This paper seeks to assess whether the safe harbor provisions for Internet intermediaries as enacted in the Information Technology Act, 2000 and the amended Copyright Act, 1957, reflect a correct balance between content owners and users. The paper begins by tracing the history of the Internet in its Web 1.0 and 2.0 avatars. Further, it examines how the current Internet architecture has facilitated e-commerce transactions as well as social speech. Moreover, the paper discusses whether the standards of liability under the Information Technology Act for intermediaries reflect an internationally compatible ‘notice-and-take-down-regime’, thereby avoiding a situation which would effectively result in shooting the messenger. Moreover, it examines whether the standards of liability under the Indian Copyright Act, 1957 are consistent with those under the Information Technology Act, 2000. Lastly, it examines whether the Indian laws and judicial trends strike a fair and correct balance between right owners and users.