Aren't there ways to hire a lawyer or private investigator to hunt the person down and deliver the certified mail face-to-face? Or break into their car and fill it with 10,000 copies of the letter.
We don't know if it the infringement claim is for a product they make (OP said they make software, but didn't say what kind) or for a product they simply use
This seems like one of the best suggestions. If you are lucky, there may even be a lawyer or two already busy fighting this same patent troll. And the Bar Association is going to know which lawyers handle which kinds of cases and can give you an actual IP lawyer, instead of getting "that guy Uncle Vinny calls whenever he gets arrested"
As much as it may seem like it, lawyers are not "against" us (the average person), they are simply paid to be adversarial, just like professional sports players, they will fight for their side even if it means fighting against former "teammates". (most of the time anyway, assuming you get a straight-laced legit lawyer and not one of those 1-800-411-PAIN jokers)
Some lawyers can be very competitive and would welcome the challenge of taking out a patent troll (victories look good on their record, even the easy victories)
From the OP "I'm not asking for legal advise from the Slashdot community. The question is where might one look for 'legal counsel' with the expertise to answer these types of legal questions as it relates to this inquiry."
How can they say "ignorance of the law is no excuse" when even police and judges can't keep the laws straight and it takes entire teams of specialized lawyers to untangle the mess that is our legal system. (but only untangle it enough to win, and who care if it sets yet another confusing case law precedent that has to be untangled later)
Lawyers are like the pus in an infected wound, and like pus, they do serve a vital function (pus helps keep the wound clean and fight infections), but if the law wasn't so bloated and broken, we wouldn't need lawyers in the first place.
I don't blame the lawyers, I blame the politicians that feel like they MUST create new laws every chance they get, but never manage to erase the old laws (like the Minnesota law making it a crime to hang women's underwear on an outdoor clothesline)
makes it too easy to run your business into the ground for personal gain, and then walk away with no personal liability for the mess
Stuff like using your business name to borrow a ton of money, giving that money to yourself, and then declaring bankruptcy for the business (but not for yourself). the company dies a painful death, but you still get to keep all the money (until someone catches on and sues you for fraud)
As far as I know, if a judge feels that a plaintiff might simply vanish when faced with legal fees, he can order the plaintiff to post some sort of surety bond before he hands down his verdict.
haven't pointed to one case of corporate overstep due to limited government
I think the Cuyahoga River fire and the Union Carbide disaster are perfect examples of corporate overstep due to weak government. (later fixed by the government in the form of the EPA and OSHA)
My view is that I'd love to live in a world where the greatest threat comes from business rather than government.
I think an outright ban on child labor (at least in the US) has led to several generations of people with a huge sense of personal entitlement and no work ethic. They spend the first 16-18 years of their life having all their wants and needs just handed to them on a silver platter without having to expend any effort to get those things, then they turn 18 and don't know how to deal with the real world.
One example of this entitlement effect is people who start a business, run it for only 8-10 years before hiring a manager to run the business for them, and then think that those 8-10 years of "effort" somehow entitles them to sponge off the company profits for the rest of their life (I worked for a guy like this once, he tried to get me to run his business for him so he could retire at age 37 and never have to work again). Another example is teenagers who turn 18, get kicked out of the house, and start robbing liqueur stores and dealing drugs to survive instead of getting a real job.
