Wednesday 12 March 2008

Jurisdiction, ISPs' liability and libel

According to the story, a British politician shut his blog for Google (US) refused to remove a defamatory post put on his blog and on others'.

What strikes me first is the line taken by Google. De facie, perfectly adequate, their response only highlights the double standard applied by the company and others to be fair. For if the request came from China and the like, previous experiences show that Google was quick in removing the post and even giving the dissident's details. Suddently, lack of jurisdiction was not an issue anymore. The difference only confirms that when big money is at stake, there is suddenly no legal obstacle on the way to satisfy greedy people.

Secondly, as pointed out by the author of the post, there were probably other ways of tackling the issue of libel if it was serious.
Thirdly, it highlights the problem of offensive contents: how to reconcile the global aspect of the net with regional differences?
"The Other Side Of The Jurisdiction Issue: UK Politician Upset That US-Based Blogs Follow US Laws" (7 March 2008) http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080305/193747455.shtml

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