How I (Almost) Got Sued By Big Tech

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  • เผยแพร่เมื่อ 24 มี.ค. 2024
  • Sadly enough I have experience with getting threats from big tech companies. Microsoft, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Netflix, Google and more are known for doing this type of shit. We should all have a rough idea of how to avoid it.
    Phenomenal article btw:
    12challenges.substack.com/p/h...
    Check out Louis on Twitter:
    / louisbarclay
    Check out my Twitch, Twitter, Discord more at t3.gg
    S/O Ph4se0n3 for the awesome edit 🙏
  • วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี

ความคิดเห็น • 86

  • @peterszarvas94
    @peterszarvas94 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +146

    having trademark for colors is so stupid

    • @toppojaiwant
      @toppojaiwant 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +7

      Its the same as `I have a trademark on what you can see`. TBH, It's where the world is headed.

    • @turc1656
      @turc1656 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

      ​@@toppojaiwantI was recently approved ownership of the acronym TBH. Stop using it immediately, or pay a licensing fee of $2 for every use.
      I've also been granted a trademark for my birthdate in the state in which I live.

    • @cryMoreLoL
      @cryMoreLoL 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +4

      It's not enforceable regardless of who allowed the trademark. That's like trademarking words from a dictionary.

    • @meepk633
      @meepk633 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

      @@cryMoreLoL No it isn't. It's not like that at all. Microsoft didn't trademark the words Micro and Soft. Google didn't trademark colors. They trademarked a logo which is made up of colors. There's a reason why you guys are here doing pro bono legal-themed free word association instead of making $300k in a courtroom.

    • @natan_amorim_moraes
      @natan_amorim_moraes 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      I'm not a lawyer, but I think you can't make your logo similar to other companies' logos, especially companies who operate in the same market. It's not as simple as "trademark colors" and I think that's what the "Cease and desist" was about, he could argue that it wasn't imitating the logo but takes time and costs money to pay a lawyer.

  • @SzaboB33
    @SzaboB33 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +103

    Non compete clauses should be illegal everywhere in the world

    • @murtadha96
      @murtadha96 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +9

      …if we didn’t have spineless corrupt politicians…

    • @adarshjkalathil
      @adarshjkalathil 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      What if when big tech companies hire all the employees of small companies

    • @CollCaz-2
      @CollCaz-2 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

      @@adarshjkalathil a small company can't afford to sue a FAANG company anyways so it doesn't matter

    • @JmbFountain
      @JmbFountain 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +6

      Non-compete are legal here, as long as you still get paid. So it's legal if my current employer says "you're not allowed to work in this field for the next 5 years", but they'd have to continue paying me for that time

    • @danielthompson2561
      @danielthompson2561 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

      The company I work at was recently “acquired” by a large tech company. They very quickly drafted new contracts with non-competes, which we did not have previously, and pushed us to sign them.
      They also attempted to increase hours, freeze pay, and generally bully staff into compliance. I did not sign, and I have left the company, to go into independent contracting. I am also building a tool that I hope will be competitive… I did not appreciate the bullying.

  • @zfbx
    @zfbx 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +33

    Man.. speaking of lifetime bans funny you mention ads 👀I got lifetime banned from AdSense in 2006 .. I was young and dumb.. clicked my own ads about 100 times cause.. as I said.. I was dumb. Because of that I was banned.. It's now 18 years later.. I'm now over twice the age I was then.. and this is my 3rd google account I've created since but I am STILL banned.. I've appealed it like 6 times but I've given up at this point. (This was right as the transition with google and TH-cam also.. and they merged the systems and I was banned on here from making any ad revenue also.. ) was quite the rip for me becoming a webdev at the time

  • @TurtleKwitty
    @TurtleKwitty 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +10

    In Canada the loser pays lawyer costs, whether the case was bullshit or not; whoever was in the wrong eats the cost, in the wrong being either wrongfully bringing it to court or wrongful to the law

    • @meepk633
      @meepk633 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

      That is how laws work. "Bullshit" is not a real thing.

    • @AlexandreMoreauLemay
      @AlexandreMoreauLemay 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      In common law provinces yes, I think in quebec no from what I remember

  • @OneOfThePetes
    @OneOfThePetes 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +19

    You made Chromtana?!?
    Dude, I love you.

  • @kenengstrom7808
    @kenengstrom7808 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +8

    I already unfollowed everything manually, sadly Facebook as a platform just stops working if you are not following things.
    Like page after page with sponsored posts, sometimes 10-20 ads between each post from an actual friend.

  • @turc1656
    @turc1656 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +4

    Just so we're all clear, I own cerulean blue.

