On Sun, Oct 21, 2012 at 8:16 AM, Latimerius <l4t1m3r...@gmail.com> wrote: >> Does it suck that this happens? Yes, it does. Is there any >> possibility that Google would spend enough money for tons of lawyers >> to protect you on an individual basis? I don't think that makes sense >> for them, economically. > > I think it would make sense for Google to take a look at the problem. > I mean, if the bad guys are required to substantiate their claim that > they are taking the thing to the court with a document or some kind of > proof, what's so efficient about tens or hundreds of little guys > hiring tens or hundreds lawyers to research this same problem and get > to the same conclusion? Would it not make sense for Google to take a > look and *if* a proof is required, get it from the take-down notice > author? >
It seems like it would make sense in the abstract, but time and time again I've been surprisingly wrong about legal action seeming like it should be obvious / easy, and having this be completely false. > Or, if such a proof is *not* required, wouldn't that be a gaping hole > in DMCA? If so, who's better positioned to have the problem fixed, > somehow, eventually - the little guys, or Google? > I'm surprised, most people think the DMCA has gaping holes and don't find this surprising in the slightest. And I'm absolutely sure the amount of money required to get the DMCA changed would be way more money than Google would want to spend :-)... > And mind you again, I'm not discussing what Google *should* or *needs* > to do - just what would seem to make sense to me. I don't disagree. I think this needs to happen, it is a shortcoming of the DMCA, and it would be great if Google took the time to follow up on ensuring substantiation of legal action threats. But I'm willing to accept the reality that this is very difficult and time consuming, and in reality won't make sense for them to do. What they *should* be doing, on the other hand, and what I think you care about, is reinstating apps after a sufficient amount of time goes by. I also don't know enough of the legal requirement here to be able to say why this isn't happening. Let's say you want to stop this kind of thing, and you are Google. Are you going to take developers to court for DMCA abuse? No, that just wouldn't make any sense to me, too much money, too many developers, I completely understand why their feeling is probably "this sucks but doesn't seem to happen that often." > Depending on what Google wants to do with Android, having a bunch of > developers on their side shouldn't hurt. If they decide to not > protect their developers where Apple does, it's one more point against > Android. If Apple does not either, it could be a point for Android if > Google did. (And no, I have no idea what Apple does.) In reality a few angry developers will leave, but only a drop in the pond, even though it seems easy to "get rid of a competitor's app," I highly doubt it happens very often. But I could be wrong. >> (However, of course, you can argue they do >> something for you legally, they routinely take quite a hit from >> lawsuits against the Android platform from every major player..) > > Well, AFAIK most of those have nothing to do with developers, they > don't it for us. My point is this: if you write apps, and want people to use them, people need to use Android, without continual legal defense for the platform it's very likely people would switch away to other platforms. So I believe that this very much does have something to do with developers. kris -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android Developers" group. To post to this group, send email to android-developers@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to android-developers+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers?hl=en
