Chilling Effects Cease & Desist Clearinghouse

Wendy Seltzer writes: "The Berkman Center for Internet & Society, EFF, and other major law school clinics have launched ChillingEffects.org to combat the chilling effect of Cease & Desist letters with ungrounded legal threats. (Slashdot readers got a site preview in the story on the Bnetd Cease & Desist, already in our database.) If you have received a Cease & Desist, we invite you to add it to the database, where law students will analyze the legalese and annotate the C&Ds with Frequently Asked Questions and answers. The site already offers several sets of general legal FAQs."

This is wonderful.

[Daunting*Alligheri]

Hey slashdot crowd, you all should be excited about this. We finally have a place to go check out what the laws really mean (and how they're really applied), as opposed to talking out our asses all the time. This is indeed a Good Thing (tm) and I only hope the best for the affiliated schools.

This is a *great* idea

[syzxys]

If the "Clearinghouse" manages to stay up, it will certainly become very useful. One of the worst things about cease-and-desist letters is that the lawyers throw all kinds of threats at you, which you then have to spend time checking into. If you're a small operation, this means a big company can basically bludgeon you to death with cease and desist letters. In fact, we've seen this happening a lot more in the past year.

I'm glad to see this site go up, IMHO it's a victory for the little guy. It'll be interesting to see what happens to the cease and desist climate after word of the site gets around; maybe people will stop throwing cease & desist at everything they don't like. (Heh, that's probably a pipe dream.) Anyway, just my $0.02.

---
Crash Windows XP just by viewing a simple text file! [zappadoodle.com]

Anyone have experience with brandimensions.com?

[tenzig_112]

I've seen them in my http logs a few times over the past few weeks. Their site says that they "empower our clients to retain control over their names and brands on the web." I may be wrong, but that sounds a lot like marketing-speak for "corporate bully."

Their tag line: "monitoring and protecting your brand equity."

Check the connotations of the individual words:

• Monitor is a fancy way of saying "invasion of privacy," but don't worry, we're invading someone else's privacy.
  
• Protect carries images of military campaigns and gunning down burglars in "self-defense."
  
• Brand is a corporate identity, an entity bigger than [and therefore above the laws of] governmental institutions.
  
• Equity = money.
  

Again, I may be [and probably am] wrong.

For Senders Too?!

[volsung]

If you go look at the site, you'll see that there are forms for entering your Cease & Desist letters if you are the receiver or if you are the sender. I expected to see the receiver form, but was surprised to see the sender form. How many businesses can you think of who would want to advertise that they are trying to indimidate people with C&D letters? I would imagine most businesses would be rather annoyed, actually, to have their letters end up in this thing and come back later to be a PR headache.

Along that line of thinking: How long do you think it will be before C&D letters contain language specifying that you cannot publish them? (And even if you say that is not possible/legal/whatever, how many will try anyway?)

Good idea

[nick255]

Unforunately I think it would only be helpful for those living under US law. Therefore not applicable to many people. Getting law students involved from many other countries would be a good thing.

you've come a long way, slashdot...

[ethereal]

It's kind of funny how the relationship between technology and the law have changed. Four years ago, who would have expected to see an archive of legalisms as a /. front-page story? I mean, this is a tech news site, right?

Ah well, at least there are still white hat lawyers on our side, for the moment at least.

How many C&D are written by amateurs?

[ackthpt]

So how many, rough percentage-wise are written by rank amateurs pretending to be Dewey, Cheatham & Howe?

Assuming you got one, and I'm pretty sure I know someone who did, if they aren't signed by a member of a state bar or plaing fantasy, any recourse, other than telling them where to shove it?

Examples may include, "Dear Sir/Madam, our attorney has advised us that what you are doing violates etc etc etc...", which, IMHO is hardly a C&D rather wishful thinking.

Re:Anyone have experience with brandimensions.com?

[Anonynnous Coward]

Yup. You got it. These kinds of people are the Pinkertons of the twenty-first century, hired goons in the service of corporate bullies.

Fortunately, at least now, they can't keep the news of their actions localized. Now let's just hope people pay some attention.

And with that name, they're easily confused with a laxative company--Bran Dimensions. Of course, now I'll probably be named in a lawsuit.

