NEWS: CEO for eBay Web Site In India, Arrested For Auctioning Sex Video On Site

Officials for India�s bourgeoning technology sector as well as the U.S. embassy have expressed concern of the recent jailing of the CEO of Baazee.com that is owned by U.S. company eBay. Avnish Bajaj, an American citizen, was arrested following the sale of 8 disks that showed teenagers of a New Delhi high school engaged in sex acts. During his court appearance Saturday, he was denied bail and sent back to jail for a week. eBay maintains that the sale occurred without its knowledge. No clips were seen on the site and the seller offered to email preview clips to prospective buyers.



Interesting to say the least. Assuming that the girls were underage (Im not sure but I will assume that its 18 in India) perhaps that�s why they are prosecuting this zealously. At any rate, can eBay be held responsible for what it sells on its site? Since they are making a profit by the transaction one would have to guess yes. However, has this really been tested in the courts? I suspect that it will in this case.

Fred I did a quick search and two or three say 18 while one says 14 yet another says 16 go figure.

www.avert.org...

Above is 16

www.interpol.int...

Interpol states 18 I would tend to take their figure over others since they are a law agency.

Stinks like a rotten fish to me! Why on earth would a CEO sell porn on a site where most probably knows the rules back to front. Don't add up?

Some prosecutions begin with investigations to a complaint. But in this case, it would appear most likely that the magistrate issuing the arrest warrant was concerned that the person-in-charge would be a flight risk. They would probably allow him bail and withhold his passport.

But just a note for foreign investors : they will be subject to the laws of the land in which they operate.

Originally posted by mfourl
Stinks like a rotten fish to me! Why on earth would a CEO sell porn on a site where most probably knows the rules back to front. Don't add up?

Sorry, my headline was not clear on retrospect. A seller sold the porn, they have caught him as well. They arrested the CEO because it was sold from his site and they hold him responsable

The indian police is either acting very responsible and
political correct, OR they want to get rid of possible policymaking american influencies in their booming IT-sector?????

Maybe they will sell eBay India to the Baikalinvest company

Would be interesting to see how this plays out in court, naturally the CEO's have SOME responsibillity for the things auctioned on their site, but you can't help some things slip through the maze, questions are:

- do they watch their auctions sufficiently in general?
- if so, did they allow the underage porn to be auctioned with their explicit knowledge???



[edit on 20-12-2004 by Countermeasures]

Can't be 100% certain, but it would appear that the Indian penal code has not caught up with the internet advances regarding auction items. In this case, it appears that the company would be responsible for aiding and abetting the offence of distribution of pornography and the CEO would be the person in charge of the company. The criminal law is quite oblivious to private contracts between parties, ie: the operator of the site and the vendor who contracted to use the site to peddle pornography. Whatever contractual disclaimer of liability would only be between the private parties.

NEW DELHI - It was a private act of two hormone-charged teenagers that lasted 2 minutes and 37 seconds on digital video.


But offered for sale on the Internet, the fuzzy images of the 17-year-old girl having oral sex with her high school sweetheart has sent shock waves through urban India, exposing the growing friction between the conservative middle class, its increasingly Westernized progeny and modern technology.

"It came to me as a surprise that kids are having sex so soon," Barkha Dutt, who hosts the country's most popular television talk show on social issues, said in an interview. "Even we are not aware of how much things have changed."
Video

I have a theory that it was an extortion effort, i.e. eBay India failed to pay the required bribes and they were let feel the consequence.

The case just doesn't make much sense to me.