Did Dozier Internet Law misrepresent a federal judge?
on January 26, 2008 at 12:00 amBrendan of I Hate Linux emailed in this disturbing story: Dozier Internet Law got a judge to agree one can copyright a cease-and-desist letter…
… or, maybe not: According to Public Citizen:
The hearing transcript is not online, so we cannot be sure exactly what arguments were conceded, but there is every reason to believe that the judge did NOT reject either the First Amendment or the fair use arguments – he seems to have avoided them by ruling for the one party on whose behalf they were still being pressed by the end of the hearing. Nothing supports Dozier’s claim that the case stands for the proposition that a cease and desist letter is copyrightable, not to speak of the propositions that posting of such letters is neither fair use nor protected by the First Amendment.
I will try to read the PDF of the original decision, and come to my own conclusion.
Here is the Dozier Internet Law Blog:
[url redacted by tdaxp. See here: http://www.tdaxp.com/archive/2008/01/31/dozier-spam-bot-attacks-tdaxp.html for an explanation ]
Frankly, it seems pretty insightful.
[...] Dozier Internet Law isn’t the only country out to sue critics on the internet: PublishAmerica has sued publisher-watchdog site Preditors and Editors. Unfortunately, in the American legal system, it’s often so expensive to defend against nonsensical suits that many victims fold after being SLAPPED (victim of a strategic lawsuit against public participation). [...]