http://www.timesofindia.com/060601/06info8.htm By Sanjay Anand 6 June 2001 NEW DELHI: The law, they say, is an ass. Indeed, seven months after the country's cyber laws were put in place, a few `cyber crimes' have hit the headlines--and attracted criticism. Be it a school boy punished for posting obscene material on the Net, or an official of a web-hosting company imprisoned for blocking the site of his client for non-payment. It goes without saying that the country's brand-new cyber laws will face challenges. And to discuss the first few brushes of the law with `cyber-society', IT experts are slated to meet for two days in the capital to raise implementation issues vis-a-vis the IT Act. The focus of the meet, they say, will be on several instances of ``misinterpretation, mishandling and inadequacy'' of cyber laws that have come up over the past few months in cases involving e-commerce, hacking and harassment, indicating a need for the amendment of the IT Act. ``We are very happy with the speed at which the government has framed and passed the IT Act. Now, it is time for us to inform managers, enforcement agencies and the public about the need for quick and effective implementation of the provisions of the Act and, where necessary, call for appropriate changes,'' said DN Khurana, DG, AIMA (All India Management Association), which is organising the two day event (Cyber Laws & Security) from Friday. According to cyber law expert Pavan Duggal, certain clauses of the IT Act need to be changed and so do certain other laws of the land for effective implementation the Act. Venkatesh Prasad, attorney at Mumbai-based J Sagar and Associates agreed. ``Cyber laws are fairly new and quite in line with what is prevalent in US and Singapore. There are related laws covered in the Evidence Act and IPC, for instance, that need to be fine tuned to make IT Act more effective,'' he said. Prasad expressed concern over area that have been left out of the Act. ``By not addressing the issues of cyber-squatting and tax implications of e-commerce related transactions, the Act does not emerge as comprehensive or holistic and I'm sure amendments are bound to happen,'' said Prasad. Specifically, it is the delay in enforcing of digital signatures that seems to be bothering IT experts the most, although the government has said that the certifying authorities (CAs) would be in place soon. ``There has been little action on CAs and unless they are in place, there can be little progress in areas like e-commerce,'' he added. ISN is hosted by SecurityFocus.com --- To unsubscribe email isn-unsubscribeat_private
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