3 ms·
Techdirt's First Amendment Fight for Its Life
- angryasian 10y agoI really hope this gets more attention. Techdirt has been a pretty good publication and this lawsuit is absolutely ridiculous.
- ccvannorman 10y agoThe issue is in the same category as patent trolls. Basically, our society has ended up in a place that you can sue anyone you want out of business as long as your lawyer team is bigger and better than theirs, despite how ridiculous or wrong your claims are. I think the solution hinges on very large punitive damages for offending parties who sue for no reason and lose, e.g. in this case suing a magazine over "I invented email and you can't say that I didn't, give me $15M" should result in the accuser having to pay $15M himself because the claim is obviously a lie, and the intent of the lawsuit is not to be proven right but to harm the defendant.
- RickS 10y agoDoes cost matter? Tentatively, there may be a compelling case for jail time for something like this. "Intent to cause harm" isn't necessarily physical harm. The concept of legal assault is one that could be useful. Though it opens up a very slippery slope, and I would hope it would have damn high standards for proving malicious intent.
- CurtMonash 10y agoI don't think that idea holds up to scrutiny, because: -- As you point out, resorting to the legal system should at most be criminalized only in the most extreme instances of abuse. -- Those extreme instances aren't the hardest problem to solve, because the legal system already knows how to dispose of OBVIOUS nonsense. -- Any apparent counterexample to my assertions would probably already be covered by other criminal statutes, such as those pertaining to perjury.
- Gelob 10y agoNewegg's lawyer should help them