Note that this stupidity from a French independent administration didn't end up in droning a whole family and in the end everybody is good for a laugh and life carries on. This case has absolutely no chance of passing any legal test.
US blogger fined 8,000 Euros by France for criticizing Société Générale
41–50 of 233 posts
Re: US blogger fined 8,000 Euros by France for criticizing Société Générale
#42Hilarious. It baffles me how this country continues to operate given the massive public spending/benefits, delightful reforms (e.g. proposed 80% tax rate for high-earners) and pretty xenophobic view on immigration. ALL of my (highly-skilled) French friends do not plan to return in the foreseeable future.
While the situation in TFA is spectacularly ridiculous and shameful for me as a french I don't think it warrants this kind of gratuitous french bashing. Unless of course you want to explain to us what the french taxation laws have to do with this particular court decision. Also it's 75%, not 80%. That might not be very significant overall but it makes me doubt you really know what you're talking about.
And it's the marginal tax rate (beyond 1 million €).
Re: US blogger fined 8,000 Euros by France for criticizing Société Générale
#43UK banks are just as bad. A company I worked for previously gave a bank's investment products a high risk rating because of poor investments/compliance and they sent all sorts of nasty shit out. Every bank has a "send people nasty shit" department by the looks. The answer is as always: "fuck off".
I think the better answer is to not reply at all or ever acknowledge receipt of said 'nasty shit'. Make every step a challenge for the opponent, it's a war of attrition. And never get mad at the lawyer, s/he usually bills by the hour and they are delighted to send out useless letters all day long. Informing the bank that this is a waste of time is bad for job security.
Bit hard when they are recorded deliveries.
Telling banks and other financial institutions to fuck off was just an operating cost for the company in question. It was in the budget.
That's how I learned how the finance system worked in the UK. Assholes lobbing grenades at each other whilst the rest of the companies just get on with it.
Re: US blogger fined 8,000 Euros by France for criticizing Société Générale
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
France is part of the Euro, and it's pretty much the Germans who decide when new Euros get printed. They haven't proven sympathetic to the idea of printing many recently.
Since when does french-bashing need to be factually correct ?
11% growth of Euro M1 in two years begs to differ...
The world is awash in printed money, not just the Eurozone and not just France is taking advantage of it.
Re: US blogger fined 8,000 Euros by France for criticizing Société Générale
#45These stupid short-sighted governments are going to ruin the Internet for the rest of us through their greed for money (like in this case) and power (NSA mass surveillance).
Re: US blogger fined 8,000 Euros by France for criticizing Société Générale
#46Not surprising, there is no free speech in France. Especially when it comes to crooked banks or politicians. France is a strange country that likes to give lessons about democracy to the rest of the world, but when you look at things closer, France is closer to a monarchy than a democracy. Everything is so centralised that information usually comes from an single source of truth, that journalist dont even bother ques…
> Not surprising, there is no free speech in France.
There is, with some restrictions like in most countries:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_speech_by_country#Fr...
Re: US blogger fined 8,000 Euros by France for criticizing Société Générale
#47The comments here are atrocious. I expected more from HN than senseless French-bashing and 'Murica flag-waving.
A few informations for context:
- Two bloggers were fined, one French, and the American one for quoting the French.
- The fine emanated from the Commission des Sanctions (sanction committee) of the AMF (Autorité des Marchés Financiers), the French stock market regulator.
- It's supposed to be independent, but they are notoriously in bed with banks, with most members of the commission being former higher executives of major banks. Therefore, it's no surprise that they will do this kind of stunts in order to protect their interests.
- It's been talked about in several (right-wing) publications like Atlantico or Les Échos, where journalists have pointed out that this is one more action that proves the absence of credibility of the AMF.
Re: US blogger fined 8,000 Euros by France for criticizing Société Générale
#48Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's a bit more subtle. French judges consider that they have jurisdiction if one of the party is in France or (for internet-related things) if the intended public is french. See LICRA vs Yahoo! linked in another comment.
But the intended public wasn't French in this case? The guy is an English-language blogger.
If _one_ of the parties. In this case, the bank.
Re: US blogger fined 8,000 Euros by France for criticizing Société Générale
#49I don't understand how this court system can be so silly as to fail to recognize that it has no jurisdiction over someone. Isn't the question of jurisdiction one of the first steps in any court case?
What do you mean by "no jurisdiction over someone?" If a crime was committed in france they can ask for extradition. That would probably not result in anything in this case, but as long as it's a crime by french law committed in france the case may as well be valid. So all the court will check whether a punishable crime was committed in france. They could collect the fine when the blogger enters france or maybe, depe…
> If a crime was committed in france they can ask for extradition.
But it wasn't "committed in France". This is getting ridiculous, not to mention extremely dangerous. A few more cases of these from the "democracies" of the world, and soon China will start demanding the same thing.
"You said something bad about China online? We're just going to fine you, or ask for your extradition and arrest."
Re: US blogger fined 8,000 Euros by France for criticizing Société Générale
#50UK banks are just as bad. A company I worked for previously gave a bank's investment products a high risk rating because of poor investments/compliance and they sent all sorts of nasty shit out. Every bank has a "send people nasty shit" department by the looks. The answer is as always: "fuck off".
I think the better answer is to not reply at all or ever acknowledge receipt of said 'nasty shit'. Make every step a challenge for the opponent, it's a war of attrition. And never get mad at the lawyer, s/he usually bills by the hour and they are delighted to send out useless letters all day long. Informing the bank that this is a waste of time is bad for job security.
It's perfectly fine to get mad at the lawyer for abusing their skill doing such people-hostile work. They can choose a more honorable line of lawyering.