Can Copyright and the DMCA be used to silence critics? October 13, 2007
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about AT&T’s terms of service that included termination of your service if you said critical things about them. After a great deal of criticism AT&T has changed their terms of service. It now reads in part:
5.1 Suspension/Termination. AT&T respects freedom of expression and believes it is a foundation of our free society to express differing points of view. AT&T will not terminate, disconnect or suspend service because of the views you or we express on public policy matters, political issues or political campaigns.
This is not the last we’re going to see of corporations trying to censor their critics on the internet though. Not by a long shot. The law firm Dozier Internet Law is demanding that InfomercialScams.com take down negative consumer comments about DirectBuy. Dozier Internet Law claims they are specialists in a list of things including getting “websites pulled down without notice“. They don’t think the public should be able to express their opinion if they think “DirectBuy is a scam“. Worse yet, Public Citizen is being threatened with copyright violations for posting the threat letter claiming copyright on that too! I don’t know if DirectBuy is a scam or not but I read the comments on InfomercialScams.com and I can see why DirectBuy would want to erase them from the Internet.
These sorts of cases are becoming all too common but here’s something to keep in mind. “The Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it.“
- Posted in : DMCA, Fair Use, Free Speech, Law suits, censorship, copyright, scam
- Author : fairuseday
Comments
Thanks for the link! Others are outraged as well!
As a result of several threatening letters which Dozier Internet Law sent on behalf of their client Inventor-Link we have been busy at InventorEd over the past week. This is documented on http://www.CyberTrialLawyer-SUCKS.com and on http://www.InventorEd.org/caution/inventor-link/.
Be sure to revisit the above referenced web pages as we are constantly updating and expanding the material.
We are looking for a volunteer lawyer to draft ethics complaints on our behalf. We firmly feel that the attorneys at Dozier should have to explain their conduct.
Frankly I wish that more of our invention promoter adversaries would hire firms like Dozier Internet Law. I think that they are real buffoons.
Ronald J. Riley,
President – http://www.PIAUSA.org – RJR at PIAUSA.org
Executive Director – http://www.InventorEd.org – RJR at InvEd.org
Senior Fellow – http://www.PatentPolicy.org – RRiley at PatentPolicy.org
Washington, DC
Direct (202) 318-1595 – 9 am to 9 pm EST.
DIRECT BUY IS A SCAM – BUYS OUT INFOMERCIALSCAMS.COM TO COVER ITS TRACKS !
infomercialscams.com was strong-armed by direct buy and had to remove nearly 1,000 complaints about the direct buy scam. Why you ask. Cause when you google ‘direct buy’ the informercial scam site was ranked #2 by google. All that is left on the site is the fake reviews by direct buy. I would say to be very careful with dealing with a company that is afraid of what it customers post about it on the internet. This company is a scam. Go there, read the contract, its all in the contract. The contract basically states that direct buy is bound to nothing and you are bound to paying the $5,000 member fee. SCAM SCAM SCAM SCAM SCAM
fortunatly, the postings on the net never go away,
just check archives
http://web.archive.org/web/20080203104709/www.infomercialscams.com/scams/direct_buy_scams
is this starting to sound like organized crime ?