Dow Jones faces libel suit in Australia for article downloaded there
A Wall Street Journal story (subscription required) reporting on a court ruling in Australia that could have serious repercussions:
In a landmark decision for defamation law, Australia's High Court ruled that a Melbourne businessman can sue New York publishing company Dow Jones & Co. in Australia over an article published in the U.S. and distributed via the Internet.
Legal experts say the decision could have wide-ranging implications for the dissemination of information on the Internet, which publishers can't control as tightly as more-traditional methods of distributing news. The Internet's growth has created problems for libel law because it potentially makes publishers liable to varying laws from jurisdictions around the world; at the same time, more people are being influenced by material published on the Web and are claiming damage to their reputations in the places where they live, not where the offending material was published.