In the US, ISPs and companies that provide hosting services have a degree of protection from being held legally responsible for the actions of their users. These "safe harbor" provisions don't exist in the legal codes of other countries, however, leaving the local branches of US companies at risk of legal action. Google India found itself in precisely this situation, as it was the target of legal action by an Indian cardiologist who claims he was defamed by posts hosted on Google's Blogger service. The Indian branch of the search giant is trying to defend itself from these charges by claiming that it has nothing to do with the US-based blogger service.

The trouble apparently started when someone used Blogger to post a number of inflammatory claims about Dr. Ashwin Mehta, who is a cardiologist at Mumbai's Jaslok Hospital. These apparently included specific allegations that Dr. Mehta engaged in both professional and financial misconduct. Mehta responded by filing a suit in which, according to the Mumbai Mirror, he claimed he has suffered "incalculable harm and injury to my name, fame, standing and reputation." Nevertheless, some sort of calculation was made, as Mehta sought financial damages in addition to having the posts removed.

Mehata won his first round in court, and the posts have since vanished from Blogger. Nevertheless, Google India appealed the verdict, and got to make its first arguments in court on Monday.

The relevant section of Indian legal code is apparently contained in the IT Act of 2008, which prohibits people from using computers to transmit "any information which he knows to be false, but for the purpose of causing annoyance, inconvenience, danger, obstruction, insult, injury, criminal intimidation, enmity, hatred or ill will." There's not much room for safe harbor there, although other reports suggest companies acting as intermediaries have been granted some protection.

It appears that Google India's lawyers are trying out two arguments. The first of these is simply claiming that policing content on Blogger is practically impossible, given that it fields 2.5 million words a minute.

But the potentially more interesting one is that Google India has essentially nothing to do with the Blogger service, which is run from servers residing in the US. In essence, any issue regarding the contents of a post hosted there is governed by the service agreement between Blogger and the individual user, which Google India isn't a party to.

Google isn't the only company to try out this defense in India, but it would seem to suggest a certain degree of hypocrisy on the part of Google. Apparently, its local subsidiaries are willing to shift the blame when it comes to actions by private citizens, while cooperating when a degree of censorship is the price of doing business in places like China.