SCN: Cease and desist

[Steve]

x-no-archive: yes

================


(Gwendolyn Mariano, ZDNet News)---A technology civil liberties 
group and a set of law school clinics on Monday launched a Web 
site aimed at telling people how their online rights stack up against 
corporations intent on protecting trademarks.  

ChillingEffects.org serves as an educational hub where Internet 
surfers can learn about their legal rights related to cease-and-
desist letters. Such a notice, for example, could ask the recipient to 
remove information from a Web site or refrain from engaging in an 
online activity that allegedly violates any copyright or trademark.  

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and law school clinics at 
Stanford University, Harvard University, the University of California 
at Berkeley and the University of San Francisco said they created 
the Web site as part of a project called Chilling Effects, referring to 
the way legal threats can freeze out free expression. The coalition 
said the project aims to provide basic legal information about 
ongoing issues related to copyright, trademark and domain names, 
defamation, anonymous speech, and the Digital Millennium 
Copyright Act (DMCA).  

The DMCA has been a key target for the EFF. The group has 
faced a string of setbacks in its challenges to the federal law, 
which among other things makes it a criminal offense to crack anti-
copying technology. Opponents of the law have argued 
unsuccessfully that the DMCA limits free speech by preventing 
legitimate discussions about technologies such as encryption.  

Many threats of legal action under the DMCA begin with cease-
and-desist letters.  

Robert Talbot, professor of law and director of Internet and 
Intellectual Property Justice Project at the University of San 
Francisco School of Law, said there are "hundreds and hundreds" 
of such letters, including some that are "baseless threats" or tend 
to overstate cases.  

"I have a number of people who have been clients, and they're just 
scared to death when these big companies come after them," 
Talbot said. "They think that there's absolutely nothing that they 
could do.  

"This Web site balances the scales a little bit. At least they can get 
information and find out what is going on and maybe some steps 
they can take."  

The organizers of ChillingEffects.org said they are placing cease-
and-desist notices in a database for the site. For instance, if 
someone is told to remove a synopsis of a "Star Trek" episode 
from a Web site, the letter could be posted on ChillingEffects.org 
with links to information about basic copyright protections, the 
rules governing synopses and the fair use doctrine.  

The site also will offer periodic "weather reports" assessing the 
types of Internet activity that are most vulnerable to legal threats, 
according to the coalition.  


Copyright 2002 CNET Networks Inc.





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