4 ms·
I agree with you. Following every law is neither practical and in the case of censorship even counterproductive. I just wanted to point out that the reaction o
by Findus23 9y ago
I agree with you. Following every law is neither practical and in the case of censorship even counterproductive.
I just wanted to point out that the reaction of the court isn’t as entirely pointless as it may seem on first thought.
- robjwells 9y ago> I just wanted to point out that the reaction of the court isn’t as entirely pointless as it may seem on first thought. And I think you’re right to do so! Honestly, regarding the whole case, I think the court has erred in accepting the publisher’s argument that Project Gutenberg is a valid target for a lawsuit in Germany. If the publisher wants the books removed it should sue in the US, if it wants to prevent access from Germany it should seek another local remedy.
- madhadron 9y agoThey have no legal basis for the books being removed in the US, since they are in the public domain there. If they can't make German law stick, they have no recourse.
- tonyztan 9y agoThey can go for the ISPs, or push for some German law to restrict local access. Doesn't mean they should, though.
- thomastjeffery 9y agoAgain, said ISPs are US-based, and the only precedent for blocking in the US is DMCA, which considers these works public domain.
- tonyztan 9y agoI'm referring to local ISPs that German users use to access the Internet. Presumably the court can order them to block access to resources.
- cloakandswagger 9y agoPGLAF is incorporated in the US, their site is hosted in the US and their employees live in the US. Tell me again why they need to worry about the law of any country but the US? It's up to the German courts/government to deny access to sites that break their laws, not try to impose their law on people outside their jurisdiction.
- Tomte 9y agoYou don‘t want to tell me that a US court would show any restraint if a non-US based person violated American copyright?
- mcguire 9y agoFor many years, China felt no urge to follow international copyright agreements. It was popular in certain circles to buy pirated Chinese editions (in English) of textbooks because they were very cheap. Likewise, Microsoft has long had problems with pirated versions of Windows. Further, DVDs and CDs.... The general response from US courts was, "eh, what can we do?"
- thomastjeffery 9y agoUS rightsholders have been seriously abusing copyright outside of US borders. I personally am not okay with it. If Germany's laws must be applied to a US business, then the US is prima facie not sovereign.
- Mindwipe 9y agoI think you have a big shock coming about how international law works and applies to websites outside of their country.