Where Can You Sue For An Online Article?
from the wherever-you-want? dept
If a local newspaper puts their articles online, and someone feels they’ve been libeled, where can they sue? The obvious choice is in the hometown of the newspaper. But, what if the person who believes he or she is being libeled is thousands of miles away? That’s the question that a federal appeals court needs to consider, after a Virginia prison warden tried to sue two Connecticut newspapers for posting online a news article suggesting the warden was a racist. The warden says that the damage done to him is in Virginia – and thus he should sue there. People are afraid that if the lawsuit goes through, then it will result in massive online censorship as any content will be liable to be sued anywhere for breaking local laws. So, once again, the question of online jurisdiction makes its way through the courts. I’m still a big fan of the idea of a special cybercourt – that handles jurisdictional questions in cyberspace (and which could possibly be stocked by judges who at least had a clue how technology worked).
Comments on “Where Can You Sue For An Online Article?”
Cyber Court
I think a cyber court would be a scary thing. A panel of 3-7 people with a tremendous amount of power over the digital world. If they’re not seated permantly (like the supreme court) they’re going to have their campaigns funded by the likes of Microsoft and RIAA. If this happens we’ll wind up with the same greed and arrogance of the Senate. If they’re seated permantly then we have to worry about how they’ll vote. With a majority of pro-business judges on the bench we could lose many more rights for many years. We would literally have to wait for a judge to die in order to hope for a change. Take a look at Roe v. Wade. Both sides are pasionate in their views and vote for presidents based on his view. The president then selects judges that have a history of voting along his lines. Judges step down early or postpone retirement depending on the party affiliation of the president. Every four years both sides get anxious over the possibility of turning over Roe v. Wade. The same thing would happen with p2p networks, encryption/decryption, mp3 and digital video. The current system makes it harder (but certainly not impossible) for the wealthy adversaries to buy their own way.