The thing in Ireland is *not* the legal headquarters of Google Inc, the parent company. Rather, it's Google's European headquarters. Which is subsidiary to (and thus has no control over) Google Inc, the US company. Google Europe's presence in Ireland conveys no European jurisdiction onto its parent in the US. See also https://investor.google.com/corporate/certificate-of-incorporation.html
"if the US wants to force DMCA on us"
The issue is not the US forcing anything on you. The issue is the US forcing something on a US company, and that US company then forcing that thing onto its subsidiaries, including those over in Europe. If a company were wholly located within the EU, with no American parent, the DMCA couldn't touch 'em. Much like if a company were wholly located within the US, with no European parent (e.g. Google), the RTBF couldn't touch 'em.
If you guys don't like having the DMCA shoved down your throats (and frankly I don't blame you, it's an awful law), well great: your recourse is to disband Google's European subsidiaries. This is certainly within Europe's power. As is RTBF'ing those subsidiaries. Forcing Google US to do anything, is not.
I don't actually know anything about Google's subsidiary structure, but it seems a reasonable assumption that Google proper has control over the actions of Google France. So, for DMCA requests, the US doesn't even need jurisdiction over Google France. They can just use their jurisdiction over Google proper, and command Google proper to tell Google France to do whatever; notice-and-takedowns, e.g. This is only an order on Google proper, and so no jurisdiction over Google France has been exercised. In other words, the US's legal jurisdiction over Google proper links with Google proper's "corporate jurisdiction" (which term I just made up for the sake of this argument) over Google France, to give the US an "effective jurisdiction" (again, made up) over Google France.
The converse is immediately false. Google France has (presumably) no such ability to control Google proper, beyond friendly (i.e. not at all authoritative) suggestions. Thus, with respect to RTBF requests, there is no corporate jurisdiction which a French court could use to turn its legal jurisdiction over Google France into effective jurisdiction over Google proper.
Google might could skirt DMCA requests in other countries by removing the control. I.e. by freeing its subsidiaries to act independently and without parental oversight, Google proper would then be powerless to enforce any US-ordered actions on them, DMCA or otherwise. But this would fragment their platform and probably is contrary to the performance of a well-tuned search engine. Also, notwithstanding a lack of notice-and-takedown (or any secondary liability provisions) in Berne or TRIPS, most countries (including the EU) have come to more or less similar conclusions as the US, and Google would still be bound to DMCA-like obligations in those territories via local, not US, law.
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Re: Re: Parent-Subsidiary Control
"if the US wants to force DMCA on us"
The issue is not the US forcing anything on you. The issue is the US forcing something on a US company, and that US company then forcing that thing onto its subsidiaries, including those over in Europe. If a company were wholly located within the EU, with no American parent, the DMCA couldn't touch 'em. Much like if a company were wholly located within the US, with no European parent (e.g. Google), the RTBF couldn't touch 'em.
If you guys don't like having the DMCA shoved down your throats (and frankly I don't blame you, it's an awful law), well great: your recourse is to disband Google's European subsidiaries. This is certainly within Europe's power. As is RTBF'ing those subsidiaries. Forcing Google US to do anything, is not.
Parent-Subsidiary Control
The converse is immediately false. Google France has (presumably) no such ability to control Google proper, beyond friendly (i.e. not at all authoritative) suggestions. Thus, with respect to RTBF requests, there is no corporate jurisdiction which a French court could use to turn its legal jurisdiction over Google France into effective jurisdiction over Google proper.
Google might could skirt DMCA requests in other countries by removing the control. I.e. by freeing its subsidiaries to act independently and without parental oversight, Google proper would then be powerless to enforce any US-ordered actions on them, DMCA or otherwise. But this would fragment their platform and probably is contrary to the performance of a well-tuned search engine. Also, notwithstanding a lack of notice-and-takedown (or any secondary liability provisions) in Berne or TRIPS, most countries (including the EU) have come to more or less similar conclusions as the US, and Google would still be bound to DMCA-like obligations in those territories via local, not US, law.
Techdirt has not posted any stories submitted by JK.
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