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You can write cease-and-desist letters

Sure, you could do that. Be aware, that lots of webmasters, as you call them, arent really in the habit of giving a care in the world about what your limits on their speech should be.

Steve Caton had an even more clueless lawyer do that exact thing. Now instead of just having his court cases publicly posted on the county website, his name will forever be associated with making threats to remove that same information when someone searches for his name

Sometimes, perhaps.

Sometimes, though it just makes the company sending the letter look uninformed and foolish. If you would like to see an example of a foolish letter being sent, you can always read the Foolish Cease and Desist letter a corporation sent to me a few years ago.

Obviously, the sender of the above letter was making such over the top threats, that it was clear they had no understanding of the legal process involved. I imagine the thought that this foolishness would become public information, never crossed their mind. In the years that have followed, tens of thousands of people have viewed that letter, and the company who wrote that has had its business practices laid out for everyone to see, and has become a running joke in the community.

But yes, in this case, the FCC probably has a little more professionalism and backbone, to see these sort of questions through.

Yes, there are plenty of people who have filed to run their business as a corporation. You arent a 'corporate owner', that phrase drips with sanctimonious self-importance. I certainly hope you hire a lawyer very quickly to handle your copyright, as you obviously have zero idea what copryright law actually is.

When 'your friends' create a mix from someone elses music, or use video clips for school work, they are NOT violating copyright. If your friends took someone elses creation, did nothing, and then made a million copies of it to sell for profit, THEN they are violating copyright.

Seriously, get a lawyer. If you proceed in your misinformed thoughts you are going to find yourself on the receiving end of whats called a 'declaratory judgment' from someone who your all-encompassing ego sent a threat of copyright litigation.

How do I know this? Well some self-important ass clown tried to send me a cease and desist letter claiming copyright infringement. So instead of backing down, I hit back harder and filed for a declaratory judgment against them. They obviously lost, as their understanding of copyright is about as accurate as yours. When you dont have any idea what the law is, you better not be making legal threats against people, or spending your time looking for people who you suspect of violating something based on your own inaccurate understanding of the subject.

If you ever crossed paths with me with that BS in public, I would hang you out to dry in the court system so fast, you wouldn't know what hit you.

Oh, I think he will win. If by nothing else than by being left alone.

In my experience, people who try to 'bully' you with a threat of litigation, are usually talking out of their ass, and they know it. They also are operating under the assumption that since they are only saying it to you, that nobody else will hear what a raving jackass they are in their demands...

Exhibit A:

Caton Commercial tried to claim that the public records from the COURTHOUSE were libelous, and were going to sue for criminal damages.

Welcome to the internet, you corrupt old politician.

But then again, posting such a poorly thought out Cease and Desist letter might end up in more attention being drawn to such unethical business practices.

Since you are a betting man, what do you think the odds are that the lawyer who wrote that letter has severely questioned the decision to do so?

Im surprised that blockshopper settled out of court here.

I had a similar experience, with regard to unpaid domains from a place I was doing contract work for.

When the bills went unpaid, I posted a link to the county courthouse that listed all the current and pending cases said company had against it.

Almost a year later, I got what is best known as a "Cease and Desist" letter in the mail from an attorney. The letter claimed all sorts of things, that I was knowingly committing libel, along with trademark and copyright violations as well. The threats included if I did not comply were restraining orders, fines, and CRIMINAL charges being filed against me.

So what did I do? I never responded to the letter, and I posted the letter on my website, for all to read. So now, something that had about 1-2 hits a month, went up to being seen by 10,000+ people. And the lawyer who attached himself to this attempt, is forever associated with it.

You can read the incompetent attempt at a Cease and Desist Letter here. The company who felt this was an ethical approach was Caton Commercial

And now, one year later, I have not heard a single response to that letter. Although, in all honesty I wish that I could have gone into a court room, and heard the lawyer who wrote that letter try to explain his case to a judge that the county was publishing libelous information by posting the schedule of its own cases online publicly.

