RE: FN-FORUM School sites

date posted 1st April 2001 16:43

I think what it boils down to is that there are various treaties between the
UK, EEC, and the USA which mean the courts in all these jurisdictions have
some influence in all states that are signees to these treaties. Countries
such as Russia, China, and many smaller middle eastern and African states
not being part of the same Capitalist monolith basically because the tanks
haven't been sent in or because they might Nuke us are consequently not
bound by such treaties, at least not to the same extent and any influence
our courts may, or may not have will depend mainly on how much influence our
Jack boots have, to put it bluntly.

Nick

http://www.artberry.net





-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL REMOVED]
[EMAIL REMOVED] Behalf Of Chas Walton
Sent: 30 March 2001 00:14
To: [EMAIL REMOVED]
Subject: Re: FN-FORUM School sites


> You do not have to obey the laws of other contries only the contry
in which
> the server resides

I don't think that's right, Morgan. The recent French case against
Yahoo shows that cross-border cases can, and do, work. For those who
have forgotten, Yahoo were selling Nazi memorabilia on their US-based
auction site.

It's illegal to sell the stuff in France, so the French courts stepped
in. They decided they had jurisdiction over the US site, and ordered
Yahoo to cease making the memorabilia accessible to French residents.
That was impossible, so Yahoo had no alternative but to drop Nazi
memorabilia from their list of auctionable products. Yahoo have
threatened to appeal.

Another case (this time wholly US-based) involved the state of Texas.
The Texans tried to close a site based in another US state which
failed to ensure that tobacco products it was selling were unavailable
to Texas minors.

> Well in that case how come there are many legal sites that have
content that
> is illegal in the UK on them??

Few cases come to court. It's one thing to say that a foreign-based
site is breaking another country's laws, it's quite another to get
something done about it. There was a case last autumn in which an
Austrian-based company set up an internet auction in which US voters
could sell their votes to someone else. Several US states tried to
stop the trade, but they had a devil of a job flushing the slippery
Austrians out.

In reality, sites are unlikely to be pursued for breaking the laws of
another country -- unless the site-owner is a high-profile company
with a reputation to lose. Nevertheless, you should be aware of the
risks, if only to advise clients that they can fall foul of foreign
jurisdictions.

We live in a litigious age. If a web client did get hit, they'd sure
as hell have a shot a suing the web designer/adviser/consultant who
set the site up for them.

Chas Walton
[EMAIL REMOVED]
www.textwizard.com




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