Tariq Engineer and Jessica Vascellaro | August 19, 2008
A SMALL Indian construction equipment company is demanding that Google disclose the name of a person who used its blogging service in a case that could change the way the internet giant does business in India.
Google's Indian subsidiary, Google India Private Ltd, is being sued for alleged defamation in Bombay High Court by Mumbai-based Gremach Infrastructure Equipments and Projects Ltd.Last September, Gremach bought a 75 per cent stake in 11 coal mining licences in Mozambique. This year, a blogger using the name Toxic Writer criticised the company on blogger.com, which allows individuals to create blogs without publicly revealing their identity.
In February, Gremach filed suit.
The Bombay High Court ordered the blog taken down on February 26. It said: "At the present stage, there is merit in the contention that the article put up by the defendant on the blog site is defamatory."
The court ordered Google India to reveal the identity of the blogger within four weeks of the order.
Google India has removed the blog but has yet to reveal the blogger's real name.
It is unclear what the next step in the case will be, but if Google ultimately loses it would have to disclose the blogger's identity, a move that could set a precedent for court challenges to the anonymity of its users.
Pavan Duggal, a Supreme Court lawyer specialising in cyber-law, says Indian law makes website hosts responsible for content on their sites.
The only defence available to sites such as Google is to prove it was either unaware of any contravention of the law or that the offence occurred despite due diligence by the web host.
The Wall Street Journal