Well, since you asked;

The domains eventually expired out of my ownership. Some of them have been bought by domain farms, and best of all some of them are STILL, one year+ later, unregistered.

I originally posted the letter online, so that my acquaintances, who are lawyers, could read it. They passed it on to their friends, who passed it on to their friends, etc...

The original post I had put up had about one or 2 dozen hits on it before they sent that letter. Since that time, over 10,000+ people have viewed the letter. More than a few of them are in my area, and undoubtedly knew of the company.

I didnt have any intention of responding to the pinhead who wrote that letter, or the lawyer who took their money to write it. And that was the last I ever heard from either of them in regard to it. And now, its framed on the wall for my amusement in my bedroom.

But the best part, is now when searching for their company name Caton Commercial, the returns in google show the courthouse website listing their current cases as 2nd or third, and that letter they sent as 4th or 5th. So it ended up like all 'Streisand Effect' type situations. They drew more attention to their... ummm... lets just say 'character' by their actions, then if they had done nothing at all.

More than once, Ive heard this comapny called the 'laughing stock' of the town since that time, and I imagine it is in no small part to them sending that letter, and its subsequent publication for all to read.

And I think this is a very good point as to why anonymous posting should be allowed.

About a year ago, I received what is most commonly known as a 'Cease and Desist Letter'. It was not written by a judge, it was not the result of a jury or any type of court ruling. It was just the ranting of a lawyer, who in my opinion, ranks very high in the incompetence area.

Now, anyone can read the letter that Caton Commercial sent. It has been posted for anyone to read, with the intention of shining a light on this incredibly ignorant tactic.

The letter referred to a post I had on a website, that listed the public court schedule for a particular company in my area. Let me repeat that again, the letter listed the PUBLIC COURT SCHEDULE for the appearances of a company in my area.

Because I chose not to be anonymous in my posting of this information, it was easy to find me, and I had the enjoyment(and later amusement) of reading this letter and the incredibly ignorant claims made in it.

In a way, I wish it would have gone to court. I would have LOVED to have heard this lawyer actually try to argue in front of the judge, that the public information that the county published itself was in any way libelous.

I wish you would have saved it as well. It seems to be a well kept secret of how often this type of intimidation is used under the guise of 'legal threats'.

A year ago, I received a Cease and Desist letter about some domains that I owned. The level of accuracy was similar, as it was addressed to my name but a different address, apparently pulled from the phone book. The letter was threatening all sorts of off the wall things; civil charges, punitive damages, and CRIMINAL charges among others. You can read the letter here sent by
Caton Commercial

Sure, I could have played along and used the same legal system to smack down the lawyer for making such unfounded threats(it would fall under ethical rules of the bar assn), but instead I decided to post it for all to read.

In that period of time, when searching for the name of the company who sent it, the letter comes up in the top 4 results, along with a link to all the court cases the company is involved in in the local county courthouses publishing of cases. According to my logs, almost 10,000 people have read the letter since its posting.
oops...

Its amazing how often this kind of thing happens, and I think the only reasonable response to this kind of behavior is to PUBLISH it.

I did some contract work for a company once, and during the course of the work, found out that there were quite a few court cases against them in my local county. I decided to stop any further business dealings with them.

After not being paid for services rendered, I posted a link to our local county courthouse showing all the court cases they were currently involved in.

About 9 months later, I got a letter in the mail from an attorney, claiming all sorts of things like you described; libel, copyright, and CRIMINAL violations. The letter however was addressed to someone else in the phonebook of my small town who had the same last name as myself. I only received it after it had been sent back to the post office numerous times for an incorrect address. It should be pointed out here, that at no point was I trying to hide my identity or make it confusing as to exactly who was posting this court information. At this point it became obvious the level of professionalism I was dealing with that wouldnt even do the most basic fact checking on their accusations. The wording of this letter seemingly bordered on blackmail. To make a long story short, I posted the threatening letter for everyone to read, and havent heard another peep since.

