cyber law in india? urgent help

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dfinch

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hi everyone . i need some urgent help from you today.i know this is a bad and wrong thing im about to describe . so people who are gonna message "Serves him right" , "good thing happened" can very well get lost !my cousin and his evil friends live somewhere in dehli and use a STAR Local Broadband connection. which gets bandwidth from pacenet. they were able to spoof MAC Adresses and thus in proccess get much higher internet speeds for upto 4-5 mbps. at the price of nominal Rs. 500 per month for a very low speed plan. they have been doing this for 2-3 months. today they got unlucky and lot of people from pacenet and the local internet guy came and threatened my cousin fully as it was his laptop . after lot of hassle. they took his laptop. asked him for Rs. 15000 for compensation , a written committment that HE HACKED. with id proof etc.i need help from you guys who have some knowledge about the law in india. i mean i get a feeling that he did not technically HACK into anything . he just spoofed . and is spoofing a law that big that he needs to pay fine and his laptop needs to be taken away . plus police threats. if they really bother about their speeds so much . they should secure their network more? am i right or wrong ?i need to suggest him next action . please help me.sincere thanks
 
whos laptop was it.If it was his and laptop was taken without warrant then it is illegal.secondly thanks to IT act 2008 which makes phone tapping like nazi germany,all crimes are bailableHe should have not given his laptop even if it meant he had to violently fight for it,he should have denied that he had done it.you are innocent until proven guilty.Dont let him confess under any circumstances.tell me that under article 20(3) of the constitution you cannot self incriminate yourself.Its pity that the proof aka laptop was taken
 
hi everyone . i need some urgent help from you today.
i know this is a bad and wrong thing im about to describe . so people who are gonna message "Serves him right" , "good thing happened" can very well get lost !

my cousin and his evil friends live somewhere in dehli and use a STAR Local Broadband connection. which gets bandwidth from pacenet.
they were able to spoof MAC Adresses and thus in proccess get much higher internet speeds for upto 4-5 mbps. at the price of nominal Rs. 500 per month for a very low speed plan. they have been doing this for 2-3 months.

today they got unlucky and lot of people from pacenet and the local internet guy came and threatened my cousin fully as it was his laptop . after lot of hassle. they took his laptop. asked him for Rs. 15000 for compensation , a written committment that HE HACKED. with id proof etc.

i need help from you guys who have some knowledge about the law in india.
i mean i get a feeling that he did not technically HACK into anything . he just spoofed . and is spoofing a law that big that he needs to pay fine and his laptop needs to be taken away . plus police threats. if they really bother about their speeds so much . they should secure their network more? am i right or wrong ?

i need to suggest him next action . please help me.
sincere thanks
Neglect my comments if you do not like. I do not have intention to insult you.

First, your cousin and his friends are dealing with big company. Therefore, definitely, they may have tough time and company can file a case against them for violating their systems. Company reserved rights to do anything as per mentioned in terms and conditions of company. You know better that no law is to be followed in India where money comes. Spoofing is serious crime. Company has demanded compensation in form of money to hide crime. According to me, your cousin and his friends should fight against them after finding out a particular the reason to hide their crime but I can not see any hope for them to get out from this problem without paying for loss which company had faced because your cousin and his friends have done wrong but they can mislead company by raising security glitch issue in its system.

I think axel is right. I have seen some news regarding mac spoofing issue in china. They were very strict to hackers who spoofed and accessed free internet for several days. Then, he had to go to prison as per issued court order. I think in india also, some rules and laws would be to restrict these types of hacking.
 
The Case is out of our hands, the victim needs to fight against the company and people who threaten him, but he needs to face some charges. :( Ask Mg or sushubh they might help u out.
 
today they got unlucky and lot of people from pacenet and the local internet guy came and threatened my cousin fully as it was his laptop . after lot of hassle. they took his laptop.
They had no right to touch your cousins property under coercion without a court order. File a police complaint.

a written commitment that HE HACKED. with id proof etc.
His written statement doesn't amount to #@$# since it has been taken by an individual under coercion and bodily threat. Confessions only stand good if they're taken by a magistrate or a police officer acting under directions of magistrate and under his presence.
_________________

In addition, if you're cousin accomplished this by spoofing his mac address on his machine, he has not violated any law as he has all rights to do so. Unless he intruded into the providers servers, they have no case.

India's cyber law is dealt with comprehensively under IT Act and some parts of Evidence and IPC apply as well (where stated)
 
Neglect my comments if you do not like.. just for 4-5 mbps they took away the lappy?What stupid?File a case against those idiots.. this is illegal..
 


