Tidbit of information about German law [LWN.net]

Tidbit of information about German law

Posted May 29, 2003 14:00 UTC (Thu) by jschrod (subscriber, #1646)
Parent article: The SCO case gets weirder

Concerning LinuxTag's cease and desist letter: The interesting point is that there are laws in Germany against "unfair competitive practices". That means that SCO Germany must react, otherwise it get's very easy to force them legally to a reaction. And that isn't associated with the same financial risk as in the US, since SCO must pay the lawyer's bills of LinuxTag if they didn't react in time. (German law has the concept that a case looser has to pay the legal expenses of the winner.) The only risk is that they must show that SCO Germany has been involved in Linux user bullying as well, not only SCO US.

FWIW: IANAL, but a CEO and have to cope with such stuff, to keep my company out of "unfair competitive practices" :-)

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Tidbit of information about German law

Posted May 31, 2003 0:48 UTC (Sat) by giraffedata (subscriber, #1954) [Link]

Many US states also have laws against "unfair competitive practices." They're usually pretty specific, though, about the kinds of practices that are covered. Selling below cost is one I remember. I don't know anything about Germany's law; maybe it's broader.