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Internet 2.0: Jurisdictional Risks in Today's Cyber World

By Erin Hennessy and and Tasha Snipes

With the explosion of the Internet in the last several decades, courts have struggled with whether tortious conduct on a website is expressly aimed at any, or all, of the forums in which the website can be viewed. Two recent Ninth Circuit cases expanded the reach of Internet jurisdiction and may carry significant implications: Mavrix Photo, Inc. v. Brand Technologies, Inc., 647 F.3d 1218 (9th Cir. 2001) and CollegeSource, Inc. v. Academy One, Inc., 653 F.3d 1066 (9th Cir. 2011), cert. denied, __ S.Ct. __ (2012).

In prior cases analyzing personal jurisdiction based on Internet contacts, courts have focused on the level of interactivity of the website. Zippo Manufacturing Co. v. Zippo Dot Com, Inc., 952 F. Supp. 1119 (W.D. Penn. 1997). The more interactive a defendant's website, the more likely the defendant is subject to personal jurisdiction in a foreign jurisdiction. In Mavrix, however, the court stated that many of the interactive features of the defendant's website such as commenting, voting in polls, receiving e-mail newsletters, and uploading user-generated content were “standard attributes of many websites.” Instead of focusing on these features, the court in Mavrix focused on commercial gain from forum residents.

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