Indian-origin student Dharun Ravi convicted on webcam spying case

A former Rutgers University student convicted on Friday in the webcam spying episode that ended in his gay roommate's suicide could be headed off to prison in a case experts say stands as a tragic lesson for young people about casual cruelties and unintended consequences in the Internet age.

Dharun Ravi was found guilty of all 15 charges against him, including invasion of privacy and anti-gay intimidation. The jury decided that he not only spied on Tyler Clementi and another man as they were kissing but also singled out Mr Clementi because he was gay.

Mr Ravi, 20, could get up to 10 years in prison by some estimates and could be deported to his native India even though he has lived legally in the U.S. since he was a little boy.

The case stirred a national conversation about anti-gay bullying and teen suicide. It also illustrated the dangers of technology in the hands of people who have grown up with the likes of Twitter and Facebook.

"They don't feel like they're spying. It's just their own iPhone they're using, their own laptop," said Annemarie McAvoy, an adjunct professor at Fordham Law School in New York.

On the Rutgers campus, student Melvin Ways said: "I think the lesson here is not everything is meant to be publicised to the entire world, especially private matters and things that are personal to people."

Prosecutors said Mr Ravi set up his webcam in his dorm room and watched Mr Clementi kissing another man on September 19, 2010, then tweeted about it and excitedly tried to catch Mr Clementi in the act again two days later. A half-dozen students were believed to have seen the live video of the kissing; no video was taken in the second instance.

On September 22, Mr Clementi threw himself off the George Washington Bridge after posting one last status update on Facebook: "Jumping off the gw bridge, sorry."
At a courthouse news conference after the verdict, Mr Clementi's father, Mr Joe, addressed himself to college students and other young people, saying: "You're going to meet a lot of people in your life. Some of these people you may not like. Just because you don't like them doesn't mean you have to work against them."

Mr Ravi shook his head faintly after hearing the verdict. He and his parents left the courthouse without comment, his father's arm around his shoulders.

His attorney Steven Altman issued a brief statement saying "everyone could rest assured that at the appropriate time an appeal will be filed."

Mr Ravi's lawyers had argued at the trial that the college freshman was not motivated by any hostility toward gays and that his actions were just those of an immature "kid."

In letting the case go to trial, Mr Ravi gambled and may have lost big. Months ago, he and his lawyers rejected a plea bargain that would have spared him from prison, and prosecutors would have even helped him avoid deportation.

The most serious charges - two counts of bias intimidation based on sexual orientation - carry up to 10 years in prison each. But legal experts said the most Mr Ravi would probably get all together at sentencing May 21 would be 10 years. The judge could also give him no prison time at all.

Prosecutors said they would consult with Mr Clementi's family and the other man in the video - identified as only as M.B. - before recommending a sentence.

Mr Ravi was also convicted of seven counts of covering up his actions by instructing a friend what to tell investigators and deleting tweets and text messages.

He was not charged with causing Mr Clementi's death. And while the jury was told Mr Clementi had taken his life, prosecutors did not argue directly that the spying led to his suicide.

Mr Clementi's death was one in a string of suicides by young gays around the country in September 2010. President Barack Obama commented on it, as did talk show host Ellen DeGeneres.

New Jersey lawmakers passed an anti-bullying law in the aftermath, and Rutgers changed its housing policies to allow people of the opposite sex to room together in an effort to make gay, bisexual and transgender students feel more comfortable.

"The verdict today demonstrates that the jurors understood that bias crimes do not require physical weapons like a knife in one's hand," said Hayley Gorenberg, deputy legal director of the gay rights organization Lambda Legal.

Some of the jurors said that Mr Ravi's tweets, especially one that "dared" friends to watch the webcast that never happened, were key evidence in convicting him of anti-gay intimidation.

"That post, what it said, struck a chord in all of us," said Ed Dolan, a finance manager..

Mr Ravi and Mr Clementi, both 18-year-old freshmen from comfortable New Jersey suburbs, had been randomly assigned to room together, and Mr Clementi had arrived at college just a few days after coming out to his parents as gay.

A line of students testified they never heard Mr Ravi say anything bad about gays in general or Mr Clementi in particular. But students did say Mr Ravi expressed some concern about sharing a room with a gay man.

On September 19, according to testimony, Mr Clementi asked Mr Ravi to leave their room so that he could have a guest. Later, Ravi posted on Twitter: "Roommate asked for the room till midnight. I went into molly's room and turned on my webcam. I saw him making out with a dude. Yay."

Mr Ravi told police that he watched only seconds of the encounter. His friend Molly Wei testified that she and a few other students also watched the live stream of the men kissing. (Wei was initially charged in the case but cooperated with prosecutors and will be allowed to keep her record clean.)

