all,
especially after an investigation ordered
by the judge appeared to vindicate Rediff.

When attorney Rohan Nagpal filed the pornography complaint against Rediff
two months ago -- on behalf of a law
student Abhinav Bhatt -- the general opinion was that the judge would throw
the case out.

Nagpal's complaint said that Rediff's search engine gave free and easy
access to pornographic material. Following
the complaint, Judge S. Bhosle ordered a police inquiry.

The police report stated that the portal's search engine didn't create any
objectionable material, and that it was
in the character of a search engine to give access to everything on the Web.


But the judge didn't think that was enough, at this point, to absolve Rediff
of blame.

"Considering the allegation that the accused company is advertising their
search engine facility and thereby
provoking the citizen to view their website, I am of the opinion that enough
material is available on which the
accused can be put up for trial," Bhosle said.

Nagpal's complaint argues that if another Indian site, 123india.com, could
filter out all sex-related material, Rediff
can, too.

"To this," Nagpal said, "Rediff claimed that 123india.com was a directory
and that Rediff used a search engine. But
their contention was weakened when I showed a precedence.

"In 1998, Compuserve's managing director was sentenced to two years
imprisonment for giving access to sites
that dealt with child pornography. He went on appeal, but the point is that
after the suit was filed, Compuserve's
search engine effectively blocked out all objectionable sites. So Rediff's
claim that filtering a search engine is
technically not feasible is not true."

Dhruv Sharma, CEO of 123india, had said that the difference between a
directory and a search engine was merely
"semantics," and that if only Rediff had taken as much care as his portal
had, they would not have gotten into
this mess.

After the unexpected order of the Pune judge, Sharma said, "We are watching
all this carefully. We have more
than a casual interest in the outcome of this case. It can have some serious
bearing on the way Indians use the
Internet."
Rediff's legal counsel, S. Balram, didn't want to comment at this stage. But
Rediff chief of corporate
communications, Debashish Gosh, said, "We are looking at the relevant
documents right now and have not yet
decided on the future course of action."

Negpal replied that however carefully Rediff's legal department may read the
documents, "it's binding under the
Indian law for the accused directors to appear in court for the hearing."

This effectively signals a rather nervous end-of-the-year for Rediff, which
is listed on the Nasdaq.

"Such news have some bearing on the Nasdaq, but Rediff has been built on
long-term investors," said a high-level
Rediff employee speaking under condition of anonymity. "We are in hyper
growth right now and such cases only
have irritation value."

He added that he was optimistic about the outcome of the trial because he
maintained, "Even God cannot alter
the way a search engine works. Either you ban Indian sites from using search
engines, which is a ridiculous idea,
or you live with the fact that any Indian user will be able to access porn
sites.

"Even if you employ a severe, drastic filter in your search engine, it will
be a useless tool in three months because
new porn sites will come up and your filter will not detect them."

The police team that investigated the matter brought a video camera to some
cyber-cafes in Pune. They
videotaped some users accessing pornographic material using Rediff's search
engine.

It's not just Rediff who is being pressured. Satyam Infoways, also listed on
the Nasdaq, has been issued a similar
order by the judge.

This Indian initiative comes on the heels of a landmark ruling against Yahoo
by a French court for giving access to
sites that auctioned Nazi memorabilia.

Judge Jean-Jacques Gomez ordered Yahoo to block the sites and to pay $1,390
each to the Union of Jewish
Students and to an anti-racism group.

Yahoo, like Rediff, had argued that it cannot be held responsible for giving
access to objectionable sites. But what
might come as some consolation to Rediff's directors is that Compuserve's
director, who was charged with giving
access to child pornography, eventually did not go to jail.

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