Let the kids work, pay them the same amount per hour as an adult (to prevent the value of labor from dropping), and set strict limits on working hours (8 hours a week or something). Child labor has worked just fine for thousands of years, and only became a problem in the 20th century when greedy business owners started taking advantage of the children. The problem isn't child labor, the problem is child exploitation (and exploitation can be fixed without banning labor completely)
How is this any different than getting anthrax poisoning from cows that fed from overgrazed fields? (anthrax bacteria naturally grows in soil and one of the causes of natural anthrax poisoning in humans is through cows that have ingested this soil)
Or accidentally ingesting dairy/meat and getting diarrhea because you no longer have the gut bacteria to properly process it. (like that vegan idiot from super-size me who puked from just eating a double-quarter-pounder, and then blamed all his health problem on McDonalds)
Where do you get the idea that "pigs are full so of disease"? Just because they they are covered in mud doesn't mean that that they are disease-ridden (pigs roll in mud to regulate body temp). And if you are basing it on the smell alone, go visit a ferret farm, pigs smell like roses compared to ferrets
"Years of campaigning by public health groups [has caused an increase in public awareness of the dangers of high-fat/high-sodium diets and a new tendency for customers to choose "healthier" alternatives such as Subway, this drop in sales] has led to McDonald's using a ridiculously low fat and sodium content in their burgers"
If Google is actually making sales and collecting money from French companies, then the government has a valid point. However, if Google is simply advertising American brands in the french language (which is very common worldwide), then it would be nothing more than another French money grab. Just because the domain is.fr, doesn't mean they have any French income
This seems to be a general theme for France, trying to find new ways to force American companies to just "give" money to French companies/French government, in order to prop up their failing economy.
Just like forcing American companies to pay French income tax, even if they have no offices in France
That is assuming you HAVE a choice in providers. In some places (at least in the US) your only option is the local cable or phone company (satellite isn't much of an option, with it's 800-1220ms ping time)
Not all corporations are evil, just the publicly traded ones. Keeping the shareholders happy becomes the #1 priority for the CEO (and everyone under him). They don't worry about unhappy customers leaving for the competition, because they can just buy the competition.
I had nothing to back it up, it was supposed to be a joke, based on all the recent news about government technology projects that were overdue, over budget, and ended up being canceled before ever being put into use. I didn't actually look at where they were doing the project.
When I said "canceled without being completed" I meant it in more of a "spent millions on consultants setting it up, and never even started the research" kind of way.
6 years from now we will be hearing about a DOE battery project being canceled without being completed, because it's 5 years behind schedule and $700 million over budget.
Slashdot Mirror
Aren't there ways to hire a lawyer or private investigator to hunt the person down and deliver the certified mail face-to-face? Or break into their car and fill it with 10,000 copies of the letter.
We don't know if it the infringement claim is for a product they make (OP said they make software, but didn't say what kind) or for a product they simply use
This seems like one of the best suggestions. If you are lucky, there may even be a lawyer or two already busy fighting this same patent troll. And the Bar Association is going to know which lawyers handle which kinds of cases and can give you an actual IP lawyer, instead of getting "that guy Uncle Vinny calls whenever he gets arrested"
As much as it may seem like it, lawyers are not "against" us (the average person), they are simply paid to be adversarial, just like professional sports players, they will fight for their side even if it means fighting against former "teammates". (most of the time anyway, assuming you get a straight-laced legit lawyer and not one of those 1-800-411-PAIN jokers)
Some lawyers can be very competitive and would welcome the challenge of taking out a patent troll (victories look good on their record, even the easy victories)
From the OP "I'm not asking for legal advise from the Slashdot community. The question is where might one look for 'legal counsel' with the expertise to answer these types of legal questions as it relates to this inquiry."
Lawyers are a symptom of a very broken system.
How can they say "ignorance of the law is no excuse" when even police and judges can't keep the laws straight and it takes entire teams of specialized lawyers to untangle the mess that is our legal system. (but only untangle it enough to win, and who care if it sets yet another confusing case law precedent that has to be untangled later)
Lawyers are like the pus in an infected wound, and like pus, they do serve a vital function (pus helps keep the wound clean and fight infections), but if the law wasn't so bloated and broken, we wouldn't need lawyers in the first place.
I don't blame the lawyers, I blame the politicians that feel like they MUST create new laws every chance they get, but never manage to erase the old laws (like the Minnesota law making it a crime to hang women's underwear on an outdoor clothesline)
makes it too easy to run your business into the ground for personal gain, and then walk away with no personal liability for the mess
Stuff like using your business name to borrow a ton of money, giving that money to yourself, and then declaring bankruptcy for the business (but not for yourself). the company dies a painful death, but you still get to keep all the money (until someone catches on and sues you for fraud)
As far as I know, if a judge feels that a plaintiff might simply vanish when faced with legal fees, he can order the plaintiff to post some sort of surety bond before he hands down his verdict.
haven't pointed to one case of corporate overstep due to limited government
I think the Cuyahoga River fire and the Union Carbide disaster are perfect examples of corporate overstep due to weak government. (later fixed by the government in the form of the EPA and OSHA)
My view is that I'd love to live in a world where the greatest threat comes from business rather than government.
