Lame

Disgruntled objects of blog posts often hire lawyers to send cease and desist (C & D) letters ordering the blog publisher to take down the subject post. In the spirit of the blogosphere, bloggers immediately post such C & D letters to their blog holding the lawyer and client up to public ridicule.

Maybe no more. Turns out at least one lawyer obtained copyright registration for their takedown letters. They then got a naive judge to enforce the copyright even though as Eric Goldman says ‘…[T]his letter is so completely pro forma that it should barely clear the copyrightability hurdle (if it does at all). Further, republication of demand letters is so strongly infused with public interest that it should be clearly covered by fair use.’

Lawyers get paid to be creative, even if their cause is contrary to the public’s good.