Judge Rejects DigiProtect's Demands For Made Up Legal Fees In Germany

from the there-goes-that-idea dept

Back at the end of last year, we wrote about how some had noticed that DigiProtect, one of a group of companies that purposely puts files online to see who downloads them, and then threatens them with "pay up or we'll sue" letters, was potentially in trouble in Germany for not following the law. German law says that you can't base "legal costs" on a contingency like winning. Yet, DigiProtect's agreement is that it only gets paid if it can collect on the pre-settlement letters. That goes against the law. And, now, a court has agreed, and found that DigiProtect can't ask for legal fees in Germany unless it can actually prove what those real fees are. The court did offer DigiProtect an out: open your books and show what the real costs are, and how they are paid. DigiProtect refused to do so. This basically cuts out pretty much all of the massive profits DigiProtect and others brag about.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: germany, legal fees, pre-settlement letters
Companies: digiprotect


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  • icon
    Hephaestus (profile), 9 Feb 2010 @ 9:12pm

    Hooah!!! Sniped ... LOL ... I like definitions 1 and 2 in this situation, 3 was the one I was looking for.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 9 Feb 2010 @ 9:15pm

    Pharmaceutical corporations get most of their R&D funded via tax dollars (ie: they end up benefiting from tax funded R&D), they get government sanctioned monopolies on the results of such R&D, and yet they get to keep their books closed and hidden to hide their true R&D costs.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    NAMELESS.ONE, 9 Feb 2010 @ 9:32pm

    there not suing people

    and ill add thy actually DO WHAT THE PEOPLE WANT VERSUS SCRW THEM FOR 95 years plus another 70+ ( life of author)

    copyright at 14 years was to allow a company limited time to make a buck LIKE a patent then we the public using that example would get to have a generic made cheaper , that extra they charge for the 14 years would goto funding the added R&D of a new project.
    BUT as i said perhaps we should take that 100% under govt and have the govt fund the scientists and then we NEVER HAVE the 14 year period were we in society pay a lot more.
    EXCELLENT 2nd post thanks for reminding us how drug patents steal money form society.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 10 Feb 2010 @ 2:42am

      Re: there not suing people

      Off topic and nonsensical. But we've come to expect this from you. Come on, stay focused! You can do iiiiiit!

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 9 Feb 2010 @ 9:58pm

    Are you guys talking about the same story?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Headbanger, 9 Feb 2010 @ 10:44pm

    Good news!

    I'm surprised I missed the article on Torrentfreak as I usually read through most of their work. It is good to see that this operation has been fundamentally shut down for the time being. What remains to be seen is if they find another supposedly lawful mean to extort people.

    link to this | view in chronology ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.