Belgium Tries to Fine Yahoo for Protecting US User Privacy

Techdirt is reporting that Belgium is trying to extract fines from Yahoo for not producing user data that was recently demanded of the US company. Instead of following normal diplomatic channels Belgian officials apparently made the data demands directly to Yahoo's US headquarters and then took the company to criminal court, where a judge issued the fine. "The implications of this ruling are profound and far-reaching. Following the court's logic would subject user data associated with any service generally available online to the jurisdiction of all countries. It would also subject all companies that offer services generally available on the global Internet to the laws of all jurisdictions, potentially exposing individual employees to a variety of criminal sanctions."

Comments

Let's Put Belgium To Sleep

[dysmey]

If it reaches the point where Belgium, which is notorious for its disruptive behavior on the Internet, tries to extract money out of Yahoo! on the grounds of tortuous logic, as its press wing has tried to extort money out of Google, then maybe it is now time to dissolve the Belgian State and distribute its three regions between the Netherlands (Flanders), France (Wallonia) and Germany (Eupen). These groups do not get along, anyway; and the only reason there is still a Belgium is that nobody knows what to do with the capital, Brussels, when the country does break up.

Re:Let's Put Belgium To Sleep

[geekoid]

What about the beer?
Won't anyone think of the beer?

Re:Let's Put Belgium To Sleep

[arnodf]

Luckily we have something called mobile beer where the brewers come to your house and brew the beer for you with some kind of 'breweryized' caravan. So: country or not, there will always be beer!

Re:Let's Put Belgium To Sleep

[McNihil]

don't forget the Belgian chocolates for the women too. Though I am 99.9999% sure that any woman reading slashdot would be a beer aficionado.

Re:Let's Put Belgium To Sleep

[jcwayne]

So she claims.

Re:Let's Put Belgium To Sleep

[Magee_MC]

Waffles so good that a country was named in honor of the inventor.

Re:Let's Put Belgium To Sleep

[cthulu_mt]

Their french fries are also about the best in the world. They have some mutant growth gene that creates ginormous potatoes and horses.

They put horse in the french fries?

Re:If Bush were still President

[CorporateSuit]

Damn you, and thank you, Anonymous Coward, you inglorious basterd... you just made me realize that I'm actually missing the days of King George W.

Serves you IT geeks right. now ...

[140Mandak262Jamuna]

... get off my lawn.

Re:If Bush were still President

[Em Emalb]

twice. Once in English, once in tortured "Belgish".

This will, naturally, piss of the Gremans, who will then be forced to bomb Pearl Harbor.

Re:Who gives a shit about Belgium?

[i.r.id10t]

FAL fanatics as well... mmm... nice crisp waffle, with a nice Browning G series FAL... I can do the waffle, can't afford the FAL. :(

Re:If Bush were still President

[Asic Eng]

More likely the bombs would fall on Bulgaria, since it's name also starts with "B" and they had nothing to do with the whole thing. It's hard to keep track of all these places when you are under attack. Besides according to unconfirmed intelligence Bulgaria has been known to aid and abet Belgians. Here is a picture of a Bulgarian mobile weapons lab or possibly a truck. What more proof do you need?