Uri Geller to be sued by EFF

Yay for EFF!

Always good to see my dues money going towards good causes. :D

You ole tree-hugging ACLU-loving commie!

Just kidding. I wish we had something like the EFF over here. Or ACLU, for that matter.
 
Actually, it's not. In U.S. legal parlance, one can usually "appear" in court through a lawyer. But I don't really understand why you're fixating on this point.

I just have a hard time envisioning a US court "forcing" someone who is not an American citizen to "appear".
 
Where is "over here"? Your profile doesn't list your location.

Spain and Germany. There are no such organizations I know of, at least not with the "impact", high profile and insistence like the ACLU or EFF.
 
Claus, silly. Never heard of Gitmo?

Hmm... to come to think of it ... :D

Oops. There have been Danish citizens unlawfully kept prisoners at Gitmo.

Spain and Germany. There are no such organizations I know of, at least not with the "impact", high profile and insistence like the ACLU or EFF.

We - as in the EU - have other bodies of (super)national control.
 
I just have a hard time envisioning a US court "forcing" someone who is not an American citizen to "appear".

Depends on how you're defining those words. As I said, "appear" doesn't necessarily mean physical presence. As for "forcing," well, generally speaking people use that word when someone is threatened with serious consequences. If a public school told its students: "Recite the Lord's Prayer or be expelled," most of us would say they're "forcing" the students to pray even though there actually is another alternative.

In the case of a civil lawsuit, the most a court can do is issue a default judgment. The plaintiff would then have to either find some U.S. assets against which to enforce it, or try to have the judgment "domesticated" in another country where he does have assets. That would be up to the foreign country's standards of whether the U.S. court properly had jurisdiction.

I don't want to get hung up on semantics, so I'll leave it to the readers to decide whether that constitutes "forcing" someone to "appear."

(By the way, it's not just those crazy Americans who do this. See, e.g. French Civil Code Article 14: "An alien, even not residing in France, may be summoned before the French courts for the fulfilment of obligations contracted by him in France toward a French person; he may be brought before the French courts for obligations contracted by him in a foreign country toward French persons.")
 
This was also reported on at The Inqueirer and they include quotes from the EFF lawyer:

"Uri Geller may not like it when people question his paranormal abilities. However, he is not allowed to stifle public criticism by misusing the law"

"If the publication of a video does not infringe his copyright, then he cannot block its use -- it's as simple as that"
 
Please do!


Sure!. I'll need some time though, because I have to transfer them from video tape to digital media, and have some other real life committments right now. Real life sucks eh?, ...... sometimes ;).

And don't hold your breath waiting, they may not be that exclusive after all.


[edited for spelling]
 
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Okie doke. Comparable to what, then? Actual impact? Political power? Media presence?

Well, browsing the internet quite a lot, I happen to come across stories regarding the ACLU or EFF standing up for citizens' rights frequently. I just can't remember anything like that regarding our fine Commissioners. The only guys frequently mentioned are local (state, country) data protection commissioners, not the EU guys.
 
Well, browsing the internet quite a lot, I happen to come across stories regarding the ACLU or EFF standing up for citizens' rights frequently. I just can't remember anything like that regarding our fine Commissioners. The only guys frequently mentioned are local (state, country) data protection commissioners, not the EU guys.

Well, the current commissioner did stand up for Denmark's right to publish the Mohammed Cartoons, and advocated a worldwide ban on the death penalty... ;)
 
Not "forced to appear", then.


Yes. Forced to appear. It is used as a legal term of art.





Just like in Denmark, you indicate an "unenforceable" law means something very much like "can be succesfully prosecuted and put into jail" under it.
 

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