4 ms·
The meat of the article comes from the fact that certain facebook pages were sent some form of 'cease and desist request' by officials of the Sarajevo city coun
by rocqua 9y ago
The meat of the article comes from the fact that certain facebook pages were sent some form of 'cease and desist request' by officials of the Sarajevo city council.
Later, we learn that things got resolved for these facebook pages.
What if these requests were just a clever scammer, trying to get some money?
That seems to make more sense to me than a city council being so obtuse as to request payment for use of its name.
- johannes1234321 9y agoOver here in Germany some city administrations won't do such things for money, but to make sure that this is not seen as an official page where false information is spread. Finding the right balance can be hard. I would assume it's the same over there, rather than actually trying to get money.
- SOLAR_FIELDS 9y agoWouldn’t it be simpler to ask the pages to politely put in a disclaimer saying they are not affiliated with the government rather than threatening damages or shutdown?
- matt4077 9y agoA cease & desist is a lawyer's way of "asking politely", the alternative being a lawsuit.
- user5994461 9y agoAgreed. Or by the same metrics I could make a fake website for my bank and put a one line disclaimer in the about page. That wouldn't be right.
- icebraining 9y agoAnd yet your bank doesn't need a special law regulating the use of its name. We already have laws against fraud, which cover such misleading cases. This is much more broad.
- user5994461 9y agoThe city of the story doesn't need a special law either.
- icebraining 9y agoYet, apparently, it has one.
- jiggunjer 9y agoWhen people look to Facebook as the official channel for anything, there's already a problem.
- TeMPOraL 9y agoPeople look to Facebook as the effective channel for anything. Unofficial fanpages of stuff are usually significantly more informative and up-to-date than official ones. Example from my city - the best way to find about problems with public transport (e.g. a tram had an accident and blocked off an entire route in both directions) is through an unofficial Facebook fanpage.
- r3bl 9y ago> What if these requests were just a clever scammer, trying to get some money? Yeah, I thought the same at first. However, in that same Facebook status I've quoted, the author claims that he actually went to the city government before the issue got resolved, so I took that as a verification that "Jon Doe" is actually from the city's government. In addition to that, you can see that the Mayor's office is located at that exact address mentioned in the Facebook message to the owner of the Facebook page: http://sarajevo.ba/gradska-administracija/gradska-uprava/ http://sarajevo.ba/gradska-administracija/gradska-uprava/
- rocqua 9y agoWouldn't going to the city government resolve the issue by clearing up the original request was fraudulent? That's part of why I figured it might've been a scam. To speculate even more, the 'I can't say much more' from the FB page owner might be due to a criminal investigation.
- netsharc 9y agoBut there's actual law for the cease and desist, and the meat is that he's saying that law is ridiculous...