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Chilling Effects Cease & Desist Clearinghouse

Posted by Hemos on from the good-idea dept.

Wendy Seltzer writes: "The Berkman Center for Internet & Society, EFF, and other major law school clinics have launched ChillingEffects.org to combat the chilling effect of Cease & Desist letters with ungrounded legal threats. (Slashdot readers got a site preview in the story on the Bnetd Cease & Desist, already in our database.) If you have received a Cease & Desist, we invite you to add it to the database, where law students will analyze the legalese and annotate the C&Ds with Frequently Asked Questions and answers. The site already offers several sets of general legal FAQs."

9 of 192 comments (clear)

  1. This is wonderful. by Daunting*Alligheri · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Hey slashdot crowd, you all should be excited about this. We finally have a place to go check out what the laws really mean (and how they're really applied), as opposed to talking out our asses all the time. This is indeed a Good Thing (tm) and I only hope the best for the affiliated schools.

    --
    Witty quotes suck.
  2. How Long.. by Heem · · Score: 5, Funny

    How long until this site itself gets it's own Cease and Desist for whatever unfounded reason?

    Lost his faith in democracy,

    --
    Don't Tread on Me
  3. Shocking! by Cutriss · · Score: 5, Funny

    The Berkman Center for Internet & Society, EFF, and other major law school clinics have launched ChillingEffects.org to combat the chilling effect of Cease & Desist letters with ungrounded legal threats.

    Yeah, those lawsuits hurt me a lot too when they're not grounded - They build up lots of static.

    How about groundless?

    --
    "Mod, mod, mod...and another troll bites the dust."
  4. It's Nice To See by lblack · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's nice to see that after all the talk and jokes about open-sourcing the law, that it is happening.

    Is this that much different from submitting a patch to a peer-maintenance group and having it reviewed by various persons of various qualifications? Or from submitting an Ask Slashdot, for that matter.

    I've been involved with businesses that have been threatened by letters about various things. Upon receiving the first of those letters, I started expanding my knowledge of legalese, law application, etc. A lot of google and a few dead trees later, and I'm much more informed... and can now spot the bullshit much easier than I once could.

    This database should provide a short circuit, so that people can quickly learn about things that pertain to them, and get assistance on resolving them.

    I think this sort of idea is important to free speech in an increasingly corporate medium. It's heartening to see that people care enough to actually devote their time to it.

    -l

  5. put where your mouth is your money by geckoFeet · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Join the eff already. No more excuses.



    /. readers have had another prequel to this with the attack of Barney, the purple Tyrannosaurus rex.

  6. For Senders Too?! by volsung · · Score: 5, Interesting
    If you go look at the site, you'll see that there are forms for entering your Cease & Desist letters if you are the receiver or if you are the sender. I expected to see the receiver form, but was surprised to see the sender form. How many businesses can you think of who would want to advertise that they are trying to indimidate people with C&D letters? I would imagine most businesses would be rather annoyed, actually, to have their letters end up in this thing and come back later to be a PR headache.

    Along that line of thinking: How long do you think it will be before C&D letters contain language specifying that you cannot publish them? (And even if you say that is not possible/legal/whatever, how many will try anyway?)

  7. /.'d by Asikaa · · Score: 5, Informative
    It's /.'d already. Try Google's cache.

    I wonder if EFF et al will be sending /. a Cease & Desist letter for a premeditated DOS attack on their web server? :)

    --

    Asikaa
    Come in, twenty-seventy-seventy, your time is up.

  8. Re:I agree completely by renehollan · · Score: 5, Interesting
    I have obtained a DVD copier (at great expense) and I frequently rent movies and copy them so I can view them later, like so:

    O.K., cool!

    I use DeCSS-derived software to copy DVDs to my Hard Drive and later to DVD, only this time encoding free!

    Also cool, sounds like traditional fair use to me. I too use CSS-defeating software so I can view DVDs I purchased under [GNU/]Linux.

    I hand out free copies of DVD movies everywhere I can to as many people as I can, along with a 2600 flier about how bad the DMCA is.

    Unless these are movies you made, this is uber-uncool. You should be fighting for fair-use, and reductions of copyight protection terms, not blatently fueling the flames of oppression. Such piracy just proves "them" right. Handing out the 2600 flyer is cool. I wear my anti-DVD/CCA t-shirt proudly, too, and explain what it means when people ask.

    I realize that you posted in jest, but civil disobedience isn't about completely ignoring bad law, just orderly refusal to obey those parts of the law that are ill-concieved.

    --
    You could've hired me.
  9. Re:I agree completely by smack.addict · · Score: 5, Insightful
    This is not civil disobedience, it is common thievery.


    Civil disobedience would be to copy your DVD's and store them in a safe space as backups.


    Civil disobedience would be to use Microsoft Office on your laptop and desktop.


    In other words, civil disobedience is doing things that might be illegal but still carry the full force of morality. Your acts are both illegal and immoral.