How Not to Write a Cease-and-Desist Letter

In our overly litigious society it seems that many companies are all too happy to fire off a cease-and-desist letter if they see something they don't like. Many times these letters end up online just causing further embarrassment for the company. One such company has decided to try scaring their targets out of this response by including a copyright notice for their cease-and-desist letter. Public Citizen has fielded one of these dumb letters and has invited them to try to assert their cease-and-desist copyright (which isn't even registered).

Comments

Funny Stuff

[eldavojohn]

You can find the first letter to start all this here. I recommend you read that letter and then the one linked in the text.

They attempt to use Fair Housing Council of San Fernando Valley v. Roommates.com, LLC decision as a reason that Leonard is legally liable for hosting defamatory statements about an infomercial company! This is Charles Montgomery Burns quality humor.

Also, for further comedic value, I heavily recommend The DirectBuy website done entirely in flash. Which doesn't offer much except a registration form (click the upper right hand ticket). I can't find a damned thing on how their business model works unless I sign up for it. Seems to be a way to get home furnishings as discount prices. But for some reason you have to go to a show room for that. Sounds like something where the value isn't really there but they're certain they can sell you on the idea if they get a half hour of your time. Probably not a scam but pretty damned close--time share style!

Also what's interesting is how they respond to negative feedback questions:

We're happy to hear that you are considering a DirectBuy membership. We understand that negative information can make it hard for you to make an informed decision about how membership can meet your current and future buying needs, and we'd like to respond.

DirectBuy's unique business model is very different than mainstream retail operation. Our concept, combined with our continued growth over 36 years, has made DirectBuy, just like any other sizeable corporation, a target for controversy.

That being said, most of the information online is posted by individuals who have not attended an Open House, or have chosen not to become members.

We realize that DirectBuy is not for everyone, and that's why we encourage individuals who are interested in taking a calculated approach to undeniable savings to attend an Open House to learn about our unmatched selection, savings, and service. The complaints you see online from those who have actually visited DirectBuy represent a very small fraction of the hundreds of thousands of individuals each year who attend an Open House. (And to set the record straight, DirectBuy has never been involved in a class-action lawsuit.)

We're very proud of our long track record of satisfied members who have enjoyed the undeniable savings and wide array of merchandise that we offer. Our members invest upfront to avoid paying traditional retail markup and save significantly on virtually everything for in and around their homes. Members' satisfaction is our number-one priority.

But the only way to make an informed decision about whether DirectBuy membership is right for you is to attend an Open House event at a showroom near you. There, you'll learn more about the benefits of DirectBuy membership by gaining exclusive access to our showroom and getting a firsthand look at the savings, selection and services available to members from our team of knowledgeable professionals.

DirectBuy members, tell McBain about your membership experience here, too. We'd love to hear from you! I've bolded the sentence that worries me. It both sounds too good to be true and sounds like they take my money and promise me something later that's ill defined. What do you think?

I'll bet any amount of money that wasn't written by a person with a soul. Shady legal threats from an even shadier company. What do you expect?

Re:Funny Stuff

[Billosaur]

The really funny part is that their service is pretty much a scam... I've read up on them and apparently some of their policies are a little suspects, such as clause that do not allow you to return merchandise, cancel an order, or even (get this), terminate your membership! And where did this information come from? Try Consumer Reports. DirectBuy is just another company with its head in the sand. Personally, I can't wait to see if this will end up in court.

Open house

[iknownuttin]

That being said, most of the information online is posted by individuals who have not attended an Open House, or have chosen not to become members.

I once was "invited" to be a broker at a certain mutual fund that I can't even remember the name of anymore and they spent over an hour showing us overheads (yeah, it was back in '84) of broker's checks showing $1500.00 a week in passive commissions. In other words, you get someone to buy this mutual fund and every time they put more money in, you'd get a commission - that includes dividend reinvestment. Towards the end of the sessions, they told us how we'd get the sales - pester family and friends. I left and never came back. One, if I did that, I wouldn't have any friends or family. Two, their business model was to "recruit" as many people as possible (you had to pay for your own series 7), and keep the very rare one who didn't fail. They were looking for fresh meat. I went to a real estate agents open house for a large national firm and they were just looking for fresh meat for their grinder.

There's a huge turnover for these types of retail sales jobs and they're always looking for fresh meat. It looks like this firm is the same thing - another Amway or what ever it's called.

Now, don't get me wrong, some, ok very few, of these sales things aren't the rip-off they seem. Mary Kay has been pretty good to the women I know who do it and their customers seem to be satisfied. I almost went for it - but how is a guy to sell Mary Kay? Sell to transvestites?

form letter

[Johnny Mnemonic]

My wife worked in the Claims department of a large rental car company. If you were hit by a rental car of this company, and the driver accepted the insurance at the time of rental, you would contact her to get your claims fulfilled. Yes it sucked. Notice the tense.

Anyway, she received a letter from an attorney that demanded a response, but stipulated that form letters would not be accepted as legit response.

She sent a letter, but it was returned with "FORM LETTER REJECTED" stamped all over it, and the lawyer subsequently demanded more communication.

Which she ignored, because:
a) it wasn't a form letter;
b) even it was, the attorney couldn't possibly prove it;
c) even if he could prove it, you can't dictate the terms of the response as long as it's legally sufficient;
d) his stamping of the letter provided nice verification that he had received it and read it. He may as well have signed for receipt.

He kept demanding further response, and she followed up with letters that basically said "see previous".

The earliest example of a posted Cease and Desist

[CuriousKangaroo]

I believe the following is the earliest example of a popular (at the time) site that received a Cease-and-Desist letter and responded by posting it for everyone to see:

http://www.ibiblio.org/elvis/manatt.html

Also see the following articles which mention it:

http://home.earthlink.net/~barefootjim/writing/websight/websight1.html
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/1997/web.whatnext/hit.miss/hit06.html

Of course, posting such letters has been the standard response ever since. Interesting that it took this long for someone to try copyrighting their letter to try to prevent this...

File an anti-SLAPP special motion to strike

[triclipse]

If some lawyer attempted to go after my client with this BS they would get an anti-SLAPP special motion to strike on their desk. My client would get his/her/its attorney's fees paid.

Such a motion is available in California and in other states as well.

Essentially, it is a way for the small guy to fight Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (big companies trying to shut the little guy up by suing him) by giving other lawyers incentive to take the cases on contingency. If this shit happens to you, contact the EFF; they send out emails to lawyers across the country who may take your defense on contingency.