Copyrighted Cease and Desist Letters
by tdaxp ~ October 9th, 2007
Has anyone heard of copyrighted cease and desist letters before Dozier Internet Law slapp’d Infomercial Scams with one (and Public Citizen stood up for speech)? The only google result for “copyrighted cease and desist” comes from Legal Research Blog’s coverage of the Dozier letter, while the copy occurrence of “copyrighted C&D” comes to kd.to_tumblr’s reporting on the DirectBuy case.
(Chilling Effects has a searchable cease-and-desist database, but I’m not familiar enough with it to find any copyrighted strategic lawsuits against public participation.)
October 9th, 2007 at 12:00 am
It's a laughable claim, particularly for correspondence. It's only something that a lawyer could come up with.
October 10th, 2007 at 12:00 am
My understanding is that anything that is written (original, not mere copy-paste of someone else's writing), including the comment I am now writing, is automatically copyrighted according to law. However, poets, novelists, essayists, and so forth may have a difficult time proving the writing is theirs originally if they do not file a copyright; that's back-up, however, not the copyright itself:
“Under the Convention, copyrights for creative works are automatically in force at creation, without being asserted or declared: an author need not “register” or “apply for” a copyright in countries adhering to the Convention. As soon as a work is “fixed”, that is, written or recorded on some physical medium, its author is automatically entitled to all copyrights in the work and to any derivative works, unless and until the author explicitly disclaims them or until the copyright expires.”
— Berne Convention @ Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berne_Convention_for_the_Protection_of_Literary_and_Artistic_Works
October 10th, 2007 at 12:00 am
Looks like the UK, at least, has already addressed this issue:
http://www.lawdit.co.uk/reading_room/room/view_article.asp?name=../articles/Copyright%20in%20business%20letters.htm
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/02/15/email_copyright_infringement/
October 10th, 2007 at 12:00 am
It does seem like a similar case.
The lack of freedom in so much of British society is troubling. From hate speech laws to libel laws to that application of copyright laws, the Crown keeps the mouths of its subjects shut tight.
October 11th, 2007 at 12:00 am
“the Crown keeps the mouths of its subjects shut tight”
I've responded to this, and contemplated another aspect of this controversy, on Phatic Communion:
http://www.phaticcommunion.com/archives/2007/10/free_speech_and.php
October 11th, 2007 at 12:00 am
Courtesy of Legal Ethics Blog [1] is this c&d from Lavely & Singer [1] in Los Angeles, California, which is also copyrighted! So the practice goes back at least to January 6, 2006.
[1] http://legalethicsforum.typepad.com/blog/2007/10/frivolous-copyr.html
[2] http://www.thesmokinggun.com/jamesfrey/freysides/singerfrey1.html