Am Fri, 21 Nov 2008 13:46:46 -0800 schrieb Darren New:
> The problem is that when you let censorship go on in restricted ways, it
> gets applied in increasingly less restricted ways.
> 
> http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20071207-german-politician-sues-
unsues-wikipedia-over-nazi-symbols.html

Well, yes, they try.

> 
> Granted, he shouldn't have done that:
> 
> http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20071211-german-politician-may-be-
charged-over-wikipedia-nazi-dustup.html
> 

It seemed to me, that the public in general in germany thought in that 
case, that it was ridicoulous and that it wouldn't go through - at least 
not the higher levels in the german law system. It looked like a PR stunt.

> But that doesn't help if you're already spending your money defending
> against the rancor of some politician that doesn't like you.

It's hard to compare directly to the US, because our law system is quite 
different. But in principle you don't have to spend any money if you win 
the case. AFAIK the loosing party and the state pay for your legal costs 
(including costs for taking free days of your job). The state even 
provides you with the money in advance to pay a lawyer if you can't pay 
it yourself (of course it would be claimed back, if you loose the case). 
What I mean to write is, it seems highly unlikely, that someone sues you 
out of existance as it seems it is possible in the US (Is it? You 
probably have other protections against that? Maybe on law firms, which 
specialise on that cases? I think I read that in some liability cases it 
is a real legal business and this law firms will take your case for free, 
if it is likely that it can be won.)
I don't know how well it works, but in principle it should.

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