Mark Ryan wrote:
On 20/09/2007, Steve Summit scs@eskimo.com wrote:
But this is (a) wrong (at least in the case of www hyperlinks), and (b) not relevant to a site hosted in Florida, USA.
It is relevant. Defamation under UK law happens where the content is read, not where it is hosted.
Why exactly would we worry about this?
The way I look at it, all non-US law is relevant only to editors working in those jurisdictions. If Britain or Venezuela or China believes that the public can't handle certain material, that is interesting, but not relevant to how we run Wikipedia.
What might be relevant is the spirit behind the law. If the law gets made because of some particular harm that we think is worse than impeding honest discussion or the free flow of factual information, then we should take a look at altering our course. But the law itself is the business of the citizens under its jurisdiction, and not our collective problem.
William