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Comment by Maursault | Hacker News Reader

Remove all examples and ban LinkedIn in your code, so that it can't work with LinkedIn. If you have a LinkedIn account, delete it. Problem solved. If they sue you, do not spend every dime on an attorney trying to fight them. Lose. Then declare bankruptcy immediately and protect your assets. LinkedIn can suck it. Also, don't be afraid. It costs them nothing to send a S&D letter. It costs them a fortune to sue you, for which they can only achieve some extremely unprofitable satisfaction. I would even send a copy of a notarized letter to them telling them to stop contacting you. Do it every time they contact you. On their fourth attempt to intimidate you, go to a magistrate and request a restraining order against them.

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terrible advice that may be parody, but just in case you're being sincere: you cannot bank on a big corporation getting cold feet about legal action because legal action is as much about the message it sends to future opposition as it is about the individual action. For example, in the message received by the OP, LinkedIn refer to their legal action taken against HiQ. LinkedIn doesn't want to sue people but they would do it without a second thought if it was judged to be beneficial to them. The cost of being sued and losing and going bankrupt for the OP is huge, and while some people are willing to lose everything to take a principled stand, it's irresponsible to encourage it. If the OP wants to risk everything to stick it to LinkedIn, he should go for it, life is short, but if he's a pragmatic person concerned about his livelihood, he should rollover immediately and live to fight another day.

So, because you disagree that LinkedIn will pursue expensive litigation for no real benefit to them, you're dismissing everything? You're saying the OP should be afraid? Should spend a fortune on attorneys? Should not declare bankruptcy upon loss? I respect that you disagree. I do not respect your focus on a minor detail to dismiss everything.

A portion of your comment was aligned with my own view, sure, but I read the substance of your comment to be regarding the likelihood of LinkedIn following through on their threat and the correct course of action for the OP if that happens.

The OP should absolutely be very afraid because they’re posing a threat to LinkedIn’s hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue from a very vulnerable position. Bankruptcy is brutal and expensive, the OP’s focus should be on avoiding litigation no matter what: telling LinkedIn to suck it is not an option, and bankruptcy is not the “oops hehe bad roll I’ll try again” option you portray it to be.

Well, that's what I would do. They can't squeeze blood out of a turnip.

This is absolutely terrible and irresponsible advice. "Declare bankruptcy immediately and protect your assets" is the worst possible way to handle the situation, since: 1. Losing the court case does exactly what you don't want to happen here; 2. On top of that, you get to go bankrupt! Ruin!

You keep your primary car, house, and retirement accounts in bankruptcy. It’s not the end of the world.

It's much worse than that. You will be on the hook for garnished wages for years to pay off your creditors. And you will have plenty of creditors because the GP's advice says "go lose a civil case". You know what a civil case has? Damages. You know how large the damages are if your strategy is to lose? Big. They have a trademark case so they could get attorney's fees. We're talking about a seven figure bill in fees alone if the case goes to trial. Following this advice could have the OP getting his wages garnished as long as he lives to pay off a multimillion dollar debt. Good luck with that.

Wrong. That is the whole point of declaring bankruptcy, because the debts can't be paid. Nearly all debt, including civil damages, will be wiped clean, and this includes one's own attorneys fees. Why would you say these things when it is abundantly clear you have absolutely no idea? If what you said was true, no one would ever declare bankruptcy. It's the whole point of it, to be free of debt. No one gets their wages garnished after declaring bankruptcy. Never happened, ever.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chapter_11,_Title_11,_United_S...

Depends on the type of bankruptcy and in what jurisdiction. Even in the US with very creditor-favourable bankruptcy laws, you can’t just declare bankruptcy to get out of financial obligations: owing a bunch of people money is not the basis for bankruptcy. Yes, if bankruptcy is approved, wage garnishing will stop, but it can resume depending on the type! Bankruptcy is not a get out of debt free card, it’s the last stop after ruin.

Before ruin, you mean. It prevents ruin, defranchising and homelessness. The worst thing about it is what it does to your credit rating. That's not unbearable.

> Then declare bankruptcy immediately and protect your assets.

Invert this: protect your assets before considering bankruptcy. As "the creator and sole developer" OP may not get any liability protection from their LLC.

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