Since FredSmith closed the other thread and told me to take it to the Den at the same time, I must post this here.
I hope this will clear up FredSmith’s confusion on the law on the internet.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/doctor-who-germans-wage-vigilante-campaign-against-fake-ph-d-s-1479324593
“American Ian T. Baldwin, a Cornell-educated professor of ecology in eastern Germany, received a summons from his local police chief in early 2008. “He wanted to know how I planned to plead to the charge of Titelmissbrauch,” or misuse of titles, recalled Prof. Baldwin, who directs the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology. “I couldn’t even pronounce it.””
“Stefan Sprenger, a Frankfurt magician stage-named “The Impostor,” in 2012 bought “the most ridiculous” title he could on Groupon: an “Honorary Doctor of Immortality” degree. “Nobody is going to take that seriously,” he said he assumed.
Two police arrived with a search warrant. Investigators had scoured social networks such as Xing, a career-oriented site, where Mr. Sprenger had posted his joke qualification on his magician profile.
“I thought it could be a big joke,” Mr. Sprenger said. He handed over his certificate and eventually paid around €1,000 to settle the case.”
People have been charged, even for only posting online, fake, even clearly joke titles, as opposed to FredSmith’s assumption.
Xing is an international website, much like this one is.
As long as this site can be read from Germany – it can, I’m there right now – posting names like these are a violation of law. And laws that, due to international law enforcement cooperation, have in the past been enforced in the US even though they are of German origin.
So, can we finally agree that I act in good faith when I call out fake doctorates for what they are?