    • @Dommo_
      @Dommo_ 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +4

      This is a cease and desist as I actually own “cerulean blue”.
      Additionally, I own all “blues” and references to “blues”, including and not limited to; “feeling blue”, “the blues”, “turquoise” and “the blue man group”.
      I expect a response by the next blue moon.

  • @TwiceVisible
    @TwiceVisible 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +5

    256K subscribers, Theo. A forth of the way to gigabyte.

  • @xprowler404x
    @xprowler404x 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Im so blessed to have a grandma as a lawyer in the state of california, being based in california as a tech person, who is also friends with my congressman, senator and other various legal entities in the state of california

  • @masterflitzer
    @masterflitzer 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    Please make a video about chrometana, it was an amazing extension and I didn't know you build it

  • @J4j4yd3r
    @J4j4yd3r 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Thanks for covering this, wouldn't have found out about it for a while otherwise.

  • @Viviko
    @Viviko 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +25

    I actually made a little gaming mini platform on top of Discord. The TOS says if they leave my server, I need to delete all the data I gathered from the API via my bot. So, instead I made a separate site they need to create an account in, and the. Link Discord, just so I can keep the data and market to them later.
    Yes. Reading TOS is handy.

    • @zachw566
      @zachw566 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +13

      Congrats, you found a way to be unethical

    • @Maric18
      @Maric18 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

      i mean i know you are just a small part of the problem and everyone else is doing it and so on but
      > just so I can keep the data and market to them later.
      makes me wish you stub your toe every day for the rest of your life.
      these people sign up for a game, they do not want to be marketed to, no matter how you trick them into giving consent

    • @TuxraGamer
      @TuxraGamer 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      ​@zachw566 oh no, they're gonna sell the data about who plays a Flappy Bird clone!1!1!1!1!!1!1

    • @zachw566
      @zachw566 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +4

      @@TuxraGamer it’s a matter of principle. Finding a way to evade privacy/data protection regulations is never a good thing, no matter how harmless the data is.

    • @solimm4sks510
      @solimm4sks510 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

      just because you can doesn't mean you should.
      what you did wasn't smart, it was evil.

  • @ifscho
    @ifscho 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

    I think there's a difference between ignoring and not answering. What Theo did sounds to me like (partially) complying, and just choosing to not answer after the fact. So, at best, a mixture of 1. and 2.

  • @MichaelKire
    @MichaelKire 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +21

    Congratz on the 256k modem.. uhm... subscribers :)

    • @boomknuffelaar
      @boomknuffelaar 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +4

      Haha, love the idea of programmers congratulating each other in base 2 instead of base 10 😂

  • @Q_20
    @Q_20 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    so you made chrometana i didn't know that, thank you so much.

  • @rajarshikhatua100
    @rajarshikhatua100 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +5

    yuzu mentioned

  • @wlockuz4467
    @wlockuz4467 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

    You can have trademarks for colors? Wtf.

  • @igorgiuseppe1862
    @igorgiuseppe1862 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +4

    10:37 the biggest issue is that those services are international, a lot of terms of service specify that those are the terms unless some of thsose terms are illegal, so the TOS can be read like this:
    "if this term is illegal on your region, ignore it, otherwise follow it"
    an court cant say they put illegal terms on their terms of services because those terms may be legal in an different region and no one will go into the trouble to check all the laws for all regions to make sure there are at least one where those terms are legal.
    so companies can claim whatever they want in their TOS., and our only defense is see if the term aply to us and if we get banned try to sue then...

    • @meepk633
      @meepk633 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

      You're totally right. Your "only defense" is the laws of your own country. That is how laws work. Fortunately, there's an approximately 0% chance you were banned for something that companies can't do in your own country, and this will apply to approximately 0 people. I suspect that's why you didn't include a single example of a ban with a 'gray area' cause.
      Also fortunately, countries that do business together have treaties and other law enforcement agreements. A partner country's citizens and businesses will usually have rights and obligations based on the laws of both countries. If they don't, you are probably using an internet service in an adversarial country.
      Just to sum it all up, this is not the "biggest issue" at all. It is possibly the smallest issue that you will ever deal with in your life. It will almost certainly never apply to you or anyone you will ever know. On the extraordinarily low chance that it does, you will probably have similar avenues for grievance as anyone in the host country. By the way, these avenues are usually, "sorry we have a first amendment and tech companies don't have to serve you." Not much of an avenue either way.

  • @martixy2
    @martixy2 หลายเดือนก่อน

    6:40 You gotcha'd yourself. Saying "malicious" as if that's the same as "things they wouldn't like".

  • @laughingvampire7555
    @laughingvampire7555 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

    I think if the company has a certain size threshold then a judge order should be required to ban you or hinder your usage of the service or company in any way as a customer

    • @meepk633
      @meepk633 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Deeply insane and unconstitutional idea.

