Cease and Desist

Sending out absurd cease and desist (C&D) letters is a good way to get people on the internets all riled up. The last thing a company wants is a bunch of nerds to get riled up. I say this seriously, because, honestly, once they get riled up, the big news agencies tend to pick up and it, and the company looks bad. When these C&D letters were sent out they were typically posted on the internet for comment.

This practice all but stopped of late. Why? Part of it was because lawyers started putting copyright notices on their C&D letters. This copyright probably isn't enforceable for a few reasons. The first of which being fair use, the second of which being that it could be subject to what's called merger. There are only so many ways you can tell someone, legally, to cease and desist from doing something. If copyrighting one version would make it hard for other people to accurately say "cease and desist," then the idea of a C&D letter has merged with the expression of a C&D letter. Therefore, it'd be uncopyrightable (you can't copyright ideas).

The response letter does have one flaw though:

By this letter, we are inviting you to test the validity of your theory that the writer of a cease and desist letter can avoid public scrutiny by threatening to file a copyright law suit if his letter is disclosed publicly on the internet.

If there's one thing I learned in the first year of law school, it was the asshole rule. If one of the two parties is being an asshole, the judge will find some way to rule against him. The author of that letter is being an asshole. He should take beware.