7 ms·

> Regardless of whether you are legally right, a larger company could sue you for the sake of suing, and make your life very miserable A company with resources

> Regardless of whether you are legally right, a larger company could sue you for the sake of suing, and make your life very miserable A company with resources could sue you for a number of bogus reasons if they wanted to be dicks.

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
dimino 10y ago
Yeah but law isn't magic, you can take away their options by planning ahead.
- pmiller2 10y ago
  You may be technically correct (the best kind of correct, of course), but companies do love their options. And for you to be able to take them away, you need to have some kind of negotiation leverage. If you're Geoffrey Hinton, you've got what you need; if you're Joe Schmoe, chances are you don't.
- djsumdog 10y ago
  I really disagree with this. The law is a type of magic.It's socially constructed. The idea of blind justice is sort of a fairytale. Reality shows us that some of the most powerful get away with murder while the people least able to defend themselves take plea deals rather than fight charges. At the very least, the law is subjective: http://khanism.org/security/legality/ http://khanism.org/security/legality/
- marssaxman 10y ago
  No you can't. Anyone can sue you any time for any reason, and then it's just a matter of how badly you are going to lose: because even "winning" means you wasted tens of thousands of dollars, at minimum, paying lawyers to defend you. Your only defense, as a small player, is not to be noticed.
chrshawkes 10y ago
Let's make sure we unite to make these companies known yah?
- jdavis703 10y ago
  Sadly legal settlements prevent talking about such things usually.
  - spangry 10y ago
    There's a time-tested solution to this: one of the functions of these sorts of organisation could be to provide legal representation for their members. Unions, for instance, will often supply professional advocates (i.e. lawyers, negotiators etc.) to members in employee-employer or even professional-industry legal disputes. It's often said on HN that skilled software developers are more akin to 'craftsmen' than they are to 'employees'. There's a number of good reasons why craftsmen have, almost invariably throughout history, formed guilds, unions or 'professional associations'... You either organise or you accept being exploited.

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

dimino 10y ago

Yeah but law isn't magic, you can take away their options by planning ahead.

pmiller2 10y ago
You may be technically correct (the best kind of correct, of course), but companies do love their options. And for you to be able to take them away, you need to have some kind of negotiation leverage. If you're Geoffrey Hinton, you've got what you need; if you're Joe Schmoe, chances are you don't.
djsumdog 10y ago
I really disagree with this. The law is a type of magic.It's socially constructed. The idea of blind justice is sort of a fairytale. Reality shows us that some of the most powerful get away with murder while the people least able to defend themselves take plea deals rather than fight charges. At the very least, the law is subjective: http://khanism.org/security/legality/ http://khanism.org/security/legality/
marssaxman 10y ago
No you can't. Anyone can sue you any time for any reason, and then it's just a matter of how badly you are going to lose: because even "winning" means you wasted tens of thousands of dollars, at minimum, paying lawyers to defend you. Your only defense, as a small player, is not to be noticed.

chrshawkes 10y ago

Let's make sure we unite to make these companies known yah?

jdavis703 10y ago
Sadly legal settlements prevent talking about such things usually.
- spangry 10y ago
  There's a time-tested solution to this: one of the functions of these sorts of organisation could be to provide legal representation for their members. Unions, for instance, will often supply professional advocates (i.e. lawyers, negotiators etc.) to members in employee-employer or even professional-industry legal disputes. It's often said on HN that skilled software developers are more akin to 'craftsmen' than they are to 'employees'. There's a number of good reasons why craftsmen have, almost invariably throughout history, formed guilds, unions or 'professional associations'... You either organise or you accept being exploited.