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."

Comments

Disclaimer

[SparkyMartin]

Just put a disclaimer on you website, emails, and all your discussion board postings. Something like:

"Not intended to be viewed by anyone in the country of Australia. By viewing this you agree that you forfeit any legal recourses available, cannot hold the posting or publishing individual or party accountable for any comments that have been made"

If it works for shrink-wrap software, it should work for anything else.

Re:Disclaimer

[tc]

Doesn't work. The person being defamed/libelled is a third party, not the reader of the site. They could sue for libel without ever having read the site, or encountering your proposed disclaimer.

Question about the precendence this sets...

[Maul]

#1. How can they enforce this sort of thing on everyone?

For example:

Let us say that I say something mean about someone in Australia on the web. That person then files
suit against me in an Australian court.

I have no presence in Australia. Even if they manage to serve the suit to me via mail or something, what inclines me to go to the court? What can they do to me, since I'm in the USA?
Would they try to get the US Government to extradite me? Sure, it might just prevent me from ever visiting Australia, but I don't see how they could get someone over there to trial.

Since Dow Jones probably has some sort of presence in Australia, I can see how they might be more inclined to follow the court's orders... but what about everyone else?