Cyber Defamation Case Settled The recent Cyber Defamation case, first of its kind in India, at Delhi's District Court came to an end on 23 April, 2007. The matter related to maintaining of the blog by the wife (i.e. defendant) on BlogSpot.com, where in she had discussed about her personal matters, which to some extent made a reference to Husband (i.e. Plaintiff) directly and indirectly. Plaintiff claimed compensation of Rs 10 lakhs in damages. It was alleged by the plaintiff that from the perusal of the entire contents of the blogs, it is apparent that the Defendant has tried to destroy the reputation and character of the Plaintiff by publishing false details about the Plaintiff in the Internet blogs. The Plaintiff who is heading an entire business unit in some company, has got high reputation in society, professional world and among the colleagues and on account of defamatory imputations made by the Defendant the prestige & reputation of the Plaintiff has been lowered in the eyes of his friends and office colleagues. It was further claimed that people were bumping into the scandalous blogs that are available in the open, i.e. the website can be open and seen by anyone anywhere in the world. Few emails received from Plaintiff's friends were produced as evidence. In defense, it was as submitted that the Blog was a private Blog, not open to the world, to be shared between husband and wife only. Further no publication ever took place of the URL, i.e. web-address of the blog on behalf of the defendant. It should be noted that on the Internet i.e. in the virtual world, the creation of a website is not open or known to the world of visitors, till its web address is published, as it is the only means to access anything in the virtual world, as nothing in reality otherwise exists. Further it was submitted that Plaintiff has generated false electronic documents, as any kind of emails can be produced by web programming methods!!! Watch out for more details on CyberLawTimes.com very soon - to be contributed by Defense Cyber Lawyer - Mr Ankur Raheja.

India 1. Mumbai man held for e-mail threat to Tamil Nadu CM A special team of the Cyber Crime Wing of the CB CID arrested a Mumbai-based man who sent hoax emails to Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi saying bombs had been planted in his house. Read Story | Discuss 2. PIL against defamation of Mahatma Gandhi on YouTube.com A PIL was filed today in the High Court of Karnataka by Digital Society Foundation, a Trust interested in the welfare of Netizens in Bangalore, seeking court direction to the Union of India for necessary action to get the offending video clipping depicting Mahatma Gandhi in bad taste on www.youtube.com. Read Story | Discuss 3. Security guard arrested after Email Threat The city police arrested a 27-year-old man for allegedly cheating a Mumbai based software engineer through the Internet by posing as a woman and stealing money from his bank account. Read Story | Discuss 4. Doctor duped by cyber cheaters A 24-year-old lady doctor from Bangalore, who wanted a job at the United Nations, ended up losing nearly half-a-million rupees to online cheaters. According to officials at the cyber crime police station in Bangalore, Deepa B.M., an ayurveda doctor, who was looking for a job abroad, had posted her resume on a popular job portal during January 2007. Read Story | Discuss 5. Bollywood & piracy The plot is set in Bollywood and though it may seem like stating the obvious, it is the colour of money that adds an interesting twist to the story — Rs 3,000 crore Indian film industry is fighting a silent war against a digital enemy — online piracy and the loss is unthinkable — Rs 1,000 crore every year. Read Story | Discuss USA 1. Dirty words as bad as pictures, court rules Sexually explicit words are just as bad as nude pictures when they're sent to children over the Internet, the state's highest court has decided. A split decision from the Court of Appeals yesterday reinstated the 2005 conviction of a former Manhattan real estate lawyer who was found writing instant dirty messages to an undercover investigator posing as a 14-year-old boy. Read Story | Discuss 2. 'Cyber stalking' law proposed Sending harassing e-mails or text messages would be illegal in Spokane under a proposed city “cyber stalking” law unveiled Monday. The law also would make it illegal to make “harassing, intimidating or embarrassing” postings on Web sites such as MySpace.com. Read Story | Discuss 3. Digital Currency Business E-Gold Indicted for Money Laundering A federal grand jury in Washington, D.C. has indicted two companies operating a digital currency business and their owners on charges of money laundering, conspiracy, and operating an unlicensed money transmitting business, Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeffrey A. Taylor announced today. Read Story | Discuss 4. Anti-Spam Project Organization Files Largest Legal Suit in U.S. History Project Honey Pot, in the Eastern District of Virginia, filed a massive legal suit for spam and e-mail targeting its project members. This organization seeks statutory damages to the tune of $1 billion under the US CAN-SPAM Act and the state’s Anti-Spam Statute. Read Story | Discuss 5. Google AdWords Falls Victim to Cyber Criminals Researchers at security software developer Exploit Prevention Labs (http://www.explabs.com) have uncovered hard evidence that cybercriminals are using Google AdWords to infect unsuspecting users with malware. Under the guise of ads for legitimate, trusted organizations like The Better Business Bureau (see screen shot at http://www.explabs.com/CaseStudies/bbb/gs2.jpg), unsuspecting users are instead redirected to malicious sites that attempt to install exploits and other malware. Read Story | Discuss 6. ICANN wins court order against rogue registrar Controversial US domain registrar RegisterFly has been ordered by a US court to hand all its customer and domain name data to the