Professional Documents
Culture Documents
BHOPAL
CYBER LAW
(2017-18)
XIVth Trimester
A PROJECT ON:
CYBER TORTS
I would like to begin by acknowledging the role of my Cyber Law Professor, Prof. (Dr.)
Atul Kumar Pandey, who gave me the excellent opportunity to work on this project.
Also, I would like to extend my gratitude to my batch mates and my parents who have
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CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...............................................................................................................4
CIVIL AND CRIMINAL ACTION....................................................................................7
WHAT CONSTITUTES CYBER TORTS?........................................................................8
CYBER STALKING.......................................................................................................8
India’s first cyber stalking case.................................................................................10
SPAMMING..................................................................................................................11
CYBER DEFAMATION...............................................................................................12
SQUATTING................................................................................................................14
SPOOFING....................................................................................................................15
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ACT, 2000 AND ITS AMENDMENTS..................15
CYBER TORTS IN INDIA AND OTHER COUNTRIES...............................................19
REASONS FOR THE SLOW GROWTH.........................................................................20
CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………………………..22
BIBLIOGRAPHY..............................................................................................................24
Books.............................................................................................................................24
Journals..........................................................................................................................25
Cases..............................................................................................................................25
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INTRODUCTION
The word ‘cyber’ is the virtual world of internet, where there are no limited boundaries
between the people who use it. It is reality that the extent to which information
technology has spread, its reach and influence, makes societies that much more
Cybertort is a neoligism (coined from the terms cyberspace and tort) = tort law as it
relates to the internet/world wide web. The term ‘cyber torts’ is a misnomer. This term
has nowhere been defined in any statute /Act passed or enacted by the Indian Parliament.
The concept of cyber is not radically different from the concept of conventional torts.
Both include conduct whether act or omission, which cause breach of rules of law and
Cyber torts is the latest and perhaps the most complicated problem in the cyber world. Cyber torts
may be said to be those species, of which, genus is the conventional torts, and where either the
computer is an object or subject of the conduct constituting crime. Any tortuous Activity that uses
a computer either as an instrumentality, target or a means for perpetuating further torts comes
A generalized definition of cyber torts may be “ unlawful acts wherein the computer is either a
tool or target or both” The computer may be used as a tool in the following kinds of activity-
financial crimes, sale of illegal articles, pornography, online gambling, intellectual property
crime, e-mail spoofing, forgery, cyber defamation, cyber stalking. The computer may however be
1
Joga Rao S. V(2004), law of cyber crimes & information technology law. 1st edition, p.46
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target for unlawful acts in the following cases- unauthorized access to computer/ computer
system/ computer networks, theft of information contained in the electronic form, e-mail
bombing, data didling, salami attacks, logic bombs, Trojan attacks, internet time thefts, web
The use of internet has brought about a lot of benefits, such as e-commerce, e-banking,
voice chat, social websites, etc. But there are some demerits also, like hacking stalking,
It is very necessary to have regular checks and balance everything that exists with the
interference of the law, to regulate the people in their behavior. Politics and pornography
are not the only reasons why government would interfere in the use of internet, there
were financial aspects like taxation, intellectual property rights, commerce trade and the
The internet started to gain importance from mid-1990s onwards, with the country
Computers with internet facilities have become the most dominant medium of
communication. The internet with all the benefits of anonymity reliability and
convenience has become an appropriate breeding place for persons interested in making
use of the met for illegal gainful purposes, either monetary or otherwise.2
2
Legal dimensions of cyberspace, edited by SK Verma and Raman Mittal, Indian law institute, new delhi,
2004, pg 228
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The biggest challenge to the law is to keep pace with the technology. Some of the
challenges of making technology based laws are that there is a chance of them being soon
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The Information Technology Act provides civil and criminal sanctions for the violation
of its provisions. Civil proceedings is one in which one person or state seeks to enforce
by appropriate relief and the alleged implementation of the civil rights against another
person and which if the claim is proved, would result in the declaration, express or
implied, of the rights claimed and the relief. If the order of the court is directed against a
that it may end in imprisonment for the offence or imprisonment of fine, then proceeding
Civil sanctions are intended to secure to the affected party damages and render the
suffers by the act of commission or omission of the defaulter and that a deterrent sentence
Proceedings for damages are distinct from the criminal complaints filed against the
contravener. The imposition of damages is neither a prosecution nor a punishment for any
Invocation of one does not exclude resort to the other. It is well known that the legislation
can impose both a criminal as well as civil sanction of the same act of commission or
omission.