The company who did this was the small real estate company, Caton Commercial. You can also read the Cease and Desist Letter they sent.

It honestly amazes me that a business would send such a spurious letter to someone who is already publishing the questionable ethical practices of said company. And yes, now when you search their company name, Caton Commercial in a search engine, the second result is the courthouse website listing their cases, and the third is a copy of that letter. I cant imagine that was the intended result they were after, when they first had the idea to intimidate someone for publishing already public court information.

Thats because its so much easier to just post the insane threats of lawsuits online. Most of the time, it ends there. After all, when you shine a light on cockroaches and their actions, they all scatter and run their separate ways.

Example A:
Caton Commercial wanted to make threats of a criminal lawsuit, slander and copyright because of a domain that published their publicly available court appearances. The threatening letter was then posted Here. Although it would have been amusing to hear the 'plaintiff' stand before the judge and try to argue the information of the very same judges county courthouse website, was ALSO subject to these threats. The information in question was published online by the county first.

Something tells me the lawyer who wrote it, and the company who hired the lawyer, really wish they could put that toothpaste back in the tube.

Long story short, some people dont think through their actions.

I dont think their intention when writing that letter, was for these threats to come up in the third spot on google, when searching for their company name - "Caton Commercial". Second spot, is the courthouse website publishing the same info.

Before they sent this letter, the courthouse link was not on the first page of results, or the second, or the third....

Thats because its so much easier to just post the insane threats of lawsuits online. Most of the time, it ends there. After all, when you shine a light on cockroaches and their actions, they all scatter and run their separate ways.

Example A:
Caton Commercial wanted to make threats of a criminal lawsuit, slander and copyright because of a domain that published their publicly available court appearances. The threatening letter was then posted Here. Although it would have been amusing to hear the 'plaintiff' stand before the judge and try to argue the information of the very same judges county courthouse website, was ALSO subject to these threats. The information in question was published online by the county first.

Something tells me the lawyer who wrote it, and the company who hired the lawyer, really wish they could put that toothpaste back in the tube.

Long story short, some people dont think through their actions.

I dont think their intention when writing that letter, was for these threats to come up in the third spot on google, when searching for their company name - "Caton Commercial". Second spot, is the courthouse website publishing the same info.

Before they sent this letter, the courthouse link was not on the first page of results, or the second, or the third....

Its not much different in business either.

I was doing some contract work for a company when i found out they were being hauled into court on an almost weekly basis, for such things as contract breaches, etc... and decided it was time for me to move on.

When I left for that exact reason, still knowing many people who worked there, it eventually got back to me that they were saying that I was involved in illegal activities in regard to their business. Needless to say, everyone who heard them say this had to keep a straight face so as to not laugh at them.

However, instead of dealing with the headaches of a slander case, I simply decided to post all the information about their activities that were publicly posted on our counties courthouse website. Caton Commercial was the company who did this, and decided it would be a good idea to then have a lawyer send me a letter threatening to sue me and file CRIMINAL charges for posting this info(they were calling it slander).

Not surprisingly, I have never heard from these cockroaches again since the light has been pointed on what I see as their Unethical Business Practices

Its not much different in business either.

I was doing some contract work for a company when i found out they were being hauled into court on an almost weekly basis, for such things as contract breaches, etc... and decided it was time for me to move on.

When I left for that exact reason, still knowing many people who worked there, it eventually got back to me that they were saying that I was involved in illegal activities in regard to their business. Needless to say, everyone who heard them say this had to keep a straight face so as to not laugh at them.

However, instead of dealing with the headaches of a slander case, I simply decided to post all the information about their activities that were publicly posted on our counties courthouse website. Caton Commercial was the company who did this, and decided it would be a good idea to then have a lawyer send me a letter threatening to sue me and file CRIMINAL charges for posting this info(they were calling it slander).

Not surprisingly, I have never heard from these cockroaches again since the light has been pointed on what I see as their Unethical Business Practices

So, if I link the name of a specific company, say Caton Commercial, to a website of the courthouse of the county they are located in, that shows their current court cases, that would be an acceptable use of hyper-linking?

