[Reader-list] dutch-indian cybercrime

[Patrice Riemens]

As an aside to Geert's posting it might be interesting to know that two 
Dutch providers, who are hosting the websites of undermentionned NGOs have 
been dragged to court in Bangalore as well: XS4ALL (http://www.xs4all.nl) 
and Antenna (http://www.antenna.nl). Both maintain that (i) as providers 
they are merely carriers and not content providers (the 'post office 
argument') and (ii) it is up to the Indian aggrieved party to prove that 
the allegedly infringing sites are prosecutable under _Dutch_ law, or 
under international law and/or conventions. The former is surely not the 
case, and as India is not signatory of the cybercrime convention, the 
latter is not even arguable.


On Sun, Jun 24, 2007 at 08:52:35AM +0200, geert lovink wrote:
> Dutch NGOs summoned by Bangalore court
> 
> INDIA-SAARC
> 23 June 2007 - Issue : 735
> 
> Two non-governmental organisations (NGOs) based in the Netherlands were 
> asked to appear before a court in Bangalore on June 25. They are 
> accused of ?cybercrime, acts of racist and xenophobic nature and 
> criminal defamation,? according to the NGO?s pres release. The two 
> organizations are the Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC) and the India 
> Committee of the Netherlands (ICN).
> 
> The former is an international network of trade unions and NGOs, the 
> latter an independent NGO, based on solidarity with deprived groups in 
> Indian society. They have been raising public ?awareness of serious 
> labour rights? violations? at jeans suppliers Fibres and Fabrics 
> International and its wholly-owned subsidiary Jeans Knit Pvt. Ltd 
> (FFI/JKPL).
> 
> This is the first time that a factory has filed suit against the CCC 
> and ICN for publishing information on working conditions in the garment 
> industry on their respective websites, their press release points out.
> 
> Their information was based on interviews with workers conducted in 
> 2005 and 2006, and backed up by a fact-finding mission of seven human 
> rights? and women?s rights organisations.
> 
> Since July 2006 the Garment and Textile Workers? Union (GATWU), the New 
> Trade Union Initiative (NTUI), the Civil Initiative for Peace and 
> Development (CIVIDEP), the Women Garment Workers? Front Munnade and the 
> CCC Task Force Tamil Naidu have been prohibited from distributing 
> information on working conditions at FFI/JKPL inside and outside India.
> 
> ?Suing all human rights organizations that report about working 
> conditions in the garment industry in Bangalore will not solve 
> anything,? according to Esther de Haan, of the CCC International 
> Secretariat and one of the accused. She called on FFI/JKPL to start a 
> dialogue with GATWU and the other organisations, according to the 
> CCC/INC press release.
> 
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