Re: DEC vs AltaVista

On 5/29/97, Bob Stock <bstock[_at_]ucla.edu> wrote:
>
> As I read [DEC v. Alta Vista], web sites are like telephone
> communications, only they are different, only they are the same.
> Uh-huh. A person who makes a telephone call knows the precise
> destination (bar forwarding) and knows the person is reached when
> the other person answers. A person who makes a telephone call
> specifically targets that destination. Some commercial web sites
> clearly target local business, whereas with others the scope may be
> broader or less clear. This is what causes courts fits, but to say
> that ATI *knows* that its site will reach MA residents who access it
> is tautological. It is simply repeating that the site is accessible
> to MA residents, and that, in itself, says nothing at all, no matter
> how many times it is repeated.

What I think it says is that when you use an infringing trademark on the "world wide web" you are committing a tort in each jurisdiction in which it is in fact displayed, and that is sufficient to establish jurisdiction. To argue, after connecting your webpage to the web, that I only reproduced the mark on my computer here in California (or wherever), and that its display in Massachusetts was "incidental" "accidental" or "caused by the MA browser" is sophistry. When you put your business on the web you are, it seems to me, "purposely availing" yourself of the opportunity to do business everywhere (first due process consideration). That's the whole point of the web. And if you do something on the web that's intrinsically tortious, eg. libel, trademark infringement, copyright infringement, then you're going to satisfy the "relatedness" test, i.e. the claim is related to the contact, however minimal the contact (second DP consideration). Bingo -- you're in court in Alaska. Unless (third consideration), it would be manifestly unreasonable beause (unlike Alta Vista) you can't in fact afford a ticket to Alaska.

John Noble
<jnoble[_at_]dgsys.com> Received on Fri May 30 1997 - 15:25:47 GMT