Something terribly wrong is happening at Google India office and functions. Whether it is compliance with Indian intellectual property laws or cyber law or screening of India specific search results, everything seems to be in real mess at Google India’s part.Recently, posts pertaining to the controversial non allowance of video conference of Salman Rushdie were mysterically removed from India specific SERPs and blog search. They reappeared only after this issue was publically discussed by us. Now SERPs of DMCA complaint with Google are not appearing properly in India.
However, the real problem seems to be that Google India in general and Google Incorporation in particular is not complying with the laws of India and legitimate demands arising out of the same. Even if DMCA procedure is followed, Google Incorporation and Google India are not complying with US and Indian laws respectively.
This situation urgently demands that India must establish an alternative legal regime that does not need to be DMCA compliant. In fact, Perry4Law Techno Legal Base (PTLB) has recommended some measures that can solve this problem of non following of Indian laws by companies like Google, Facebook, Wordpress, etc.
PTLB has suggested the following:
(1) All subsidiary/Joint ventures companies in India, especially those dealing in information technology and online environment, must mandatorily establish a server in India. Otherwise, such companies and their websites should not be allowed to operate in India.
(2) A stringent liability for Indian subsidiaries dealing in information technology and online environment must be established by laws of India.
(3) More stringent online advertisement and e-commerce provisions must be formulated for Indian subsidiary companies and their websites.
These are strong suggestions that can provide the requisite legal arsenal to the Delhi High Court that is currently hearing the case of Google, Facebook, etc. The Delhi High Court would hear Google, Facebook, etc on 02-02-2012 and there is nothing that prevents it from taking a judicial note of these suggestions.
