view the rest of the comments
Technology
This is the official technology community of Lemmy.ml for all news related to creation and use of technology, and to facilitate civil, meaningful discussion around it.
Ask in DM before posting product reviews or ads. All such posts otherwise are subject to removal.
Rules:
1: All Lemmy rules apply
2: Do not post low effort posts
3: NEVER post naziped*gore stuff
4: Always post article URLs or their archived version URLs as sources, NOT screenshots. Help the blind users.
5: personal rants of Big Tech CEOs like Elon Musk are unwelcome (does not include posts about their companies affecting wide range of people)
6: no advertisement posts unless verified as legitimate and non-exploitative/non-consumerist
7: crypto related posts, unless essential, are disallowed
That's what you have Cease and Desists for.
In Germany and Austria (and potentially other European countries, I don't know), the recipient of a cease and desist letter has to pay the fee of the lawyer who sent the letter and also damages, unless they want to go to court over the matter. The price is usually ~€200-500.
These are often sent out in fairly large volumes and are used exactly for this case. Suing for a few €100 is not worth the effort, so you send out written warnings and most people will comply. You only sue in the few cases that won't comply, so that the threat is real.
This is mostly an issue for smaller companies, since a few €100 can really throw off their budget.
Considering that most Lemmy instances are one-man shows that are run as a hobby without any real budget, this is a serious threat here.
Have a look at the map of Lemmy instances: https://lemmy.fediverse.observer/map
A huge part of them (over 1/3) are operated out of Germany, and all of them would be vulnerable to this kind of legal attack.