From: Vipul Ved Prakash <mail@vipul.net>
Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1998 07:42:31 +0800
To: cypherpunks@einstein.ssz.com
Subject: VSNL Censors Indian Internet Sites.
Message-ID: <19981120042043.A2051@fountainhead.vipul.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



( My 19th nov. post to cypherpunks@cyberpass.net never showed up on 
  the list, so I reposting.  Thanks. ) 


   17 November, 1998
   FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
   Contact: Vipul Ved Prakash, 2233328. 
   

   VSNL Censors Indian Internet Sites


   NEW DELHI, INDIA - VSNL, the Indian Internet monopoly, has been
   illegally blocking Internet access to a number of Indian web sites for
   the last several weeks, a Delhi-based Internet presence provider
   revealed today. The block affects only Indian citizens in India -
   users anywhere else in the world are not affected.
   
   One of the sites targeted is Sense/NET, (www.sensenet.net). Sense/NET
   lets users of VSNL's text-based shell account use the graphical
   Netscape browser over their shell accounts, while using only the
   normal shell account facilities that VSNL provides. With Sense/NET,
   the common man can surf the Internet just like with VSNL's premium
   TCP/IP service, but at a fraction of the cost.
   
   General Logic, the startup company behind the Sense/NET service, is
   not taking the blocking of its server lightly. "We did not so much as
   receive any communication from VSNL about this step, which has the
   potential to seriously affect our business," said Dr. Pawan Jaitly, a
   director of the company. "It seems very strange, too, that a security
   breach was attempted on our server over the Internet just days before
   the blockage."
   
   The censored server, at the (currently blocked) IP address of
   208.222.215.97, hosts a number of other web sites including the
   largest Yellow Pages of Indian exporters and importers available on
   the Internet and the corporate web sites of the Apple Publishing
   Technology Center, NewGen Software, and Educational Consultants India
   Limited.
   
   The award-winning web site of Connect magazine, the first Indian print
   publication to launch a web edition, is also located on the General
   Logic server.
   
   Sense/NET users and others affected by the block who called up VSNL's
   help desk to request clarification on this issue and access to the
   sites were told by VSNL staffers that they did not know what the
   problem was, and that they themselves could not access the sites in
   question. No official intimation or even acknowledgement about the
   block has been forthcoming from VSNL.
   
   This is not the first time VSNL has blocked access to selected sites
   on the Internet. On September 19, 1998, online activist Dr. Arun
   Mehta's writ petition was admitted for hearing in the court of Justice
   Anil Dev Singh, Delhi High Court, against VSNL, challenging its
   blockage of certain Internet sites. The sites listed in the petition
   provide information and software for voice transmissions over the
   Internet.
   
   The petition argues that this action "is wholly without basis in law
   and amounts to arbitrary and illegal censorship of the petitioner's
   Fundamental Right to freedom of speech, expression and information as
   well as an illegal denial of his right to freedom to practice his
   chosen profession."
   
   The petition seeks affirmation that the constitutional rights to free
   speech apply equally in cyberspace, and it also opens up the issue of
   VSNL's ban on Internet telephony to judicial scrutiny. The matter will
   come up for hearing on December 9, 1998. The case is being argued by
   Mr. Ashok Aggarwal.
   
   The Exporters and Importers Yellow Pages web site hosted on General
   Logic's recently blocked server is a vital e-commerce resource for
   over sixty-five thousand traders who earn India valuable foreign
   exchange. "This ban will hurt Indian exporters as well. By banning
   access to sites... VSNL is cynically choosing to let the nation suffer
   severe loss if in the process it can safeguard its own monopolistic
   profits," said Dr. Mehta.
   
   "Ironically, VSNL also blocked Educational Consultants, a public
   sector government organization, with its action."
   
   General Logic was able to move all the web sites that were the victims
   of VSNL's action to a non-blocked area within hours. "Most of our
   clients didn't even notice their sites and email messages were being
   blocked by VSNL," said Dr. Jaitly. The Sense/NET site remains blocked,
   however.
   
   "What VSNL is doing is completely illegal. A website is a means of
   expression and is covered by the right to expression of all indian
   citizens under article 19(1)a of the Indian Constitution. This can
   only be restricted under article 19(2) on 'reasonable grounds' which
   include obscenity, but certainly not the provision of competitive
   services at reasonable cost," commented Rishab Aiyer Ghosh, managing
   editor of First Monday, a European journal on Internet law.
   
