Wednesday, February 05, 2003

Two Posts on Jurisdiction for Internet Libel In Young v. New Haven Advocate,  the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals came to a different conclusion on jurisdiction for internet libel.  The Court held that two Connecticut newspapers (whose stories appeared on-line) did not manifest an intent to aim their web sites or the posted articles at a Virginia audience.  This prevented the exercise of jurisdiction in Virginia on constitutional grounds. 1:20:38 PM    comment []

Jurisdiction for Libel on the Internet The Australian High Court held (back in December, 2002) that residents of Australia who suffered damage to their reputation in Australia through a libel on the internet could sue in that jurisdiction, regardless of the location of the libel publisher. Dow Jones & Company Inc. v Gutnick, [2002] HCA 56 (10 December 2002). It is likely that the rules for jurisdiction for libel over the internet may develop differently than rules applicable to other torts or breach of contract.  One difference is that Dow Jones (Barron's) publishes to Australia and has subscribers there; presumably there was no evidence of publication or subscribers of the two Connecticut newspapers in Virginia.  1:04:19 PM    comment []

Refusal to Return Businessman's Laptop Computer Results in Punitive Damages In GU v. TAI FOONG INTERNATIONAL LTD., (Docket: C32933, C35894 & C36868, Feb 3, 2003) the Ontario Court of Appeal upheld the Trial Judge's award of $50,000 punitive damages in addition to $25,000 in actual damages for the conversion of a laptop computer.  The Court commented that the computer was one of the plaintiff's most important business tools.  "The behaviour of the Lam Group concerning Gu's personal computer was seriously blameworthy - the Lam Group stole the computer, damaged it, retained it for several weeks, attempted to use it to extract concessions from Gu and, at trial, minimized all of this misconduct. This constellation of conduct went well beyond the tort of conversion. In our view, both the decision to award punitive damages and the choice of quantum of $50,000 were rational and proportionate within the parameters of the principles set out in Whiten." 11:32:16 AM    comment []

Class Action Commenced Over Stolen Data The previously reported theft of a hard drive containing personal information (e-Lawg post) has resulted in a class action against the company that owned and operated the drive, as well as those financial and government bodies that stored data on it. 11:15:10 AM    comment []

© Copyright 2003 Michael Girard.

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