I just want to make sure, so that they aren't able to craft some sort of streisand-effect based Cease and Desist letter that would make them look unprofessional.

Well, Ive had the same experience. A local real estate company sent me a Cease and Desist Letter in regard to domains that they wanted, but did not want to offer compensation for.

The letter consisted of threatening to sue me, file CRIMINAL charges against me, and restraining orders. It also bordered on libel, as it stated for a fact that owning these domains was libelous and slanderous, without any court of law coming to that finding. The company who hired the, in my opinion, unethical attorney to send this letter was Caton Commercial

Since they sent that letter, and I published it on-line for my lawyer to read, the results seem to have been that their company name 'Caton Commercial' now comes up with the second result in google pointing to the Will County website which lists all the current and pending legal cases they are involved in personally, and because of their business practices.

Is there something about real estate where the blinders to the outside world are so intense, that they stop the line of thought the prevents a company from considering the 'law of unintended consequences'?

I know someone who works in the court clerk's office of my county, and I can rattle off hundreds of examples of this.

One of the more notable ones was a real estate agent who came into the court and was upset that her case, and arrest, for DUI was posted online on the court schedule. Demands were made that this information not be published because the person was worried about how it would affect their reputation. I honestly dont think it ever occured to them to avoid the actual driving while intoxicated to avoid that damaged reputation. Only the publishing of that information was what was the problem.

Closer to home, I had posted a listing of all the court cases of a local real estate agency. Some of them arbitration cases, and some of them small claims cases. All that was posted was an exact copy of the information from the court website. This was up for about 6 months when I received a letter from an attorney DEMANDING I take the information down because it was 'making knowingly libelous claims'.

It gets worse. In the Cease and Desist letter, the demands were for me to turn over my domain names to this company free of charge, or they were going to move forward with criminal charges against me. Needless to say, I ignored the letter. Suprisingly, I never heard from them again. But that might be because I decided to post the nice Cease and Desist letter online that was sent by Caton Commercial. I can only imagine the point at which they realized that it might have been a bad idea to bring MORE attention to what they were trying to keep hidden.

To this very day, simply typing in the company name "Caton Commercial" into Google, returns the courthouse website and schedule with all their cases listed in the #2 spot. The 'streisand effect' is a beautiful thing to watch unfold sometimes. If you doubt the story, you can always type it in and see for yourself.

Well, unfortunately, these people are REPRESENTING a certain portion of our population. Its not mature, no, but this is the behavior certain groups of people have chosen to reward.

Its simply a reflection of the place this country has become. Somehow, that when everything doesnt go exactly the way you want it, the only available option is to complain and point at the other guy for being 'at fault'.

Take a situation for example, of a company who is involved in quite a few small claims, and arbitration cases. A third party then publishes the information that is made available on the local county court website regarding this(PUBLIC INFO). What does the company do? Caton Commercial decided to send a Cease and Desist letter claiming that publishing this information was libel. And now what happens? When typing in their company name 'Caton Commercial' into google, the second entry is for the link to the courthouse webiste listing all the case schedules.

The point being, that sometimes drawing attention to yourself in such extremely overboard displays, sometimes has whats best known as 'unintended consequences'. Granted, logically thinking through such a response would have prevented this company, or the republicans, from looking like children. But thats rarely the case when a damaged ego is looking for retribution.

Normally, those who choose to micromanage EVERY aspect of their business experience the same problem.

They are so busy focusing on the most minute detail, that they never really take a step back and see the big picture.

Take the example of a real-estate company in my area. They were so 'concerned' about the most minute detail, in this case domain names that other people owned, they never took a step back to see the big picture and how their actions would be percieved to the world outside of the bubble that they seem to exist in. The company was Caton Commercial, and instead of attempting to broker a deal to legally purchase the property they wanted, they chose to hire a lawyer to send a threatening C&D letter that demanded the domains be turned over to them for no charge, under threat of legal action. For reference, the entire Cease and Desist letter has been posted online

The end result, searching for their company name, now brings up near the #1 result, the current court cases in this county that the company is involved in.

