The full copy of the Act is available here: http://www.naavi.org/ita_2008/

There have been many comments here on the Amendments to Information Technology Act 2000. The amendments of far reaching consequence were passed in the Parliament without any debate. Despite my personal efforts to raise the alarm as soon as the Bill was presented, none of the legislators understood the importance of the Bill. The ruling party also rushed through the process of passign the legislation deliberately to avoid the discussions. As a result the Act now provides enormous powers of surveillance to the Government of India. It will now have powers to monitor, censor, order decryption of any content either in transmission or in storage. It also continues to make publishing and transmission of obscene information punishable and additionally also makes it an offence to view Child Pornography. (For details, please view the Bill at http://www.naavi.org/ita_2008 as well as the comments at http://www.naavi.org/ The Bill has now gone for the assent of the President and will be effective once the rules are notified after the Presidential assent. There is no doubt that the provisions are amenable to be abused and will be abused in due course. I personally advocate strong enabling laws to counter crimes and restore the usability of Internet by the masses but at the same time am concerned about the possible abuse. The solution I suggest is establishing checks and balances. In the present case, I strongly urge the Government of India to set up a "Netizen's Rights Commission" on the lines of the Human Rights Commission, with statutory powers to take complaints from the public about misuse of any powers under the Act, conduct investigations and prosecute or advise prosecution of offenders. It should have representation of Netizens and relevant organizations outside the Government. I look forward to the support from concerned Netizens in this regard. Now what is left is some corrective action.