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You can't sue someone for violating ToS... right? At worst, you can refuse to do business with them and revoke any current contracts. You'd have to sue under
by ethbro 6y ago
You can't sue someone for violating ToS... right?
At worst, you can refuse to do business with them and revoke any current contracts.
You'd have to sue under actual law, which would presumably be libel, which is (in)famously hard to prove in the US [1]. If he had a good faith belief that what he reported was true, that case goes nowhere. Indeed, in lieu of a signed and dated note declaring his knowledge that his benchmarks are (a) false and (b) shared in an attempt to harm Oracle, that case goes nowhere.
[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_defamation_law https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_defamation_law
- jojobas 6y agoYou could sue for damages arising from breach of contract I guess. And in the US you don't always have to substantiate your damages.
- Reelin 6y agoAs far as I understand it you are correct about ToS not generally having much in the way of teeth in the US. But once you download a piece of software you're no longer dealing with the ToS but rather a license granted to you under copyright law. Those do have (arguably too many) teeth in the US.
- dwheeler 6y agoA company absolutely can sue someone for violating the terms of service. For huge amounts of money, too, and it might be both you and your organization who have to pay. In the US it would probably be at least considered a contract violation & a copyright violation, not just libel. Contract law has a lot of teeth, and copyright violations have massive statutory damages. Oracle has a massive legal department; they can probably find a thousand other laws it potentially violates without blinking an eye. I really don't like DeWitt clauses, I think they're horrific. But there's a reason people generally avoid fighting them in court - it's very expensive with an uncertain outcome. Disclaimer: I'm not a lawyer.