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| File sharing sites blocked |
| Singham effect: File sharing sites blocked
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| INDIA
, 22-July-2011
4:32:29 AM |
| What is it about July and the government's interest in the Internet? Five years ago this month, India did what China, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan had done by ordering Internet Service Providers to block access to a number of blogs.
The ISPs, in turn, blocked entire domains leading to much anger online. Now, the government has done it again; this time, file sharing sites have been made inaccessible.
According to a report, the block was instituted because the Delhi High Court passed a 'John Doe' order, allowing Reliance Big Pictures to prevent piracy of its movie Singham, which hits theatres this week.
The name 'John Doe' is used as a placeholder in a legal action or case for any person whose true identity is unknown in this instance, a potential pirate interested in illegally downloading or sharing prints of Singham.
As the block came into effect on July 20, some users of Airtel Broadband, BSNL and MTNL Triband reported that several sites - including MediaFire.com, Megaupload.com, Rapidshare. com, Hotfile.com, Fileserve. com and Filesonic.com among others were inaccessible.
On the face of it, this appears to be an over-reaction. The order only necessitates blocking access to anyone pirating the film, not an entire website. And yet, users are being denied access to legitimate file sharing as well.
According to Nikhil Pahwa, Editor, Medianama, "ISPs are, naturally, playing it safe. In 2006, instead of blocking sub-domain pages, on orders of the Department of Telecommunications, ISPs completely blocked entire domains like Blogger and Typepad."
Sanjay Tandon, Vice President (Music and Anti Piracy), Big Pictures, says the company's appeal to the Delhi High Court was a pre-emptive measure to prevent piracy of its film.
According to him, John Doe orders have been issued in the past, but have been restricted to cable operators. This makes the inclusion of the Internet a historic one.
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