Further, RBI had issued a notification (RBI notification no RBI/2009-10/231) on 24 November 2009 under Sec 18 of the said Act, which provided ‘Directions for opening and operation of Accounts and settlement of payments for electronic payment transactions involving intermediaries‘ and was to be complied within 3 months of issue of these directions. Read here.

But after talks between RBI and PayPal, RBI has allowed Paypal to resume bank withdrawals for settlements for exports of goods and services, subject to exporters providing IEC (Import Export Code) at the time of withdrawal. IEC is required under the current foreign exchange laws of India in order to identify the nature of cross-border merchant transactions.

Though personal inward remittances to India through paypal remain suspended, as Paypal admits of not having necessary permissions for the same. The main concern for not allowing the personal remittances is that it can be used as a tool for excaping Income tax and even by terrorist outfits for transfer of illegal funds. Therefore, proper safeguards are required to be followed before the personal remittances are allowed by RBI through PayPal. Though,  PayPal intends to issue FIRCs (Foreign Inward Remittance Certificates) to Indian exporters. Read More

Mr Rohit Ahuja, (ACA ACS ACWA LLB B.Com), a Foreign Exchange & Tax Law expert, adds that the above makes it very clear that Paypal can only be used to collect payments in Dollars from overseas clients and NOT indian clients, the same we have been advising to our clients for long. And as regards the Web portals that are using Paypal as a tool for collecting local payments also, which is not allowed by RBI and can result in 2-3 times penalty of the amount received, according to the Indian laws. For collection of local Payments, it is always advisable to use Indian Payment Gateway like CCavenue, which provides various options of Net Banking, Credit/Debit card, etc.

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1. To get discounts on CCavenue payment gatway, please contact ArcherSoftech.com and get 15-20%  discount on setup fees.

2. To get an IEC code, you can get in touch with CyberLawTimes.com team for professional solutions.

In the said matter… it is alleged by the complainant that the hacker has contaminated the complainant’s computer with viruses, business and personal emails have been hacked, downloaded all the critical business information and have attempted to contact their customer. It has been further alleged that Hacker has copied client list appearing on Complainant’s company profile, despite of the disclaimers appearing on the website. And further created a new email with complainant’s name, which was used to send emails and received business communication to complainant’s clients with an intention to deceive. The complaint has made out the case under the various provisions of IT Act, IPC and Copyright Act.

Hacking is punishable under Sec 66 of Information Technology Act, with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years or with fine which may extend to five lakh rupees or with both.

In these days of cyber crime and hacking, therefore, it becomes very necessary to have very strong password, when you also use your email ID for business and professional purposes. Else like in above matter, some one can steal your business secrets and float a competitive business, as is alleged in the above matter.

Microsoft provides guidelines for keeping a strong password at: http://www.microsoft.com/protect/fraud/passwords/create.aspx

Though it is more advisable to use own Domain’s emails for business/professional purposes, so that you can have better control on your IDs. As the passwords of these can be easily retrieved or chaged through Web Hosting Control panel.

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For Domain names, Website Hosting & Website Development, you can visit: http://domains.archersoftech.com , online payment option available. Unlimited email is available for just Rs 99/mo.

In December 2000, Office Depot obtained a judgment against Zuccarini under the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act of 1999 (“ACPA”), 15 U.S.C. § 1125(d), rising out of Zuccarini’s registration of the domain name “officdepot.com.” Office Depot was unable to collect on the judgment and eventually assigned the judgment to DSH.

DSH sought to levy upon some of the other domain names owned by Zuccarini. DSH registered the judgment in the district court for the Northern District of California. DSH then obtained a preservation order from the district court and engaged in discovery. It learned that Zuccarini owned more than 248 domain names registered with VeriSign, of which more than 190 were “.com” domain names. DSH targeted the “.com” domain names in its levy.

Some background information on the structure of the domain name system will be helpful to the reader:

Every computer connected to the Internet has a unique Internet Protocol (“IP”) address. IP addresses are long strings of numbers, such as 64.233.161.147. The Internet [domain name system] provides an alphanumeric shorthand for IP addresses. The hierarchy of each domain name is divided by periods.

Thus, reading a domain name from right to left, the portion of the domain name to the right of the first period is the top-level domain (“TLD”). TLDs include .com, .gov, .net., and .biz. Each TLD is divided into second-level domains identified by the designation to the left of the first period, such as “example” in “example.com” or “example.net.” . . . Each domain name is unique and thus can only be registered to one entity . . . . A domain name is created when it is registered with the appropriate registry operator. A registry OFFICE DEPOT v. ZUCCARINI 3123 operator maintains the definitive database, or registry, that associates the registered domain names with the proper IP numbers for the respective domain name servers. The domain name servers direct Internet queries to the related web resources. A registrant can register a domain name only through companies that serve as registrars for second level domain names. Registrars accept registrations for new or expiring domain names, connect to the appropriate registry operator’s TLD servers to determine whether the name is available, and register available domain names on behalf of registrants . . . .