3
Kashinath Dutta v. Calcutta Municipal Corporation AIR 1992 cal 83
4
Law of information technology( cyber law), DP mittal, October 2000, pg no 172
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Civil sanctions are primarily as a safeguard for the protection of the proprietary or the
vindicate public justice by punishing the offender. Thus the two remedies are mutually
exclusive, but clearly co existence and essentially differ in their content and consequence.
There are many cyber torts, that is civil wrongs that is committed with the help of
Stalking
Spamming
Defamation
Squatting
Spoofing
CYBER STALKING
Stalking has long been known as unwanted activity of an obsessive stalker towards a
distressed stalkee. Although this concept is existing for a long time, its impact attracted
only in the recent times. Cyber stalking is the exploitation of Information and
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Internet services such as e-mails are also abused by the cyber stalkers to send text,
graphics, audio and video based messages to the email account of the victim, transmitting
threatening , alarming and harassing contents. Stalking can be done either directly or
indirectly. In the direct harassment, the stalker sends harassing messages to the targeted
victim and in the indirect harassment, the stalker tries to obtain the personal information
and then uses the information to contact the person through other means.
Cyberized stalking threatens a great number of netizens, who in turn cannot get away
from the internet. Stalking occurring in cyberspaces leaves no direct viewing traces,
causes no direct viewing efforts except digitalized effects, and leads to no direct viewing
detection, except through computerized detection. Yet it harms the victim living in the
real space. 6
The process of stalking has low controllability. The real identity of the user is not
necessary for using the internet. It is necessary to point out that anonymity not only costs
the victim and the law enforcement, nut also the perpetrator. The impossibility of control
over the internet immunizes individuals and institutions from any liability for the
6
Xiang li, Cyber Stalking: Information and Communications Technology Makes it Different, Cyber Law
Journal, The ICFAI University, feb 2009, pg 33
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Sometimes personal information is published in telephone directory or yellow pages,
addresses, and even e-mail accounts. Publishing such information means anyone can use
the information and contact the person. But the dispute arises about who can, at what
time, how frequently and for what purpose the information is used. Dispute is involved
information.
Thus exploiting new technological methods, cyber stalking poses severe intimidation to
netizens who are in the cyber space as it helps them to do many things fast and efficiently
The Delhi police registered India’s first case of cyber stalking in 2000. Ritu Kohli,
complained against a person who was using her identity to chat over obscene things on
the net and her telephone number and her address was also given to various people by
that (one who takes other’s identity) person. Later the IP address were traced and they
But the cyber stalking does not come under the purview of the section 509, as the law
under this section states that any wrong committed through words which are uttered or a
gesture must be made or any object should be exhibited. But cyber stalking is just about
7
Some Cyber Law Perspectives, The ICFAI Journal of Cyber Law, vol 1 ,nov 2002,pg 9
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typing and working on the computer, which does not come under the ambit of section 509
of IPC.
There is a need to create more awareness amongst the legislature and the law enforcing
agencies regarding the cyber torts and crimes in order to enable the early regulation.
SPAMMING
The act of sending unsolicited e-mails in bulk is called “spamming,” and the unwelcome
messages are called “spam.”8 Spamming, which accounts for 40% of global email
The spammer bears basically the same cost for sending one unsolicited e-mail as she
would for sending one million. While the cost to the spammer is minimal, the cost to
Electronic mail," is electronic mail which is unsolicited and sent for the purpose of
advertisements are most often used to solicit multi-level marketing, get-rich-quick and
work-at-home schemes as well as questionable products and pornography. Not only does
Spam affect consumer and citizen e-mail users, but it can cripple businesses and Internet
Service Providers.
8
Evans C. Anyanwu, When bad thingshappen to good laws :Fighting spamming with the law of Trespass
and other novel approaches, www.cyberlinks.com
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In each spamming cases , the plaintiff shows some interference, with the efficient
functioning of the computer system; Compuserve,9 for example, presented evidence that
using disk space and draining processing power, leaving those resources unavailable for
the subscribers.
