I am surprised to be linking to a blog that obviously has an anti-lawyer fetish, but I takes ‘em as I finds ‘em.

From the Overlawyered blog, which comments on why the suit against Yahoo in a U.S. federal court, alleging that Yahoo should be held accountable for what the PRC government did with user data, should be dismissed:

[O]ne can’t argue that a federal court in California can order a company to break the laws of another country. (The flaws in this should be readily apparent; as Yahoo notes in its motion to dismiss the case, under the logic of the plaintiffs, “A court in France could issue an injunction mandating that French companies doing business in America refuse to provide evidence in cases where the defendant might be subject to the death penalty.”) One can’t argue that a federal court in California can order a company to get a prisoner released from a Chinese prison (Yes, that’s in the lawsuit.) One can’t argue that a federal court in California can act as an appeals court for a Chinese trial, finding Chinese laws unconstitutional.

They might hate lawyers, but that’s a compelling post. There is a limit, of course, to what responsible MNCs should be willing to do to cooperate with governments, but in this instance, I’m with Yahoo.

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