India Eyes Cyberlaws Country Watch: India6/5/2000; 7:18:18 AM April 25, 2000: "With estimates that nearly 2 million Indian citizens will be online by 2001, the world's second-most populous country is looking at ways to regulate cyberspace." OK, so let's take a look at what Wired said about these laws:"It also deems electronic documents as legally binding and acceptable in place of paper. Checks and bills, powers of attorney, trusts, wills, and contracts of sale of immovable property, however, will not be accepted in a digital format." Interesting but I don't believe the dangers of this have been fully explored in the real world; if this takes effect India will be a testing grounds to see if it works."Computer crimes recognized under the proposed law would affect hackers, and those who are not authorized to enter a system to download data, introduce viruses, damage data or the system, block access to authorized users, or even assist another person in contravening the law." If I host a web site in America that contains information about a security vulnerability (like BugTraq) and somebody in India uses that, will I find myself on the wrong side of Indian law? And the answer is..."If passed, the law would apply to anyone in or outside of India who tampers with a computer located in India." probably yes!, I would find myself a criminal in India. Again, without details this is tough to be sure about, but I am disturbed by the trend towards the attempted extending of jurisdiction like this. Almost anything you say that's even somewhat opinionated is a violation of a law somewhere in the world... even 'civilized' countries like Britain, let alone China or Iraq.I don't like it but odds are we're looking at another international treaty to specify what's illegal and not illegal on the Internet under International law and historically speaking, that often means we lose freedoms in America to satisfy the rest of the world. Let's call it the "International Internet Freedom Restriction Organization" treaty of 2004. You heard it here first."Contrary to other Indian laws, such as the Code of Criminal Procedure of 1973, additional powers have been given to the police to tackle cybercrime. Any senior police officer can enter and search any public place on suspicion without a warrant." I don't know enough about Indian law to know how strange this is by Indian standards."Senior Indian government officials, however, point to some shocking cases, arguing that there's a need to regulate the cyberjungle. They cite cases where a popular Hindi film actress was depicted nude on the Internet using altered graphics." Ummm... at least in this country when officials cite reasons to regulate the internet, they make reference to billions of dollars of commerce at stake and how We Must Save The Children, which as much as I don't like the Children Excuse I like it better then We Must Save The Celebrities.Over all, not an example I'm willing to follow, but I will be interested in their experiences with allowing digital signitures to be binding.