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Gutnick Can Pursue Dow-Jones Libel Case
Anonymous Coward writes "Libel cases based on Internet material could be mounted anywhere in the world, after a landmark judgment handed down by the Australian High Court today. International news service Dow Jones failed in its bid to have a defamation action brought by mining magnate Joseph Gutnick heard in the United States."
This is a good argument for including terms of use in a website.
In most terms of use, it is customary to include choice of law and jurisdiction provisions.
I would think that courts would not enforce the ones that are too broad, but if it is narrow it may work. See a lawyer about this since your milage may vary and IANAL.
Fight Spammers!
I agree it was completely inaccurate and reactionary, but you're wrong that this won't affect the rest of the world. It will, and in at least 2 ways. First, it means that any legal person (ie, includes corporations) which has offices in Australia can now be held liable for posting information to a server in Uzbekistan, if that information is viewed by the relevant public in Australia. The second way in which it matters to the rest of the world is that it sets a precedent, and one which IMHO (and IAAL, so I know a little about this) will impact judicial thinking in other jurisdictions, and quite probably along the same lines. Defamation law, like Copyright law, is one of those things which is slowly becoming internationally equivalent... epect this in a Court Near You soon.
Althought I agree with you, you have to admit it's a little unfair of US citizens to complain when they do the same things themselves.
How about that DMCA case with the Russian guy. He broke a US law while in his home country and got in the shit over it. So US jurisdication covers the entire world and everyone elses' jurisdication only covers their own lands' and then only when it doesn't contradict US law?