The majority of domain name registrations for commercial purposes utilize the .com TLD. Coalition for ICANN Transparency, Inc. v. VeriSign, Inc., 464 F. Supp. 2d 948, 951-53 (N.D. Cal. 2006), reversed by 567 F.3d 1084 (9th Cir. 2009).

As explained in Coalition for ICANN Transparency, there are three primary actors in the domain name system.

First, companies called “registries” operate a database (or “registry”) for all domain names within the scope of their authority.

Second, companies called “registrars” register domain names with registries on behalf of those who own the names. Registrars maintain an ownership record for each domain name they have registered with a registry. Action by a registrar is needed to transfer ownership of a domain name from one registrant to another.

Third, individuals and companies called “registrants” own the domain names. Registrants interact with the registrars, who in turn interact with the registries.

VeriSign is the registry for the domain names “.com” and “.net”. Id. at 953. Its headquarters are located in Mountain View, California, in the Northern District of California. During discovery, DSH learned that the registrars for Zuccarini’s “.com” and “.net” domain names were located in the United States, Germany, and Israel. DSH filed a request in the district court for a turnover order to compel the registrars of certain “.com” domain names owned by Zuccarini to transfer ownership to DSH. The district court denied the request, holding that, under California Civil Procedure Code § 699.040, it could not order third parties to turn over property. DSH then moved for the appointment of a receiver who would obtain and sell the “.com” domain names in question and would use the proceeds to satisfy the judgment. The district court granted the motion to appoint a receiver.

Zuccarini appealed. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1292(a)(2) to entertain an appeal from an interlocutory order appointing a receiver.

Because VeriSign has its headquarters in the Northern District of California, the district court had quasi in rem jurisdiction over the domain names registered with VeriSign for purposes of appointing a receiver to assist in executing a judgment against the owner of the names.

Read More at: http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2010/02/26/07-16788.pdf

In Indian context, .IN domain Registry is located at New Delh :-

.IN Registry
c/o NIXI (National Internet eXchange of India)
Regd. Office: Incube Business Centre,5th Floor,
18,Nehru Place
New Delhi 110019
India
Tel: +91 11 3061 4624 / 4625
Fax: +91 11 3061 4629
E-Mail: registry@nixi.in

In the Travel Portal matter, Travelocity has filed an FIR with Gurgaon Poilce against CEO, Cleartrip and former MD of Desiya alleging criminal breach of trust, data theft, cheating, criminal misappropriation and criminal conspiracy. Copy of FIR reads as follows:

“Taneja had allegedly passed on the company’s intellectual property, trade secrets, sensitive data, proprietary technology source codes, their entire hotel business model and projections to Crighton including an excel file named ‘Hotels Growth Model.xls’. It further states that Taneja was terminated from Desiya on 19th September 2009.”

It is further alleged that as a result of the Data Theft, Travelocity is expected to see sharp fall in revenues upto 15%, i.e. approx Rs 200 million in the next year. (source)

In the second such matter, it is reported that JustDial has obtained injunction against Infomedia 18 Limited for running website www.askme.in, as JustDial has alleged that Infomedia 18 Limited had copied former’s database onto it’s newly launched website: www.askme.in, thereby violating JustDial’s database copyrights.

The injunction was granted exparte by the Hon’ble High Court and further order has been made for search and seizure to be carried out at Infomedia’s Delhi and Mumbai offices, as prima-facie case was made out by the Just Dial officials.

Basically, Askme.in was advertised/marketed in 2009 on a large scale by Infomedia extensively to it’s new and existing customer… and further even Infomedia yellow pages 2009-10 publication was delayed by over 7 months, i.e. till December 2009. The reason was stated that they are in the process of launching a new product called askme.in, which would help customers make more profits. Though, the delay by Infomedia 18 Limited also lead to cancellation of many advertisements, including Archer Softech’s Advertisement… as the purpose of advertisement was defeated by such a long delay !

According to the wikipedia: DNS hijacking or DNS redirection is the practice of redirecting the resolution of Domain name system (DNS) names to IP addresses to rogue DNS servers, particularly for the practice of phishing, or the practice of some ISPs resolving otherwise non-existent domains to the ISPs own servers.

DNS hijacking is a kind of hacking, and is punishable under section 66 (read with section 43) of Information Technology Act, 2008.

Basically, there are two aspects to a hosted website, one is the Domain name and other is the Hosting space. It is necessary for the Domain name name – servers to point to the correct Hosting company servers by providing the required information, which is normally in the form of ns1.servername.com, etc. Such information is secured with a username and password, which is different than the normal Hosting user account information.

In many cases in India, the Domain Owners do not realize that they havn’t been provided with the access to such other Domain Control Panel but only the Hosting Cpanel by the Registrars, which leads to a kind of blackmail by the local Domain service providers in most of the cases, as such companies can later deny the transfer of Domain name to other registrars in the absence of the Secret Key, which is compulsorily required for such transfers (which is available within the Domain Control Panel).

If you have been victim of such blackmail by your Domain name registrar, please contact here for legal help !

