Are online p*rn forums legal in india?

the information provided by you is very much correct in our daily routine we see lot of pictures coming accross us the same photos without thre knowledge are click by the mobile phone and being kept in the website and who is doing no one knows

even riskhsaw wala is having cell phone who is doing such activity do not know

as a citizen you can give a formal complaint to the central crime station about the websites and request to take investigation and stop such url to publish 

youth who are taking such photos black mail the innocent girls and will get what they want from those girls

every day we read about such innocent incidents

Reference to above and cherry picking from your query in my opinion you should be sent to 3 years jail first of all ! ** [see explanation at the bottom only if you can take it J]

Currently, there is no law against viewing p*rnography. The Indian Penal Code and the recent IT Act both prohibit the production and transmission of “obscene material”. The IT Act stipulates three years in jail for publishing and transmitting obscene material electronically. If watching p*rnography is made illegal, this will be a wholly new rule.

In mid April 2013 Hon'ble SC issued notices to the ministries of home affairs, information technology and information and broadcasting, besides the Internet Service Providers Association of India on a PIL (public interest petition) seeking an anti-p*rnography law.

There are two ways of blocking p*rn;

- one is by actually removing the content from the Internet. This would only be possible if the content was illegal in the country where it is being hosted.

- The second method, which the government has largely relied on in the past, is getting Internet service providers (ISPs) to block access to a particular website’s URL— its address on the web.

This was how illustration purpose it was possible to block hugely popular among youths erstwhile p*rn web-comic site www.savitabhabhi.com sometime in 2010. The moment it was banned the site simply changed URLs and still continues to operate and people who know such insight can still watch the highly innovatively done p*rn web-comic right in their living room sitting here in India.

Technologically it is nearly impossible to have a blanket ban of this sort in place especially p*rn. I can understand YouTube is still banned in Pakistan but banning p*rn is nightmare even for some of the advanced countries as there they have huge lobbying citing it is multi-billion dolor industries. 

Take eg. a virtual private network (VPN) used for remote working and data protection also allows access to content that has been blocked by the ISP and won’t leave a trail. These are all legal (and free or in-expensive) as of now in reference to India. Remember Torrent it was banned in India but still readily accessed by Indian youth to download latest flick before its theatre release.

To ban p*rn and track people viewing it the government would have to also ban proxy servers and make VPNs illegal. Infact VSNL earns huge revenue by allocating cheapest VPN to subscribers and if it is banned then govt. itself will loose great revenue. parallel illustration is tobacco products such as ciggs. donot you know govt. earns huge revenue from its sale and has it been banned as yet inspite of well research studies done on its usage? That would be a highly draconian move and one that’s unlikely the only feasible solutions are wide censorship but then it is against the Indian Constitution and hon’ble SC will come heavily on Govt. the moment it is done.

Above or some insights, law angle and huge block one eventually would face and if you can come with some solution then more than welcome as we would refer your name as interlocutor in pending PIL before Hon'ble SC.

Would you like to take up the offer of interlocutor in reference PIL !

** { Explanation laced as PJ and is not meant as disrespect to Hon'ble Bench in any way}:-

Prosecution: My lord, that person was watching p*rn.
Judge: How do you know it was p*rn?
Prosecution: I saw the clip.
Judge: Arrest the prosecution Lawyer!!
Judge: (to defense lawyer) Did you see the clip?
Defense Lawyer: Yes, but it wasn't p*rn. You can see it for yourself Sir.
Judge (after seeing clip): Oh yeah, Oh Yeah, it is p*rn.
Convict: Arrest the ld. Judge too!!!!!
Judge:  and arrest the defense lawyer for obstruction of justice.

So if the Hon’ble Bench is willing to go to jail with the convict to 'make the society safer' as is the proclaimed aim of the mid April 2013 PIL, then let us have this law!!!

[The purpose to reply to you was that I was just curious how would they enforce such a law when facing Bar as in IT Act on watching p*rn….. ]

i think its not the website we should block..but the owners of such websites... isnt there a way to find out who is the real owner of the website? most of such websites have anonymous owners...cant we find out where the website is hosted....then on which server/company the site is hosted....then we can get the info about the owner from them and eventually grasp the admin of such websites...

the sinner is the admin not the website/p*rn....so we should concentrate more on arresting such people who earn their bread by publishing private pics/mms of innocent girls/couples....

once the admin is arrested the website/forum canbe very easily taken down/destroyed.

when some one murder a person we dont say "ban murder" we arrest the culprit and send him to jail...becas he is a threat to the society....same way such admins of such websites/forums are also threat to the society.

