After a strong protest by the Indian bloggers over the blog blackout ordered by the government, the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) has directed all the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to block only the specified website or webpages on the parent website.
The DoT, after the Mumbai blasts, had ordered ISPs to block 17 websites on grounds of national security, but citing technical issues they blocked entire sites leading to protests by bloggers and Internet subscribers.
The DoT, in its letter to all the ISPs, has mentioned that it had come to notice that in some cases the parent website had been blocked in contravention to what was stated in its earlier order dated July 13, 2006, whereby it ordered the ISPs to block certain websites or webpages.
As such the DoT has now directed all the ISPs to strictly comply with the order dated July 13, 2006 and provide unrestricted access to Internet except for the websites or webpages, which have been specifically mentioned in its orders issued from time to time.
Furthermore, the DoT has also asked the alleged ISPs to explain, as to why action should not be taken against them for blocking unintended websites or webpages.
Now, the ISPAI has written a letter to the DoT, giving reasons for blocking websites from the server.
ISPAI, says that, often, despite blocking of a particular domain, some subscribers end up using domain name servers that don't belong to their service providers.
In a statement, Deepak Maheshwari, secretary, ISPAI, said that they had to block the whole website from the server because despite the blockade at the sub-domain and IP levels, the URLs could have been accessed by any user in India.
Maheshwari also explained that if the website had not been blocked, the overseas domain name system could have blocked the Indian domain name system (DNS) and the blogs could have been accessed from outside the country.
