The company Microsoft contains email servers in Ireland, which store user account information. United States law dictates that the US government can request any account information from its companies, regardless of location. European Union law, however, states that only a local (that is, Irish) judge can allow the release of such information, and Europe is outside of United States jurisdiction. Up until recently, this has not been a problem, but a case has arisen where a US judge has requested information stored in Irish servers. Microsoft is an American company, and so must abide by the order of the US court. However, the servers are within EU jurisdiction, and so must abide by EU law. In a previous, similar case, a French bank dealt with countries like Sudan in US dollars, breaching US sanction. In that case, however, the money did at some point go through US territory, justifying the prosecution. In this case, all the information is in Irish storage. Microsoft is still deciding whether to side with US or EU law in the matter.
The author of this article, Tim Worstall, seems to constantly flip back and forth between the two sides of the case. While this serves to reiterate the difficulty and sensitivity of the case, it also leaves the reader somewhat confused as to which side he talks about. Also, it ends up feeling very repetitive, which can lower the interest in his article. Despite this, Worstall does a good job of bringing the whole point of the article, which is the globalization of information and the challenges this brings about. His word usage is simple enough for the average reader, but also explains well the details of the case. It is a good article overall, getting the message through without losing the reader's interest.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2014/08/01/us-judge-insists-microsoft-break-eu-law-to-obey-us-law-over-email-in-ireland/
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