FC: How to respond to cease-and-desist nastygrams: chillingeffects.org

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

---

From: Donna Wentworth <donna () cyber law harvard edu>
To: "'declan () well com'" <declan () well com>
Subject: Chilling Effects.org
Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2002 09:47:36 -0500

Declan,

The Berkman Center is announcing the launch today of a
collaborative project that may be of interest to politech
readers.

Conceived by Berkman Fellow Wendy Seltzer, the project is
intended to serve as a tool for Internet users to understand
their legal rights in the face of potentially intimidating/
confusing cease-and-desist letters.

The website is here:
<http://www.chillingeffects.org>

Amy Harmon's NYT piece is here:
<http://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/25/technology/ebusiness/25CHIL.html>

Below is our press release:


 Berkman Center Announces Project to Counter Chilling Effects
 of Legal Threats

 ChillingEffects.org Aims to Educate Internet Users About
 Online Rights

 San Francisco - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)
 and four major law school legal clinics announced the
 launch today of a project and website to empower Internet
 users with detailed information about their legal rights in
 response to cease-and-desist letters designed to restrict
 their online activities.

 The project brings the EFF together with Internet law
 clinics at Harvard, Stanford, the University of California
 at Berkeley, and the University of San Francisco, and is
 expected to grow to include additional law schools.

 Called Chilling Effects in reference to the way legal
 threats can freeze out free expression, the project invites
 Internet users to add their cease-and-desist letters to an
 online clearinghouse at ChillingEffects.org. Students at
 the participating law school clinics will review the
 letters and annotate them with links to explain applicable
 legal rules.

 "The Internet makes it easier for individuals to speak to
 a wide audience, but it also makes it easier for other
 people and corporations to silence that speech," said
 Berkman Center Fellow Wendy Seltzer, who conceived the
 project and programmed the website. "Chilling Effects aims
 to level the field by helping online speakers to understand
 their rights in the face of legal threats."

 The Chilling Effects project works by publishing
 cease-and-desist letters received by Internet users and
 providing detailed information about the relevant law.
 For example, if an Internet user receives a letter
 demanding that she remove a synopsis of a "Star Trek"
 episode from her website, members of the Chilling Effects
 team would post the letter online, embedding it with links
 to information about basic copyright protections, the rules
 governing synopses, and the fair use doctrine.

 "EFF receives hundreds of requests for help and information
 from recipients of cease-and-desist letters," said EFF
 Legal Director Cindy Cohn. "This project should help
 individuals gain access to greatly needed information as
 well as allow us to track who is sending these letters and
 research larger trends."

 The project currently provides basic legal information on
 issues like fan fiction, copyright and the Digital
 Millennium Copyright Act, trademark and domain names,
 anonymous speech, and defamation. New topics will be added
 as new issues arise. In addition to publishing
 cease-and-desist letters, the Chilling Effects team will
 offer periodic "weather reports" assessing the legal
 climate for Internet activity. The reports will seek to
 answer such questions as what types of Internet activity
 are most vulnerable to the chilling effects of legal
 threats.

 The Chilling Effects project website:
 <http://www.chillingeffects.org/>


 About Berkman Center for Internet & Society:

 The Berkman Center for Internet & Society is a research
 program founded to explore cyberspace, share in its study,
 and help pioneer its development:
 http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/


 About EFF:

 The Electronic Frontier Foundation is the leading civil
 liberties organization working to protect rights in the
 digital world. Founded in 1990, EFF actively encourages and
 challenges industry and government to support free
 expression, privacy, and openness in the information
 society. EFF is a member-supported organization and
 maintains one of the most-linked-to websites in the world at
 http://www.eff.org/


 About Samuelson Law, Technology and Public Policy Clinic:

 The Samuelson Law, Technology and Public Policy Clinic at
 Boalt Hall was the first clinic in the country to provide
 law students with the opportunity to represent the public
 interest in cases and matters on the cutting-edge of high
 technology law. Since January 2001, students participating
 in the Clinic have worked with leading lawyers in nonprofit
 organizations, government, private practice, and academia
 to represent clients on a broad range of legal matters
 including Internet free speech and online and wireless
 privacy.
 http://www.law.berkeley.edu/news/releases/20000424Samuelson.shtml


 About Stanford Law School's Center for Internet and Society:

 The Center for Internet and Society (CIS) is a public
 interest technology law and policy program at Stanford Law
 School. The CIS brings together scholars, academics,
 legislators, students, hackers, and scientists to study the
 interaction of new technologies and the law and to examine
 how the synergy between the two can either promote or harm
 public goods like free speech, privacy, public commons,
 diversity, and scientific inquiry. The CIS strives as well
 to improve both technology and law, encouraging decision
 makers to design both as a means to further democratic
 values.
 http://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/


 About University of San Francisco Internet and Intellectual
 Property Justice Project:

 This University of San Francisco School of Law program
 provides legal services to parties who require help with
 intellectual property matters. The project is currently
 available to help parties in domain name disputes under
 ICANN online dispute resolution proceedings as well as with
 other trademark and copyright work that the faculty
 supervisors feel is appropriate. Legal work is performed
 free of charge by students under the direction of faculty
 members.
 http://www.usfca.edu/law/html/iipjp.html


 Contact:

 Wendy Seltzer
 Fellow
 Berkman Center for Internet & Society at
 Harvard Law School
 wendy () seltzer com
 +1 212-715-7815

 Diane Cabell
 Director
 Clinical Program in Cyberlaw
 Berkman Center for Internet & Society
 Harvard Law School
 +1 617 495-7547
 dcabell () law harvard edu

 Cindy Cohn
 Legal Director
 Electronic Frontier Foundation
 cindy () eff org
 +1 415 436-9333 x108 (office), +1 415 823-2148 (cell)

 Jennifer Stisa Granick
 Clinical Director
 Stanford Law School Center for Internet and Society
 jennifer () granick com
 +1 650 724-0014

 Deirdre Mulligan
 Acting Clinical Professor and Director
 Samuelson Law, Technology and Public Policy Clinic,
 Boalt Hall School of Law,
 University of California at Berkeley
 dmulligan () law berkeley edu
 +1 510 642-0499

 Professor Robert Talbot
 Professor of Law and
 Director of
 Internet and Intellectual Property Justice Project
 University of San Francisco School of Law
 +1 415 422-6218 (office), +1 415 717-2826 (cell)
 talbotr () usfca edu

..........
Donna Wentworth
Editor
The Filter <http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/filter>
Berkman Center for Internet & Society
Harvard Law School
Phone: (617) 495-0662
Fax:   (617) 495-7641
filter-editor () cyber law harvard edu
donna () cyber law harvard edu




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