   Last year a duo of computer whiz-kids in Cochin released Shellsock, a
   software package that made it possible for users of VSNL shell
   accounts to browse the 'Net graphically. VSNL quickly set about
   working on ways to break Shellsock, and eventually succeeded in
   restricting the environment on its shell accounts to the extent that
   Shellsock was unable to function.
   
   General Logic launched its Sense/NET service soon after, with the goal
   of providing TCP/IP Internet 'tunneling' service to users worldwide,
   not just in India. "There are other countries suffering under the yoke
   of state censorship of the Internet, like China, whose authoritatian
   government, without warning, blocked access to the BBC web site for
   its citizens," said Dr. Mehta. "VSNL is a monopoly that is crippling
   India's progress on the Internet front."
   
   Even Microsoft, he observed, which holds an effective monopoly in the
   operating system market worldwide, has no mandate by any government in
   the market - it has to keep forging ahead or lose to its competitors.
   "VSNL does not have that motivation, and so it is that the Indian
   consumer and India suffer."
   
   Besides the threat of censorship and poor service, another risk with
   state monopoly Internet access providers is that they can read your
   mail, and monitor your communications, as the data flows through their
   systems. Jaitly disclosed that his company is working on providing
   strong military grade encryption as part of its Internet tunneling
   services, to provide secure private networks across untrusted links
   for business and personal use.
   
   "We envision Sense/NET as a sort of 'Meta ISP' providing secure,
   uncensorable Internet tunneling service to people in places where
   local access providers are unable or unwilling to deliver full
   access," said Vipul Ved Prakash, Director of research at General
   Logic. "We believe in every individual's fundamental right to access
   human knowledge without restriction. Our message to these people is:
   'There's light at the end of the tunnel.'"
   
   It's not all crypto-anarchy and dreams of digital revolution, however.
   Sense/NET is a valuable service for ordinary users who are attempting
   to make the most effective use of their VSNL shell accounts with the
   limited services provided. Many of the subscribers to the service are
   students and other low income groups, who simply cannot afford VSNL's
   higher priced services.
   
   A case in point is that of Pranav Lal, a New Delhi student. Pranav is
   blind, and VSNL's shell account is next to useless for him. Sense/NET
   on the other hand allows him to use voice-enabled software to surf the
   'net.
   
   "I can't afford the VSNL TCP/IP account, but for me it is vital that I
   am in touch with my peers over the world over the Internet," says
   Pranav. "Sense/NET is great because it lets me handle my email and
   navigate the web really simply."
   
   "We see the global free flow of ideas across national borders, enabled
   by digital data communications and encryption technology, as the most
   liberating development of the 20th century," said Ashish Gulhati head
   of development at General Logic. "Regulation is futile," he added. The
   company expects its services will be most in demand in countries where
   authoritarian regimes are in power.
   
   "It's shocking that this kind of thing continues to go on in India,"
   observed Dr. Mehta. "We're the world's largest democracy, on the brink
   of entering the 21st century as a major player in the global software
   industry. But we're still enslaved by laws created during the British
   Raj, even in high priority areas like telecom."
   
   [1324 Words]

     _________________________________________________________________
   
   Notes:
   
    1. Dr. Arun Mehta's petition is at
       <http://members.tripod.com/~india_gii/telepet.html>.

    2. The Forum for Rights to Electronic Expression articles are at
       <http://www.eff.org/pub/Groups/FREE>

    3. Censored sites:
          + http://www.sensenet.net/ (Currently blocked)
          + http://www.trade-india.com/ (Now accessible on a new server)
          + http://www.aptc-india.com/ (Now accessible on a new server)
          + http://www.edcil.org/ (Now accessible on a new server)
          + http://www.newgensoft.com/ (Now accessible on a new server)
          + http://www.newgen.net/ (Now accessible on a new server)
          + http://www.connectmagazine.com/ (Now accessible on a new server)
          + http://www.net2phone.com/ (Currently blocked)
          + http://www.vocaltec.com/ (Currently blocked)
          + http://www.netspeak.com/ (Currently blocked)

    4. Email addresses:
          + Dr. Arun Mehta - amehta@cerf.net
          + Ashish Gulhati - ashish@generalogic.com
          + Ashok Agarwal - ashokagr@del2.vsnl.net.in
          + Dr. Pawan Jaitly - pawan@generalogic.com
          + Rishab Aiyer Ghosh - ghosh@firstmonday.dk
          + Vipul Ved Prakash - vipul@generalogic.com

     _________________________________________________________________
   
   Rev: SNPR v0.06 1998/11/17 15:58:14 webmaster@generalogic.com


-- 

VIPUL VED PRAKASH              Cryptography.             "Everything is what 
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