Today I came across what is described as the Indian Cyber Pornography law -

http://netsafety.nic.in/cyberlaws.htm

Whoever publishes or transmits or causes to be published in the electronic form, any material which is lascivious or appeals to the prurient interest or if its effect is such as to tend to deprave and corrupt persons who are likely, having regard to all relevant circumstances, to read, see or hear the matter contained or embodied in it, shall be punished on first conviction with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to five years and with fine which may extend to one lakh rupees and in the event of a second or subsequent conviction with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to ten years and also with fine which may extend to two lakh rupees.

I keep looking at this and saying how unethical is this? Lets look at this a bit

any material which is lascivious:
Dictionary.com defines lascivious as:

1.inclined to lustfulness; wanton; lewd: a lascivious, girl-chasing old man.

2.arousing sexual desire: lascivious photographs.

3.indicating sexual interest or expressive of lust or lewdness: a lascivious gesture.

How many things can you list in the category of "arousing sexual desire" - surely in India it should be forbidden to arouse sexual desire.

appeals to the prurient interest:
From Dictionary.com:

1.having, inclined to have, or characterized by lascivious or lustful thoughts, desires, etc.

2.causing lasciviousness or lust.

3.having a restless desire or longing.

Of course, lustful thoughts and desires are bad... look at our population, we managed it by cross-pollination, not by sexual intercourse. Well, there might have been some intercourse, but it certainly wasn't lascivious or lustful in any way.

Certainly causing restless desire or longing is wrong. If anything you see online causes restless desire, let them know who put it up. They shall be taken care of.

Can somebody please arrest Kushwant Sigh? He gives me lustful thoughts. Also, next time a woman ogles at a sweaty cricketer on TV, arrest him. Get the television network too while you are at it. And yes, the 8.00 o' clock serials certainly have to go. They shall be replaced by non-lustful Vatsyayana tales. After all Indian women certainly shouldn't have any lustful thoughts.

or its effect is such as to tend to deprave and corrupt persons ...
What does that even mean? How do you know what might deprave or corrupt someone? You might as well have have said "or whatever else we like ..."

I've got to stop picking flaws in it, because there is nothing right in it. Seriously, what were they thinking? Calling the above law wrong is inappropriate because that would imply that it deserves some amount of credibility. Will the genius who wrote the above law please stand up for the recognition you deserve. Maybe we can can just focus on you instead of the quality of your legal skills.

I hope in a few years, hopefully within our life times, India will come to terms with pornography, prostitution, nudity, indecent exposure and stop having stork- stories around them. When India comes to terms with the notion of sexuality we can look back at absurdities like this and laugh.

Maybe a first step to doing that would be to stop pretending that we had it all sorted out in our 'great ancient culture'. The world of mass media, global communication and a global economy was not the world of 2500 year ago. These things affect our notions of sexuality as much as they affect any other aspect of our lives. We must look at the world as it is today, and at our personal values, and start making careful measured choices.

If laws like this weren't so blatantly unethical in what they impose, I could think of them as being funny. Like how back in the 1800s Indiana State in the US tried to establish mathematical fact by passing laws. They wanted a law that states that in Indiana  the mathematical constant Pi would have the value 3.2. Fascinating! We look at this and laugh today, but I don't see the Indian Pornography law as being very different. The Indiana Pi bill was after all a state bill that never got passed. The Indian Pornography law in a national law that is in effect, due to which the CEO of one of India's largest online auction site was arrested (its quiet funny how some of this is worded ".. had obtained the controversial act by Local Area Network (LAN).. " ) when he flew into India, from the US, to help work with the local police because someone sold "pornographic" material on his site.

I am so glad we come from a civilized country with well thought out laws that seek to protect the innocent and punish the immoral. Yeah!