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Now, don't anybody dare to mod this as offtopic!

I just read some "sad" news on the Internet - The infamous lawyer Günter Freiherr von Gravenreuth was found dead in his Munich student club this morning. He gave himself the deadly shot just as police special units looking for him were busting down the doors. I'm sure nobody in the Slashdot community will miss him - even if you didn't receive any of his "Abmahnungen", there's no denying his contributions to popular culture. Truly a German icon. He will not be missed.

This is off topic, but I'm wondering if there are legal issues when it comes to copying the content of web-pages. Recently a judge ruled that Google could not be held guilty for "direct infringement" of copyright, because such infringement requires "a volitional act by the defendant". While this might not be the case when Google caches web-pages, it is definitely volitional when a Slashdot user copy&pastes the content of a web-page. I guess there's no problem as long as nobody sues Slashdot, but, it is probably just a matter of time until either an American or German lawer decides to do so...

There is an interesting FAQ about Graventreuth (in German) that you might want to read.

Cheers,

Ethelred (who's glad he has legal insurance and a good lawyer)

Yeah. In Italy, there are lots of security firms that help restaurant and shop owners stay alert to relevent threats to their physical security...

If you don't want to pay those companies, you can do routine searches of your own on the PTO web site.

If you don't want to pay those companies, you can repair the baseball bat damage and put out the fires on your own.

Most businesses prefer to pay, though.

And if it isn't the same person who sent the document: piracy@microsoft.com ... (or alternatively, if you live in Germany: gravenreuth@gravenreuth.de )

The German trademark law is a bit complicated, I'm afraid, and there is probably nothing in the Web in English, but here's at least some information in the form of translated headings to get you an idea of how it is structured.

Those out there with some knowledge of German might try the Bundesgesetzblatt (the Federal Law publishing board) or this comprehensive overview of German trademark law with the texts included; I think you can forget the idea of having it babelfished, though, because it's probably a bit too complicated in style to translate properly. Another good resource is the web site of the DPMA (Deutsches Patent- und Markenamt), the German Patent and Trademark Office.

If you know some German and want to go for an entirely different view of the matter, you might have a look at the other side's point of view, in this case in the form of the aforementioned lawyer Günther von Gravenreuth, well known (not to say notorious) for his actions against private and commercial "computer piracy". There even exists an FAQ for people who had legal trouble with him in one specific matter.

The European Union point of view on trademark law is available at the European Patent Office, with loads upon loads of links to various European and other offices and institutions, European law texts, patent databases and other stuff.