@manton @jean Hey there! 👋🏻 I really love the idea of micro.blog and i WISH i could use it properly but german data-protection laws (which go beyond GDPR) require just so much data to be present inside my Data Policy that i am shying away from using it :-(

Are there any resources about legal usage if micro.blog in the EU? Inside the EU, a ton of people are currently being sued over usage of Google Fonts, which transmits the IP address of the visitor to the U.S. A colleage had to pay ~$800 in fines. That why i am so hesistant :-/

Any ideas?

Greetings from southern Germany!

@flowinho @jean We have users in the EU and I just assume it's usually not an issue. You can have a blog that doesn't need cookies, but there's no way around IPs. I'd be surprised if someone sued a blog over this but that of course is not legal advice. 🙂

@manton is there a risk that we EU users could cause you trouble?

@manton actually sueing very small sites is a common practice. Since defendants don’t have the money to actually defend against the opposing attorney most people „just pay“ in order to prevent further damage.

termageddon.com/google-fo...

I run a website for a local kindergarten and even that was sued.

It’s quick money for lawyers.

@flowinho I'm interested in this. Are there any examples of individuals with non-commercial blogs or websites being sued?

@jplupp I don't think so. I want to do what I can to help our customers in the EU, but I don't lose sleep over the legal side of it from a US perspective.

@flowinho That's sad. Reminds me of patent trolls just taking advantage of the system.

@flowinho If you post a question about this, I'll add it to the Discover timeline so others who might know about this can share their experience.

@sod nothing I can share, at the moment. Funnily enough even regular people join the „fun“ now, sueing other regular persons blogs for the quick money. Here is a (german article) regarding the matter: www.verbraucherschutz.tv/2022/11/0...

I just think this whole process is stupid. I will deliver you more examples once someone wants to share. I run a german podcast with a few thousand listeners and there are many people mentioning being sued. I will ask some to provide details.

@manton @sod @manton yeah it’s just sad. But it’s a regular practice for layers around here. A project for electric charging I participate it was sued for more than 10.000€ (initially 45k) for using a photo that the photographer allowed to use(!) but the lawyer who was originally in charge to protect the „copyright“ of said photographer still wanted the money.

We lost and had to pay.

German article describing everything: netzpolitik.org/2021/nur-...

@jean thank you! I just did.

@flowinho Thanks for sharing. From what I can grasp from that article, trolls are trying their luck, hoping to scare people to pay up. But it's not clear if they actually have a case that would hold up in court? I'm with you; trolls are stupid. 😊

@flowinho Wow, that sounds way out of proportion. But if I read the article right, Ladefuchs consciously took the risk of using someone else's photograph without permission? So there actually was a copyright infringement. It's just that the fee was way high, considering the circumstances?

(Sorry about those naive questions, but my understanding of German is very basic, so I have to rely on translation software.)

@flowinho so is this an issue specific to Germany's data protection laws? I have not heard about these things happening in my part of the EU (the nordic countries).

@pajp yes. German courts ruled that transmitting the IP address of a visitor of your website to the United States is no longer allowed, since Data trust between Europe and the US is ruined. Especially in Germany. European law clearly states that US companies cannot be trusted and EU <> US privacy shield is against the law.

I appreciate the ruling but malicious lawyers try to abuse that. (As always)

@sod we initially took a photo without asking, yes. Then we asked the photographer and he said „well of course you can take it - I love what you guys are doing!“

Then we got sued.

The photographer told his lawyer „but it’s fine, they can take my photo!“

The lawyer „you hired me to sue people that take your photos and I will do that“

Photographer „but……“

@flowinho That's one obstinate lawyer. 😢 So sorry you had to go through that.

@flowinho I’m looking for a new post by you with just the question but I don’t see it. We don’t add replies to Discover. I thought you might want to get the attention of German users who know something about the problem. I can’t guarantee there is anyone.

I’m sorry the issue is so fraught for you all. What a nightmare.

@jean i posted another one.

@flowinho Rats. I still don’t see it. Does it show up in your Posts section? If it does, could you try making a small edit (add a space somewhere) and update the post? I apologize: this is like the Micro.blog equivalent of turning it off and turning it on again, but it works for me if a post gets stuck in the publishing process. (And we are working on that!)