From the what-could-possibly-go-wrong dept.:
A German law firm is threatening to publish a list of people it is accusing of breaching pornography copyright in order to advertise its services – and will start with police stations and church rectories.
Using the driest possible legalese, the Urmann and Colleagues (U+C) firm announced on its website on Tuesday that from September 1, visitors to their site would find a list of people who had been involved in disputes over illegal porn internet downloads.
The firm, based in the southern German town of Regensburg, is one of the country’s biggest copyright law firms and represents a number of pornographers.
Read more on The Local (De).
Apart from the issue of whether such posting would be legal, which is something I’m clearly not qualified to comment on, what if this law firm is just plain wrong in their accusations? What damage might they do if they name and shame innocent parties? And what recourse will such individuals have?
Companies are quick to go after individuals who make negative public comments about them. Let’s see if individuals will be as quick to go after law firms that make negative public assertions about them.