Law in India

Law in India

Google will not allow Indian law to influence the way it delivers maps. That was one of the more interesting facts to emerge during the conference.

Google has bowed to pressure before; it allows Chinese authorities to censor its output in line with national policies. However, the Indians will not be afforded such a right.

The news was conveyed during a question and answer session with Michael Jones, Google's chief technology officer. It delighted some in the audience and dismayed others.

There are laws in India that prevent the use of spatial data and make the possession of high-resolution imagery of Indian cities a crime. These laws are highly controversial in that country.

Many in the Indian spatial information community hope that Google's stand will help to begin to break down the laws. The situation is already threatened by the ready availability of high-resolution spatial data obtainable from overseas.

There is a common perception in the country that the laws do little to protect Indian interests, and that they hurt India's information industry.

Jones said that while he respected the laws of all the territories in which it operated, the company was resident in the US and would be bound only by US law.

He urged Indian policy makers to change the law. He emphasised that the law was not intended to suppress information that would help Indians; it was designed to protect them from wrong doers.

He noted that most technologies can be used for good or ill. Sometimes it is simply a matter of judgement whether the good outweighs the evil.

Source : http://www.asmmag.com/ASM/content/2007/ASM_041/main_news_6.html

2007년 2월 15일