internet's governing body for domain names so that they can be transferred to other registrars. Read Story | Discuss 7. Virginia Tech gunman leaves cyber trail of massacre plot Computer forensics are playing a key role in the probe of the Virginia Tech gunman, with investigators revealing he bought ammunition clips on eBay designed for one of two handguns used to kill 32 people and himself. Read Story | Discuss 8. Principal Sues Student for Cyber Defamation A school principal in Pennsylvania is suing four former high school students for defamation of character after he says they posted demeaning comments about him online. Read Story | Discuss 9. US senators propose adult web site labels A pair of US senators have proposed legislation requiring the labelling of web pages considered "harmful to minors" - despite the fact that a similar law passed a decade ago was knocked back by the Supreme Court. Read Story | Discuss 10. Suit alleges cyber-stalking A woman claims she was sent harassing e-mails for months by someone using a public computer at the library in this Clermont County community. The entire library system became embroiled in intrigue as steps were taken to try to identify the alleged cyber-stalker. As a result, some patrons might have been misled by their local librarians, who were told by supervisors to help solve the whodunit. Read Story | Discuss Europe 1. Phishing attack evades ABN Amro's two-factor authentication A two-factor authentication system operated by Dutch bank ABN Amro has been compromised and money stolen from the online accounts of customers who fell for a phishing scam. Read Story | Discuss 2. Lords likely to recommend cyber-crime legislation Lord Broers, chairman of the House of Lords Science and Technology Select Committee,gave an interim report on his long-term study into online crime... based on early findings, the Lords were very likely to recommend additional legislation on computer crime. Read Story | Discuss 3. Data collation can evade Data Protection Act, says Court of Appeal The selection and collation of information from several files held on a person does not necessarily count as processing of personal data, according to the Court of Appeal. The activity can escape the remit of the Data Protection Act. Read Story | Discuss 4. Blogging code of conduct will infringe human rights law A proposed code of conduct for bloggers, will infringe on human rights and privacy according to a civil liberties group. The code of conduct has been written by Tim O'Reilly, the man who came up with the term Web 2.0, and Jimmy Wales, creator of Wikipedia. Read Story | Discuss 5. Wi-Fi leechers arrested Two people have been arrested in the UK for using another person's wireless internet access without permission. Neither was charged but both were cautioned for dishonestly obtaining electronic communications services with intent to avoid payment. Read Story | Discuss 6. Crooks target students for cyber crime Cyber criminals are so desperate to defraud innocents online that they are turning to tech students for help. Read Story | Discuss 7. One third of UK business fail to report cybercrime The research, carried out by Infosecurity Europe on 285 companies as well as more in-depth interviews with 20 chief security officers found that companies face being the victim of this type of crime on a daily basis. Read Story | Discuss 8. Experts call for global IT security police The world needs a global police force to tackle the rise of cyber-crime, according to a security firm at Infosecurity Europe 2007 in London. Organised attacks based in countries such as China, Latin America, Russia and Eastern Europe need to be tackled by an agency cooperating across borders, said David Emm, senior technology consultant at kaspersky. Read Story | Discuss 9. Cyber hacker against US government may face trial in US A British computer hacker accused of committing one of the largest ever cyber-attacks on the US government has lost his High Court challenge to avoid extradition to America. Gary McKinnon will be extradited to the US and will challenge the ruling in the House of Lords Read Story | Discuss Others 1. Aussies lose domains in Web host scandal An unknown number of Australian companies and consumers have lost their Web sites -- and renewal fees -- hosted by a US-based company www.registerfly.com Read Story | Discuss 2. Nigeria: Country 'Prone to Cyber Crime' Organisations operating in Nigeria have been alerted on the need to raise their antennae for cyber-terrorism and other forms of internet attacks as a means of protecting employees, core networks and back-end facilities. Read Story | Discuss 3. SA: Scorpions catch cyber crook in the act The Scorpions have uncovered a multimillion-rand online bank-hacking syndicate after arresting its mastermind. On Tuesday, after striking a plea-bargain with the state, the 30-year-old Kempton Park man was sentenced to eight years in jail - five of which have been suspended. This was after he had confessed to a range of online fraud incidents amounting to millions of rands. Read Story | Discuss 4. Egypt: Syrian Cyber-Activist Arrested Reporters Without Borders has called for the immediate release of arrested human rights activist Ibrahim Zoro, who regularly posts material on foreign-based opposition websites. It noted that two other people were in prison in Syria for posting similar material. Read Story | Discuss 5. Singapore: New Anti-Spam Law Passed A new bill aimed at controlling the rising spam concern in Singapore will now require local businesses to tag “ADV” for every advertisement they send out via email and SMS messages. This new regulation will adopt an “opt-out” approach which means that businesses here will still have room to market their products and solutions electronically unless the receiver actively decides to opt-out of receiving their messages. Read Story | Discuss 6. Turkey: Court ruling blocks access to popular Web site The Court of First Instance