The other favored method these days seems to be sending out non-sensical Cease and Desist Letters claiming all sorts of things, including copyright infringement, and CRIMINAL charges because someone has a domain that you want.

Caton Commercial engages in this, and seems to find this practice acceptable.

I appreciate the views that others have of the real estate industry that are similar to what I saw while working as the IT grunt for a small real estate company. And yes, I heard the exact phrase 'the internet is just a fad' and IT was just a waste of money. The babysitting eventually got old for me, and I came to realize that I had to leave, because the people in charge just dont 'get it'. Not in a bad way, just in a 'my grandparents still listen to music on AM radio' kinda way.

There is no other industry I have seen that is so absurdly protectionist in its business practices. And the result of that type of worldview has led some real estate companies to be literal fossilized relics of their time.

This settlement gives me great pleasure to finally see, as the roadblocks setup by MLS are some of the most frustrating I have ever encountered, from the buyers point of view.

Having seen the industry from the inside, I would never have any part of buying or selling a home through a real estate agent. If I see a house thats for sale that I want, I am patient enough to let the rediculous 'listing agreement' expire, and then buy it right from the seller directly. It is amazing how eager people will become to sell to you when they realize that waiting a few months can net them a 7% larger profit.

And what ever happened to that small real estate company, you may ask? Well Caton Commercial spends some of its time showing up to court cases brought against them by various old employees and business partners, and sending out threatening Cease and Desist letters to other old employees.

Its amazing how common this practice is these days.

For some reason, when I posted the publicly available court cases for my county, a local real estate company hired a lawyer to send me a letter demanding that I remove this as it was 'possibly libelous'.

There were also claims of copryright, and trademark violations in the letter. Along with threatening me to have the information tunred over for possible CRIMINAL charges. Keep in mind these sites did not sell any product, or service of any kind.

Oh, it also demanded that I turn over my legally owned domains to the lawyers client, free of charge.

The company who did this was Caton Commercial, and yes that is a link to the current pending cases against them at my county courthouse. And also, the Cease and Desist Letter can also be read online.

What a pathetic way to run a business, or conduct yourself with respect to others differing views.

dont forget...

Screw You Caton Commercial for sending ignorant Cease and Desist Letters too! :)

Seriously, anyone can send you any letter they want. There is no requirement for it to be based on truth.

I received one of these demand letters a few months back. In it, a commercial company was demanding that I turn over domain names that I owned legally, to them because of claims of trademark infringement. Nevermind that the domains didnt point to a website that actually sold any commercial product or service of any kind to base a claim of trademark upon. The company that sent the letter was Caton Commercial

After talking with a handful of lawyers to see what my rights were, it basically boiled down to all of them telling me what I told you in the first sentence.

"All you have there is an angry letter from people who sent it to you because they themselves know that a court of law would not uphold their claims, and are hoping for you to make a decision in their benefit because you are scared."

Me personally, I just ignored the letter and plan to let the domains expire since they are worthless to me in the first place. If this company is so interested in the domains, they can buy them with their own money. I sure dont plan to give them away for free as the letter demanded.

I also had a nice 'cease and desist' letter sent to me. Other than trying to suggest that I would be brought up on unspecified criminal charges(yes, criminal), the letter also mentioned copyright and trademark violations that I was being accused of violating. Actually, in one sentence of the letter it accused me of making possibly libelous statements, and in almost the very next sentence, it accused me of knowingly making libelous statements. Granted, by this point I already knew the letter was just thrown together with the amount of thought it takes to blink an eye, as the location this letter was addressed to was not mine, but someone else in my town with the same last name. I would guess that after the post office sent it back to them, they finally found the correct information, even though it was in the WHOIS records for the domains the entire time.

