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eBusiness
Whose laws rule on the Wild Wild Web?
By Lisa M. Bowman
Special to ZDNet News
May 29, 2002, 4:50 AM PT

Former Yahoo CEO Tim Koogle could find himself cuffed if he sets foot on French soil. His alleged crime: Allowing the posting of Nazi collectibles on Yahoo's U.S.-based site--an action Holocaust survivors say violates France's war crimes laws.

In another case, Russian software programmer Dmitry Sklyarov was jailed after entering the United States last year. The charges related to providing software that could be used to crack e-books, an action that is not a crime in his homeland but that violates U.S. copyright law, federal authorities say.

These are only two examples of companies and executives that do business online and are being dragged into foreign courts for selling products or posting materials that are legal in their own countries but that offend the sensibilities or violate the laws of another land. Such challenges increasingly include criminal charges.

"That is the scariest prospect for people who are either posting or doing business on the Internet," said Mike Godwin, a policy fellow at the Center for Democracy and Technology. "If you operate a Web site that's accessible in France or even if you're an (Internet service provider) who provides services in France, you might find yourself touching down at the airport there and being served."

For more: http://netscape.com.com/2100-1106-927370.html?type=pt

Very interesting. Scarey for internetland yes, but isn't it scarier to forbid an independent nation the right to make it's own laws? To decide what it regards as a crime or not?

The thing about the web is it CROSSES boundaries, not negates them. It's a sobering reminder that it's still a part of the real world, not a world unto itself.

Ignorance of the law is no excuse. I suppose it's now up to website owners to check the laws of a nation they are visiting to see if they are breaking any of their said laws.

We have to do that if we want to drive, (left or right side? Is turning on red ok?) or regarding soft drugs (harsher penalties in the USA than say, Amsterdam) or imports (no animals or fruit into Australia, no chewing gum into Singapore)

Why not with information distribution? A webowner is exporting information into that country aren't they?

Wow. Maybe we should have been more controversial Charean.

Here, I'll start.

The Internet is evil and should be banned. Any nation should have the right to arrest any citizen of any other country if it wants, by walking in and taking them while they sleep.

This should be inclusive for crimes such as looking at porn, being rude to people, or not believing in Creationism.

Now let's see how we go. :D

[ 05-29-2002, 03:20 PM: Message edited by: Yorick ]

I think it would be interesting if we acted like a world community and started world law.

Yeah, one world government. As long as it's a middlewing oppressively democratic government that forces people to have seven children so that we can eat babies instead of cows.

ROFLMAO Yorick... You are a riot!! [img]graemlins/biglaugh.gif[/img]

Reminds me of Soylent Green!

[ 05-29-2002, 03:25 PM: Message edited by: Charean ]

[img]graemlins/biglaugh.gif[/img]

As I explained to jo this morning. This is a subject that has bounced around fro a while, on the Net.
Sadly, the first "defenders" of the issue came from the Pr0n industry. Age restrictions are different in countries other than the US. When some "adult" (I hate that term. [img]graemlins/1pissed.gif[/img] Am I less than an adult because I don't view Pr0n?) filmakers came to the US for an "adult"film convention, they were arrested. It seems that in the country they filmed in the legal age for Pr0n actors is 16, which is considered illegal in the US. They were arrested, and held for a while. [img]graemlins/saywhat.gif[/img] I don't know what happened after the incident.
Copyright laws are also different. Several software companies have had executive arrested in other countries because the branches working in said countries broke copyright laws of other countries. I need to stop now, I'm confusing myself. [img]graemlins/1ponder.gif[/img]

You're confusing me too....

that is one thing that will never work, who would want a thing like that ?

Here is a quick fix. If you post something on the net that breaks a law in another countrie , JUST DONT GO THERE!! They cant arrest you if you dont go to thier pin headed small minded country in the first place , now can they?? And if you do go there you DESERVE to be arrested for being dumb enough to deliver yourself to them.

But I own an apartment in Florida, what am I supposed to do?

This could be of any interest: the goverment form policy of the internet itself:

"Welcome to the Internet.

No one here likes you.

We're going to offend, insult, abuse, and belittle the living hell out of you. And when you rail against us with "F*KC YOU YOU GEEK WIMP SKATER GOTH LOSER PUNK FAG BITCH!!!!", we smile to ourselves. We laugh at you because you don't get it. Then we turn up the heat, hoping to draw more entertainment from your irrational fuming.

We will judge you, and we will find you unworthy. It is a trial by fire, and we won't even think about turning down the flames until you finally understand.

