1 upvotes, 1 direct replies (showing 1)
View submission: [Updated] Who runs /r/Holocaust? Each line represents a moderator overlap. [OC]
WIPO disagrees. If trademarks are involved, they are subject to liability.
As for the Germany issue, if they specifically target a German audience (which they do in their current expansion effort), German courts will accept it as falling within their jurisdiction. Of course, being a US company, they could just ignore it. As long as they don't have any subsidiary in Germany.
It becomes more problematic for their *users*. Because the users of the German speaking part of reddit are most likely within Germany, they are very much subject to the Holocaustleugnungs-law. In that scenario, reddit might become a "Störer" as defined in German law, if they don't identify the user after a court order, thus making reddit also liable for the Holocaust denial charge (that's "Störerhaftung" and it causes so many problems).
Make no mistake, actual lawyers and courts are needed to check if what I said is true, but these issues most definitely cannot be dismissed as irrelevant or harmless to reddit. Sooner or later, there will be lawsuits.
Comment by BPS-13 at 24/07/2014 at 01:31 UTC
1 upvotes, 1 direct replies
WIPO disagrees. If trademarks are involved, they are subject to liability.
Got a citation for where WIPO says that GM has the right to demand editorial control of a discussion forum where a bunch of guys talk about their Chevy trucks simply because the discussion forum is called /r/ChevyTrucks?
Of course, being a US company, they could just ignore it. As long as they don't have any subsidiary in Germany. It becomes more problematic for their users.
How does a problem for users of an anonymous forum translate to legal problems for reddit?
Yes, I get that one can sue anyone for anything, but at the end of the day, the fact that reddit (1) is not engaged in trade under anyone else's trademark, and (2) is not in any way subject to German law pretty much throws the "look out, reddit! Lawsuits!" notion into the realm of non-issues.