6 ms·
I was sued in Germany by Axel Springer due to an ad blocker I wrote. The lower court of Hamburg ruled against me. They openly admitted they did not know what th
by seviu 5y ago
I was sued in Germany by Axel Springer due to an ad blocker I wrote. The lower court of Hamburg ruled against me. They openly admitted they did not know what they were doing because the case was too technical for them. They were just happy to please the big corporation.
Hamburg is a favourite for such cases because they just have no clue about technology. They are just old fashioned.
As a small indie developer, I could not afford to keep on fighting. I gave up. I was a psychological wreck. And since it is not binding, big entities can afford to sue you non-stop.
Hamburg was the second time I was in a court. I got sued by the same big corporation. I won the first one.
Despite not being binding Sony will use this as a precedent and they will start going against the bigger DNS players, till all of them have to comply with their demands.
- ChuckNorris89 5y ago>They were just happy to please the big corporation In Germany?! Never! /s This reminds me how the gyms in Germany were told by the government they were not allowed to collect membership fees during the lockdown but the big chains did it anyway on the basis of "what are you gonna do about it?". So if you wanted gyms to comply, each customer had to take their gym to court on an individual basis but most never bothered. It's crazy, from a foreigner's perspective, with how much shenanigans big business in Germany can get away with legally, considering how strict and bureaucratic Germany is. And don't get me started on customer service.
- TeeMassive 5y agoThus the saying: "More laws, less justice"
- z3ncyberpunk 5y agoget your bank to charge back the card for fraudulent charges to your account
- n_ary 5y agoNope, most banks(specially online-only) will decline your charge back citing some super complex directive that is totally unrelated & you can't appeal. Charge backs will work for no name small merchants mostly.
- ezoe 5y agoThat's really strange logic. It's the government which block the people to use the gym service, not the gym. The damage was caused by the government and if somebody to compensate the damage, it should be the government.
- kuschku 5y agoThe gyms got paid compensation by the government.
- IndignantNerd 5y agoAre you a German resident or otherwise subject to their jurisdiction? What would happen if you just ignored the lawsuit, and/or ignored the final judgment?
- pas 5y agoseems to be a German company: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11584052 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11584052 Eventually they'll sue you for damages, the court will rule that you have to stop what you are doing (as they already did so, and violating a court order seems like a surefire way to escalate the situation), plus the monetary compensation for the damages. And at that point it's just easy-peasy call the collections agency, and they'll just make your life more and more miserable by taking your stuff/car/home/etc. (Similarly if "you are" a company.)
- zaarn 5y agoAs a company, they can only take what belongs to the company. Even if you're selfemployed they should only be able (IIRC, IANAL) to take things that are 100% part of the business.
- 88840-8855 5y agoWhy did you put your name under that ad blocker? I remember "the good old web" (tm) where people did stuff anonymosly. In this way people can stay safe and continue publishing stuff.
- stavros 5y agoThe moral solution is to fix justice, the pragmatic solution is to not use your real name. In that light, I also have to ask, why did you use your real name?
- 88840-8855 5y agoI forgot that HN is a place for pure ideology. Honestly, if the world was run by such people, we would be still in discussions and evaluations. Sometimes you just have to accept facts and move on.
- czottmann 5y agoIn Germany, if you run a website of any kind, it has to include an imprint, which is required to list a legal entity which usually is a person. See https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impressumspflicht#Telemediengesetz https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impressumspflicht#Telemedienge... Source: I'm a German, I publish websites.
- 88840-8855 5y agoThen run a .com address and you do not need an Impressum. Problem solved. LOL. Source: I am also a German, I publish .com websites.
- merb 5y agonope. it's not solved. If anybody knows who you are, if you still live in germany, you will be fined. the law has nothing to do with an ending of the dns or some stupid shit. it only applies to juridical persons in germany.
- z3ncyberpunk 5y ago"Ignorance is no excuse"
- hawski 5y agoWhich first or second world country doesn't abide by big corporations? Is there a useful ranking that would measure it? I'm really curious.
- pas 5y agoOr third or any-th world country. Big corps are big business, big money, big power. Germany is 6th on this list, Norway is 1st. Japan is 15th [0] and Hong Kong is 16th [1] the US is not in the top 20. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Justice_Project#WJP_Rule_of_Law_Index https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Justice_Project#WJP_Rule... [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRn4xzaugbk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRn4xzaugbk [1] nor for long :(
- bwoodcock 5y agoThis is why we picked Switzerland as our domicile. https://www.reuters.com/article/swisscom-court-idUSFWN20M0KT https://www.reuters.com/article/swisscom-court-idUSFWN20M0KT The problem is that we're the only ones with standing to challenge the Hamburg injunction, so if we don't, they can use it against anyone in the EU.
- sva_ 5y agoSwitzerland is a third world country. This classification is outdated.
- bwoodcock 5y agoThe problem is that this precedent applies not just to DNS operators, but to literally _any_ unrelated bystander. Sony make very clear in their complaint that Quad9 has no relationship with any party to the alleged infringement. That's why their so excited about this, it's a step further than they've ever taken before.
- akoster 5y agoThis reminds me of hearing about a surge of tech patent cases being litigated in the Eastern District of Texas, though according to this paper, there were perhaps reasons other than selecting a jurisdiction based on purported lack of the locals’ familiarity with technology: https://scholar.smu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1146&context=scitech https://scholar.smu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1146&con...
- fsflover 5y ago> As a small indie developer, I could not afford to keep on fighting. I gave up. You probably could ask EFF for help in this case.