I guess it's not really dumbass clueless lawyers, but dumbass clueless companies who hire such lawyers and basically are saying to them, "I'm clueless, stupid and have lots of money, have your way with me and bill me, oh and by the way since I really am stupid and clueless bill me lots and even when everyone laughs at me, keep billing me and I'll keep paying". Kind of the same relationship that little old ladies in the south have with televangelists. Shameless behavior.
Serving Rolex Spam at Alice's Restaurant
by Adam C. Engst ... Since the FreeS/WAN list is archived on the Web, Rolex Watch U.S.A., Inc. (remember Rolex? It's an article about Rolex) found the post in searches for the counterfeiters of Rolex watches. It's obvious to anyone over the age of 13 (and probably lots of people under that age) that the spam appearing in the FreeS/WAN archive is something that happened to the FreeS/WAN list, not something that the FreeS/WAN list intentionally propagated. It was an accident, and an unfortunate one at that. But obvious though this is, a group of highly paid attorneys hired by Rolex couldn't figure this out and sent a cease-and-desist letter (undoubtedly accompanied by twenty-seven eight-by-ten colour glossy pictures with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one) to John Gilmore telling him that, as the person who registered the freeswan.org domain, he could be liable for damages up to $1,000,000 for posting content that violated the Rolex trademark, promoted counterfeiting, and diluted Rolex's intellectual property rights. Now that's adding injury to insult! First spam makes it through to a list you run, and then you're threatened by lawyers because of it...."Kids, we don't like your kind, and we're going to send your cease-and-desist letter off to the Web Archive. And friends, somewhere in the Internet, enshrined in some database, is a study in black and white of that cease-and-desist letter. And the only reason I'm writing you this article now is cause you may know somebody in a similar situation, or you may be in a similar situation, and if you're in a situation like that there's only one thing you can do and that's post a note to the nearest blog, just write right in and say, 'Counsel, you can't get what you want with pointless strong-arm tactics.' You know, if one person, just one person does it, they may think he's really sick and they won't listen. And if two people, two people do it, with trackback, they may think they're both faggots and they won't listen to either of them. And three people do it, three, can you imagine, three people posting a note about a similar situation on their blogs? They may think it's an organization. And can you, can you imagine fifty people a day, I said fifty people a day posting notes about strong-arm legal tactics? And friends, they may think it's a movement. And that's what it is, the Rolex Spam Anti-Massacree Movement, and all you got to do to join is post a note on your blog the next time a pointless cease-and-desist letter comes around on the net."
...(link via BoingBoing)
Recent Comments