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US blogger fined 8,000 Euros by France for criticizing Société Générale

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Re: US blogger fined 8,000 Euros by France for criticizing Société Générale

#71
post #68
post #19

Hilarious. 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.

I'm not surprised by such a comment, but finding it on HN saddens me. xenophoby? Oh USA, building a wall to keep your neighbours out of your lawn, please tell me more! Our economy? Of course American governement-sponsored 'liberalism' is a beacon for the free world, and dissidents are morons. Please have a look at this recent article by Paul Krugman: The Plot Against France[0]. Your high-skilled French friends? I hav…

Europe has an ocean to keep most of its poorer would-be neighbors away. You can't wave away geography. The US is comparable to Europe, not one country in Europe.

Re: US blogger fined 8,000 Euros by France for criticizing Société Générale

#72
post #2

I hereby fine Société Générale 8,000 bitcoins for violating the American constitution (never mind jurisdiction since they don't care for it either), notice duly served by posting this comment in a public forum and witnessed by whoever happens to read this.

Yeah the United States never does anything outside its jurisdiction that anyone else finds annoying.

That said, the level of institutionalized corruption in France is pretty outrageous. If I recall correctly, the president of France receives a truck load of cash every year which can be used with zero accountability (and that's legal). Of course the French (and pretty much any democratic country) can look at our electoral system and laugh.

Re: US blogger fined 8,000 Euros by France for criticizing Société Générale

#73
post #20
post #3

I 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?

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.

How very... American of them.

Re: US blogger fined 8,000 Euros by France for criticizing Société Générale

#75

That guy managed to instantly go from slightly above zero respect to negative, when i copy-pasted stuff and noticed that his site saw fit to add spam onto that in the buffer.

So you copied his content and were mad that he included text which noted you copied his content?

Re: US blogger fined 8,000 Euros by France for criticizing Société Générale

#76
post #37

This coverage is going to get him more than 8KE worth of blog visitors. Particularly the "hey, this little blogger was sharp enough to uncover some real weird stuff on the part of SG" angle. Blog readers eat that up.

While Mish isn't as well known as Drudge, he isn't a little blogger. Just because he doesn't write about growth hacking his angular startup into YC doesn't mean he has no reach.

I suggest you add "growth hacking my angular startup into YC" into your HN bio. That's beautiful.

Re: US blogger fined 8,000 Euros by France for criticizing Société Générale

#77
post #32

Not 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…

This is sort of true. I ran a publication there for a few years and there are a lot of lines you cannot cross, lines that don't exist in the UK or the US.

One I particularly remember (though I can't quote it exactly) is that you can (could?) be hauled into court for criticising heads of state, domestic or foreign.

Re: US blogger fined 8,000 Euros by France for criticizing Société Générale

#78
post #2

I hereby fine Société Générale 8,000 bitcoins for violating the American constitution (never mind jurisdiction since they don't care for it either), notice duly served by posting this comment in a public forum and witnessed by whoever happens to read this.

The payment is to be aligned within the next python update at the following address: 1gxud5uquSr1aE9uknj2W6K2WLDwPHEQu

Re: US blogger fined 8,000 Euros by France for criticizing Société Générale

#79
The hypocrisy of the comments here is hilarious.

This is exactly the same as the MPAA shutting down websites and fining people all over the world. All the people here crying "they have no jurisdiction!" are really just getting a taste what their own government has been doing to people all around the world for decades.

Never mind 'Murica going around the world enforcing their laws and ideals with their armed forces.

Re: US blogger fined 8,000 Euros by France for criticizing Société Générale

#80

I would be more happy to read something like "Human blogger fined 8,000 euros by the french justice department for criticizing a bank". Now it sounds like the people of France decided to fine just an American blogger.

Looks like a bad choice of re-title. But I don't think it was intended to highlight the fact the blogger was American.

> Human blogger fined 8,000 euros by the french justice department for criticizing a bank

You missed the point where they were fining a non-French blogger that was giving straight facts and practicing his free speech.

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