Two nights later, Mr Clementi asked for the room alone again. This time, Mr Ravi tweeted: "I dare you to video chat me between the hours of 9:30 and 12. Yes, it's happening again." He also texted a friend about a planned "viewing party" and allegedly went to friends' rooms to show them how to access the feed.

However, there was no evidence the webcam was turned on that night. Mr Ravi told police he had put his computer to sleep. Prosecutors argued Mr Clementi himself unplugged the computer.

After Taslima, Chitrangada lashes out Poonam Pandey

Not only has she managed to grab the attention of the aam junta with bold image, but she has also managed to get the celebrities to talk about albeit in a negative way.

After author Taslima Nasreen lashed out Poonam Pandey for exposing and demeaning womanhood , actress Chitranganda Singh has lashed out at the model.

The beautiful actress took to Twitter to lash out the woman who is famous for her stripping antics. Chitrangada wrote, “How do you compete with Poonam Pandey, when she is ready strip for kabbadi matches? (sic)".

While we all know that Chitrangada and Poonam are leagues apart, the fact that an established actor is commenting on a starlet goes to show the rising popularity of Poonam Pandey.

So far, Poonam has maintained a stoic silence on the issue.

Govt to set up internet scanning agency called NCCC

The government is setting up an internet scanning agency which will seek to monitor all web traffic passing through internet service providers in the country. The scanning agency to be called National Cyber Coordination Centre (NCCC), will issue 'actionable alerts' to government departments in cases of perceived security threats.

The move comes as the government has been unable to prevent many terror attacks, in the absence of a credible internet scanning system.

According to the minutes of ameeting held on February 3, 2012, at the National Security Council Secretariat under the PMO, the National Cyber Coordination Centre will 'scan whole cyber traffic flowing at the point of entry and exit at India's international internet gateways'. The web scanning centre will provide 'actionable alerts for proactive actions' to be taken by government departments.

All government departments will now talk to the Internet Service Providers such as Bharti Airtel, RCOM, BSNL, MTNL and Tata Communications through NCCC for real time information and data on threats.

According to sources, government is planning to invest about .`800 crore in the setup. "The coordination centre will be the first layer of threat monitoring in the country. It would always be in virtual contact with the control room of the Internet Service Providers," the Deputy National Security Advisor Vijay Latha Reddy said, as per minutes of the meeting.

The government is collating manpower requirements for the centre currently. "At present, the monitoring of web traffic is done by Centre for Development of Telematics ( C-DoT) which has installed its equipments at the premises of ISPs and gateways," informs Rajesh Chharia, president at Association of Internet Service Providers.

All tweets, messages, emails, status updates and even email drafts will now pass through the new scanning centre. The centre may probe further into any email or social media account if it finds a perceived threat.

India's National Security Council Secretariat (NCSC) has asked various departments to assess their needs for officials, who will coordinate with the scanning agency. The National Security Council handles the political, nuclear, energy and strategic security concerns of the country.

As per the minutes seen by ET, Defence Research and Development Organisation officials were of the view that there is no perfect system.

Taslima condemns Poonam Pandey’s bold avatar

Poonam Pandey and Sherlyn Chopra have earned fame through social networking sites like Twitter. In fact, more than their work, their tweets and opinions have made headlines in the past year. While, these starlets only way to stardom was by providing controversial statements and pictures to their so called fans, one would expect noted author Taslima Nasreen not to resort to the same measures.

The author recently reacted to Poonam Pandey’s lurid tweets in such a manner that it raised several eyebrows. Nasreen, who is a known to be staunch feminist, condemned Poonam’s comment on Twitter about attitude. The starlet had posted a racy picture of hers’ and captioned it as “Attitude is like your underwear; you must wear it, but never show it.(sic)”

Reacting to the same tweet, Taslima tweeted, “Poonam Pandey got naked but not satisfied.She wanna do dirtiest things none did before.Wants to get f****d in public!(sic)”

While Poonam maintained a stoic silence on Taslima’s rant, the author herself clarified she condemned the fact that women were being objectified. On today morning, Taslima wrote, “My protest agnst d objectification is 4 women`s dignity,not 4 publicity. My criticism ws agnst d video u endorsed.(sic).”

The author also posted a video of Poonam’s interview, where the model claims that if given an opportunity, she would want to get dirtier than what Vidya Balan did in ‘The Dirty Picture’.

'Facebook for women' Pinterest is fastest-growing social site

A vision board-styled social photo sharing website Pinterest has become one of the fastest-growing social sites, and is increasingly becoming popular among women, according to a report.

The website, that increased its market share by 68 per cent in January in the UK, has hit 12 million unique visitors in the US, the fastest social network ever to hit the figure.

According to Techcrunch, 97 per cent of Pinterest's one million Facebook likes are from women.

Earlier data from Experian Hitwise put the figure at 58 per cent female in December, driven by the photo-sharing site's focus on arts and crafts, The Daily Mail reports.

