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.
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.
Comment by zombiepiratefrspace at 24/07/2014 at 10:26 UTC
2 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Uhm what? You are aware that reddit has ads, right? Under the law of several (all?) European countries, that makes reddit a commercial internet presence. They do make money with the content that others post. I'm no lawyer and thus unclear about your GM example, but for the xkcd issue, things are very clear. Reddit is making money while protecting users that act slanderous with respect to the xkcd brand, while at the same time forcing the holder of that brand to move off his brand name with the content of his brand. This is a clear violation of trademark law by a commercial entity.
I mean it's not like these things are new. You are aware, that people have been suing to get control of domain names for years?
Also, if you had read my post, you'd see that, yes, by German law, reddit *is* subject to German law, because it is doing business here(you know, making available a website with ads targeted at a German audience). There is *a* *lot* of precedent for that.
Also, "Störerhaftung", which is completely appliccable here, means that Reddit becomes liable for the actual holocaust denial committed by its users if it chose to ignore the courts.
This is how the internet works and has done for years. Being an American company might buy you some time, but it can't protect you from the laws of countries that you do business in.