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Jailed Chinese Reporter Joins Yahoo! Suit

Posted by Zonk on from the keep-your-friends-close dept.

taoman1 writes "The Associated Press reports that Shi Tao, who was sentenced in 2005 to 10 years in prison, is now seeking compensation from Yahoo. He claims the Hong Kong and Chinese branches of the company provided information to the Chinese authorities that led to his arrest. 'Shi, a former writer for the financial publication Contemporary Business News, was jailed for allegedly providing state secrets to foreigners. His conviction stemmed from an e-mail he sent containing his notes on a government circular that spelled out restrictions on the media. Yahoo has acknowledged turning over data on Shi at the request of the Chinese government, saying company employees face civil and criminal sanctions if they ignore local laws. It denies Yahoo Hong Kong was involved.'"

3 of 103 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Not to suggest ... by Stormx2 · · Score: 2, Informative
    From the article:

    Shi's legal challenge, filed on May 29 in U.S. District Court, is part of a lawsuit filed earlier by the World Organization for Human Rights USA. The group is suing Yahoo Inc. and its subsidiary in Hong Kong. Also named is Alibaba.com Inc., a Yahoo partner that runs Yahoo China.
    He's suing in a U.S. court. I'm fairly sure there are laws in the U.S. prohibiting companies governed by U.S. law from giving away confidential data (in this case the email) to countries where it is likely to get the person imprisoned.

    It would certainly be illegal in the UK under the data protection act, I don't know much about U.S. law.
  2. Re:Not to suggest ... by jellie · · Score: 5, Informative
    The article lacks detail regarding the actual claims and which lawsuit it is, considering that there are probably many lawsuits against China by dissidents who have been oppressed or punished by the country. Here's an article from the Washington Post, dated two months ago, that said Wang Xiaoning filed a lawsuit against Yahoo! (I'm guessing this is the same suit). They argue that by giving up their information, Yahoo! is supporting torture (I believe), a violation of the Alien Tort Statute. My guess is that this Shi Tao is being added as a plaintiff to this lawsuit. From the article:

    The suit, in trying to hold Yahoo accountable, could become an important test case. Advocacy groups are seeking to use a 217-year-old U.S. law to punish corporations for human rights violations abroad, an effort the Bush administration has opposed... Yahoo is guilty of "an act of corporate irresponsibility," said Morton Sklar, executive director of [World Organization for Human Rights USA]. "Yahoo had reason to know that if they provided China with identification information that those individuals would be arrested."
    If that's true (which will need to be debated in court), then yes, Yahoo! did do something legally wrong.
  3. Re:Not to suggest ... by morgan_greywolf · · Score: 3, Informative

    So he is suing in the U.S., but where was he when he sent the e-mail? And from a legal perspective, does physical location matter?


    Yes. Location determines jurisdiction, even in cases involving the Internet, unfortunately, at least in the U.S. and probably in many other countries. Now, in the U.S., a court may choose to hear some cases that do not technically fall under its jurisdiction -- in which case it is up to one party of the suit to challenge the court's jurisdiction at the appellate level -- but, generally speaking most U.S. judges will look at a case and then decide not to hear it if the case does not fall under the court's jurisdiction.

    Jurisdiction in the U.S. is decided based on the location where the event took place. There are some gray areas when it comes to the Internet. For instance, cases involving e-commerce disputes can really fall either to the jurisdiction where the buyer is located or to the jurisdiction where the seller is located, absent any agreement deciding jurisdiction of disputes at the time of purchase.

    In cases involving the liability of e-mails or other electronic communication, jurisdiction can fall either at the sender's location or at the receiver's location.

    Interstate and international communication and e-commerce almost always fall under the federal circuit courts and not at the state level.

    --
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