Last month, we noted that the wife of a jailed Chinese dissident had come to the US
to sue Yahoo for handing over info that allowed her husband to be arrested. At the time, we were confused over what law she could sue under. Yahoo had performed the actions in China (where it was obviously legal) rather than the US. However,
now the lawsuit has been filed, with the support of various human rights groups. They're claiming that Yahoo has violated international law concerning torture -- but, again, that seems like a stretch. Even the groups filing the lawsuit admit that they're fishing a bit, hoping to use the lawsuits to find out how involved Yahoo really was in having various dissidents arrested. While it's unclear if this lawsuit will get very far on a legal basis, it could be much more effective just in shaming Yahoo into adjusting its practices in giving up the private info of Chinese users.