Comments on: In India, WebMail Has To Come From Local Servers http://gigaom.com/2009/04/08/in-india-webmail-has-to-be-local/ Fri, 10 Feb 2012 17:23:39 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Fausty http://gigaom.com/2009/04/08/in-india-webmail-has-to-be-local/#comment-167003 Thu, 16 Jul 2009 06:49:34 +0000 http://gigaom.wordpress.com/2009/04/08/in-india-webmail-has-to-be-local/#comment-167003 Announcements such as these are entirely irrelevant. As more and more web-smart citizens take control of their own security and connectivity, they will use paid (and soon, free) services to allow full, transparent bypass of ham-handed efforts such as this.

In this way, many of the customers of our VPN company (cryptocloud.net) who do not live in the UK are able to access BBC content that is (parochially) limited only to “UK addresses” – we allow folks to choose whatever country IP they want to present to the world, while online.

At first, folks often think it’s either impossible, illegal, or really complex – when they see how easy it is to decide where YOU want to operate, what public IP address and country location YOU want to present to the world, and what local snoop agencies YOU want to listen into your internet activities (or not), these efforts to “lock in” citizens of specific geographic areas can be seen for what they truly are: the Maginot lines of the 21st century. Grand, centralized, hopeless dreams of governmental institutions that have been left behind by technological innovation.

]]> By: Dempsey http://gigaom.com/2009/04/08/in-india-webmail-has-to-be-local/#comment-167002 Mon, 27 Apr 2009 03:44:58 +0000 http://gigaom.wordpress.com/2009/04/08/in-india-webmail-has-to-be-local/#comment-167002 But that doesn’t change the fact that any country can be protectionist, and every country does it at some level or another.

]]> By: thegeniusfiles http://gigaom.com/2009/04/08/in-india-webmail-has-to-be-local/#comment-167001 Sat, 11 Apr 2009 13:28:52 +0000 http://gigaom.wordpress.com/2009/04/08/in-india-webmail-has-to-be-local/#comment-167001 The Indian government is simply trying to mandate a privately-funded development of infrastructure. Not such a bad idea if the government doesn’t screw it up by being too hands-on with the implementation of it. However, history suggests that this may be exactly the problem when it comes to getting the plan done.

]]> By: aki narula http://gigaom.com/2009/04/08/in-india-webmail-has-to-be-local/#comment-167000 Fri, 10 Apr 2009 20:14:33 +0000 http://gigaom.wordpress.com/2009/04/08/in-india-webmail-has-to-be-local/#comment-167000 Absurd! Are you able to control mobile SIM cards this way? Common person suffers. Terrorists still strike. And worst Media shows images of TOP COPS killed and their preparations to attack. Policing new technology is not the way. Best they should have asked a pool of best tech minds to build better monitoring services.

From, Indian babus:) and politicians, God save my India.

]]> By: Tarun Dua http://gigaom.com/2009/04/08/in-india-webmail-has-to-be-local/#comment-166999 Fri, 10 Apr 2009 20:10:25 +0000 http://gigaom.wordpress.com/2009/04/08/in-india-webmail-has-to-be-local/#comment-166999 Om,

Thankfully the idea is so harebrained even by indian bureaucratic standards, that its not happening. Such trial balloons are floated very often in TOI publications to test the public opinion than anything else.

Regarding this helping Indian Datacenter business I have my doubts that regulatory promote would promote an efficient marketplace for datacenters.

-Tarun
PS: And your India stories though wildly popular sadly lack the depth and usually delayed.
Hint: You should hire some techblogger from India :-)

]]> By: Nandan http://gigaom.com/2009/04/08/in-india-webmail-has-to-be-local/#comment-166998 Fri, 10 Apr 2009 10:49:42 +0000 http://gigaom.wordpress.com/2009/04/08/in-india-webmail-has-to-be-local/#comment-166998 This is another case of the government trying to use a poor tactics with no strategy. For all this control, why would the so called terrorists use email any more? They have many more ways. Ultimately they win because their terror doctrines are working and helping create a case for dissatisfaction between the people and government.

]]> By: Sidharth http://gigaom.com/2009/04/08/in-india-webmail-has-to-be-local/#comment-166997 Fri, 10 Apr 2009 09:26:41 +0000 http://gigaom.wordpress.com/2009/04/08/in-india-webmail-has-to-be-local/#comment-166997 Om you seem to be very popular in India. any post about India gets a lot of comments :-)

]]> By: Senthil Nathan http://gigaom.com/2009/04/08/in-india-webmail-has-to-be-local/#comment-166996 Fri, 10 Apr 2009 03:07:06 +0000 http://gigaom.wordpress.com/2009/04/08/in-india-webmail-has-to-be-local/#comment-166996 This is a start in wrong direction. In few years government will amend the law with more restrictions that may do more damage to startups. What they are doing for email companies today, tomorrow they will impose the same hard and fast rules to other web startups like social networks, twitter etc. Startups will inadvertently step on a legal landmine. The problem is it will become prohibitively expensive and legally challenging for startups like ours. For example our company server is located in US because there we can get very cheap VPS servers. We may even choose to use services like Amazon EC3 or Google App platform. Some email services and instant messaging services that we run for internal use share the same server space. We get 20% of traffic from India and significant traffic from countries other than US. With our present revenue it is not feasible to run separate dedicated servers for India and other countries where we get significant traffic. There is no comparable service provider in India with technical expertise or modern infrastructure. Bandwidth is so expensive here in India that we couldn’t even think about hosting a server within our premises. Small startups must always be cost conscious to stay afloat.

