[JoshTriplett]

> Specifically, I live in the UK and one of the complaints law enforcement has is that US companies can (and do) totally ignore valid court orders because they don't apply in the US (reddit being an arbitrary concrete example).

A US company (or individual) should absolutely ignore court orders from a non-US court; such courts have no jurisdiction. A "valid" court order necessarily must come from a court with jurisdiction.

Similarly, I'd expect a UK company to ignore US court orders.

(And in both cases, I'd ideally hope the court knows better than to take the case in the first place or to issue such an order.)

[ddebernardy]

Actually, the court would issue such an order _because_ it knows better: without it, you basically have little leverage when you try to enforce the same in the foreign country in a court that actually _has_ jurisdiction.

Here's an example where a French court issued a court order to a US firm:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LICRA_v._Yahoo!

[rmc]

> A US company (or individual) should absolutely ignore court orders from a non-US court; such courts have no jurisdiction. A "valid" court order necessarily must come from a court with jurisdiction.

Remember: US privacy protections (e.g. 4th Amendment) don't apply to non-US people outside the USA. Please fix US courts & law to actually give us protection.

[wodenokoto]

The thing is, companies like Google, Facebook and Apple are kinda companies of great britain or at least Ireland. They have bases in Ireland for tax purposes and to comply with certain data retention laws.

That aside, it is not really too much to ask that a company that does business in England abide by English law.

[TAForObvReasons]

> The thing is, companies like Google, Facebook and Apple are kinda companies of great britain or at least Ireland.

It's useful to read the terms of service:

All Google interactions are with the US entity: https://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/terms/ identify

    The Services are provided by Google Inc. (“Google”), located at 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States.

Facebook actually segregates US/Canada users from users of other countries: https://www.facebook.com/legal/terms

    If you are a resident of or have your principal place of business in the US or Canada, this Statement is an agreement between you and Facebook, Inc.  Otherwise, this Statement is an agreement between you and Facebook Ireland Limited.  References to “us,” “we,” and “our” mean either Facebook, Inc. or Facebook Ireland Limited, as appropriate.

[JoshTriplett]

I'd certainly agree that a company with a legal nexus in a given country must obey that country's laws (or leave).

But "does business in England" and "has a legal nexus in England" are two different things, depending on your definition of "does business". For instance, if I sell a service online, and someone from England buys it, that might count as "does business in England" but it doesn't make either me or the service subject to English law or jurisdiction.

[murjinsee]

Yeah, but at the same time... If they want to reap the tax benefits of basing themselves out of a country, I would argue that they should be subject to that country's rule.

Really, calling themselves an "Irish" company seems like tax evasion to me, if it's in name only, with none of the negative ramifications.

Edit: speaking with regard to Apple, though other companies are in the same boat.