The curious case of Vinay Rai

"Before taking social networking sites to court, he should have first invoked the ‘take down' provision in Indian cyber law on objectionable content. That even the government is ignoring this mechanism and instead advocating prior restraint is especially worrisome."

The Hindu : Opinion / Op-Ed : The curious case of Vinay Rai: The government's attempts to impose prior censorship of content on the web is in flagrant disregard of well-established law laid down by the Supreme Court of India in which time and place restraints on free speech may be necessary in certain circumstances, for example, a restriction on shouting “fire” in a crowded theatre.

A blanket prior restraint or censorship of content is squarely in violation of the constitutional right to freedom of speech in India as well as in the U.S. and other democratic countries.

Choking off free speech on the web

"What makes SOPA and PIPA especially toxic is the threat they pose to all dimensions of a website's existence - physical presence, findability and revenue stream."

The Hindu : Opinion / Lead : Choking off free speech on the web: The two draft laws, SOPA and PIPA, in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate have raised a storm on the Internet.

Strong fears haunt U.S. companies who dread losing innovation, online traffic, and thus jobs and commerce to other countries that guarantee freedom.

The toxic potential of these bills lies in their capacity to comprehensively throttle free speech, at least until a new competitive set of alternatives emerges.

Governments that guarantee free speech should baulk at the controversial American model to suppress their own citizens. Yet, in India, there will obviously be keen interest for a possible replication. Even now, the Indian IT Act, 2000 contains provisions that would not meet the accepted definition of judicial due process. There may be a specific case to remove material that is obviously inflammatory and capable of doing harm, but the policy compass clearly points to a lurking desire for censorship.

If SOPA and PIPA were to succeed in America, the move towards copycat laws in India can only be a step away!