Re: [cobalt-users] Raq4 verses Linux PC

[Surfbaud <error404@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 17:23 12/04/2002 -0400, you wrote:
> "Surfbaud" <error404@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > Doesn't make me think, I, along with many other people on the planet, do
> > not live in amerika and so are not bound by their laws.
>
> Actually, you don't need to be a U.S. citizen for a U.S. citizen to sue you
> for libel or defamation.

true, collecting might prove harder than you think though, there are no 
significant penalties for defaulting...

>  Collecting a judgment from a non-U.S. resident may
> be difficult though.

difficult = impossible if the respondent was reluctant to pay up

>  So like it or not the case I cited can affect you.

Only if I let it, I choose not to...

> But ignoring borders for the moment, what worries me is that the world might
> be moving in a direction where I have a very real possibility of facing a
> serious lawsuit if I speak the truth about a negative experience or simply
> run a website, message board or mailing list where such messages appear.

Then you have a duty to "speak the truth and be damned with the consequences"
Ultimately this is the only universally defensible position

> You may have a perception that I'm a self-absorbed American oblivious to the
> rest of the world and oblivious to the fact that a large percentage of the
> Cobalt list members live outside the U.S., but I assure you that's not the
> case.

Not oblivious perhaps, but like all G6 citizens you have an inevitable 
tendency to vastly over rate the importance and beneficial effects of your 
own country on the rest of the known world, and a myopia with regard to the 
negative aspects...

>  Not only is nearly half of my client base outside the U.S., but I run
> several sites with a large number of international users.  If I offended you
> by citing something that does not affect you, my apologies,

no need, I am not the least bit offended.

>  but IMO it's
> something that could affect a large percentage of this list's members,
> American or otherwise.

and you could be sued in a french court if one of your clients has a site 
that states that "only" 1 million jews died in WW2, and an american court 
for a site that offers to sell wine to an 18 year old in the UK, and a 
german court for an anti scientology site, etc etc etc...

these assholes (lawyers) need to wake up and smell the coffee, cyberspace 
is by definition not within any national borders or jurisdiction, and it is 
up to people like US to shout loudly and repeatedly that the emperor is not 
wearing and clothes for as long as it takes for EVERYONE to get the message
--
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 jb@xxxxxxxxxxxx / www.surfbaud.org / 2002
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