Webserver location and law
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Topic: Webserver location and law
Posted By: Gullanian
Subject: Webserver location and law
Date Posted: 19 February 2006 at 5:56pm
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If a webserver is located in France, would the website be under French jurisdiction or would it be from where you are running it from? |
Replies:
Posted By: huwnet
Date Posted: 19 February 2006 at 9:30pm
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I believe it can actually be under both, certainly if you have a local domain. My site is now hosted in the US so technically I should have COPPA on my forums. |
Posted By: ub3rl337ch3ch
Date Posted: 19 February 2006 at 10:06pm
| yeah, i thik its subject to where the server is AND where the domain is registered. Though there may be some slight differences between the legal requirements for a server vs a domain name... |
Posted By: dpyers
Date Posted: 20 February 2006 at 12:22am
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Usualy, you're subject to the laws of the country where the server is in but different governments make exceptions for certain types of sites. For instance, the US Gov considers that gambling occurs where the bet is placed - e.g. from your PC, not from where the server that takes the bet is located. In the US, you can buy cigarettes online from servers on Indian reservations. Theoretically, you are not subject to state taxes. The State governments however have an arrangement with the credit card companies to report anyone who buys cigarettes online from a Reservation server and the states then go after the individual for state cigarette taxes. If you run a porn site that delivers content to one of several countries, you can be arrested if you enter that country regardless of where the server was located. As far as domains go, in most countries, you can loose the TLD - country domain - for violating the law of that country regardless of where the servers are located. e.g. Violate UK law and at a minimum, you would loose the uk.co domain. ------------- 
Lead me not into temptation... I know the short cut, follow me. |
Posted By: Gullanian
Date Posted: 20 February 2006 at 12:58am
| How about this example, in Russia apparently copyright doesn't cover digital media. Can you have a website setup in Russia handing out music to anyone legally? If I downloaded music from England off a Russian website, would I be breaking any laws? |
Posted By: ub3rl337ch3ch
Date Posted: 20 February 2006 at 1:34am
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if you downloaded it where its illegal to do so, yes... if someone downloaded it off your site (regardless of whether it was legal for the or not), no... what a person does on the internet is governed by the laws of the state/country they're accessing the net from...
what's on the server is governed by the location of the server and the domain registraion...
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Posted By: Gullanian
Date Posted: 20 February 2006 at 3:40am
| English law dictates you can't pirate music, but is it pirating it by downloading it off a site which is completely legal? |
Posted By: the boss
Date Posted: 22 February 2006 at 9:37am
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if u are using a ccTLD domain, which are specfic to country, then that country rules will apply. Because using a ccTLD puts your website as a kind of representative of that country
If u are using a generic TLD such as com/org/net then the rules of the webhost location apply. However your local government and law enforcement agencies can interfere and get your website shut.. but usually such attempts are not sucessfull on mass scale..
there are not hard coded rules for the internet however the above mentions criteria is the most popular used for evaluation
for example it would be illegal to have a gambling websiute under .com.sa domain because this domain falls under the jurisdiction of saudi internet authority ------------- http://www.web2messenger.com/theboss"> 
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Posted By: Gullanian
Date Posted: 22 February 2006 at 4:15pm
| So, if you had a .Ru domain name, and (to be on the safe side) a webserver in russia, you could perfectly legally have a free mp3 download site? |
Posted By: huwnet
Date Posted: 22 February 2006 at 9:27pm
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No. You could be sued for administrating the site from the UK. I believe you got the idea of a russian music site from the cheap all of mp3 site (or something that sounds like that). They payed for a music distribution license. However they did not pay the publishers. I believe they have a court case happpening soon |
Posted By: dpyers
Date Posted: 22 February 2006 at 9:37pm
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I believe most law governing illegal music downloads also covers illegal possession of the music - the buyer as well as the seller.
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Lead me not into temptation... I know the short cut, follow me. |
Posted By: Gullanian
Date Posted: 22 February 2006 at 10:30pm
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This is just a question more out of curiosity rather than actually going out and risking it. But are you a possesor of illegal music if you download it legally in a foreign country? |
Posted By: huwnet
Date Posted: 22 February 2006 at 11:04pm
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It depends in what way it is illegal. If I bought music in the US you could argue I haven't paid UK taxes. |
Posted By: ub3rl337ch3ch
Date Posted: 26 February 2006 at 10:03pm
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it depends whether the possession of such is illegal. Some countries have laws forbidding the sale (provision, supply, whatever), but not possession of pirated music, others have laws forbidding possession and not sale...
I think the UK is likely (don't quote me on this) to have laws governing both the possession and supply of copyright material. Thats definitely the case in Australia, which has the same style of legal system, and the same (sort of) society.
However, most governments that i know of really can't be arsed hunting down an prosecuting the guy who downloaded episode3 before it was released in cinemas, they're more concerned with hunting down the guy who did the supplying. Basically most (probably all) governments just dont have enough rescources to prosecute everyone with 'illegal' copyright materials.
On a sidenote - in Aus, when the ipod came out, there were no *legal* methods to obtain digital music (aside from small bands that had picked up on the whole digi-music thing). Also it was (and still is) illegal to rip mp3's from a cd. So for about a year after the ipod became really popular here, there was really no legal way to have music on an ipod... But the cops didn't bother arresting anyone with an ipod, because its a waste of time and money...
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