Where Can You Sue For An Online Article?
from the wherever-you-want? dept
If a local newspaper puts their articles online, and someone feels they've been libeled, where can they sue? The obvious choice is in the hometown of the newspaper. But, what if the person who believes he or she is being libeled is thousands of miles away? That's the question that a federal appeals court needs to consider, after a Virginia prison warden tried to sue two Connecticut newspapers for posting online a news article suggesting the warden was a racist. The warden says that the damage done to him is in Virginia - and thus he should sue there. People are afraid that if the lawsuit goes through, then it will result in massive online censorship as any content will be liable to be sued anywhere for breaking local laws. So, once again, the question of online jurisdiction makes its way through the courts. I'm still a big fan of the idea of a special cybercourt - that handles jurisdictional questions in cyberspace (and which could possibly be stocked by judges who at least had a clue how technology worked).
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Cyber Court
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