First of all the people who click their own pictures or videos should be careful to secure them properly. Isn't it? If they are careless about their privacy and security in the first place, then whom to blame? Who knows probably such people also willingly sharing such pictures and videos online. Moreover if someone is watching p*rn in his bedroom, how can the State come and start interfering in his bedroom activities? It would be against the Constitutionaly guaranteed freedoms and liberties. Last time I checked, we are not living in a nanny State where every activity of every person is controlled, dominated and tracked by the State.

So long the forum is hosted in the country whose laws are not offended by such content nothing much can be done. If such webhosts start giving out details of the forum owners then these webhosts themselves will be out of business in a few days.

As regards the PILs, probably the moral busybodies want to keep themselves and the courts busy for one reason or the other!

realy sad to know this:(

it only leads me to one conclusion...that our cyber laws are impotent and flawed.!!

Cyber laws are not impotent or flawed. Rather some provisions are so draconian and on borderline of being ultra vires to the Constitution that innocents or political opponents can be falsely booked and terrorised by the State. You may read one such instance of misuse of such law by State in the following thread https://www.lawyersclubindia.com/forum/Freedom-of-expression-and-public-interest-70203.asp

Unlike our banana republic, in many truly free and democratic countries even nudity is protected under Freedom of Speech and Expression. For example US Supreme Court in Sunshine Book Co. v. Summerfield, Postmaster General, 355 U.S. 372 has held nudity to be part of freedom of expression. You may read the discussion in the following thread https://www.lawyersclubindia.com/forum/Supreme-court-on-freedom-of-expression-for-nudity-62938.asp

Another judgement by US Supreme Court about Freedom of Speech and Expression in City of Charleston v. The Kanawha Players is worth reading. It can be read in the follwing thread https://www.lawyersclubindia.com/forum/Re-Everyday-violation-of-right-to-free-speech-57084.asp

It is also not good to expect solution to social problems or changes only through laws. If some people are happy to put their private moments then where is the problem? Probably in the belief system of the person observing them. If some people are careless to protect their privacy or security then where is the problem? There cannot a policeman behind every citizen of the country.

@Querist,

First let me re-publish your query in part and then reply part-wise.

part 1-->I have come across number of online p*rn forums and mms forums...these forums share

Reply-->The act of 'Sharing' p*rnography is punishable.

Part 2-->leaked mms scandals

Reply -->To make objectionable mms of someone is an offence.But if consent granted,no offence if keeping for personal views.

part 3-->and leaked or stolen voyeuer pic sets of number of girls/couples without their consent.

Reply-->Voyeuerism is a punishable offence.

Part 4-->...i just want to know why such sites are still running?

Reply-->No international agreement.Different culture,thought,and perspective of viewing such things.

Part 5-->these sites are a platform where nude pics and mms are leaked to defame girls/couples...

Reply-->Some cases may be genuine but there are persons who professionally pose...

Part 6-->there might be number of complaints but what i see is pics/mms are removed but nothing is done to the site.

Reply-->To censor the web is not an easy task.Recently google has disabled the feature 'to turn off the safe content search.' Yahoo! too discontinued it's chat feature.You could search for the reason for this act of Yahoo!.If talking about punishment,it can't be done as websited hosted outside india too and the owner resides in a different country.

Part 7-->i have names of number of such sites..but most of them are hosted outside india....

owner of the site being an indian and residing in india ...hiding his/her identity etc....why owners of such sites are not arrested???

Reply-->Bring things to notice to authority.

Part 8-->If iam residing in india and i have opened a p*rn forum (hosted outside india) where private pics/mms of innocent girls/couples are published.... then do i become a criminal????

Reply-->Yes,if your identity is disclosed.

@The senior,

Firstly let me thank you for a nice joke which is really intellectual.Secondly,thank you for sharing some new idea/information.

I withheld some personal views for the sake of avoiding big scene.

Note-This reply should be taken as per the declaration given in my profile page.