CYBER DEFAMATION
Cyber defamation would imply defamation by anything which can be read, seen or heard
with the help of the computers. There are certain noticeable differences between online
and offline attempt of defamation which makes the online defamation more vigorous and
effective.
This occurs when defamation takes place with the help of computers and / or the Internet.
E.g. someone publishes defamatory matter about someone on a website or sends e-mails
Surekha (names of people have been changed), a young girl was about to be married to
Suraj. She was really pleased because despite it being an arranged marriage, she had liked
the boy. He had seemed to be open-minded and pleasant. Then, one day when she met
Suraj, he looked worried and even a little upset. He was not really interested in talking to
her. When asked he told her that, members of his family had been receiving e-mails that
contained malicious things about Surekha’s character. Some of them spoke of affairs,
which she had had in the past. He told her 168 that, his parents were justifiably very upset
9
CompuServe, Inc. v Cyber Promotions, Inc. 115 S.Ct. 2338, 2344 (1995)
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and were also considering breaking off the engagement. Fortunately, Suraj was able to
prevail upon his parents and the other elders of his house to approach the police instead
of blindly believing what was contained in the mails. During investigation, it was
revealed that the person sending those e-mails was none other than Surekha’s stepfather.
He had sent these e-mails so as to break up the marriage. The girl’s marriage would have
caused him to lose control of her property of which he was the guardian till she got
married.
Another famous case of cyber defamation occurred in America. All friends and relatives
of a lady were beset with obscene e-mail messages appearing to originate from her
account. These mails were giving the lady in question a bad name among her friends. The
lady was an activist against pornography. In reality, a group of people displeased with her
views and angry with her for opposing they had decided to get back at her by using such
underhanded methods. In addition to sending spoofed obscene e-mails they also put up
websites about her, that basically maligned her character and sent e-mails to her family
SQUATTING
Cyber squatting is the act of registering a famous domain name and then selling it for a
fortune. This is an issue that has not been tackled in IT act 2000. Cybersquatting is a
crime against the laws and regulations of cyber law. It can be defined as registering,
trafficking in, or using a domain name with bad-faith i.e. mala fide intent to make profit
from the goodwill of a trademark belonging to someone else. The cyber squatter then
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offers to sell the domain to the person or company who owns a trademark contained
The term is derived from squatting, which is the act of occupying an abandoned or
unoccupied space or building that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have
permission to use. Cybersquatting however, is a bit different in that the domain names
that are being squatted are (sometimes but not always) being paid for through the
registration process by the Cybersquatters. Cybersquatters usually ask for prices far
greater than that at which they purchased it. Some cybersquatters put up derogatory or
defamatory remarks about the person or company the domain is meant to represent in an
The World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) saw a 20 per cent increase in the
filed in 2005 as compared to 2004. In 2005, a total of 1,456 cyber squatting cases were
filed with WIPOs Arbitration and Mediation Centre, according to a WIPO release. 10
SPOOFING
A spoofed email is one that appears to originate from one source but actually has been
sent from another source. E.g. Pooja has an e-mail address pooja@asianlaws.org. Her
enemy, Sameer spoofs her e-mail and sends obscene messages to all her acquaintances.
Since the e-mails appear to have originated from Pooja, her friends could take offence
10
Rima Bhardwaj & Dushyant Upadhyay, A brief legal overview.
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and relationships could be spoiled for life. Email spoofing can also cause monetary
information about certain companies whose shares he had short sold. This misinformation
was spread by sending spoofed emails, purportedly from news agencies like Reuters, to
share brokers and investors who were informed that the companies were doing very
badly. Even after the truth came out the values of the shares did not go back to the earlier
The Information Technology Act, 2000 came into force in India on 17th of October 2000.
