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Comment by briandear | Hacker News Reader

Small claims, filed in your local county. Sony isn’t going to send a $500/hr attorney to fight a $5000 suit.

I won a case against American Airlines doing that (a baggage related issue.)

Can you file against Sony in your local county when the problem happened via an international company like Facebook or Google, rather than at your local airport? I have no idea, but I'd like it if there really were a simple, and cost-effective way for the little guy to throw some rocks at Goliath now and then in egregious cases like this.

Sony does business everywhere, and if it's flagging the copyright in your country I assume it is possible to sue the local company.

"county" isn't the same word as "country". In the US, you bring small claims suits in a county court...county is very localized, and there are thousands of them in the US. Usually the terms of service of video hosting sites will require lawsuits to be brought in the home county of the company (probably somewhere in Delaware or California for Facebook and Google), and they're likely the offending party here (since Sony files through Facebook and Google, and those companies are the ones who're imposing a terms of service that prohibits uploading "copyrighted" materials), so it is not at all clear one could bring a small claims suit against Sony in your local county. If fact, it seems unlikely, based on my understanding of the law.

I wish it were possible, but I don't know that a county court would consider itself to have jurisdiction in such a case.

Yes, you live there, so the violation happened in your country.

If you live in an "insignificant" country it is possible Sony as no presence and so your win won't get you anything. However in the US or most of Europe Sony has enough presence that some part of them will have to pay.

I said "county" not country; you're having a different conversation. We're discussing small claims court at the county level. You don't sue someone in "United States court", you sue them in a county court, usually in the county where the matter being sued over happened, but sometimes the appropriate jurisdiction is the home county of the person or company you're suing (if it's not the same as where the matter took place).

The best explanation for this I could find is here: https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/free-books/small-cla...

But, it doesn't really answer the question. The agreement between Facebook or YouTube and the uploader definitely requires suits be brought in the jurisdiction of the company (so, Delaware, probably, but maybe California). Sony is using Facebook or Google to do their dirty work in these cases...so, who can you sue and where? I don't think it's at all clear that Sony could be sued in a local small claims court for a matter like this, though I would like for them to be.

Sony might if that suit could set unfavorable precedent, no?

Not sure how much precedents matter in small claims. It usually boils down to how the judge feels about the issue.

Small claims judges in the US are generally supposed to follow precedent, but they don't make precedent. Regardless, in most cases a small claims case can be appealed to a regular circuit court and receive a de novo (completely new) review. (of course, for a corporation, that means hiring an attorney...)

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