Today a developer or group of developers can dream and challenge biggies like Yahoo, Google, facebook based on their technical expertise alone. They don’t have to worry too much about legal hassles. Raising the legal barrier will give an upper hand for companies with legal muscle thereby raising the entry barrier for startups. This will crush the hopes of aspiring startups leaving the field open to just a handful of companies like Reliance, TV18, IndiaTimes, Naukri, BharatMatrimony etc. I do not have to tell that Indian companies and their agents are adept at using legal muscle and political clout to use unfair means to keep competition at bay.

Government must be careful while drafting laws if they want to replicate a silicon valley or Israel in India by fuelling and nurturing the aspirations of young tech entrepreneurs in India. With more and more laws like this they will discourage startups. Specifically this law is a foundation stone for highly regulated Internet.

Objective of this law is unquestionable. I am concerned about security of India because I live here. What I want is an open debate involving all stakeholders before legislating laws like this. They should thoroughly evaluate all technology choices. I am sure there exists an alternate technology solution which take care of interest of all stake holders.

Sorry for this lengthy post. Moderator I am posting comment for second or third time. Please don’t think I am spamming your blog.

]]> By: Vlad http://gigaom.com/2009/04/08/in-india-webmail-has-to-be-local/#comment-166995 Fri, 10 Apr 2009 00:06:08 +0000 http://gigaom.wordpress.com/2009/04/08/in-india-webmail-has-to-be-local/#comment-166995 After Satyam is gone, there must be some consolidation of power. Too bad I don’t follow political news :)

]]> By: Esh http://gigaom.com/2009/04/08/in-india-webmail-has-to-be-local/#comment-166994 Thu, 09 Apr 2009 23:27:19 +0000 http://gigaom.wordpress.com/2009/04/08/in-india-webmail-has-to-be-local/#comment-166994 Think from the govt.’s point of view. Having the servers in India might help them legally to subpoena the companies when needed for email content, etc. Its a path-of-least-resistance solution from the govt. I dont think they were looking at this as a technical solution. Mainly as a legal help. Something like “occupation is half ownership”.

]]> By: Anonymouse Coward http://gigaom.com/2009/04/08/in-india-webmail-has-to-be-local/#comment-166993 Thu, 09 Apr 2009 21:56:29 +0000 http://gigaom.wordpress.com/2009/04/08/in-india-webmail-has-to-be-local/#comment-166993 I don’t see why people are jumping to shoot down this proposal so quickly. Done properly, It actually might be a good “stimulus” plan to kickstart some high end datacenter building/hosting business in India. As part of this plan, the government should provide sops (like guaranteed power or cheap land near the B-cities) to companies building “large” (pick your metric) datacenters. If businesses see this as a competitive advantage they will accept, else they will find ways to circumvent the regulation.

]]> By: Senthil Nathan http://gigaom.com/2009/04/08/in-india-webmail-has-to-be-local/#comment-166992 Thu, 09 Apr 2009 20:46:01 +0000 http://gigaom.wordpress.com/2009/04/08/in-india-webmail-has-to-be-local/#comment-166992 Well, technology progress is one of many ways to feed more Indians. See for example technology is feeding me and many others here. I am not sure I would have got my first job easily if IT industry is non-existent in India. So IMHO we should care about all sort of progress including technology progress if we are to feed more Indians and lift them out of poverty.

]]> By: bob http://gigaom.com/2009/04/08/in-india-webmail-has-to-be-local/#comment-166991 Thu, 09 Apr 2009 20:40:43 +0000 http://gigaom.wordpress.com/2009/04/08/in-india-webmail-has-to-be-local/#comment-166991 yeah the US Govt also claims to be able to spy up on any communication to/from non-us citizens if it passes thru servers in the US.
Now India want to be able to do the same.
Ooops, should have mentioned great post! Waiting for your next one!

]]> By: Naavi http://gigaom.com/2009/04/08/in-india-webmail-has-to-be-local/#comment-166990 Thu, 09 Apr 2009 17:00:47 +0000 http://gigaom.wordpress.com/2009/04/08/in-india-webmail-has-to-be-local/#comment-166990 The report does not appear to be completely correct. Please wait for proper report.

There could be a preference for local servers and also to seek cooperation of intermediaries in collecting information where required for criminal investigations. Part of the report which suggests that .in names are to be forced is not true.

More detailed comment is available at http://www.naavi.org/cl_editorial_09/edit_april_08_ita_2008_toi.htm

]]> By: bob http://gigaom.com/2009/04/08/in-india-webmail-has-to-be-local/#comment-166989 Thu, 09 Apr 2009 16:35:53 +0000 http://gigaom.wordpress.com/2009/04/08/in-india-webmail-has-to-be-local/#comment-166989 yeah the US Govt also claims to be able to spy up on any communication to/from non-us citizens if it passes thru servers in the US.
Now India want to be able to do the same.

]]> By: Faisal http://gigaom.com/2009/04/08/in-india-webmail-has-to-be-local/#comment-166988 Thu, 09 Apr 2009 16:11:26 +0000 http://gigaom.wordpress.com/2009/04/08/in-india-webmail-has-to-be-local/#comment-166988 Hi Om,

I had suggested something different on this issue in my earlier blog. The crux of the idea is to register email ids against an e-visa or e-passport to be issued by a third party vendor only after getting a valid photo ID from the person registering. This will make the process lengthy but will surely secure the email.

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