"In a nutshell, it will strangle the Internet with a suffocating blanket of overlapping jurisdictional claims, expose every Web page publisher to liabilities for libel, defamation and other speech offenses from virtually any country, (and) effectively strip Internet service providers of . . .
"In a nutshell, it will strangle the Internet with a suffocating blanket of overlapping jurisdictional claims, expose every Web page publisher to liabilities for libel, defamation and other speech offenses from virtually any country, (and) effectively strip Internet service providers of protections from litigation over the content they carry," Jamie Love, director of Ralph Nader's Consumer Project on Technology (CPT), wrote in a report after the meeting.

There's also speculation that the treaty could endanger other Web transactions that are legal in some countries but not in others, such as Internet gambling. For example, if a site in the United Kingdom, where gambling is legal, took a bet from a U.S. citizen, could the site be shut down for violating U.S. laws?

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