[WikiEN-l] Knol - Our first major scandel

[Ray Saintonge]

WJhonson at aol.com wrote:
> In a message dated 4/26/2009 4:00:59 PM Pacific Daylight Time, 
> thomas.dalton at gmail.com writes:
>   
>> Of course, there is
>> nothing that says you have to sue in the US.>>
>>     
> ---------------------
> When you sign up you agree to a terms of service which states that 
> Wikipedia operates under Florida law and that you agree to this.
>
> You would first have to prove to any other judge, that either you didn't 
> understand this, or that it's not material to the case.
>
> Many companies do this same thing, I mean have you agree to a contract 
> which states under what jurisdiction you agree to abide.  The question is, has 
> anyone successfully shown that such an agreement is arbitrary, capricious and 
> irrelevant?
>   
First of all finding the TOS page is not that easy for a newbie.  It 
would take a great deal of effort even for an experienced Wikipedian.  I 
don't see any link to it on the main page. With many countries the 
jurisdiction of its courts is established if the offending web page is 
accessible from that country.

With the headquarters now in California, would even the WMF want such a 
case to be argued in Florida. The Florida incorporation may be relevant 
only to some few matters of corporate law.  Copyright law is a federal 
matter. 

Ec