Thanks,

Regards,

well it seems there is no solution to this at current time. plz close the thread. i was looking for some options/alternatives where we can arrest the admins of such websites. but it seems too complicated and there is a lack of will amoung all of us to stand against such sites.

after seeing the internet for the past 15 years i think now there is a urgent need to censor the internet only for p*rn related websites atleast. professional p*rn pros can be allowed though.

you guys say what can we do if people cant protect their own privacy...well my take on this is that a country sould be potent enough to protect its citizens against any crime/evil/wrong doing....which ofcouse is not the case here. as democratic indian mentioned we are really a banana republic....sometimes i feel ashamed to associated with a country which cannot protect its citizens....where human life is valued so cheap...where politicians are busy making money in scams....and blah blah blah...the list is infinite....
and we can do nothing abt it...sad...very sad...

i wish i could have been able to do something about this issue....iam a novice and dont know anything abt legalities...never been to police station in my life and court is a distant thing lol...

can u guys letme know what options do we have to curb such menaces from our society?

Originally posted by : Krishnakant
	well it seems there is no solution to this at current time. plz close the thread. i was looking for some options/alternatives where we can arrest the admins of such websites. but it seems too complicated and there is a lack of will amoung all of us to stand against such sites.

We have enough laws and there is no need to transform our country into a police state by enacting more and more laws. Those effected can approach the authorities and file cases and pursue the matter as per law.

The real danger to freedom and liberties of people is from self styled moral busybodies and moral policing.

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. - C. S. Lewis

Originally posted by : Krishnakant
	after seeing the internet for the past 15 years i think now there is a urgent need to censor the internet only for p*rn related websites atleast. professional p*rn pros can be allowed though.

As regards the question of censorship of internet is concerned, it is practically next to impossible. Internet was created by US Department of Defense with one of the purposes to circumvent censorship of despotic governments. Hopefully our government does not turn into a despotic one someday.

Ours is a democracy where freedom of speech and expression is guaranteed by the Constitution, thus censorship ought to be the one of the most despicable actions of last resort where some compelling state interest is involved. Such is the importance of fundamental rights that US Supreme Court judgment in Brandenburg v. Ohio - 395 U.S. 444 (1969) held that the government cannot punish free speech even if it is inflammatory unless it is directed to inciting, and likely to incite, "imminent lawless action."  Even advocacy of violence is protected under free speech. It gave rise to Brandenburg test -- of intent, imminence, and likelihood. The judgment and the test still holds sway today. Our Supreme Court and High Courts should also be giving such bold judgments to protect our fundamental rights.

Originally posted by : Krishnakant
	you guys say what can we do if people cant protect their own privacy...well my take on this is that a country sould be potent enough to protect its citizens against any crime/evil/wrong doing....which ofcouse is not the case here.

Why people cant protect their own privacy? Are they so mindless that they do not know how to be responsible and protect their private content?

Originally posted by : Krishnakant
	as democratic indian mentioned we are really a banana republic....sometimes i feel ashamed to associated with a country which cannot protect its citizens....where human life is valued so cheap...where politicians are busy making money in scams....and blah blah blah...the list is infinite....and we can do nothing abt it...sad...very sad...

We are a banana republic because our fundamental rights are not protected and laws are enacted in a manner so that corrupt and vested interests benefit due to loopholes. We are a banana republic because laws are enacted in a manner so that they can be misused by the State. We are a banana republic because executive, judiciary and legislature are in nexus to help each other through the backdoor. Please note that we are a sovereign country where every citizen has duty to act in a responsible manner. Those persons who do not act in a responsible manner to protect their privacy, why we should be unnecessarily worried for them?

As far as question of "protection" is concerned, it is also a fundamental duty of citizens to protect themselves and the nation. In other words, the Doctrine of the 2nd Amendment of the US Constitution is also very much present in our Constitution. I have explained this matter in the following thread https://www.lawyersclubindia.com/forum/Refusal-of-arms-licence-78361.asp

