See http://www.slyck.com/news.php?story=902

For example in one country it might be mandatory to only show pictures of women wearing headscarves (don’t actually know how to spell the proper name sorry), whereas other countries might make it illegal to show women wearing them.

Sure the company could have different websites for each country, but what happens if a citizen of the first country sees the second country’s website (by accident or design) and complains to their local authorities? Then by unhappy coincidence (or deliberate malice) someone in the second country sees the website for the first country and also complains to their local authorities.

Suddenly both branch offices have govts screaming at them for violating their laws and insisting they change all their websites to conform to only their country’s laws in case more of their citizens stumble into the wrong country’s site.

The old saying “Damned if they do and Damned if they don’t” springs to mind. If something isn’t done, companies will simply be unable to operate in more than one country simultaneously.

If i was a conspiracy theorist, i’d suggest that this is being done deliberately so that big biz can demand “certainty of legislation” to force all countries to alter their laws. Which would just happen to involve “altering” any laws that big biz deems “may negatively impact our earnings potential”.

Of course that would be just silly. Big biz is our friend. Just ask them, they’ll tell you. Right before they sue you for daring to even consider thinking about the possibility that they might not be.