Re:I agree completely

[renehollan]

I have obtained a DVD copier (at great expense) and I frequently rent movies and copy them so I can view them later, like so:

O.K., cool!

I use DeCSS-derived software to copy DVDs to my Hard Drive and later to DVD, only this time encoding free!

Also cool, sounds like traditional fair use to me. I too use CSS-defeating software so I can view DVDs I purchased under [GNU/]Linux.

I hand out free copies of DVD movies everywhere I can to as many people as I can, along with a 2600 flier about how bad the DMCA is.

Unless these are movies you made, this is uber-uncool. You should be fighting for fair-use, and reductions of copyight protection terms, not blatently fueling the flames of oppression. Such piracy just proves "them" right. Handing out the 2600 flyer is cool. I wear my anti-DVD/CCA t-shirt proudly, too, and explain what it means when people ask.

I realize that you posted in jest, but civil disobedience isn't about completely ignoring bad law, just orderly refusal to obey those parts of the law that are ill-concieved.

Great timing

[Animats]

This comes in just as I'm dealing with a cease and desist letter from an outfit that's annoyed that I reported their phony-invoice scam to their web design firm.

Now as soon as the Slashdot effect fades, I can use the site.

Re:For Senders Too?!

[DennyK]

Not all C&D letters are neccesarily evil or unwarranted. I am sure that there are many companies and individuals out there who have perfectly legal and valid reasons to send C&D letters to someone. Although I haven't seen the sender's form on ChillingEffects myself (darn Slashdot DOS... ;-D ), I would think it would be a great resource for someone with a legitimate complaint to post a draft of their C&D and ask for comments and advice. ChillingEffects doesn't just have to teach people about BS threats; they can also educate visitors on what really are legal and valid reasons for C&D letters, and how to word these valid letters appropriately. Of course, if some company is stupid enough to post something like "Hey, Person X gave my product a bad review, what do you think of this C&D letter?", then they deserve the flailing they are sure to receive... ;)

As for the legality of publishing the letters...IANAL, but as others have said here, and as far as I've ever heard, unless you have entered into a non-disclosure or confidentiality agreement with the party sending you a C&D letter, you are free to show that letter to anyone you please. It doesn't matter if the letter says "This letter is confidential and cannot be shared with third parties." You have made no such agreement with the sender, so you cannot be bound by any "terms" in that letter. Until you do enter into such an agreement or are ordered by a court of law to keep such correspondence confidential, AFAIK, you are free to share it with whomever you wish.

I've actually seen C&D letters with similar phrasing before. It's just more BS to try and scare people into capitulating without a fight.

DennyK

Copyright question

[tlk nnr]

It it legal to put C&D letters on a public website, or could the sender claim copyright infringement?

In Germany, there is something similar to C&D letters ("Abmahnung", slightly worse because you must pay a few hunderd dollers, or they'll go to court).
There is a database about it, but you must never quote the Abmahnung on a website - you'd get another one for copyright infringment.

Nice but..

[CaptainSuperBoy]

It's a great idea, but you really can't call it annotated. There are links in each C&D letter to a FAQ, but it's all boilerplate stuff - for example, the EnronOwnsTheGOP C&D and vivendiuniversalsucks.com C&D basically have the same annotation, such as "what constitutes trademark dilution."

It's a great introduction to those who aren't familiar with the difference between copyright and trademark, for example. It'd be nice to have some actual annotations by lawyers. A good site with this kind of content is Consumer Affairs [consumeraffairs.com]. They have Real Live Lawyers who read consumer complaints and give their opinion on who's at fault, what the relevant laws are, etc. I'd love to see one of these C&D letters ripped apart by a lawyer, e.g. 'this is clearly a parody that falls under fair use.'

Day of Defeat game and chilling emails

[Pvt_Waldo]

I'm part of the Day of Defeat [dayofdefeatmod.com] development team. A few days ago we got hit with the following email...