Originally posted by : Tajobsindia
	Originally posted by : Krishnakant   I have come across number of online p*rn forums and mms forums XXX If iam residing in india and i have opened a p*rn forum (hosted outside india) where private pics/mms of innocent girls/couples are published.... then do i become a criminal????   Reference to above and cherry picking from your query in my opinion you should be sent to 3 years jail first of all ! ** [see explanation at the bottom only if you can take it J] Currently, there is no law against viewing p*rnography. The Indian Penal Code and the recent IT Act both prohibit the production and transmission of “obscene material”. The IT Act stipulates three years in jail for publishing and transmitting obscene material electronically. If watching p*rnography is made illegal, this will be a wholly new rule. In mid April 2013 Hon'ble SC issued notices to the ministries of home affairs, information technology and information and broadcasting, besides the Internet Service Providers Association of India on a PIL (public interest petition) seeking an anti-p*rnography law. There are two ways of blocking p*rn; - one is by actually removing the content from the Internet. This would only be possible if the content was illegal in the country where it is being hosted. - The second method, which the government has largely relied on in the past, is getting Internet service providers (ISPs) to block access to a particular website’s URL— its address on the web. This was how illustration purpose it was possible to block hugely popular among youths erstwhile p*rn web-comic site www.savitabhabhi.com sometime in 2010. The moment it was banned the site simply changed URLs and still continues to operate and people who know such insight can still watch the highly innovatively done p*rn web-comic right in their living room sitting here in India. Technologically it is nearly impossible to have a blanket ban of this sort in place especially p*rn. I can understand YouTube is still banned in Pakistan but banning p*rn is nightmare even for some of the advanced countries as there they have huge lobbying citing it is multi-billion dolor industries.  Take eg. a virtual private network (VPN) used for remote working and data protection also allows access to content that has been blocked by the ISP and won’t leave a trail. These are all legal (and free or in-expensive) as of now in reference to India. Remember Torrent it was banned in India but still readily accessed by Indian youth to download latest flick before its theatre release. To ban p*rn and track people viewing it the government would have to also ban proxy servers and make VPNs illegal. Infact VSNL earns huge revenue by allocating cheapest VPN to subscribers and if it is banned then govt. itself will loose great revenue. parallel illustration is tobacco products such as ciggs. donot you know govt. earns huge revenue from its sale and has it been banned as yet inspite of well research studies done on its usage? That would be a highly draconian move and one that’s unlikely the only feasible solutions are wide censorship but then it is against the Indian Constitution and hon’ble SC will come heavily on Govt. the moment it is done. Above or some insights, law angle and huge block one eventually would face and if you can come with some solution then more than welcome as we would refer your name as interlocutor in pending PIL before Hon'ble SC. Would you like to take up the offer of interlocutor in reference PIL ! ** { Explanation laced as PJ and is not meant as disrespect to Hon'ble Bench in any way}:- Prosecution: My lord, that person was watching p*rn. Judge: How do you know it was p*rn? Prosecution: I saw the clip. Judge: Arrest the prosecution Lawyer!! Judge: (to defense lawyer) Did you see the clip? Defense Lawyer: Yes, but it wasn't p*rn. You can see it for yourself Sir. Judge (after seeing clip): Oh yeah, Oh Yeah, it is p*rn. Convict: Arrest the ld. Judge too!!!!! Judge:  and arrest the defense lawyer for obstruction of justice. So if the Hon’ble Bench is willing to go to jail with the convict to 'make the society safer' as is the proclaimed aim of the mid April 2013 PIL, then let us have this law!!! [The purpose to reply to you was that I was just curious how would they enforce such a law when facing Bar as in IT Act on watching p*rn….. ]

tajobs expertise lies in these topics

mr.krishnakanth whatever u had said is right and make some sense , but remember one thing today when film industry and censor board are encouraging s*x and its slang dialogs , then from where will u get right action against the p*rn sites ? community itself is encouraged with this , do u want know how it is encouraged ? these are the answers

1.gals doesn't have clothing sense 

2.western culture (pubs,dating)

3.no values or virtues among the today and tommorow's generation (parents are on 24*7 stuggling and fighting to make money , without taking care of their children )

untill these which i mentioned above gets cleared u wouldn't find INDIA ,a better country , dont blame a country and its responsibilty remember country is made of people , that responsibility must start with people itself .

Originally posted by : Tajobsindia
	Originally posted by : D.Arun Kumar   I have come across number of online p*rn forums and mms forums XXX If iam residing in india and i have opened a p*rn forum (hosted outside india) where private pics/mms of innocent girls/couples are published.... then do i become a criminal????

What a s*xy question