[Foundation-l] Board meeting in Rotterdam later this week

[Ray Saintonge]

teun spaans wrote:

>>The biggest error I see here is that people are trying to limit language
>>versions of Wikipedia so that they comply with the laws of the country
>>where the language is primarily spoken. But that's fruitless. The
>>Italian Wikipedia (hosted in Florida) isn't under Italian law just
>>because it's in Italian. Nor are Italian citizens liable for something
>>on the Italian Wikipedia just because the page is in Italian.
>>    
>>
>I politely disagree. When the person doing something has the Italian
>nationality, and the person commits the act from italian territory,
>and the claiment is italian, an italian judge might well decide to
>consider the claim, despite the servers being in the us.
>
"Commits the act from italian territory" is the important one.  Italian 
nationality should not matter; if a foreigner travelling in Italy with 
his laptop uploads a copyvio image while he is there would he not be 
liable?  An Italian claimant could even start a case against a foreigner 
in an Italian court even if that foreigner had never set foot in Italy.  
The judge might even convict him in absentia, but getting him to Italy 
to face the punishment is another matter.  Similar things have happened 
in English courts, and the United States has refused to honour 
international orders on such things.  Also the cost of getting him to 
Italy to collect a fine may be more than the fine itself.

We still need to distinguish between Italian language and Italian 
nationality.  The language of the writing has nothing to do with this.  
An Italian resident writing in English is still liable, and a foreign 
resident writing in Italian (or a minor language of Italy) remains safe.

Ec