May be.. or may be not!

---------- Post added at 11:20 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:17 PM ----------

I have less knowledge regarding the laws. :(
 
Or... do they(pacenet) have proof that he was spoofing????

they of course have something that's why he got detected. May be it is a normal 'log' but the log may or may not be accepted under law as they can be easily tampered with.
 
Alright, here's how i have gone about this case:

It looks that IP Spoofing has been done.....ASSUMING THAT THIS INFERENCE IS RIGHT - THIS IS HOW IT GOES:

First, the Legal Position:

IP address spoofing : In computer networking, the term IP address spoofing or IP spoofing refers to the creation of Internet Protocol (IP) packets with a forged source IP address, called spoofing, with the purpose of concealing the identity of the sender or IMPERSONATING another computing system.

Source: IP address spoofing - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Impersonator: (Redirected from Impersonate)
As part of a criminal act such as identity theft. This is usually where the criminal is trying to assume the identity of another, in order to commit fraud, such as accessing confidential information, or to gain property not belonging to them.

Source: Impersonator - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

per·son·ate 1 (pûrs-nt)
tr.v. per·son·at·ed, per·son·at·ing, per·son·ates
1. To play the role or portray the part of (a character); impersonate.
2. To endow with personal qualities; personify.
3. Law To assume the identity of, with intent to deceive.

Source: Personation - definition of Personation by the Free Online Dictionary, Thesaurus and Encyclopedia.

So its quite clear from the above 2 definitions, that This is an Act of Personation.

Now, here are the provisions regarding Personation as per IT Act 2008:

[Section 66D] Punishment for cheating by Personation by using Computer Resource (Inserted vide IT 2008):

Whoever, by means of any communication device or computer resource cheats by personation, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to 3 years AND shall also be liable to fine which may extend to Rs. 1,00,000/-.

Source: Information Technology Act 2008, as per link provided by axel & also as per the Bare Act given in the Study material of the ICAI: http://220.227.161.86/18962sm_finalnew_isca_cp10.pdf (Page 40 of 59)

Section 84C Punishment for attempt to commit offences (Inserted Vide ITA-2008):

Whoever attempts to commit an offence punishable by this Act or causes such an offence to be committed, and in such an attempt does any act towards the commission of the offence, shall, where no express provision is made for the punishment of such attempt, be punished with imprisonment of any description provided for the offence, for a term which may extend to one-half of the longest term of imprisonment provided for that offence, or with such fine as is provided for the offence or with both.

Source: Cyber Crime, Cyber Law, Cyber pornography

Section 76: Confiscation:

Any computer, computer system, floppies, compact disks, tape drives or any other accessories related thereto, in respect of which any provision of this Act, rules, orders or regulations made there under has been or is being contravened, shall be liable to confiscation:

Provided that

where it is established to the satisfaction of the court adjudicating the confiscation that the person in whose possession, power or control of any such computer, computer system, floppies, compact disks, tape drives or any other accessories relating thereto is found is not responsible for the contravention of the provisions of this Act, rules, orders or regulations made there under, the court may, instead of making an order for confiscation of such computer, computer system, floppies, compact disks, tape drives or any other accessories related thereto, make such other order authorized by this Act against the person contravening of the provisions of this Act, rules, orders or regulations made there under as it may think fit.

Source: Cyber Crime, Cyber Law, Cyber pornography

Now, the facts of the Case:

It is pretty much clear from the Wordings mentioned by the Thread Starter, that his Cousin & his friends, have done IP spoofing.

As can be seen from above, IP Spoofing is in the nature of "Impersonation", which is a crime under the IT Act 2008. (Erstwhile provisions - IT Act 2000 did not contain these provisions related to Personation)

The Implications:

1) Imprisonment which may extend to 3 years. AND
2) Fine upto Rs. 1,00,000/-

And as can be seen from provisions of Section 76, the crime is prima-facie established & so, confiscation is not illegal.

My personal note on Confiscation: I am not able to make out as to who has the Power to confiscate. So please consider second opinion on that.

---------- Post added at 03:19 AM ---------- Previous post was at 03:14 AM ----------

Forgot to add the fact that The offence can be compounded u/s 77A of the said Act, since the imprisonment term doesnt exceed 3 years, and assuming that he has not been convicted for a similar offence in the past.

And from Practical point of view, if the Company has taken Rs. 15,000 and is ready to close the matter, then he should just thank his stars that he escaped these provisions.
 
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