4 ms·

I understand that German courts claim to have jurisdiction, and have some kind of specious explanation for why that is. But why does the project have to enterta

by CamTin 8y ago

I understand that German courts claim to have jurisdiction, and have some kind of specious explanation for why that is. But why does the project have to entertain the fact that they do? What can a German court do to them? Put another way, if I start sending you "decrees" written in crayon from "The Royal High Court of CamTin," there's no harm in ignoring them. It certainly seems overkill to hire highly-paid experts to represent you in front of my imaginary court. Why does it make sense here? Can the German judges issue rulings to e.g. arrest Gutenberg officers if they ever find themselves in the EU? That's the only thing I can think of that might compel them to even take it as seriously as they have. Alternatively, they may just be good guys who are willing to fight this to establish some kind of legal precedent that will help others in the future. Perhaps it's a little bit of both. As a non-lawyer, I'm not sure which is the case.

detaro 8y ago
They explain why they decided to follow the order on their info page too, no need to speculate.
- CamTin 8y ago
  I guess you're referring to this: "The view of PGLAF is that it is up to the rights owner in Germany to identify people there who are infringing on its copyrights, and pursue remediation there. It is not up to PGLAF to police or defend the rights of entities in different countries. Because PGLAF operates as a legitimate non-profit organization, however, it is appropriate to act as the German Court ordered - pending appeal - even though it disagrees with the order." This explains that they decided to comply because they are operating a "legitimate non-profit organization," which isn't a satisfying reason. Legitimate non-profits outside of Germany, with no business in Germany, which are 100% based in the US, and have received no orders from American courts should be happy to ignore foreign courts. Again, I'm not a lawyer, but even paying someone to translate a German court order, let alone paying German lawyers to represent you, would seem like a very generous thing to do in the face of "orders" from a court that can't punish you for noncompliance. If I received a German court order, I would throw it away as an obvious mistake, since there's no reason on Earth why I should need to read it. In any case, the specific question I was curious about is not addressed in the page. If nobody else knows, then speculation probably isn't needed, but it's fun!

by CamTin 8y ago

detaro 8y ago

They explain why they decided to follow the order on their info page too, no need to speculate.

CamTin 8y ago
I guess you're referring to this: "The view of PGLAF is that it is up to the rights owner in Germany to identify people there who are infringing on its copyrights, and pursue remediation there. It is not up to PGLAF to police or defend the rights of entities in different countries. Because PGLAF operates as a legitimate non-profit organization, however, it is appropriate to act as the German Court ordered - pending appeal - even though it disagrees with the order." This explains that they decided to comply because they are operating a "legitimate non-profit organization," which isn't a satisfying reason. Legitimate non-profits outside of Germany, with no business in Germany, which are 100% based in the US, and have received no orders from American courts should be happy to ignore foreign courts. Again, I'm not a lawyer, but even paying someone to translate a German court order, let alone paying German lawyers to represent you, would seem like a very generous thing to do in the face of "orders" from a court that can't punish you for noncompliance. If I received a German court order, I would throw it away as an obvious mistake, since there's no reason on Earth why I should need to read it. In any case, the specific question I was curious about is not addressed in the page. If nobody else knows, then speculation probably isn't needed, but it's fun!