The site, which is a 'pinboard' where users share images and links about their interests, was launched in March 2010.

The site is described as a visual version of Twitter.

Like Twitter, you can 'follow' users who share your interests, and quick, brief picture posts make up the bulk of posts on the site.

Unlike Facebook and Twitter, posts appear as a 'pinboard' of images built according to user interests.

Cricketer Yuvraj posts bald-headed picture on twitter

Indian all-rounder Yuvraj Singh, who is undergoing treatment for lung cancer in the US, posted his latest bald-headed picture on twitter on Friday.

He wrote, “Finally the hair has gone ! But #livstrong #yuvstrong.”

The southpaw is in prayers of the country and many cricketers and doctors have lauded him for his mental strength and will to overcome odds.

Yuvraj has not played competitive cricket since November, when he took part in two of the three home Tests against the West Indies, missing India`s current tour of Australia.

Yuvraj was unavailable for the ongoing triangular one-day series in Australia and also opted out of the Twenty20 Indian Premier League (IPL), which starts in April.

Jaipur Literature Festival: Rushdie’s video address cancelled

It's been a dramatic and to many a disappointing end at the Jaipur Literature Festival with Booker winner Salman Rushdie not even being allowed to go through with his virtual participation.

The Jaipur Literature Festival turned out to be nothing less a nightmare for writer Salman Rushdie, whose participation in the literary event was hugely debated and who was subsequently denied permission to address the gathering through a video conference.


The controversial writer took to Twitter to express deep resentment over the government’s involvement in not letting him take part in this year’s Jaipur Lit Fest following protests from activists over his banned book ‘The Satanic Verses’.

Rushdie wrote, “#JLF Threat of violence by Muslim groups stifled free speech today. In a true democracy all get to speak, not just the ones making threats.”

He also wrote, "#JLF Videolink cancellation: awful.(sic)".

Announcing the cancellation of Rushdie`s address, one of the organisers Sanjay Roy said police had told them that people had got inside the venue to "disrupt proceedings" and cause violence.

"Some organisations have threatened violence. This is unfortunate, but necessary to avoid violence. It is a fairly idiotic situation. We are once again stepping down from the fight for freedom of expression. We have been pushed to the wall again," Roy said.

"It is unfortunate that we are being bullied again and we had to step down...We had no other way but to listen to save the people here, our children and everyone here," he added.

Hackers target US security think tank Stratfor

Hackers today claimed to have stolen a raft of e-mails and credit card data from US-based security think tank Stratfor, promising it was just the start of a weeklong Christmas-inspired assault on a long list of targets.

One alleged hacker said the goal was to use the credit data to steal a million dollars and give it away as Christmas donations.

Members of the loose-knit hacking movement known as "Anonymous" posted a link on Twitter to what they said was Stratfor's tightly-guarded, confidential client list. Among the list: The US Army, the US Air Force and the Miami Police Department.

The rest of the list, which Anonymous said was a small slice of its 200 gigabytes worth of plunder, included banks, law enforcement agencies, defense contractors and technology firms such as Apple and Microsoft.

"Not so private and secret anymore?" the group taunted in a message on the microblogging site.

Anonymous said it was able to get the credit details in part because Stratfor didn't bother encrypting them, an easy-to-avoid blunder which, if true, would be a major embarrassment for any security-related company.

Stratfor said in an email to members that it had suspended its servers and email after learning that its website had been hacked.

Court ordered to websites, delete derogatory content by Feb 06

An Indian court ordered websites on Saturday to remove derogatory contents by February 06.

According to reports, the court has also ordered 21 defendant companies to submit order of compliance by the same date. 

On Friday US companies Facebook, Google, Yahoo and other Internet firms, were ordered by a court to remove material considered religiously offensive.

This news of screening web content comes amidst recent controversy sparked off by Union Minister Kapil Sibal, who had urged Facebook, Twitter, Google and others to remove offensive material, unleashing a storm of criticism from internet users complaining of censorship.

A court in Delhi on Friday had issued summons to 19 companies to stand trial for offences relating to distributing obscene material to minors, after being shown images it said were offensive to Hindus, Muslims and Christians, a news agency said.

India has generally unrestricted access to the Internet for those of its 1.2 billion people who can afford it and are on the electrical and telephone grids.

So far only about a tenth of the population uses the Web, but with the number of connections growing fast in the religiously conservative society, concerns about the nature of web content are growing in some quarters, including senior government officials.

Another Delhi court earlier this week told the websites to remove photographs, videos or text which might hurt religious sentiments.

Despite rules to remove offensive content, India's internet access is largely free when compared with tight controls in fellow Asian economic powerhouse China. But in line with many other governments around the world, India has become increasingly nervous about the power of social media.

India has 100 million internet users, the third-largest user base behind China and the United States which is forecast to grow to 300 million users in the next three years.