Indian internet users get a relief on website ban as Airtel has been asked to pay Vinay B a resident of Shimoga Rs 20,000 by the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum for ‘deficiency in Internet service’ thereby causing mental agony to the complainant.
Airtel had provided deficient service by blocking the websites illegally while justifying their actions through misinterpretation of the court order. “By misinterpreting the Madras High Court order, Airtel blocked entire websites. It is needless to say that the company’s actions amount to deficiency in service as well as unfair trade practice,” said the forum.
Couple of months back Airtel and other fellow ISP's blocked a number of torrent and video-sharing websites in May, following a Madras High Court issued ‘John Doe’ order taken by Chennai-based Copyright Lab though the block was revoked soon.
The illegality of the ISP block came into question when Harish Ram, CEO of Copyright Labs claimed that the ISPs had misinterpreted the court order and said that the court had only allowed blocking of specific URL’s that infringed on the movies’ copyrights, not the complete website.
Today we find that bit.ly domain is not accessible from BSNL Broadband/3G/EVDO while posting this story. If it is not a DNS issue, but a block similar to Airtel did is not a good gesture from BSNL.
