25 outubro 2002

VITAMEDIAS
Free speech squeezed by copyrights? Rick Sanchez thought the bright folks at Mensa International would agree that his Pets or Food Web site was a joke. [...]
Web publishers have long been targets of zealous copyright and trademark holders, but free speech advocates say intellectual property owners these days are more aggressively training their legal guns on both small one-man-band Web sites and the Internet service providers (ISPs) that host or link to them, hoping to get pages or material removed. [...]
When Sanchez received Mensa's letter, he forwarded it to the Chillingeffects.org site. Launched in February by the Electronic Freedom Foundation and legal clinics at several prominent law schools, the site provides a clearinghouse where people can forward cease-and-desist letters and learn more about copyright and trademark law. [...]
Chillingeffects founder Wendy Seltzer said the project grew out of the sense that many legitimate sites were being shut down by legal threats. People who don't have legal training or lots of money often back down when they receive threatening letters from lawyers, she said. She hopes Chillingeffects, at the very least, will inspire people to analyze such letters to see if they're legally viable rather than just pulling content.
"We want to help people understand their legal rights," Seltzer said.