On Fri, Jul 23, 2004 at 11:21:22AM -0400, Michael Poole wrote: > Sven Luther writes: > > > On Fri, Jul 23, 2004 at 03:50:33PM +0100, MJ Ray wrote: > > > >> IIRC, there is no requirement for a private individual to be > >> represented by a lawyer in an English court, although many are. > >> Additionally, the case would probably be heard in the appropriate > >> court nearest to the defendant, so travel costs are minimal, and there > >> may be Legal Aid available. Therefore, the need to hire a lawyer local > >> to Versailles is a significant additional expense an abusive licensor > >> can make the defendant pay, apparently on a whim. > > > > Well, some could argue that you could directly write to the judge then, and > > explain why the claim of the upstream author should not apply, and maybe > > make > > mention of the harrasment you are suffering from his part. > > > > I am not familiar with this kind of stuff, so if you have hard evidence that > > this would not be possible, please tell me about this. > > I don't know about French courts, but I suspect they have procedural > rules on how one does things just like US courts do. > > In the US, you can go to a court in person, fill out forms, and the > staff will often tell you whether you meet the forms' requirements. > They will not give advice on how to word them, but you can at least > know you put the right words in the right blanks, and you can read > public filings from the past to see what worked and what did not. > > These forms vary from court to court, as do the deadlines and > requirements for submission (online, registered mail, in person, etc). > Many, but not all, courts now have those requirements listed online; > and you may still have to appear in person for certain steps. > > Examples of that are pre-trial conferences, where both sides must be > physically present (either in person or through counsel) before the > judge, so that they can efficiently agree on scheduling and procedural > issues.
Ok, still do you think that a judge would have no consideration if the defendent is a poor student on the other side of the world, or otherwise has not the physical means to be present ? And in this case, how could the judge make the judgement binding anyway ? > That's the general answer to your question. > > The more specific answer is that a simple letter will not meet any > requirements for a case to be dismissed in the USA. A defendant who > wants a case dismissed has to file a motion, usually a memorandum in > support, the opposing side (the person who filed the case) gets a > chance to rebut, etc. It is very easy for a novice to make mistakes > that cause the motion to fail on procedural grounds. > > Details of the French system will of course be different, but unless > they think very differently about procedural matters, it should be > comparable. Let's keep in mind that the case at hand is one where we want to protect the defendent from legal harassment. If so, i think there should easily be able to put some doubt in the mind of the judge even with a simple letter. I also believe that there most assuredly are some jurisprudence about similar kind of issues. But again, the DFSG makes no provision whatsoever for this kind of things. Friendly, Sven Luther
