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Facebook Fined 100,000 Euros In German Intellectual Property Dispute (thestack.com)

Posted by yaelk on from the fighting-facebook dept.

An anonymous reader writes: A regional court in Berlin found that Facebook had not changed their terms and conditions statement to adequately address intellectual property concerns. The court fined Facebook 100,000 euros ($109,000) today, just one week after Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's visit to Berlin, where he was awarded the first ever Axel Springer Award for entrepreneurship and innovation. Four years ago, in response to a complaint filed by the Federation of German Consumer Organizations (VZBV), a German court found that Facebook's terms and conditions did not address the circumstances in which users intellectual property could be used by Facebook or even licensed to third parties. The regional court in Berlin ruled today that while Facebook did change the wording of the statement on intellectual property in their terms and conditions, the message remained the same.

23 comments

  1. Sounds cheap by fred911 · · Score: 2

    Defiantly not punitive, leaning toward apologetic.

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    1. Re:Sounds cheap by Carewolf · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Defiantly not punitive, leaning toward apologetic.

      Punitative damages is an American concept. In the rest of the world you either pay damages or a (usually fixed) fine. This was appently a fine. There is scaling of some fines for large companies, but it is still mostly exceptions, which makes even big fines almost laughably small to most companies.

    2. Re:Sounds cheap by rtb61 · · Score: 1

      Here let me fix that for you "Punitive damages or exemplary damages are damages intended to reform or deter the defendant and others from engaging in conduct similar to that which formed the basis of the lawsuit." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.... "Australia (tort cases only but do allow psychological harm as damages), England, Wales, New Zealand, United States, China (double losses) and Japan (note they replace punitive damages with a criminal charge so extra special punitive damages)". Just for fun there is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... Hedonic Damages, an economic term of art, refers to loss of enjoyment of life damages, the intangible value of life, as distinct from the human capital value or lost earnings value (which tends to be rather punitive) versus economic damage. Now all of this makes you wonder why the lawyers have gone to sleep in Flint Michigan where billions is up for grabs in class action law suit.

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    3. Re:Sounds cheap by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Defiantly not punitive, leaning toward apologetic.

      Punitative damages is an American concept. In the rest of the world you either pay damages or a (usually fixed) fine. This was appently a fine. There is scaling of some fines for large companies, but it is still mostly exceptions, which makes even big fines almost laughably small to most companies.

      Wrong. Take a look at Scandinavian countries, where almost all personal fines are proportional to your income. This is purely punitive, since in a place like the U.S. where you pay a fine regardless of your assets it is not. In the U.S., if someone who makes $25,000 a year gets a $1,200 driving fine, it has a dramatically disproportionate effect than the same $1,200 fine levied against someone who makes $250,000 a year.

  2. What a deal by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Only 100000 EUR, that is a joke for facebook

    1. Re:What a deal by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Only 100000 EUR, that is a joke for facebook

      The TOS do not comply with local regulations, and they have to be adjusted. The fine is not for "buying" an exempt to comply with regulations, but an incentive to do so now. With continued non-compliance, the fine is going to rise. Not quickly, but given enough time someone will go to jail. The only way to avoid this is to create TOS that comply with the regulations, or close down the business.

    2. Re:What a deal by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The TOS do not comply with local regulations, and they have to be adjusted. The fine is not for "buying" an exempt to comply with regulations, but an incentive to do so now. With continued non-compliance, the fine is going to rise. Not quickly, but given enough time someone will

      remember a couple of US politicians who can remember POTUS that Facebook is a platform that supports free spech and those damned nazis in Germany want to shut it down.
      So now POTUS will remind the germans that messing with Facebook is a no-no and they better watch out.

    3. Re:What a deal by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or what?

  3. Re:stupid germans by penguinoid · · Score: 3, Funny

    Intellectual property is stupid, it's nonsense.

    I own some intellectual property. It is 1.5 kg of gray matter.

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  4. Terms and conditions by avandesande · · Score: 1

    Correctly if I am wrong, but aren't terms and conditions equal to toilet paper, or maybe even a EULA in court?

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  5. There is a € symbol, y'know by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 4, Informative

    The court fined Facebook 100,000 euros ($109,000) today

    I know all these wacky symbols are anathema to Slashdot, but you don't even need Unicode to write €.

    (assuming it works beyond Preview)

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    1. Re:There is a € symbol, y'know by ihtoit · · Score: 1

      can't see that on my (possibly racist) UK keyboard.

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    2. Re:There is a € symbol, y'know by sinij · · Score: 1, Funny

      As long as S, J, and W keys work your keyboard is not racist.

    3. Re:There is a € symbol, y'know by ihtoit · · Score: 1

      ooh, bazinga! :)

      (addendum: Oh, it's ALT+0128...)

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    4. Re:There is a € symbol, y'know by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 1

      Or Right Alt+4 on UK keyboards less than decades old.

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      systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
    5. Re:There is a € symbol, y'know by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      I find the 's' behind "EURO" and the capitalization more disturbing than the lack of the â (jest that was an EUR sign) ... after all it won't go through preview on my Mac, and Macs don't have alt-123 combinations to create _windows_ EUR characters or _windows_ Umlauts etc.

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    6. Re:There is a € symbol, y'know by Plumpaquatsch · · Score: 1

      can't see that on my (possibly racist) UKIP keyboard.

      FTFY

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  6. What's the point? by fluffernutter · · Score: 0

    Zuk will just send them half the cash that he wiped his ass with this morning.

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  7. Re:stupid germans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yeah but obviously its self referential so that doesn't count.

  8. Sausages! by deviated_prevert · · Score: 1

    I can just see it now some Nazi is going to cash in by claiming an artistic picture of their sausages were violated and used by Facebook commercially, Now every sauerkraut in Germany can go after Zuks mega bucks for using any "intellectual property", almost as if Germany is turning into a clone of West Texas or Utah.

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  9. Re:Zuckerberg vs Duke by Plumpaquatsch · · Score: 1

    What makes you think somebody pro-Israel can't be a rabid anti-Semite?

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