information technology, Study notes of Law

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Information Technology Law

By

Dr. D.T. Mohan Krishna

Anuradha Bhasin v. Union of India AIR 2020 SC 1308

• (^) Law and Technology seldom mix like oil and water.
• (^) There is a consistent criticism that the development of technology is not met by equivalent movement in the law.
• (^) In this context, we need to note that the law should imbibe technological development and accordingly mould its rules so as to cater to the needs of society.
• (^) Non recognition of technology within the sphere of law is only a disservice to the inevitable.

Legal Rules based on Technology

• (^) Since they pursue goals using the technologies available at the time when they have been conceived, legal rules are strongly intertwined with the technologies that have eased and made possible their initial conception.
• (^) A change in technology may render obsolete both the rules conceived for the regulation of the old technology and the rules which were relying on the old technology in order to accomplish goals pursued by the law.
• (^) At times Science overtakes legalism- S.112 of Evidence Act, 1872

Law and Other Disciplines

• (^) Because technologies are the product of the advancement of science, in order to deepen the understanding of the relationship between law and technology it is inevitable to establish a dialogue between law and other disciplines.
• (^) Law and technology interact when legal rules foster or retard the development of technology. They also interact when society decides that technology produces undesirable results and employs legal rules to contain or modify those results.

Law to Regulate Technologies

• (^) Motor Vehicles Act- to regulate the use of new technological machines. New Amendments to curb the simultaneously using the two different technological products.
• (^) Amniocentesis helps confirm a tentative diagnosis of an abnormality previously found with other testing. It may also find that a fetus does not have the abnormality that was suspected.
• (^) Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act, 1994, - prohibits pre-conception or pre-natal sex determination.
• (^) Drone Technology {Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS)}-unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)
• (^) The Cable Television Networks Regulation Act, 1995

Surrogacy- Regulation

• (^) With advances in medical sciences and technology, particularly in assisted reproductive techniques which have come in with techniques like donor insemination, embryo transfer methods, etc. revolutionizing the reproductive environment.
• (^) Methods such as ‘surrogacy’ are also gaining popularity for varied reasons.
• (^) To regulate indiscriminate use of the technology for commercial purposes and to protect the surrogate mothers being exploited by the middle men in the health sector, Government introduced ‘THE SURROGACY (REGULATION) ACT, 2021 ’
• (^) The Bill prohibits commercial surrogacy, but allows altruistic surrogacy.
• (^) Altruistic surrogacy involves no monetary compensation to the surrogate mother other than the medical expenses and insurance coverage during the pregnancy.

Legal System to Promote Technological Growth

Patent Law- Bio-technology blurred the

distinction between the discoveries and

inventions.

Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers'

Rights Act, 2001

The Semiconductor Integrated Circuits

Layout- Design Act, 2000

Technology- Constitutional issues

• (^) The Secretary, Ministry Of ... vs Cricket Association Of Bengal ,1995 SCC (2) 161
• (^) Providing entertainment is a form of expression and, therefore, covered by Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution. Except in accordance with a law made in terms of clause (2) of Article 19, no restriction can be placed thereon.
• (^) The monopoly in favour of Doordarshan and AIR is inconsistent with Article 19(1)(a)
• (^) The only objection taken against the refusal to grant the said right is that of the limited resources.

Copyright Law

• (^) Invention of Printing Press- Making of copies and distribution of copies was made easier.

• (^) As a censorship measure, King had by a charter allowed the Stationer’s Company to regulate the publication and copying of books and literature.

• (^) Stationer’s Company by private rules regulated the copying mechanism.

• (^) These rules were substituted by Statue of Anne,

• (^) New technology ie. Public Address System required a new right on the part of the creators of copyrightable works.

• (^) Recording technology of early 20th^ century prompted the policy maker to tweak the law to create new work and new right.

• (^) Subsequent Cinema technology driven the policy holders and resulted in the similar changes.

• (^) Broadcasting (which includes telecasting), brought changes in the law by creating a new related right called Broadcast Reproduction Right (BRR).

• (^) Computer Technology- resulted in the amendments to the Copyright Law- Recognition of Computer Databases and Computer Programmes by adopting accretion model.- It also redefined the concept of ownership in relation to the computer generated works in contrast to computer assisted works.