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French Court Rules That Facebook Can Now Be Sued in France (thestack.com)

An anonymous reader writes: A Paris court of appeal has ruled in favor of a French complainant whose account was suspended, because he linked to an image of the 1866 Gustav Courbet nude 'L'Origine du monde', currently residing at the Musee d'Orsay. The appeals court not only agreed that the user's suspension by Facebook constitutes censorship, but the ruling itself negates Facebook's insistence that all legal challenges take place in its native California.

10 of 145 comments (clear)

  1. Good for France. by Motherfucking+Shit · · Score: 5, Insightful

    At a very basic level, here's the deal. If you're going to operate as a multi-national company, and you're going to offer and promote your services around the globe, then you need to be responsible for and liable to the laws of the land in each of those territories. If you operate in France and you violate the law in France, then you should be subject to penalty in France.

    You don't get to shuffle all of your American tax liability through a double Dutch Sandwich with an Irish muffin, or whatever the hell it is, and simultaneously force French legal complaints to be arbitrated in California. You can't have it both ways.

    --
    "BSD: Free as in speech. Linux: Free as in beer. Windows 10: Free as in herpes." --Man On Pink Corner in #52607549.
    1. Re:Good for France. by xaxa · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Without bothering to read the article, it's probably relevant that the user in question is a resident of France, and access the site from France.

      Facebook obviously know this, as it's a key attribute used to target advertising.

    2. Re:Good for France. by Motherfucking+Shit · · Score: 4, Insightful

      So what do you do when laws in different countries are contradictory? Example: Certain speech being illegal in country A, but protected in country B?

      I suppose you have two real choices,

      1) block the speech from being seen in country A and allow it to be seen in countries B..Z

      2) remove your business operations from country A

      Take a look at Google, they've used both strategies in differing countries. Facebook itself is dealing with Belgium's ruling that they're no longer allowed to use cookies to track people who haven't signed up for the service.

      My primary point is that Facebook does everything it can to minimize its tax liability in the US by shuffling money around, pretending to be based in Ireland and Luxembourg, etc. That's all well and legal for now, but in doing so, you're no longer an American company and should not have any claim to force overseas legal complaints into American jurisdiction.

      --
      "BSD: Free as in speech. Linux: Free as in beer. Windows 10: Free as in herpes." --Man On Pink Corner in #52607549.
    3. Re:Good for France. by AlterEager · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It doesn't matter if the user is in France. What should matter is if the site is located in France.

      You don't realy get this "internet" thing, do you. What matters is not where "the site is located" (whatever that means). What matters is where the company is doing business. Facebook does business in France, French law applies.

      FACEBOOK FRANCE
      Societe 530085802
      108 AVENUE DE WAGRAM
      75017 PARIS
      FRANCE

      http://www.societe.com/societe/facebook-france-530085802.html

    4. Re:Good for France. by AlterEager · · Score: 4, Insightful

      If I have a forum, housed in the US, and someone from France doesn't like what someone posts, on my forum that is in my country, then France can suck my nuts.

      Good for you. But that is irrelevant to the case in hand -- Facebook is a company doing business in France -- French law applies to that business.

  2. Re:Actual result? by 110010001000 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Lawyers always show up. Thats how they get paid.

  3. Oh France... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Always ahead of USA on giving people freedom.

  4. Re:Just geoblock France already, Facebook!!! by rtb61 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The only principle here is, if a business is generating revenue in a country, then that revenue can be targeted in a civil suit. The company can not turn around and claim somehow that it should be allowed to make money in a country but simultaneously not be held accountable for how it makes money in that country. To pretend to claim so is just so much legal bullshit. It is bad enough when you have global tax fraud on trillions of dollars of income and the pain, death and suffering that causes in the crippling of social services and the break down of infrastructure, now they are corruptly fighting to not be held legally accountable for their actions when they are done by remote control. All the money and no responsibility, corporations are behaving like out of control toddlers, screaming for more all of the time now.

    --
    Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
  5. Re:Well... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Fuck sensitive morons who are offended by reality. Kill all those fuckers. Being offended is for victims who deserve to die.

    Yes. Let's kill all intolerant bastards. Anyone who wants to kill other people for their views deserves to die. Oh wai^#$%#@@ CARRIER LOST

  6. Re:Well... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    the only reason that the picture isn't treated as hardcore pornography is because ...

    A woman's genital area isn't in itself hardcore pornography in France? I mean, really, it's absurd the very picture of a nude person should in itself be consider pornography of any kind, no matter how much of a close up, how much "insertion" is going on, etc. But then that boils down to the point that it's a self-fulfilling prophesy. The more "close ups of a woman's vagina" are pornography, the more people will intend to make "pictures with close ups of a woman's vagina" for sexual arousal. Treat it normally and most (if not all) the effect is lost.

    I mean, the whole point is you have to start with "obscene", move on to "intent", and it has to be about "sexual arousal" and all bits of that are subjective except the intent. Well, then, if intent is the most important part, we really should ban most people because a lot of people intend to invoke sexual arousal in others in merely being in public and prurient people view near everyone as obscene in dress. I mean, that's the insanity that created the hijab, not Islam.