Mr. Nikhil Naren a 5th year student at Symbiosis Law School, who has recently co-authored a book alongside Mr. Rodney D. Ryder titled Internet Law: Regulating Cyberspace and Emerging Technologies.
1. Hi! Tell us something about yourself.
Hello to the readers! I am Nikhil Naren, final year learner of law (Batch 2015-20) at Symbiosis Law School, NOIDA and I’ve been associated with Scriboard [Advocates and Legal Consultants], New Delhi in the capacity of a ‘Trainee
Advocate’ since the last 15 months after receiving the Pre-Placement Offer in my seventh semester.
2. How does it feel to have co-authored a book while still being in law school?
The feeling is definitely unmatched. We often hear people say that “If you can dream it, you can do it.” However, the most essential part is to work towards that particular dream. When we sent the manuscript of the book to Bloomsbury India on October 22, 2019, and after Bloomsbury India gave us a green light on the publication during the middle of November’19, my next objective was to try and get the book out before I graduate my law school. I sat in my college library for one full-month and made sure that I work and re-send the reviewed versions as quickly as possible after working on the suggestions from the publisher. The book went through five rounds of extensive checks and reviews in January’20 before it was sent off to print. Finally, my dream of getting the book released while I was still in my law school became a reality. I am glad that I have got a guru like Rodney Sir alongside me who is always encouraging, supportive and has his mind filled with creative ideas. The twelve Research Associates from my law school are the pillars of the extensive research one gets to witness in the book. Special shout-out and thanks to each one of them.
3. Any specific stream of law you feel strongly about or which you would like to pursue in the future?
I have always been inclined towards Information Technology Laws but only inclination or interest does not serve the purpose in the present times. In order for me to get an insight over the subject and enable myself to get decent internships, I completed my diploma in cyber laws from Government Law College, Mumbai and Asian School of Cyber Laws, Pune while I was in my third semester of the law school. I wrote research papers on contemporary issues falling in this domain and by the time I was in my fifth semester, I realized that cyber laws do not work in isolation in India. I may be wrong but that’s what I thought at that point in time. I got wonderful opportunities to work on various moot court competitions including the Bar Council of India Inter-University Moot which provided me a platform to venture into other interesting areas of law. I developed an interest in Competition Law when I went for the RGNUL, Patiala moot. I got my first-hand experience in Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) laws during my internship at Scriboard in the sixth semester and thereafter I chose IPR as my elective subject at the law school. Finally, I also received my certification in IPR and Competition Law from the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), New Delhi in the seventh semester. Since then, I’ve been actively working in these domains and looking forward to continuing. Emerging technologies like Blockchains, Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, Drones, etc. alongside the discussions on the privacy aspect, data protection, social media, e-commerce, etc. are throwing up a lot of opportunities which should be grabbed by both the hands by the enthusiasts of these sectors.
4. What is the idea and theme behind the book?
Technology is in itself a really complicated stream to venture out into. The scenario becomes tougher when there is an intersection of law and technology. The idea of the book, Internet Law: Regulating Cyberspace and Emerging
Technologies is not only to help and aid the practitioners or law students but also a layperson. The book has been written and structured in the simplest of the way which will make the users of the internet aware of the risks, challenges, solutions and the basics. We call the book by the name of Internet Law and not Information Technology Laws because of the same reason. We are all united via the Internet. Haha! We laid special emphasis on the chapterization of the book and we initially started off with twelve chapters in December 2018. We thought of adding three more chapters around August 2019 namely, Privacy Policy, Digital Brand Management, and the Personal Data Protection (PDP) Bill, 2019. These chapters are completely practical in nature and useful for body corporates. The chapter on privacy policy apart from being a guide on the drafting of privacy policies and the compliance’s one needs to take care of also contains a questionnaire to conduct an IT audit in an organization. The chapter on digital brand management helps entrepreneurs in promoting their brands in the online space. The chapter on the
PDP bill discusses the sections of the proposed bill which is surrounded by a lot of discussions and debates over it.
Apart from this, the book extensively discusses the legislation i.e. the Information Technology Act, 2000, and takes a deep dive into cybercrimes, internet security, privacy, electronic evidence, interception and monitoring of electronic
communication, freedom of expression in cyberspace, e-governance, e- commerce, social media and the relation of intellectual property and information technology. The readers can witness a detailed table of contents (running down
to fifteen pages), a gist of the chapter at the beginning of each chapter and lots of tables and graphical representations for their ease. What makes the book further interesting is that we’ve linked the book to www.metacept.com, wherein, the readers can find materials for further reading which are cited in the book, on the chapter links under the ‘Internet Law-Book’ tab of the main menu bar on Metacept®. Hence, the readers will also stay updated with the newer developments happening in this space.
5. Any plans of authoring a book by yourself? What are your other plans for the future?
I’ve no such plans of writing a book as a sole-author as of now. I might, maybe ten years down the line. Who knows? Haha! Future plans are nothing as concrete but I am really looking forward to coming up with something on Artificial
Intelligence and its intersection with the law. The challenges pertaining to the legal personhood of an artificially intelligent machine or the vesting of intellectual property rights with such machines is an interesting area to watch out for. I’ll definitely try to get into all of these alongside the office work.
6. Any piece of advice you would like to give to the budding lawyers?
I am too young and inexperienced to give an advice to the budding lawyers for their journey, but I’ll definitely advise them to stay honest with themselves and to never compromise with their priority. Nothing actually pushes you into
achieving something, rather than you pushing yourself. When the world stops believing in you and you get disappointed at something, look back, you’ll always find your mother and father cheering you up. Just never let their belief and trust which they have in you die, no matter what journey you are up to, you’ll excel. Work smart. All the best!
