LLM Group 3 Law of Intellectual Property and Information Technology Information Technology Cyber Laws 2019 Question Paper with Solutions

For full marks, cover: three parts. (1) MEANING of information technology: a definition by function (capture, process, store, transmit, present) and the convergence of computing and telecommunication, noting that the Information Technology Act, 2000 does not define the expression but defines its building blocks. (2) BENEFITS, organised by who gains (citizen, State, business, courts, the economy), with a balancing line on the risks the Act exists to manage. (3) The two DEFINITIONS asked, computer network in section 2(1)(j) and computer system in section 2(1)(l): quote each, break it into elements, give examples, show how they differ from "computer" and "computer resource", and show where the Act uses them. Cite Syed Asifuddin, Anvar P.V., Swapnil Tripathi and Tata Consultancy Services.

The benefits of its application and use

For the citizen. Services that required repeated visits to offices can be obtained online: certificates through DigiLocker, welfare through direct benefit transfer, payments through the Unified Payments Interface. Section 6 of the Act makes electronic filing, issue of licences and payment lawful, and section 4 gives electronic records the status of writing.

For the State. Electronic governance lowers costs, reduces discretion and leakage, and leaves an audit trail that makes corruption harder. Records can be retained electronically under section 7 and audited under section 7A, and rules can be published in the Electronic Gazette under section 8.

For business and the economy. Electronic commerce, electronic contracts (valid under section 10A), digital signatures and online markets reduce transaction costs and open national and international markets to small enterprises. India's software and services industry, a major source of exports and employment, rests on it; in Tata Consultancy Services v. State of Andhra Pradesh, (2005) 1 SCC 308, the Supreme Court held that canned software on a medium is "goods", which recognised software as a tradeable commodity in Indian commercial law.

Why the Act needs precise definitions

Liability under the Act depends on which kind of machine is involved. Section 43 (compensation for unauthorised access, downloading, viruses, damage and disruption) protects "a computer, computer system or computer network"; section 75 extends the Act to conduct abroad only if it involves "a computer, computer system or computer network located in India"; section 66F and sections 69 to 70 speak of the wider "computer resource". So the definitions of computer network and computer system decide whether a provision applies at all.

"Computer network": section 2(1)(j)

The definition, as substituted by the Information Technology (Amendment) Act, 2008: "computer network" means the inter-connection of one or more computers or computer systems or communication device through (i) the use of satellite, microwave, terrestrial line, wire, wireless or other communication media; and (ii) terminals or a complex consisting of two or more interconnected computers or communication device whether or not the inter-connection is continuously maintained.

Its elements.

"Computer system": section 2(1)(l)

The definition: "computer system" means a device or collection of devices, including input and output support devices and excluding calculators which are not programmable and capable of being used in conjunction with external files, which contain computer programmes, electronic instructions, input data and output data, that performs logic, arithmetic, data storage and retrieval, communication control and other functions.

Its elements.

1. A device or a collection of devices: one machine or an integrated set.
2. Input and output support devices are part of the system: keyboards, scanners, printers, screens, card readers.
3. It contains programmes, instructions and data: it is a working, programmed installation, not merely hardware.
4. It performs logic, arithmetic, storage and retrieval, communication control and other functions.
5. The exclusion: a calculator that is not programmable and cannot work with external files is not a computer system, which shows that programmability is the heart of the concept.

The courts read these definitions by function. In Syed Asifuddin v. State of Andhra Pradesh, 2005 CriLJ 4314, employees of a mobile operator reprogrammed handsets locked to a competitor's network by altering their electronic serial numbers. The Andhra Pradesh High Court held that a cell phone is a computer under section 2(1)(i), because it performs the functions the definition describes, and that the handset's identifying numbers are computer source code under section 65. It follows that a handset connected to an operator's network is equally part of a computer network under section 2(1)(j). The approach shows that the definitions are not tied to desktop machines but to what a device does.

3. Smart devices recruited into a botnet. Malware infects thousands of home cameras and routers, which connect intermittently to the internet, and uses them to flood a bank's website. The cameras are computers and communication devices, their links form a computer network "whether or not the inter-connection is continuously maintained", and the attack is introduction of a contaminant, disruption and denial of access under section 43(c), (e) and (f).

A critical note. The definitions were drafted in 2000 and patched in 2008, and they overlap heavily: almost every modern device is at once a computer, part of a computer system and part of a computer network. That overlap is harmless for most provisions, which name all three together, but it matters where a provision names only some of them, as section 75 does, and courts have therefore read the definitions by what a device does rather than by what it is called.