How would something like this go with an open source project? Other people could have forked it already, so taking everything down is impossible.
How to deal with receiving a cease-and-desist letter from Big Tech
11–20 of 209 posts
Re: How to deal with receiving a cease-and-desist letter from Big Tech
#12Cease and desist letters are cold emails.
It can scary to receive one, but once you unwind what the accusing party has to gain from it, you realize it has as much teeth as a tweet.
Re: How to deal with receiving a cease-and-desist letter from Big Tech
#13Suggested edit: in your "handy rule of thumb", delete
outside of official APIs or services
Re: How to deal with receiving a cease-and-desist letter from Big Tech
#14The best thing to do is to know that law and your legal rights. Anybody can write a cease and desist. It is a first step towards a lawsuit, but given how inexpensive they are to write they are an easy way to intimidate small businesses.
Yep, that's true - also something I need to reflect in the guide is it's important to understand which jurisdiction you're under, since that'll affect your rights
Usually the terms of service you sign up to make it clear which jurisdiction disputes would be adjudicated in
For me, as a UK citizen/resident it was Ireland. Which is great since I've never been there, but I've heard their courtrooms are lovely in the springtime
Re: How to deal with receiving a cease-and-desist letter from Big Tech
#15Used to periodically get a c&d email from FB lawyers for some harmless software I published. Always completely ignored it, not even responding to acknowledge receipt. It eventually stopped. I figure they gave up and focused their efforts on targets who showed they would be responsive to threats. It was 100% bullying.
Similar back when apps on profiles were a thing. Apparently doing things like creating a scoreboard for pokes was against the terms.
Re: How to deal with receiving a cease-and-desist letter from Big Tech
#16How would something like this go with an open source project? Other people could have forked it already, so taking everything down is impossible.
Someone tried this with an open source project I ran called bitmatch (now bitstring: https://ocaml.org/p/bitstring/latest/doc/Bitstring/index.htm...). They were running some scanning software that matched bits inside binaries, and felt they could threaten anyone who dared to use the word "bitmatch". Trademarks don't work like that since they only protect a narrow field of endeavour, not "no one can ever use this word".
They sent the C&D to my employer which made everything much more complex. I usually would have ignored it, but my employer's legal department was on my back about it, so I renamed the project to bitstring. For years my project was still top of Google search for "bitmatch". (I tried it now and I notice it's a different, Rust project, so the guy still didn't win in the end.)
Re: How to deal with receiving a cease-and-desist letter from Big Tech
#17This is a great writeup.
I am not a lawyer, but I've received several C&Ds for various things over the decades. The first one scared me to death. The second and subsequent ones did not, because I understood what they were: just the company saying "I don't like what you're doing".
When I receive a C&D, the first thing I do is talk to my attorney and go over what the C&D is complaining about. If I think I'm doing something that could be legally risky (which does not automatically mean doing something actually wrong), then I change that. Otherwise, my attorney acknowledges that the C&D was received and I ignore it. If they really have a serious beef with what I'm doing, they need to actually sue me. I have yet to be sued.
Re: How to deal with receiving a cease-and-desist letter from Big Tech
#18The best thing to do is to know that law and your legal rights. Anybody can write a cease and desist. It is a first step towards a lawsuit, but given how inexpensive they are to write they are an easy way to intimidate small businesses.
I worked on a controversial app. I generally take the letter then throw it into the trash. I did this for 4 years, never had an issue. Github was the only one that seemed to want blood - then banned me. They would send me weird emails, trying to trick me to admit fault. They would also track new accounts I made (ip) and send taunting letters. They gave up eventually too.
Looking back, these companies can send these things out for no cost, looking for you to mess up by replying. If they want to sue you, don't worry, it will happen.
Re: How to deal with receiving a cease-and-desist letter from Big Tech
#19The premise of this article is that you somehow have to respond to it which is nuts. If the letter is ridiculous (e.g. citing terms of service you did not sign) then you're better off to ignore it and not waste money on legal fees. Also everyone who suggests getting a lawyer has probably not had to hire one in the past. With very few exceptions they will tell you it "depends" and maybe give you a few legal terms you can google. If you are lucky a good lawyer will give you their opinion on the merits of the letter but many will be so guarded it's not useful.
A C&D costs the sender almost nothing and is not the same as actually being sued. Very rarely are they serious enough to actually file something. If that does happen you should get a lawyer at that point, but doing it before is just a waste of money.
Re: How to deal with receiving a cease-and-desist letter from Big Tech
#20Suggested edit: in your "handy rule of thumb", delete outside of official APIs or services since (1) official APIs and services are constantly getting redefined and (2) what's stopping them from deciding they just don't like how you're using the official APIs/services?
Good point. And thinking about it, I know cases where people have received C&Ds anyway while only using official APIs and services. Will edit