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Im not sure about the law in the USA, but in Germany I would beg to differ. Here, if you run a service, you do NOT have the right to arbitrarily reject users. T
by itry 14y ago
Im not sure about the law in the USA, but in Germany I would beg to differ. Here, if you run a service, you do NOT have the right to arbitrarily reject users. The bigger your userbase is, the less you have that right. So as long as the developer acts within the law, he could demand access to Facebook.
- downandout 14y agoUS courts have been very liberal in their interpretation of the CFAA. I strongly disagree with it, and I believe it is downright dangerous, but this is the current legal environment in the US. Perhaps he should move to Germany. Stuff like this probably wouldn't happen there either: http://news.yahoo.com/security-experts-blast-ipad-hackers-chilling-conviction-184053636.html http://news.yahoo.com/security-experts-blast-ipad-hackers-ch...
- philhippus 14y agoAh.The dots connect...this gives me a bit of insight into an earlier post on HN about facebook in Germany being forced to allow pseudonyms.
- hack_edu 14y agoIANAL, but in general a business in the US can deny service to anyone as long as they are not in violation of very specific civil rights protections.
- pbhjpbhj 14y agoCan you cite/link the law that specifies a foreign company has to provide a service to a German citizen on demand even if that persons fails to comply with the ToS?
- bjhoops1 14y agoAh, Germany... what a preeminently sensible country. :)
- mhurron 14y ago> in Germany ... if you run a service, you do NOT have the right to arbitrarily reject users [citation needed] No, seriously, I'm having a hard time believing this.
- lostlogin 14y agoNo dress codes at bars?
- BHSPitMonkey 14y agoA dress code isn't (at least by definition) arbitrarily, or arbitrarily applied.
- rickmb 14y agoWhat is so hard to believe about this? Capitalism is not a force of nature. Countries have an enormous amount of legislation in place to ensure companies can do business, and invest huge amounts of money in services supporting the private sector (infrastructure, education, etc). These companies wield a tremendous amount of social power, especially services like Facebook. There's nothing odd about holding these companies to certain standards and laws that ensure they can not negatively influence the civil society from which they profit so much. Being allowed to refuse service to the very people that enable your business to exist is a privilege, not a right, and it comes with restrictions. This is quite normal in most countries outside the US.
- Karunamon 14y ago>What is so hard to believe about this? That someone who owns a company does not have authority in who they will and will not do business with?
- danielweber 14y agoFacebook being a human right would be very interesting to read about. I wonder if one could appeal account terminations to ICANN.
- kybernetyk 14y ago> but in Germany I would beg to differ. Here, if you run a service, you do NOT have the right to arbitrarily reject users. Sure you have. It's called 'virtuelles Hausverbot' and heise.de makes heavy use of it for their forums. Most prominent case: Guenther Freiherr v. Gravenreuth was legally banned from heise.de forums with this instrument. Here's the german wikipedia article: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtuelles_Hausverbot http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtuelles_Hausverbot
- itry 14y agoHave you read the article you link to? It explicitely says that you can NOT arbitrarily reject users. ("ein Hausverbot nicht willkürlich ausgeübt werden dürfe") The bans by Heise where not arbitrarily.
- kybernetyk 14y agoSo isn't this ban by facebook. The guy is acting against their TOS he has accepted.