Document type
Legislation
Country
as amended by the Information Technology Act 2000
This statute came into force on and provided legal recognition for electronic commerce and gave effect to a resolution of the UN General Assembly. The statute was subsequently amended in 2008 along with the definition of intermediary and the provision for safe harbour for intermediaries provided under Section 79 of the IT Act.
(1) Definition of Intermediary. An ‘Intermediary’ with respect to any particular electronic records is defined under Section 2(w) of the Information Technology Act as ‘any person who on behalf of another person receives, stores or transmits that record or provides any service with respect to that record and includes telecom service providers, network service providers, internet service providers, web-hosting service providers, search engines, online payment sites, online-auction sites, online-marketplaces and cyber cafes.'
(2) Safe Harbour Provisions. Under Section 79 of the IT Act, intermediaries are exempted from liability in certain cases. Section 79 states that an intermediary shall not be liable:
- Notwithstanding anything contained in any law for the time being in force but subject to the provisions of sub-sections (2) and (3), an intermediary shall not be liable for any third party information, data, or communication link made available or hasted by him.
- The provisions of sub-section (1) shall apply if—(a) the function of the intermediary is limited to providing access to a communication system over which information made available by third parties is transmitted or temporarily stored or hasted; or (b) the intermediary does not—(i) initiate the transmission, (ii) select the receiver of the transmission, and (iii) select or modify the information contained in the transmission; (c) the intermediary observes due diligence while discharging his duties under this Act and also observes such other guidelines as the Central Government may prescribe in this behalf.
- The provisions of sub-section (1) shall not apply if—(a) the intermediary has conspired or abetted or aided or induced, whether by threats or promise or authorise in the commission of the unlawful act; (b) upon receiving actual knowledge, or on being notified by the appropriate Government or its agency that any information, data or communication link residing in or connected to a computer resource controlled by the intermediary is being used to commit the unlawful act, the intermediary fails to expeditiously remove or disable access to that material on that resource without vitiating the evidence in any manner. Explanation.—For the purposes of this section, the expression “third party information” means any information dealt with by an intermediary in his capacity as an intermediary."
(3) Data retention and intermediaries. According to Section 67C of the IT Act, intermediaries are required by law to ‘preserve and retain certain specified information for specific durations in a manner prescribed by the Central Government’. Any intermediary who intentionally or knowingly fails to retain such information shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years and shall also be liable to fine.
Country
Year
2000
Topic, claim, or defense
General or Non-Specified
Document type
Legislation
Issuing entity
Legislative Branch
Type of service provider
General or Non-Specified
Issues addressed
Trigger for OSP obligations
OSP obligation considered
Block or Remove
Data Retention or Disclosure
Type of law
Civil
Criminal
General effect on immunity
Strengthens Immunity
General intermediary liability model
Takedown/Act Upon Knowledge (Includes Notice and Takedown)
Takedown/Act Upon Court Order