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NYT: A Libel Suit May Establish E-Jurisdiction
Posted by Kevin Chen on Monday, May 27 @ 23:08:04 EDT Governance
Article from NY Times (registration required):

Two years ago, when Stanley Young, a Virginia prison warden, learned that two Connecticut newspapers had written stories about his prison's treatment of inmates from that state, he went to read the four articles on the Internet. He did not much like what he saw.

...

Charging in a lawsuit that the articles suggested he was a racist who encouraged abuse by his guards, Mr. Young filed a libel suit against the two publications owned by the Tribune Company, The Hartford Courant, a daily, and The New Haven Advocate, a weekly. (He also sued a writer and news executive from each publication.)

But Mr. Young did not file his case in the defendant's jurisdiction. Instead, he sued in Virginia, even though the newspapers had almost no print circulation there.

That decision on where to sue is the nub of a legal dispute that could reverberate nationally and internationally, lawyers say. Last year, a federal district judge in Big Stone Gap ruled that Mr. Young's lawsuit could proceed in his home state because the newspapers' Web sites were accessible there and that was where injury to his reputation would have taken place.

Some related cases/links: (Updated 5/28/02 -- case sent by Eric Grimm)

 
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"User's Login" | Login/Create an Account | 2 comments
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Re: NYT: A Libel Suit May Establish E-Jurisdiction (Score: 1, Informative)
by Anonymous (Name Withheld on Advice of Counsel) on Tuesday, May 28 @ 01:27:15 EDT
I think you missed a "related case." Try Calder v. Jones, 465 US 783 (1984). For more on this jurisdiction thread, see some remarks on Dave Farber's IP list. http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/200205/msg00178.html http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/200205/msg00181.html Eric Grimm Ann Arbor, MI


[ Reply to This ]

Such precedent has already been established (Score: 0)
by Anonymous (Name Withheld on Advice of Counsel) on Wednesday, May 29 @ 06:27:37 EDT
Such precendet was already set last year when Paul Vixie's MAPS llc,
a California company, was sued in Massachusetts. The judge ruled
that he had jurisdiction because it was possible to buy the RBL and
other MAPS service in Massachusetts, and that this constituted
"doing business" within Massachusetts.

http://mail-abuse.org/pressreleases/2001-01-02-media3.pdf



[ Reply to This ]


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