It extends to whole of India and also applies to any offence or contraventions committed
outside India by any person (Section 1 (2), IT Act, 2000). According to Section 75 of the
Act, the Act applies to any offence or contravention committed outside India by any
person irrespective of his nationality, if such act involves a computer, computer system or
network located in India. The IT Act prescribes provisions for contraventions in Chapter
IX of the Act, particularly Section 43 of the Act, which covers unauthorized access,
downloading, introduction of virus, denial of access and internet time theft committed by
any person. It prescribes punishment by way of damages not exceeding Rs. 1 crore to the
affected party. Chapter XI of the IT Act discusses the cyber crimes and offences interalia,
tampering with computer source documents (Sec. 65), Hacking (Sec.66), Publishing of
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obscene information (Sec.67), Unauthorized access to protected system (Sec.70), Breach
The information technology act intends to give legal recognition to e-commerce and e-
methods. The IT (Information Technology) Act, 2000, which derives its flavor from
UNCITRAL Model Law in the local laws of member countries to maintain uniformity in
practice. The IT Act primarily seeks to recognize transactions carried out by electronic
governance.
signatures
communication
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Karnika Seth, INDIA - CYBER CRIMES AND THE ARM OF LAW - AN INDIAN PERSPECTIVE.
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Amendment of Indian Penal Code, 1860, Indian Evidence Act, 1872, Bankers
Book Evidence Act, 1891 and the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934 to bring them
The Information Technology (IT) Act, 2000, specifies the acts which have been made
punishable. Since the primary objective of this Act is to create an enabling environment
for commercial use of I.T., certain omissions and commissions of criminals while using
computers have not been included.12 With the legal recognition of Electronic Records and
the amendments made in the several sections of the IPC vide the IT Act, 2000, several
offences having bearing on cyber-arena are also registered under the appropriate sections
of the IPC.
The IT Act has many inherent limitations and shortcomings. The most significant one
The Act makes no reference to the protection of intellectual property like copyrights,
patents or trademarks on the Net. It is also silent on domain-name infringement and cyber
irrespective of their nationality if the offence under the Act relates to a computer
its enforcement. Although, this seeks to afford protection for Indian cyber space
12
Talwant Singh, Cyber law and Information technology
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from intruders from other countries but the example of Dawood and Quattrochi
The Act fails to address the issue of cross-border taxation that may arise in
on-line transactions, which involves more than one jurisdiction, has also been left
open
It does not deal with Internet privacy issues like prohibition of unsolicited
commercial mail (spamming) and unauthorized use of private data collected on-
line
It binds digital signatures to the asymmetric encryption system, limiting the scope
It fails to cover control of cyber laundering of money, which can easily be used
for criminal or terrorist activities especially given the situation post September 11.
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CYBER TORTS IN INDIA AND OTHER COUNTRIES
While there is some United States law that does restrict access to materials on the
internet, it does not truly filter the internet. Many Asian and Middle Eastern nations use
net regulation) to block material that their governments have deemed inappropriate for
their citizens to view. China and Saudi Arabia are two excellent examples of nations that
have achieved high degrees of success in regulating their citizens access to the internet.
Pavan Duggal, Advocate, Supreme Court and Cyber law expert has also been vocal about
India's Information Technology Act 2000, and did not find it adequate due to various
flaws in it. He has been critical of the efficacy of new Amendments to IT Act 2000 in
India. He believes that new amendments, passed by Indian Parliament in Dec 2008, are
not at all sufficient in the context of the emerging needs of India and there are various
glaring loopholes.
communication which has been regulated by the government. The Open Net Initiative,
whose mission statement is "to investigate and challenge state filtration and surveillance
While China has thus far proven to be the most rigorous in its attempts to filter unwanted
parts of the internet from its citizens, many other countries - including Australia,
Singapore, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Tunisia - have engaged in similar practices of internet
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censorship. In one of the most vivid examples of information-control, the Chinese
government for a short time transparently forwarded requests to the Google search engine
These examples of filtration bring to light many underlying questions concerning the
freedom of speech, namely, does the government have a legitimate role in limiting access
to information? And if so, what forms of regulation are acceptable? The recent blocking
of "blogspot" and other websites in India failed to reconcile the conflicting interests of
speech and expression on the one hand and legitimate government concerns on the other
hand.
India became independent on 15th August, 1947. In the 49th year of Indian
Internet were extremely small and the growth of subscribers painfully slow. 13 However as
Internet has grown in our country, the need has been felt to enact the relevant Cyberlaws
which are necessary to regulate Internet in India. This need for cyberlaws was propelled
by numerous factors.
