Whose laws rule the Internet?

NEW DELHI: The Internet is the most powerful metaphor for freedom in the New World. The Web has no hierarchy and no artificial barriers. Everyone has the power of information. To rule. To have their say. That''s what we thought.
Cutting edge litigation strategies are changing the rules. Publishers uploading information in the US could be sued by surfers in another part of the globe for violating a law in that country.Here''s how:
The highest court in Australia ruled recently that a Melbourne businessman could file a local libel lawsuit against Dow Jones, publishers of The Wall Street Journal, for an article that could be downloaded from Dow Jones''s New Jersey web server.
French activists filed a case against Yahoo! (with its servers in the US) for auctioning Nazi collectibles on its site. The court ordered Yahoo! to block surfers from its auctions, as French law bars sale or display of racist material. However, later, the court let Yahoo! go as it "never sought to justify war crimes and crimes against humanity".
A new European arrest warrant would put campaigners on trial for broadcasting "xenophobic or racist" remarks - such as denying the Holocaust - on a chatroom in another country. It would constitute a "thought crime".
These cases throw up new unexplored areas of jurisdiction - the Net - for which there is no single global law in place yet. However, questions about criminal liability are coming up increasingly.
Says Aruneshwar Gupta, the developer of India''s first legal website, who sets up video conferencing for clients abroad: "Recently during a video conferencing session, where the witnesses for a case being tried in the UK were being recorded in Delhi, a hypothetical question came up: If one of them were in contempt of court, where would they be tried?"
While legal eagles grope for answers, the First Amendment of the US Bill of Rights, which guarantees Freedom of Expression, is under fire.
Advocates of free speech believe freedom of expression is worthy of international respect, but others say the US - which drives most Net content - has no right to impose its values on the world.
This conflict of laws can only be resolved, say legal experts, if there is an entirely new jurisprudence for the Net which is linked by treaties.