Yahoo sued again by Chinese dissidents
Yahoo and at least one subsidiary
face their second major lawsuit by Chinese dissidents claiming the company aided
Chinese authorities by handing over e-mails and other electronic communications
that ended up landing one plaintiff in jail.
The first lawsuit ended in November after Yahoo settled with the plaintiffs
out of court. The company may come to regret settling the case if more such
lawsuits follow.
The current lawsuit, filed by plaintiffs Li Zhi, Zheng Cunzhu, and Guo Quan
in the U.S. District Court of Northern California, seeks damages for their suffering
at the hands of Chinese officials after Yahoo and Yahoo Hong Kong allegedly
provided access to e-mails, e-mail records and user identification information
and other data to authorities in China.
The lawsuit said the three plaintiffs have also identified at least 60 more
individuals "arbitrarily imprisoned" in China for work on free elections,
democracy and human rights, possibly due to their Internet identification being
handed over by Yahoo, the group said. The plaintiffs plan to make the additional
cases known during the trial's discovery phase.
Yahoo did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Specifically, Li is suing over his torture and imprisonment by Chinese officials
after his work for the China Democracy Party -- a banned political group --
was revealed by Yahoo due to his Internet activity, the lawsuit alleges. Li,
whose case has also been
championed by the journalist group Reporters Without Borders, has served
over four years of his eight-year prison sentence so far.
Reporters Without Borders said his jail term started in December, 2003.
Zheng is a Chinese citizen currently living in California. His ties to Li were
established during Li's court case, and Zheng is now allegedly unable to return
to China due to fear of prosecution, according to the lawsuit. He has lost investments
and personal property in China due to his inability to return home, the lawsuit
said.
Guo lost his job as an associate professor at Nanjing
Normal University after his Internet identity was revealed to Chinese authorities
by Yahoo, the lawsuit alleged.
"By providing Internet user identification information to the People's
Republic of China, [the] Defendants knowingly and willfully aided and abetted
in the commission of torture and other major abuses violating international
law that caused Plaintiffs' severe physical and mental pain and suffering,"
the lawsuit alleged.
The group has filed suit in the U.S. under the Alien Tort Claims Act of 1789,
as well as unspecified additional U.S. and international laws. The use of this
act for purposes of democracy and human rights is relatively new in U.S. courts,
said one lawyer in Hong Kong, and a decision could go either way.
The first case against Yahoo, filed by plaintiffs on behalf of journalists
Wang Xiaoning and Shi Tao, also cited the Alien Tort Claims Act. Yahoo settled
out of court for an undisclosed amount.
Yahoo operated its China subsidiary until it became part of Alibaba.com
in return for a 40 percent stake in the Chinese e-commerce company in late 2005.
Alibaba now runs Yahoo's China operations.
IDG News Service
Symantec Backup Exec 12 and Backup Exec System Recovery 8 deliver industry leading Windows data protection and system recovery. Download this whitepaper to find out the top reasons to upgrade and how to get continuous data protection and complete system recovery.
Data and system loss — from a hard drive failure, malicious attack, natural disaster, or simple human error — can happen anytime. Don’t leave your business vulnerable. Make sure you have a secure recovery strategy in place. Symantec's latest backup and system recovery technology can efficiently restore critical applications, individual emails and documents and even restore your entire system in minutes in the event of a loss.
Businesses face a growing challenge to ensure that the IT environment is properly protected. Backup Exec 12 integrates with other applications in the Symantec family of products, to complement your current data protection strategy, keep your data securely backed up and make it recoverable when you need it most.