I had a nice response letter written out, and had it reviewed by more than one other attorney. And more than one time was advised that the less I said to them, the better. In the end I figured that sending this letter would be showing my hand, and since I knew what I was doing was in no way illegal, or libelous, I made the decision to not send the letter.

By the way, the company who sent this letter, and then demanded I transfer my rights to the domain to them, was Caton Commercial, a real estate company. Being that the content of the sites in question contained linked information that was directly shown on the county courthouse website, I thought it would be better to not tip my hand. In my state, we have what are known as Anti-SLAPP laws, which provide for the awarding of court fees to the defendant in any case which attempts to supress the publishing of public government information.

In the end, I thought it would just be easier to publish the letter online. It amazes me how people could try such underhanded tactics in this day and age, knowing full well how easy it is for the recipient to publish it online for all to see.

I imagine the attorney who wrote this knows all of this, and was just trying to make his clients happy and stop bothering him, since it has now been over 60 days since the original letter was written and sent(to the wrong address) and I have not heard any more from them in regard to this .

I was the recipient of a nice cease and desist letter that involved publicly available content that was posted on some about to expire domains.

Caton Commercial was the company involved. The claim in the letter was that by publishing this already public, government information, that I was making knowingly slanderous statements. (Or possibly slanderous, depending on which sentence you read in the ill-formed letter). The cease and desist letter can be read here

I find myself in a somewhat similar situation. I was supposed to do some work for a company who later ended up folding because of 'bad management', and I was left holding the bag on the domain I purchased at their instruction, that they never paid me for.(they didnt want to buy it, I dont know?).

Other than getting all the requests for 'why havent you paid us yet', the end result is that almost 2 years later these people are COMING AFTER ME WITH A CEASE AND DESIST LETTER and demanding that I turn over this domain and others to them for free because it 'infringes on their copyright'. Although, I honestly can say Im not suprised that Caton Commercial, the real estate company who is operating as the umbrella company for all these shell companies who eventually go under, doesnt know its ass from a whole in the ground.

Knowing full well that this sort of behavior is borderline as far as being professional, I posted the full contents of the Cease and Desist Letter sent by a Mr John Argoudelis online so anyone thinking of working with this company may come across this sort of behavior and maybe think twice. Lawyers and Real Estate agents.... whew... what a combo of integrity!

The company is also involved in numerous court cases relating to other aspects of their business practices. Ive posted a short description of the Will County court cases that caton commercial is involved in at my blackjack and hookers site.

In fact, forget the blackjack!

Unfortunately, Im dealing with one of these 'business people' now. I was supposed to do some work for a company who later ended up folding because of 'bad management', and I was left holding the bag on the domain I purchased at their instruction(they didnt want to buy it, I dont know?)

The end result, is that almost 2 years later these people are COMING AFTER ME WITH A CEASE AND DESIST LETTER and demanding that I turn over this domain and others to them for free because it 'infringes on their copyright'

Knowing full well that this sort of behavior is borderline as far as being professional, I posted the full contents of the Cease and Desist Letter" online so anyone thinking of working with this company may come across this sort of behavior and maybe think twice.

The company is also involved in numerous court cases relating to other aspects of their business practices. Ive posted a short description of these events at my blackjack and hookers site. In fact, forget the blackjack!

Unfortunately, Im dealing with one of these 'business people' now. I was supposed to do some work for a company who later ended up folding because of 'bad management', and I was left holding the bag on the domain I purchased at their instruction(they didnt want to buy it, I dont know?)

The end result, is that almost 2 years later these people are COMING AFTER ME WITH A CEASE AND DESIST LETTER and demanding that I turn over this domain and others to them for free because it 'infringes on their copyright'

Knowing full well that this sort of behavior is borderline as far as being professional, I posted the full contents of the Cease and Desist Letter" online so anyone thinking of working with this company may come across this sort of behavior and maybe think twice.

The company is also involved in numerous court cases relating to other aspects of their business practices. Ive posted a short description of these events at my blackjack and hookers site. In fact, forget the blackjack!