I think that we need people out there actually willing to say, “okay, if you want to play the cease-and-desist game, take me to court,” in order to expose the scams for what they are.

Do you have any links to these discussions on blogs or message boards or forums, or is it just word of mouth? I have been trying to find another case of this [1]…

[1] http://www.tdaxp.com/archive/2007/10/09/copyrighted-cease-and-desist-letters.html

Victoria Strauss and A.C. Crispin, literary agents who run a site/blog called “Writer Beware,” were issued a cease-and-desist order and apparently later an underhanded “apology” that can also be read as a cease-and-desist letter, even though PublishAmerica had already established a site to slander Strauss and Crispin! In fact, it actually seems to be common practice among scam publishers and literary agents to overwhelm their critics with cease-and-desist requests.

Author's Lawyer notes that PublishAmerica has “cybersquatted on the domain name of one of its most persistent critics for several years.”

Again, it's not quite an identical situation, but it does involve the operators of a scam issuing cease-and-desist letters (and threatening) people who publicly expose that scam.

Strauss & Crispin's letter from PublishAmerica:

http://accrispin.blogspot.com/2007/02/publishamerica-doesnt-hate-us-anymore.html

And on a scam agency sending a cease-and-desist:

http://accrispin.blogspot.com/2006/05/victoria-strauss-barbara-bauer-show.html

Authors' Lawyer on PublishAmerica's cybersquatting:

http://www.authorslawyer.com/l-publishers.shtml#pa

Very distrubing. Thanks for the links.

Any hope of getting the tdaxp and Public Citizen links to this story featured over at Primrose Road?