On 12/20/06, Ray Saintonge saintonge@telus.net wrote:
theProject wrote:
Whoa, whoa, whoa. How would Wiki[m/p]edia, in the United States, be subject to a law in the United Kingdom? Just because some country has a law that would prevent Wikipedia from stating something about some particular topic doesn't mean Wikipedia has to follow it. If we followed North Korean or Chinese or Iranian laws on free speech, I have the feeling some of our articles would be pretty blank. :-)
While the placement of the servers and offices gives primary legal jurisdiction to the United States, this is not a green light for ignoring the laws of other countries completely. People in many countries become justifiably upset when Americans take this route.
A respect for the legal culture of other countries helps to build mutual co-operation even if there is no conceivable avenue for enforcing those laws. Why shouldn't North Korean, Chinese or Iranian law be respected when they are relevent?
Ec
A lot of what gets written would get people arrested or worse elsewhere in the world.
This even applies in Europe - see Irving just having gotten out of jail in Austria.