in Istanbul’s Eyüp district on Tuesday ruled that access to all sub domains of Ek$i Sözlük, (eksi sözlük, or sour dictionary in English), one of the most popular Web sites among Turkish Internet users, be blocked after the leader of a creationist sect sued the site because of some dictionary entries under his name. Read Story | Discuss 7. Crack team to combat cyber crime in the UAE UAE’s Telecom Regulatory Authority has established the United Arab Emirates Computer Emergency Response Team (aeCERT) and a cyber security coordination centre to detect, prevent and respond to cyber crime in the country. The team will begin operations by the end of the year. Read Story | Discuss 8. THAILAND: Govt shuts down critical web forum The Information and Communications Technology Ministry (ICT) has shut down a popular online political forum "Ratchadamnoen" on www.pantip.com, saying some opinions posted on the web board were a threat to national security. Read Story | Discuss 9. China's Baidu.com in domain dispute in Japan Baidu.com Inc., often described as "China's Google", has bumped up against an obstacle that the real Google has long grown accustomed to: cybersquatters on its first overseas venture. Beijing-based Baidu, which controls more than half of the Web search market in China -- the world's second-largest after the United States -- last month started up Japanese portal www.baidu.jp as its first regular service outside its home market. Read Story | Discuss 10. Vietnam cyber-dissident expected to face court A detained Vietnamese cyber-dissident is expected to face trial soon, for "abusing democratic freedoms," say relatives and overseas-based pro-democracy activists. Read Story | Discuss Security 1. Key-loggers become cyber-criminal tool of choice Key-loggers pose more risks to business and home PC users than any other tool used by cyber-criminals, security experts have claimed. A report published today by security vendor Kaspersky Lab said that the number of key-loggers rose by more than 500 per cent between January 2003 and July 2006. Read Story | Discuss 2. Cyber thieves continue to target those using on-line banking Modern thieves are still duping their victims with e-mails, alleging to be from a bank, asking them to click a certain link to update their personal information -- thereby managing to access their accounts. The customer services department of one bank stated categorically that such e-mails were sent by people with bad intentions, who wanted to access customers’ bank accounts, reported the Anatolia news agency. Read Story | Discuss 3. How to protect your website against cyber-terrorism Apocalyptic predictions of utility shutdown and loss of lives caused by terrorist attacks on computer systems abounded a couple of years ago. When they failed to materialise, the public lost interest in terrorist activity on the internet. But terrorists have not lost interest in the web. Read Story | Discuss 4. Hacker Attacks Getting More Sinister Experts say attacks by computer hackers are getting much more sinister. "They're trying to get into your computer, so they can take it over and use it for something else," said cyber security expert Neil Sindich. Read Story | Discuss 5. The Forensic Felons: The Next Generation of Cyber Thieves Recovering from identity theft can take years and cost thousands of dollars. But how much is your identity worth to the thieves who sell it to other fraudsters? Turns out, less than the price of two tickets to the movies... Read Story | Discuss Trademarks & Patents 1. Delhi HC restrains a outsourcing firm from using trademark `TATA` The Delhi High Court has restrained Abacus Outsourcing and Consultancy Pvt Ltd, a Hyderabad based firm, from using the trademark and trade name TATA or device 'T'. Passing the interim restraint order, Justice A K Sikri said "I am satisfied that the plaintiffs (TATA) have made out a case for grant of an ex parte ad interim injunction in their favour and against the defendants (Outsourcing company)." The court restrained Abacus Outsourcing from using trademark and trade name TATA and device 'T' or advertising directly or indirectly or any other "deceptively" similar marks under the said trade name giving the perception to the public that it belonged to TATA Group of Companies till next date of hearing. Read Story | Discuss 2. Tina Arena evicts cybersquatters Australian songstress Tina Arena has wrested an internet domain bearing her name from cyber-squatters in a decision that could help other entertainers assert their presence online. A panel has ruled in favour of the 39-year-old diva who has sought to claim www.tinaarena.com.au from Melbourne-based business Enigmatic Minds, which registered the site in October last year. Read Story | Discuss 3. IP crimes Directive approved by European Parliament A controversial Directive which criminalises intellectual property violations in Europe was approved yesterday by the European Parliament but does not include its most controversial element, the criminalising of patent infringement. Read Story | Discuss 4. Qualcomm-Nokia patent fight threatens future wireless technologies As Nokia and Qualcomm escalate their battles over wireless intellectual property, the status of future technologies like 4G, WiMax, and OFDMA (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access) are being dragged into the conflict. Nokia's announcement Thursday that it would pay $20 million for a license from Qualcomm, which was followed by Qualcomm's demand for arbitration by the American Arbitration Association, are warm-ups for the main events that each firm threatens to file against the other. Read Story | Discuss 5. AFP and Google sign deal on copyright News agency Agence France-Presse (AFP) has agreed a deal with Google to end a two year legal battle over its Google News service. The deal settles a case which was worth up to $17.5 million to AFP, though the commercial details have not been released. Read Story | Discuss