Chilling Effects Weather Reports

Pending Legislation Could Make ISPs Liable for Financial Fraud

Rebecca Schoff, Chilling Effects Clearinghouse, November 6, 2009
Abstract: John Timmer over at Ars Technica has reported that a bill introduced in Congress last month would make Internet service providers liable if a particular kind of financial fraud is perpetrated on their networks.
more

Takedown Hall of Shame Debuts at Electronic Frontier Foundation

Rebecca Schoff, Chilling Effects Clearinghouse, November 5, 2009
Abstract: The Electronic Frontier Foundation has inaugurated a new venue for exposing bogus copyright and trademark claims that stifle free speech on the Internet.
more

Trademark Disunity: Clear Channel Zaps "Unity Day"

Research Staff, Chilling Effects Clearinghouse, October 9, 2009
Abstract: After announcing that Philadelphia radio station WDAS would not be able to sponsor the Unity Day festival for the first time in 30 years, Clear Channel has used an allegation of trademark rights in the name "Unity Day" to prevent citizens from raising funds and obtaining city permits to keep the tradition going.
more

BoingBoing brings a ray of sunshine to DMCA-chilled air

Wendy Seltzer, Chilling Effects, October 8, 2009
Abstract: For several years, the Chilling Effects Clearinghouse has cataloging the effects of legal threats on online expression and helping people to understand their rights. Amid all the chilling we continue to see, it's welcome to see rays of sunshine when bloggers stand up to threats, helping to stop the cycle of threat-and-takedown.

The BoingBoing team did this the other day when they got a legal threat from Ralph Lauren's lawyers over an advertisement they mocked on the BoingBoing blog for featuring a stick-thin model. The lawyers claimed copyright infringement, saying "PRL owns all right, title, and interest in the original images that appear in the Advertisements." Other hosts pull content "expeditiously" when they receive these notices (as Google did when notified of the post on Photoshop Disasters), and most bloggers and posters don't counter-notify, even though Chilling Effects offers a handy counter-notification form.

Not BoingBoing, they posted the letter (and the image again) along with copious mockery, including an offer to feed the obviously starved models, and other sources picked up on the fun. The image has now been seen by many more people than would have discovered it in BoingBoing's archives, in a pattern the press has nicknamed the "Streisand Effect."
more

Cyanogen and Google Work Past the Cease and Desist

Rebecca Schoff, Chilling Effects Clearinghouse, October 2, 2009
Abstract: News this week of a cease and desist letter sent to Cyanogen, the popular amateur developer of Android software, had members of the Android community hoping for a Jedi mind trick to make the legal threat go away: "Google, this is not the Droid you are looking for...."

But as the situation unfolds, participants hope that Google and Cyanogen will find a solution that protects Google's closed-source applications without chilling the innovation of the open-source Android community.
more

Complete Weather Reports Archive

Maintained by Chilling Effects