  • @ChrisPepper1989
    @ChrisPepper1989 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Important to note that when you get sent a job offer with a contract, the company has spent time and money to get to that point.
    So this is the absolute best time to negotiate changes to your contract. Granted this may come with risk depending on the market conditions but everytime ive turned around and said, im not signing that until you remove / put in an exception for X. Its been done. Ive had to wade through the usual 'this is just our standard contract blah blah' but sticking to my guns has always worked because everyone realises we are all just saving us all time later haha
    In case your wondering i always get the 'anything you make is our ip' bit modified. Gives me peace of mind that i dont have to beat that in court

    • @kelleyau9056
      @kelleyau9056 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Can you give an example of what you got it modified to, or do you just have them outright remove it?

  • @user72974
    @user72974 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    What on earth is that thumbnail? Theo is being sued? I skimmed the video and saw nothing that looked like that. It looked like a blog post about somebody else receiving a cease and desist letter.

    • @jacoblockwood4034
      @jacoblockwood4034 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      It's a good way to get clicks, I don't mind clickbait if the content itself is good which in my opinion this is.

  • @disruptive_innovator
    @disruptive_innovator 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

    TOS's can hide ugly stuff. always read up when you use a service seriously.

  • @synwix
    @synwix 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    hell yea

  • @NithinJune
    @NithinJune หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    6:01 You can in California

  • @middle_pickup
    @middle_pickup 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

    I want to hear everything about the chrometana story. I HATE cortana. Also, I would love to hear your thoughts on Yanis Varoufakis' book Technofeudalism if you have read it. These platforms operate as fiefdoms in the modern day.

  • @matt1988ish
    @matt1988ish 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    +1 for chrometana video

  • @snippet.master
    @snippet.master 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    Hell yea

  • @MartelSanders
    @MartelSanders 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Congrats Theo

  • @TomNook.
    @TomNook. 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    General rule of thumb: study the law more than their terms and conditions

  • @LawJolla
    @LawJolla 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    I'm an IP attorney... well done Theo. Nice analysis.

  • @umuden
    @umuden 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

    ..Probably last person who typed that cursed name
    4:46 right.. and half of this world calls itself a man, which is beyond me
    Don't take it personal will you.
    Thanks for the video

  • @laughingvampire7555
    @laughingvampire7555 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

    The best way is to be prepared talk to a lawyer before anything happens and ask him what you need to have ready, what data to collect and how to organize it.
    And here is what I think is the best way to protect yourself, buy stocks of the company and organize with other content creators to buy stocks of the company’s parent company of there is one.

    • @meepk633
      @meepk633 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

      Any particular reason you're giving legal advice in youtube comments instead of making $300k a year practicing law in a courtroom? How many coordinated stock buys have you done? Just tell us about the top 10 or 15 coordinated stock buys that have helped you in your legal cases.

  • @toadlguy
    @toadlguy 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +5

    I had to stop watching this video and just read the substack. The number of times your comments were "I did this" or "I did that" were ridiculous. Self absorbed much? (BTW, I do usually like your videos 😉)

  • @TomNook.
    @TomNook. 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    It's too late to decentralise from big tech for most. as Theo has shown, too many of us have tied our whole lives into their digital services.

    • @meepk633
      @meepk633 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

      Are you an AI?

  • @kurdm1482
    @kurdm1482 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

    Oooooooooo

  • @notangelmario
    @notangelmario 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

    404th like :), love your vids

  • @attenberg
    @attenberg 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

    Are you Louis Barclay or why are you stealing his expert opinions?

  • @andreim6342
    @andreim6342 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

    1# stop using facebook dev libraries

  • @devinm_5711
    @devinm_5711 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +8

    Yap yap yap. Shush please 🤫

  • @senxo.visuals
    @senxo.visuals 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +3

    These videos got way to long. These used to be about 10-15 minutes and just about to be watched for one sitting. Right now since they've gotten about 30 minutes each - 1) I'd maybe watch a 10-15 min video on such a topic that I'm not that much interested in, like this one, and 2) just spending here 30 minutes is way to much time!

  • @survivor303
    @survivor303 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

    One rule, don't use your name.

    • @meepk633
      @meepk633 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +2

      Wonderful advice from someone who has never made money from the internet.

    • @survivor303
      @survivor303 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

      @@meepk633 and shut up 😂

  • @wilmerwalton5089
    @wilmerwalton5089 2 หลายเดือนก่อน +1

    We've had cattle, steel, rail, oil, Wall Street, and now Internet barons. They control the companies that control the Internet. They use their control to enforce their non-compete rule on all would-be competitors. It's the golden rule, he who has the gold make the rules. Asking a top 5 AI "What's the best business strategy to out-compete the top 5 Internet companies?" might provide an ironic answer.

    • @meepk633
      @meepk633 2 หลายเดือนก่อน

      ugh