You already do, you just don't realize it yet
I think an outright ban on child labor (at least in the US) has led to several generations of people with a huge sense of personal entitlement and no work ethic. They spend the first 16-18 years of their life having all their wants and needs just handed to them on a silver platter without having to expend any effort to get those things, then they turn 18 and don't know how to deal with the real world.
One example of this entitlement effect is people who start a business, run it for only 8-10 years before hiring a manager to run the business for them, and then think that those 8-10 years of "effort" somehow entitles them to sponge off the company profits for the rest of their life (I worked for a guy like this once, he tried to get me to run his business for him so he could retire at age 37 and never have to work again). Another example is teenagers who turn 18, get kicked out of the house, and start robbing liqueur stores and dealing drugs to survive instead of getting a real job.
Let the kids work, pay them the same amount per hour as an adult (to prevent the value of labor from dropping), and set strict limits on working hours (8 hours a week or something). Child labor has worked just fine for thousands of years, and only became a problem in the 20th century when greedy business owners started taking advantage of the children. The problem isn't child labor, the problem is child exploitation (and exploitation can be fixed without banning labor completely)
How is this any worse than the Ramen Bowl iPhone Dock? (which is a real product)
http://www.toxel.com/tech/2013/01/23/ramen-bowl-for-iphone-owners/
How is this any different than getting anthrax poisoning from cows that fed from overgrazed fields? (anthrax bacteria naturally grows in soil and one of the causes of natural anthrax poisoning in humans is through cows that have ingested this soil)
Or accidentally ingesting dairy/meat and getting diarrhea because you no longer have the gut bacteria to properly process it. (like that vegan idiot from super-size me who puked from just eating a double-quarter-pounder, and then blamed all his health problem on McDonalds)
I wish I had mod points for you.
there are restaurants (at least in canada) that serve horsemeat, but don't list it on the menu (you have to special-request it)
Where do you get the idea that "pigs are full so of disease"?
Just because they they are covered in mud doesn't mean that that they are disease-ridden (pigs roll in mud to regulate body temp). And if you are basing it on the smell alone, go visit a ferret farm, pigs smell like roses compared to ferrets
"Years of campaigning by public health groups [has caused an increase in public awareness of the dangers of high-fat/high-sodium diets and a new tendency for customers to choose "healthier" alternatives such as Subway, this drop in sales] has led to McDonald's using a ridiculously low fat and sodium content in their burgers"
There is that better?
If Google is actually making sales and collecting money from French companies, then the government has a valid point. .fr, doesn't mean they have any French income
However, if Google is simply advertising American brands in the french language (which is very common worldwide), then it would be nothing more than another French money grab. Just because the domain is
This seems to be a general theme for France, trying to find new ways to force American companies to just "give" money to French companies/French government, in order to prop up their failing economy.
Just like forcing American companies to pay French income tax, even if they have no offices in France
That is assuming you HAVE a choice in providers. In some places (at least in the US) your only option is the local cable or phone company (satellite isn't much of an option, with it's 800-1220ms ping time)
If the service is free, the product is YOU
Not all corporations are evil, just the publicly traded ones. Keeping the shareholders happy becomes the #1 priority for the CEO (and everyone under him). They don't worry about unhappy customers leaving for the competition, because they can just buy the competition.
I had nothing to back it up, it was supposed to be a joke, based on all the recent news about government technology projects that were overdue, over budget, and ended up being canceled before ever being put into use. I didn't actually look at where they were doing the project.
When I said "canceled without being completed" I meant it in more of a "spent millions on consultants setting it up, and never even started the research" kind of way.
6 years from now we will be hearing about a DOE battery project being canceled without being completed, because it's 5 years behind schedule and $700 million over budget.