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Comment by gweinberg | Hacker News Reader

I don't understand how this kind of judgement is possible, I understand that if you don't show up for a trial you can have a default judgement against you, but don't you have to be served? I know you can include John Does on the defendant list, but doesn't somebody have to be served?

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Kinda feels like putting a serial killer on trial when you don’t know who it is

More like an estimation of something stolen.

"We don't know who did it but when found they are liable for X€ of damage"

I am not a lawyer, but I was intrigued by the question so I did My Own Research (tm).

Apparently the answer is that you can sue a web site and serve the Internet service provider and whoever registered the domain name.

I would imagine that if there's an anonymizer for the domain they are accepting responsibility for delivering such subpoenas. (I didn't see that started as fact.)

But while ISP's are being ordered to block the site, the $30 million judgment is directed at Libgen itself. Not an ISP or registrar. So I don't think that can be the full answer here.

I was just looking at the question of serving the lawsuit. Winning a default judgment kind of assumes that the defendant at least heard about it, which is hard when you don't know who it is.

Googling turned up that this happens a lot in hit and run cases. I didn't go down that rabbit hole.

I'm very curious too about the legal details.

Is it because this is an injunction rather than the outcome of a trial? But I thought an injunction could only stop behavior, not order a fine.

Or does it have something to do with it being a corporation rather than a person? Or with being a (presumably) foreign corporation?

Exactly. It's one step removed from convicting god for yesterday's weather.

There are many alternative methods of service when you have an unknown defendant or a defendant that evades service, including service by publication.

Who's going to complain about not being served?

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