Comment on Haier hits Home Assistant plugin dev with takedown notice

• NeoNachtwaechter@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  But the defendant still has to put the funds up in the first place? It’s a huge gamble

  Good point. Actually it isn’t a huge gamble in Germany, other than in Usa (which is again the extremely worst example).

  Costs of legal defense are moderate. There is a public tariff for lawyer costs and for court fees. So the only areas where you even have a chance to spend huge amounts are finding or creating evidence (private investigators etc), or hiring too many lawyers.

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  • tryptaminev@feddit.de ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    The problem is that it can still work in Germany to just pile the defendant under too many files to process with his ressources. This is not the case in stuff that courts understand, like say a traffic accident. But for anything technical/IT/IP related German courts are terribly incompetent and unable to create a fair case.

    Especially regarding IP related things like streaming or torrenting movies, there is a myriad of ridiculous court decisions. The default unfortunately seems to be to just assume the corporation to be in the right, because it is a corporation and surely they must own the IP and lose a lot of money from the evil hackers.

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    • NeoNachtwaechter@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      It is not “the” problem.

      It is thinkable in theory, but it is not a normal thing to happen. "Also, you would not just “drown” the defendant, but the court as well, and then they may smell the misuse.

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      • tryptaminev@feddit.de ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        There is criminal, not civil courts, that were sucessfully drowned in the cum-ex robberies. They gave up on prosecuting people who stole billions from the federal budget, because they were unable to process the amount of files brought by the defense, before the statue of limitations expires.

        So if even prosecuting theft of billions of Euros is subject to this tactic smaller civil cases can be too. And the court, because of their lack of technical understanding struggle to assess which files are relevant and which aren’t.

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  • density@kbin.social ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    It seems that hourly rates of german lawyers are €100 to €500 which is about what I would expect. Even a few hours of time is a lot. To explain the case, have the lawyer or their designate review it, prepare for a case and show up to court is many hours at a minimum. Even if it is a simple matter.

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    • NeoNachtwaechter@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      That linked text is very, very wrong.

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• TWeaK@lemm.ee ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  Yes they do have to fund their defense to begin with, however there has to be some balance struck. Until the court proceedings are concluded it isn’t known which side is in the right.

  I think most countries’ public funding for legal representation is limited to criminal matters, and even then you have to qualify (eg have a very low income or be unemployed). With civil matters, it’s up to you to find a lawyer you can afford, or one who will take it on pro bono.

  If the defendent is obviously in the right, then it should be more likely that they can find a lawyer who will work pro bono.

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  • density@kbin.social ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    it isn’t known which side is in the right

    vs

    If the defendent is obviously in the right

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    • TWeaK@lemm.ee ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      One is before the trial happens, one is after the trial happens.

      Before the trial happens, it could really go either way, even if the defendant is obviously in the right - there could be some procedural slip up that causes them to lose anyway.

      After the trial is completed, if it was obviously in the defendant’s favour, then it will be more likely that the judge will award costs such that the plaintiff pays the defendant’s.

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      • AeonFelis@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        I wish Lemmy showed you more of the context than just the last reply.

        You can keep pressing on “Show context” to load more replies, up until the top level one.

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