Some of you are smart enough to realize that, when you go online, it's like entering a foreign country ... and you know better than to ignorantly f*kc with the locals. You take the time to listen and think before speaking. You learn, and by learning are gladly welcomed.

For some of you, it takes a while, then one day it all dawns on you - you get it, and are welcomed into the fold.

Some of you give up, and we breathe a sigh of relief - we didn't want you here anyway. And some of you just never get it. The offensively clueless have a special place in our hearts - as objects of ridicule. We don't like you, but we do love you.

You will get mad. You will tell us to go to hell, and call us "nerds" and "geeks". Don't bother ... we already know exactly what we are. And, much like the way hardcore rap has co-opted the word "■■■■■■", turning an insult around on itself to become a semiserious badge of honor, so have we done.

"How dare you! I used to beat the crap out of punks like you in high school/college!" You may have owned the playing field because you were an athlete. You may have owned the student council because you were more popular. You may have owned the hallways and sidewalks because you were big and intimidating. Well, welcome to our world.

Things like athleticism, popularity, and physical prowess mean nothing here. We place no value on them ... or what car you drive, the size of your bank account, what you do for a living or where you went to school.

Allow us to introduce you to the concept of a "meritocracy" - the closest thing to a form of self-government we have. In The United Meritocratic nation-states of the Internet, those who can do, rule. Those who wish to rule, learn. Everyone else watches from the stands.

You may posses everything in the off-line world. We don't care. You come to the Internet penniless, lacking the only thing of real value here: knowledge.

"Who cares? The Internet isn't real anyway!" This attitude is universally unacceptable. The Internet is real. Real people live behind those handles and screen names. Real machines allow it to exist. It's real enough to change government policy, real enough to feed the world's hungry, and even, for some of us, real enough to earn us a paycheck. Using your own definition, how "real" is your job? Your stock portfolio? Your political party? What is the meaning of "real", anyway?

Do I sound arrogant? Sure ... to you. Because you probably don't get it yet.

If you insist on staying, then, at the very least, follow this advice:

1) No one, ESPECIALLY YOU, will make any law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

2) Use your brain before ever putting fingers to keys.

3) Do you want a picture of you getting anally raped by Bill Clinton while you're performing oral sex on a cow saved to hundreds of thousands of people's hard drives? No? Then don't put your f*kcing picture on the Internet. We can, will, and probably already HAVE altered it in awful ways. Expect it to show up on an equally offensive website.

4) Realize that you are never, EVER going to get that, or any other, offensive web page taken down. Those of us who run those sites LIVE to piss off people like you. Those of us who don't run those sites sometimes visit them just to read the hatemail from fools like you.

5) Oh, you say you're going to a lawyer? Be prepared for us to giggle with girlish delight, and for your lawyer to laugh in your face after he explains current copyright and parody law.

6) The Web is not the Internet. Stop referring to it that way.

7) We have already received the e-mail you are about to forward to us. Shut up.

8) Don't reply to spam. You are not going to be "unsubscribed".

9) Don't ever use the term "cyberspace" (only William Gibson gets to say that, and even he hasn't really used it for two or three books now). Likewise, you prove yourself a marketing-hype victim if you ever use the term "surfing".

10) With one or two notable exceptions, chat rooms will not get you laid.

11) It's a hoax, not a virus warning.

12) The internet is made up of thousands of computers, all connected but owned by different people. Learn how to use *your* computer before attempting to connect it to someone else's.

13) The first person who offers to help you is really just trying to f*kc with you for entertainment. So is the second. And the third. And me.

14) Never insult someone who's been active in any group longer than you have. You may as well paint a damn target on your back.

15) Never get comfortable and arrogant behind your supposed mask of anonymity. Don't be surprised when your name, address, and home phone number get thrown back in your smug face. Hell, some of us will snail-mail you a printed satellite photograph of your house to drive the point home. Realize that you are powerless if this happens ... it's all public information, and information is our stock and trade.

16) No one thinks you are as cool as you think you are.

17) You aren't going to win any argument that you start.

18) If you're on AOL, don't worry about anything I've said here. You're already a f*kcing laughing stock, and there's no hope for you.

19) If you can't take a joke, immediately sell your computer to someone who can. RIGHT NOW.

Pissed off? It's the TRUTH, not these words, that hurts your feelings. Don't ever even pretend like I've gone & hurt them.

We don't like you. We don't want you here. We never will. Save us all the trouble and go away."

Note: I edited some of the content due to inappropiate language.