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For Domain name registration and unlimited website Hosting, please visit www.archersoftech.com

1. Google Partners With The NSA To Fight Cyberattacks

2. Google Asks NSA to Help Secure Its Network

3. Google Enlists NSA To Defend Its Data

Further, he added “there were many impediments that needed to be overcome soon. While a vast majority of the police force or prosecutors in the country had no experience of tackling cyber crime, judges too lacked experience in appreciating evidence in such cases. As cyber crime knows no geographical boundary, the absence of international cooperation between police forces adds to the woes of victims and lets the culprit go scot free”.

Attorney General G E Vahanvati also pointed out the danger potential of cyber crime and right;y added that the cyber crime has been extended to mobile phones, which could be used to bombard a victim with messages and send illicit MMSes.

Lastly, Supreme Court judge and Cyber Law Enforcement Committee chairman, Justice Altamas Kabir, called for the need for expanding the definitions of various crimes listed in the law, in view of the growing cyber crimes.

In response to reports… it has now clarified that there was ‘no breach’ in the security systems either at the PMO or those in other central government departments.

Report @ http://in.news.yahoo.com/43/20100114/982/tsc-pmo-denies-computer-hacking-report.html

Assistant Commissioner of Police
Cyber Crime Investigation Cell
Office of Commissioner of Police office,
Annex -3 Building, 1st floor,
Near Crawford Market, Mumbai-01.

+91-22-22630829
+91-22-22641261

Web site: http://www.cybercellmumbai.com
E-mail id: officer@cybercellmumbai.com

2. Chennai

Assistant Commissioner of Police
Cyber Crime Cell
Commissioner office Campus
Egmore, Chennai- 600008

+91-40-5549 8211
E-mail id: s.balu@nic.in

For Rest of Tamil Nadu,
Address: Cyber Crime Cell, CB, CID, Chennai

E-mail id: cbcyber@tn.nic.in

3. Bangalore

Cyber Crime Police Station
C.O.D Headquarters,
Carlton House,
# 1, Palace Road,
Bangalore – 560 001

+91-80-2220 1026
+91-80-2294 3050
+91-80-2238 7611 (FAX)

Web site: http://www.cyberpolicebangalore.nic.in/
Email-id: ccps@blr.vsnl.net.in, ccps@kar.nic.in

4. Hyderabad

Cyber Crime Police Station
Crime Investigation Department,
3rd Floor, D.G.P. Pffice, Lakdikapool,
Hyderabad – 500004

+91-40-2324 0663
+91-40-2785 2274
+91-40-2329 7474 (Fax)

Web site: http://www.cidap.gov.in/cybercrimes.aspx
E-mail id: cidap@cidap.gov.in, info@cidap.gov.in

5. Delhi

CBI Cyber Crime Cell:
Superintendent of Police,
Cyber Crime Investigation Cell
Central Bureau of Investigation,
5th Floor, Block No.3, CGO Complex,
Lodhi Road, New Delhi – 3

+91-11-4362203
+91-11-4392424

Web site: http://cbi.nic.in/
E-Mail: cbiccic@bol.net.in

6. Thane

3rd Floor, Police Commissioner Office
Near Court Naka, Thane West,
Thane 400601.

+91-22-25424444

Web site: www.thanepolice.org
E-Mail: police@thanepolice.org

7. Pune
Assistant Commissioner of Police
Cyber Crime Investigation Cell
Police Commissioner Office of Pune
2, Sadhu Vaswani Road, Camp,
Pune 411001

+91-20-2612 7277
+91-20-2616 5396
+91-20-2612 8105 (Fax)

Web site: http://punepolice.com/crime branch.html
E-Mail: punepolice@vsnl.com

8. Gujarat
DIG, CID, Crime and Railways
Fifth Floor
Police Bhavan
Sector 18, Gandhinagar 382 018

+91-79-2325 4384
+91-79-2325 3917 (FAX)

Related News

1 Two Cyber Crime Police Stations in Hyderabad

2 File FIR on all complaints or face action

The accused was a gold certified partner of Microsft. He was obtaining Pirated software CDs, packaging material and fake certificate of Authencity (COAs) from China, which were used for packing of manipulated genuine softwares obtained locally and for further sale. The accused has been also alleged to have abusing the “Microsoft Activation Downgrade Programme”, by obtaining WIN XP keys from Microsoft in the name of downgrading of VISTA to XP but instead used these keys on counterfieted software and sell them in the market.

The case has been registered under Indian Penal Code, Information Technology (Amendment) Act 2008 and Copyright Act 1957.

And ofcourse these kind of action from Microsoft Company are not something new. Microsoft has actively implementing various measures in India since the last 3-4 years to curb piracy, which includes making calls/visits at various software company offices to check upon the genuinity of Microsoft Products. And in some cases conducting raids with the help of Police / Special organizations like  BSA.

Many such cases have come up in various courts in India but mostly they end up in settlement (where ever allowed), as the accused have no way out but to pay up 4-5 times of the cost of softwares as penalty. Though, recently Microsoft was fined for filing of piracy cases without jurisdiction. Details below…

Related Links:

• Microsoft wants to curb pirate menace (BSA Statistics)
• Microsoft fined for using `money power’ (case filed for piracy at Delhi High Court without jurisidction)