Indian Bloggers Facing Legal Problems

Indian bloggers are getting in legal tangle. Bloggers have already faced legal threats from the mainstream media. But, because of the lack of laws, an individual usually chooses to back off and retract his/her opinions. In this case, the court has ruled that site owners will have to own responsibility of comments made by their readers, and that a disclaimer cannot be used to avoid it. However, I am still unclear about its scope. Will this apply to all sites – including the ones owned by the mainstream media? Will it apply to other media? In this specific case, will Orkut will be considered a partner in the crime? Bloggers will have to continue to tread in dangerous waters if we do not treat the problem as a whole. In the end, either free speech will get hurt or opinions will lose their face, and both are equally bad for a democratic country like ours.