It is a sign of the times in India that the two hot topics for discussion are a kiss and a video. The kiss was publicised by Mumbai eveninger Mid-Day and was allegedly between Shahid Kapoor and Kareena Kapoor in a discotheque. The video was made by a Delhi male student about his escapades with a girl. The kiss has resulted in legal proceedings against the Mumbai newspaper and a critique from the Supreme Court. The video has landed Avnish Bajaj, the CEO of Baazee, India's largest auction site which was bought by eBay for $50 million earlier in the year, in jail. As it turns out, the video made was sold by an IIT-Kharagpur student on Baazee. The police used the Indian Information Technology Act to arrest the Baazee CEO (who is a US citizen) after calling him back from the US.
I don't see the connection between the video being on sale on Baazee and the need to arrest Avnish Bajaj. It is a bad misjudgement on the part of the police - no one can hold Bajaj responsible for the site listings. In that event, as a friend put it, the municipal commissioners may need to be arrested for allowing pornographic videos and material on sold on the pavement, since the responsibility for the pavement is with the municipal corporation.
The Indian IT and Internet industries need to protest vigorously and put pressure on the government to release Avnish Bajaj. Let the investigation into the incident and sale of videos happen, but that in no way implicates the CEO of Baazee and causes him to be sent to judicial custoday for a week. He should be released immediately.
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Rajesh, I second your opinion.
Avnish was just trying to help the police by giving full access to his servers and this is the reward he got.
I think it very unjust.
Amit
Digital Inspiration
Mahesh Murthy has an online petition going on which is addressed to the Prime Minister of India. Please sign and forward the same....
http://www.petitiononline.com/baazee
Posted by: Kaushal Karkhanis on December 20, 2004 07:48 PMThe online partition is one approach, but how about this for a more direct route.
If Bajaj is responsible for somebody posting an item for sale on Baazee, then it stands to reason that this would apply to any site. So...how about those that have a strong opinion that this is wrong take some direct action. Find Indian government sites or governement sites that allow direct posting of any type (forums, event listings, comments, etc.) and post a message stating that this *might* be an offer to sell illegal porn - so based on this precendent the CEO of that government department could be arrested.
If enough people did it it would make an interesting point to those in governement who shoose to be ignorent of the online world...
Posted by: Robaroo on December 21, 2004 12:30 PM
Even if its not Baazee's fault the courts may simply question why a billion dollar company doesnt effectively monitor their business. This is a valid point because it is not an impossibility but is only a matter of additional operating effort and cost.
Posted by: Rajan Urs on December 22, 2004 05:18 AMValid point Rajan. The question is one of responsibility. It must lie with either (1) the user OR (2) the provider of the medium.
Too often online companies these days just have a click button User Agreement to "wash their hands" of responsibility for anything the user does using that companies website/tools/network, etc.
Unfortunately, the responsibility has to lie somewhere. It can't just disappear into thin air. In this case it seems the Indian govt want to make an example.
Free Avnish - but sites (including eBay) should take a bit more responsibility for complying with local laws.
Posted by: Bona Sijabat on December 22, 2004 09:31 AM