Google India is is facing defamation charges from a Mumbai-based firm, Gremach Infrastructure Equipments & Projects.
The company has filed a lawsuit against Google for hosting a series of articles on its blogging site, campaigning against its mines in Mozambique. In an interim order, the Bombay High Court has asked Google India to furnish information about the blogger. The case’s outcome will have far-reaching implications for the development of cyber law in India. [ET]
The blogger wrote a series of articles ( between January and February) titled “Toxic Writer” that were posted on Google’s Blogger tool . The article amounted to a “hate campaign” against the company.
This is not the first time Google is facing legal hassles in India – earlier, with Orkut, they happily shared IP address of users – but this case is relatively important for blogging world itself.
And hopefully, it will help define the cyber law in India (which I hope will not be the same as China’s).
Most importantly (and given govt’s ignorance about web world/blogging et al), I won’t be surprised if they try to curb the freedom of expression, that blogging entails?
What do other bloggers think?
Also, Supreme court has issued notice to Google , Microsoft and Yahoo for displaying ‘sex determination’ ads [source]
I’m sure they will happily comply again — Like any other corporation, it has to run esp. it’s fledgling operations in India. India needs it’s own chapter of EFF to counter political pressures.
great idea about the EFF chapter in India. My biggest worry is that though India is a democracy, Indians are all too used to their freedoms being curtailed for various historical reasons. It appears to me that freedom of speech is a nice to have but not a necessity in India. Would the EFF be able to stand up for freedom of speech, privacy, and other issues in India when the true value of that freedom is lost on individuals?
This is highly disturbing – in fact its quite ironic that you publish this post on the eve of our so called – “independence day”. Tell you what – no even though I don’t know the facts, I still feel slightly outraged. If Gremach feels that they’ve been misrepresented, then they should issue a public statement in response, clarifying their position. In my opinion, this is a classic example of the ‘little guy’ getting screwed. Here’s how it goes: powerful corporate which doesn’t like bad publicity sues International Internet company. International Internet company, not wanting to burn bridges with executive/judiciary run by out-of-touch politicos, lawmakers and bureaucrats, quickly hands over private information. The little guy, who dared to speak out against this large corporate, obviously cannot afford a battery of lawyers to fight this case. Indeed he he probably has a day job so can afford to spend half his time going back and forth to court. Hence he has to tuck his tail between his lets, and at the least – apologize.
By the way I tried looking for these posts. Anybody found the URL?
Gautam Kshatriya
gautam.kshatriya@moneyvidya.com
http://www.moneyvidya.com/blog
Gautam:
I think it was http://toxicwriter.blogspot.com . I have posted more details from cache on my blog, however, you may know more techniques for investigation, kindly go ahead and enlighten.
Umm.. has Gremach heard of the Streisand effect? And in any case, whoever heard of a “hate-campaign” against a corporation?
I think Gremach just defamed themselves.
cheers
nilesh
I agree to Nilesh and Gautam. If Gremach were so worried about defamation they could have done some good PR Job and exposed the guy. But suing Google makes lot of headlines and free publicity. Yes Google will comply and give the blogger’s name.
But Gremach have already made a bad name for themselves!