Justices Caught In A Web Over Web Jurisdiction

Legal Issues

from the where-can-we-sue? dept

The issue of jurisdiction concerning lawsuits that involve online content keeps coming up again and again. There was the question of where Kazaa could be sued, whether or not Tim Koogle was responsible for Yahoo content in the US that violated French law, whether the Australian Supreme Court has jurisdiction over a news article posted in the US and whether the US has the right to imprison those who write software outside of this country that violates (bad) laws inside the country. With all these questions being raised, you would think the US Supreme Court might want to set down an official US precedent on the matter – so that (at least in the US) we knew what we were dealing with. However, the Supreme Court has decided to take a pass on the issue of online jurisdicition, meaning that we’re sure to see plenty more cases before we know where anyone can be sued.