Shuttered Antiabortion Site Surfaces on Dutch Server
The antiabortion Web site that was shut down this month after a jury ordered its creators to pay $107.9 million in damages has reappeared on a computer server in the Netherlands.
The site, known as “The Nuremberg Files,” features gruesome pictures of bloody fetuses and lists the names of “alleged abortionists and their accomplices.” The names of those who have been killed are crossed out, and those who have been injured are listed in gray instead of in black.
A federal jury in Portland, Ore., decided the site encouraged violence against abortion providers and was therefore not protected by the 1st Amendment’s freedom of speech guarantees. Soon after, MindSpring, an Atlanta-based Internet service provider, shut down the site for violating its “appropriate use” policies.
On Monday, an Amsterdam woman, Karin Spaink, set up a so-called mirror of the Nuremberg Files site. The purpose is not to promote the site’s politics, she said, but to protect the notion of free speech on the Internet and to show “that attempts to restrict that freedom are futile when applied to a global network.”
Whether that proves true depends on how U.S. authorities respond. Although the site resides on Dutch computers, U.S. authorities could claim jurisdiction if they determine the site targets Americans and causes them harm, said David Johnson, co-director of the Cyberspace Law Institute in Washington. The clinic workers who sued in Portland could also file suit in the Netherlands, he said.