Firstly, India has an extremely detailed and well-defined legal system in place. Numerous
laws have been enacted and implemented and the foremost amongst them is The
Constitution of India. We have interalia, amongst others, the Indian Penal Code, the
Indian Evidence Act 1872, the Banker's Book Evidence Act, 1891 and the Reserve Bank
13
Why cyber laws in India, www.pavanduggalassociates.com
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of India Act, 1934, the Companies Act, and so on. However the arrival of Internet
signalled the beginning of the rise of new and complex legal issues. It may be pertinent to
mention that all the existing laws in place in India were enacted way back keeping in
mind the relevant political, social, economic, and cultural scenario of that relevant time.
Nobody then could really visualize about the Internet. Despite the brilliant acumen of our
such, the coming of the Internet led to the emergence of numerous ticklish legal issues
Secondly, the existing laws of India, even with the most benevolent and liberal
interpretation, could not be interpreted in the light of the emerging cyberspace, to include
all aspects relating to different activities in cyberspace. In fact, the practical experience
and the wisdom of judgment found that it shall not be without major perils and pitfalls, if
the existing laws were to be interpreted in the scenario of emerging cyberspace, without
enacting new cyberlaws. As such, the need for enactment of relevant cyberlaws.
Thirdly, none of the existing laws gave any legal validity or sanction to the activities in
Cyberspace. For example, the Net is used by a large majority of users for email. Yet till
today, email is not "legal" in our country. There is no law in the country, which gives
legal validity, and sanction to email. Courts and judiciary in our country have been
reluctant to grant judicial recognition to the legality of email in the absence of any
specific law having been enacted by the Parliament. As such the need has arisen for
Cyberlaw.
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Fourthly, Internet requires an enabling and supportive legal infrastructure in tune with the
times. This legal infrastructure can only be given by the enactment of the relevant
Cyberlaws as the traditional laws have failed to grant the same. E-commerce, the biggest
future of Internet, can only be possible if necessary legal infrastructure compliments the
The latest statistics show that cyber torts/crime is actually on the rise. However, it is true
that in India, cyber torts/crime is not reported too much about. Consequently there is a
false sense of complacency that cyber torts/crime does not exist and that society is safe
from cyber torts/crime. This is not the correct picture. The fact is that people in our
country do not report cyber torts/crimes for many reasons. Many do not want to face
harassment by the police. There is also the fear of bad publicity in the media, which could
hurt their reputation and standing in society. Also, it becomes extremely difficult to
convince the police to register any cyber torts/crime, because of lack of orientation and
awareness about cyber torts/crimes and their registration and handling by the police.
The absolutely poor rate of cyber crime conviction in the country has also not helped the
cause of regulating cyber torts/crime. There has only been few cyber torts/crime
CONCLUSION
One question that is often asked is why should we have Cyberlaw in India, when a large
chunk of the Indian population is below the poverty line and is residing in rural areas ?
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More than anything else, India, by its sheer numbers, as also by virtue of its extremely
talented and ever growing IT population, is likely to become a very important Internet
market in the future and it is important that we legislate Cyberlaws in India to provide for
in turn, could be a catalyst for growth and success of the Internet Revolution in India.
ASLU survey 2003 reports that most cyber case remain unreported due to the fear of
negative publicity or under a belief that India does not have adequate legal &
and positive initiatives be taken by the government to train its police officers, personnel
in the judiciary and other law enforcement agencies to effectively combat cyber crimes.
Thus cyber laws are very important, esp., in a developing country like India for its
growth. These crimes/torts hamper the technological growth of the country. It can eb
controlled to a great extent through the education of the people about the cyber crimes
and its consequences and also its safety. There are different users like people who hold
data, system operators, buyers, sellers, those who create intellectual property etc. each of
these section of people have to be educated as to how technology can be used to help or
hurt others. And should also be taught the basic safe computing.
Karnika Seth, INDIA - CYBER CRIMES AND THE ARM OF LAW - AN INDIAN PERSPECTIVE,
14
www.cyberlawsconsultingcenter.com
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Books
Chris Reed and John Angel, edn., Computer Law, 4th edn.
Joga rao s v(2004), law of cyber crimes & information technology law. 1st edition,
p.46
Journals
Some cyber law perspectives,The icfai journal of cyber law, vol 1 ,nov 2002
Karnika Seth, INDIA - CYBER CRIMES AND THE ARM OF LAW - AN INDIAN
PERSPECTIVE
Cases
CompuServe, Inc. v Cyber Promotions, Inc. 115 S.Ct. 2338, 2344 (1995)
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