From: FmlyTreenutATaolDOTcom
To: (various DoD developers), [e-mail]
CC: [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail]
Subject: Day of Defeat
Date: Sun, 24 Feb 2002 11:11:16 EST

Dear Sirs:

Due to the fact there are laws protecting the use of military insignia and
due to the fact your membership has shown absolute lack of respect for those
laws and to the veterans and current military personnel who have earned the
right to wear those insignia, I am asking that you implement the following:

1) That, in the future, if any of your members or players choose to
participate in your on-line combat game, that, as a rule, they will be barred
from playing if they use the official names and insignia of military units
and divisions.
2) That a disclaimer appear on your website making it clear the use of these
insignia and names are in violation of the law.
3) If any member or player has used your game to discredit, disrespect or
misrepresent any of these military units and divisions, that they also be
barred from participating.

These requirements will only enhance the on-line game experience and will
also eliminate any possible law suits that might be filed against your
company for the illegal and unauthorized use of military insignia. They will
also enhance the on-line experience in that they will further educate and
honor those military units that you represent in your game.

I thank you for your attention to this matter.

Sincerely,

Marsha Sears

So what she's basically saying is, she wants us to make the players of our game stop using any kind of military insignia/unit name in their online names. She's also been emailing various DoD "clans" asking the same thing. As you might expect of flame ready teens, some have started bombarding her with some pretty interesting (as I'm guessing) responses.

Now she's writing to us (the DoD Team) and Sierra (who we have ZERO connection with) asking us to make them stop emailing her.

Sheesh!

So - thank GOD for that website. I feel like we're not alone anymore after having it to read!

Re:Cease and Desist Unauthorized Law Practice?

[raresilk]

cperciva meant to be funny, I think, but this issue could actually be a concern. Posting legal advice on the internet is a very touchy thing, because no lawyer I've ever known is licensed to practice in every US jurisdiction in which the postings could be read. (Hence, e.g., my disclaimer.) I suspect that's the reason the site is set up to allow only comments from law students rather than lawyers. Couching it as a community-service-based educational project for law students (who by definition are not practicing law yet) might help the site avoid such attacks.

That being said, I wholeheartedly wish this site the best: a little knowledge about the law can go a long way in shielding oneself from abusive practices. I'm pleasantly surprised, also, to see that /.ers are not flaming the hell out of the idea, given the prevailing "why should I need a professional to explain my legal rights to me - life is supposed be simple, obvious and unfailingly fair" world view often expressed here.

Re:I agree completely

[Phanatic1a]

You should be fighting for fair-use, and reductions of copyight protection terms, not blatently fueling the flames of oppression.

I'm curious.

The issue of term limits and fair-use seems like a crucial one, but I'm not sure that it is. Wouldn't the DMCA be just as bad if copyright terms were only 75 years? 50? 14? Isn't the issue really the draconian laws that are being put into place to enforce copyright protection, and not the term of the protection itself?

Would any of us be satisfied with a world in which Skylarov and Johansen could be persecuted as they have been, in which the DMCA, WIPO regulations, and the SSSCA are enforced laws, but copyright terms were shortened to something reasonable?

I wouldn't be. I don't think fair use and copyright protection terms are the issue. I suspect the issue is that copyright laws simply can't effectively be applied to current and future technologies without draconian enforcement procedures being applied.

Re:I agree completely

[renehollan]

How would you propose to handle it?

Well, for starters, I wouldn't presume that there should be no such notion as copyright, as suggested by our trolly friend above. But, neither would I suggest that ideas and writings with essentiually zero cost of reproduction be an indefinite gravy train for the author.

The original copyright terms would be a good start, but even those are too long when it comes to the usefulness of things like software. Five years protection after first deployment sounds better. And, if you produce derivative works, each gets a brand new five year copyright term. So, at worst, the public domain is five years behind the bleeding edge.

what type of law does it cover?

[arberya]

Does this only look at how american law would interpret the evidence, or international law. I know that many countries share that same policies, but if I live in Australia, and get a cease and desist, can I post it to this forum and get a response showing what rights I have avaliable to me based on Australian or international law.

Re:Cease and Desist Unauthorized Law Practice?

[mbstone]

Has any attorney ever actually gotten in trouble because he posted legal opinion to the Internet and some butthead thought that it created an attorney-client relationship or constituted legal advice? I am a lawyer, and I post stuff from time to time, and I don't choose to .sig my posts with long disclaimers -- because commmon sense should tell you that my post, however opinionated or lawyerlike, doesn't create any duty or liability to readers. If someone knows of a court opinion that says otherwise, please cough it up.