Remix clone Hacker News

Damages? The potential payout is enormous.

An enormous payout from a guy who built an app as a side project? Ok, you could push the guy into bankruptcy, but I doubt that you will ever see an "enormous payout"...

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skrebbel 8 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Yeah but, how can there be damages without a breach?

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netdevphoenix 8 days ago | parent [-]

Kate is a citizen. She is 60 years old and the family lives away. She gets visited daily by a care worker. Kate downloads the app and enters her data. Kate shares her data with the care worker so it can be managed for things like appointments and medication. The manager of the care worker sees the app, checks that the site has no policy whatsoever. Shares the name of the app with the law department. Law department contacts the local health authority regarding the app legality. The local health authority begins proceedings against the developer. Developer loses money

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JoeAltmaier 8 days ago | parent | next [-]

That makes sense, and I hope it would work. Still, that's maybe an old view of how software and business work. In truth the app is a whipped-together thing, and the 'company' selling it is a shell. The address is a blind PO box.

Law department visits the box and finds nobody. Shell company changes name (indeed, perhaps they have a different name for every victim) and resume operation immediately. Hell, they never stop selling for a millisecond.

Follow the money? Ha. The modern ideas of currency make such schemes bulletproof.

	▲	netdevphoenix 8 days ago \| parent [-]
		Domain ownership, cloud accounts, IP addresses. All of these can be used to as a collection of evidence to pinpoint the target. In the old days, it would be harder but nowadays everyone is sheds fingerprint cells the same way leave dead cells with our DNA everywhere

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skrebbel 8 days ago | parent | prev [-]

Yeah but how does the "law department" gain money? The question I asked is "what's in it for them?"