Hi, I'm brand new to the forum and a relatively new (and very happy!) Linode customer.

I have a couple of questions about jurisdiction:

1. I believe when I purchased the service from Linode, I agreed to the relationship being bound by the laws of a certain nation / state, but I can't remember which. Can anyone help me find out?

2. On my linode I've set up a not-for-profit Internet forum / message board. It's been a big success so far, and things are going well. However, I'm sure I will sooner or later be in a situation where someone posts a picture of the Prophet Muhammed, posts a list of names and addresses of vivisectionists / animal experimenters, makes threats against someone, threatens me with legal action and so on and so forth. Can someone explain to me which country's or countries' jurisdiction(s) are relevant in this case? I'm sure it's not straightforward.

Are you in the EU?

Yes, I live in the UK, and the linode is located in London if I remember correctly.

Both the UK (since the server is there), and the US (because Linode is there). Specifically New Jersey.

The terms of service is probably the document you're looking for, and it mostly applies to your relationship with Linode. However, as far as criminal stuff goes, you're probably liable under the laws of where you are, where your server is, where Linode is, where the poster of the dubious content is, where the viewer of the dubious content is, and anywhere in between. Basically, wherever someone with enough authority has reason to think you've committed a crime within their jurisdiction. This guy could probably write a book about it.

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Thanks everyone!

I'm not excited by the thought that I have to abide by the laws of potentially every Internet-enabled country in the world though

From a philosophical standpoint, you don't have to abide by any laws. If you have to choose a set of laws to follow, I'd pick the ones that apply most directly to you and ignore most of the rest. (But rest assured that I'm a philosopher, not a lawyer or a diplomat.)

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You don't. Just the laws of your country, any countries you ever visit or want to visit, any countries you do or want to do business with, any countries any businesses you do or want to do business with do or want to do business with, any countries with extradition treaties with any of the above countries, any countries the intelligence agencies of any of the above countries operate in and any countries where the above conditions apply to your relatives.

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Matt Nordhoff (aka Peng on IRC)