Court Says You Can Copyright A Cease-And-Desist Letter

Back in October, we wrote about a law firm that was claiming a copyright on the cease-and-desist letters it sent out, and insisting that it was a violation to repost them. It’s long been believed that cease-and-desist letters that have no new creative expression and are merely boilerplates are likely not covered by copyright. On top of that, preventing someone from copying a cease-and-desist letter or posting it on their own website seems like a pretty severe First Amendment violation. The group Public Citizen hit back against this law firm’s claims, but surprisingly, a judge has now agreed that you can copyright cease-and-desist letters.

Story continued here.

January 28, 2008 by Uncategorized 5

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5 Responses

  1. Bibliofuture says:
    January 28, 2008 at 4:49 pm

    Blocking the viewing of the letter
    OK, let us assume that a cease and desist letter can be copyrighted. The people that have been publicizing their cease and desist orders can still talk about their letter. They can tell what firm sent it. They can paraphrase what the letter said. If people doubt they received the letter they can show it to a third party who can verify the existence of the letter. It takes a little more work but it is easy enough to step around the copyright problem. Seems to me that the law firm created a legal Maginot Line.

    Reply
  2. John Overholt says:
    January 28, 2008 at 9:45 pm

    Not so fast
    See the update to the story here. It seems the lawyer put a lot of spin on a very preliminary finding.

    Reply
  3. AnonPat says:
    January 28, 2008 at 10:13 pm

    excellent points
    Those are very excellent points.

    Reply
  4. cjovalle says:
    January 28, 2008 at 10:48 pm

    This might not really change much.
    While I can see the argument that these are protected by copyright- I always assumed that to a large extent- that still doesn’t preclude a strong fair use argument in their dissemination/posting online.

    Reply
  5. Just Someone Out There says:
    January 29, 2008 at 12:10 am

    The lawyer lied!
    I’m
    The lawyer lied!

    I’m shocked! Well, not really.

    It’s still okay to post cease and desist letters despite the lawyer’s creative interpretation of the court’s comments.

    http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080126/13203876.shtml

    Reply

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