RE: How could this possibly infringe on somebody's copyright? </sarcasm>
04-28-2020, 01:57 AM (This post was last modified: 04-28-2020, 02:09 AM by Dragonflight.)
04-28-2020, 01:57 AM (This post was last modified: 04-28-2020, 02:09 AM by Dragonflight.)
What I find generally disturbing about their current decision is that they are instituting a Napoleonic test model. To wit, ComicMix is presumed guilty by definition, and has to prove it isn't, by somehow proving the published work does not infringe on the plaintiff's revenue generating potential. Without exhaustive access to the plaintiff's financial records (which they almost certainly won't get,) that's impossible. It's *why* Napoleonic law is not used in Western democracies. The moment you are presumed guilty in the trial, you need extraordinary access to the other sides' materials to prove you're not, which is almost without exception impossible to do.
Edit: The reason it's impossible to do hearkens back to the decision that companies were granted the same status and protections that people were. In order to gain extraordinary access to a company's records, you have to be able to demonstrate a clear chain of evidence showing the path to the incriminating documentation you believe they possess. Fishing expeditions, where you comb through their records before you even know what you're looking for, are prohibited, since a person is guaranteed protection against unlawful search and seizure.
In order for someone being presumed guilty to gain access to the other side's records for an exhaustive search, they would need to prove *first* that they knew what they were looking for. Since the whole point of this exercise is to find evidence you aren't even sure exists yet, no court would allow you to mount an unsubstantiated fishing expedition in another company's records. At that point, in the Napoleonic system, you're presumed guilty, you can't prove you aren't without access to their records you can't get, so the trial moves swiftly to sentencing.
Presumably ComicMix would challenge this whole thing in Appeals court on those grounds if the judge proceeded to convict on Napoleonic legal grounds, but at that point, it's all about the plaintiff trying to drive the smaller company out of business by bleeding them dry in court proceedings.
Edit: The reason it's impossible to do hearkens back to the decision that companies were granted the same status and protections that people were. In order to gain extraordinary access to a company's records, you have to be able to demonstrate a clear chain of evidence showing the path to the incriminating documentation you believe they possess. Fishing expeditions, where you comb through their records before you even know what you're looking for, are prohibited, since a person is guaranteed protection against unlawful search and seizure.
In order for someone being presumed guilty to gain access to the other side's records for an exhaustive search, they would need to prove *first* that they knew what they were looking for. Since the whole point of this exercise is to find evidence you aren't even sure exists yet, no court would allow you to mount an unsubstantiated fishing expedition in another company's records. At that point, in the Napoleonic system, you're presumed guilty, you can't prove you aren't without access to their records you can't get, so the trial moves swiftly to sentencing.
Presumably ComicMix would challenge this whole thing in Appeals court on those grounds if the judge proceeded to convict on Napoleonic legal grounds, but at that point, it's all about the plaintiff trying to drive the smaller company out of business by bleeding them dry in court proceedings.