is no punishment for the person who filed the
complaint. Given this lack of punishment, Prakash
has argued, the law is open to widespread abuse:
it allows anyone “to remove content from the internet without following any ‘due process’ or ‘fair
procedure’.”109
Clearly, this amendment to the Copyright Act
therefore violates the principles of necessity and
proportionality that are integral to the validity of
any action that seeks to censor content online.
But there are two further aspects of the judgment
that were remarkable and also deserve attention
here. First, when determining whether MySpace had
knowledge of the presence of copyright-infringing
content on its platform, Justice Singh highlighted
the mechanisms instituted by MySpace to trail and
curtail copyright infringement, as well as efforts by
MySpace to cooperate with industry in this area, as
one indication that MySpace did indeed have such
knowledge (the Justice was not convinced they also
authorised such actions though). With this, the Justice went against the grain of what is increasingly
considered best practice in this area in the international community, where such proactive measures
on the part of intermediaries generally have been
lauded. Justice Singh’s pronouncements on this
issue were of importance because having actual
knowledge was a ground on which intermediaries
can lose the safe harbour provided to them by section 79 IT Act as well.
Finally, the Justice also argued that “if the defendants are put to notice about the rights of the
plaintiff in certain works, the defendants should do
preliminary check in all the cinematograph works
relating Indian titles before communicating the
works to the public rather than falling back on post
infringement measures.” He further stated:
for a pre-screening mechanism on the table.
Fortunately, in December 2016, following an interlocutory appeal, a two-judge bench of the Delhi
High Court overturned the 2012 order, and ruled
that pre-screening requirements cast an enormous
burden on intermediaries.110 This welcome order
cited the challenges that inhere in requiring intermediaries to regulate speech on the internet.
Ongoing challenges to India’s intermediary
liability regime
Challenges to India’s intermediary liability
regime, nevertheless, continue. Two separate, ongoing cases in the Supreme Court are of particular
importance.
In Sabu Mathew George v. Union of India &
Ors.,111 the petitioner seeks to ensure that advertisements for services related to sex selective abortions
do not show up in search engine results – be they
paid results or organic results – as they violate
section 22 of India’s Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal
Diagnostic Techniques (Regulation and Prevention
of Misuse) Act, 1994 (henceforth PCPNDT Act). Section 22 reads:
22. Prohibition of advertisement relating to
pre-conception and pre-natal determination of
sex and punishment for contravention.—
(1) No person, organisation, Genetic Counselling
Centre, Genetic Laboratory or Genetic Clinic,
including Clinic, Laboratory or Centre having
ultrasound machine or imaging machine or
scanner or any other technology capable of
undertaking determination of sex of foetus or
sex selection shall issue, publish, distribute,
communicate or cause to be issued, published,
distributed or communicated any advertisement, in any form, including internet, regarding
facilities of pre-natal determination of sex or sex
selection before conception available at such
Centre, Laboratory, Clinic or at any other place.
(2) No person or organisation including Genetic Counselling Centre, Genetic Laboratory or
Genetic Clinic shall issue, publish, distribute,
communicate or cause to be issued, published,
distributed or communicated any advertisement
in any manner regarding pre-natal determination or pre-conception selection of sex by any
means whatsoever, scientific or otherwise.
if there is any due diligence which has to be
exercised in the event of absence of any provision under the Act, the said due diligence must
be present at the time of infringement and not
when the infringement has already occurred so
that the infringement can be prevented at the
threshold and not when the same has already
occurred.
Various aspects of MySpace working practices
convinced the Justice that it should be technically
feasible to do so. Although Justice Singh made his
pronouncements in a case relating to copyright,
with this, he was the first to put the supposed need
109 Prakash, P. (2012, 23 May). Analysis of the Copyright (Amendment)
Bill 2012. Centre for Internet and Society. www.cis-india.org/a2k/
blog/analysis-copyright-amendment-bill-2012
110 Nair, B. (2016, 25 December). Breaking News: Del HC Division
Bench Rules in Favour of Safe Harbour for Intermediaries in
MySpace-T Series Copyright Dispute. Spicy IP. https://www.
spicyip.com/2016/12/breaking-news-division-bench-rules-infavour-of-safe-harbour-for-intermediaries-in-myspace-t-seriesdispute.html
111 WP (Civil) 341 of 2008.
INDIA / 71