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How to deal with receiving a cease-and-desist letter from Big Tech
61–70 of 209 posts
Re: How to deal with receiving a cease-and-desist letter from Big Tech
#62The 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 t…
> If they want to sue you, don't worry, it will happen.
As my attorney once opined: if they really want to sue you, the first thing you'll hear from them will be about the lawsuit they filed, not a C&D.
Re: How to deal with receiving a cease-and-desist letter from Big Tech
#63Very good post, also kind of depressing how big companies can easily squash the little guys > It doesn’t matter if you’re right. It matters if you have money, time, and willpower to go to court There are some exceptions to this, but for probably 99% of cases, this is true I’ve personally been on the receiving end of a litigious situation, facing a very wealthy individual. It did not go well for me, and had to swallow…
This is why shady tow companies persist. They have more resources than their victims, so it's low risk to behave in super shady ways. i.e. towing cars which they can't legally be towing. Happens all the time.
Re: How to deal with receiving a cease-and-desist letter from Big Tech
#64Used 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.
Even acknowledging receipt gives them a lot of power. Remember that they probably have a list of hundreds or thousands of C&D's to send, and if you don't respond they would probably need to file a john doe lawsuit to get your identity from your ISP, and it's unlikely that all that effort is worth it to them.
It would be funny if legal teams at huge companies have OKRs and evaluations. “You hit your target of 250 C&Ds this quarter great work”. Justifying your paycheck is scarier when thinking about the legal dept.
Re: How to deal with receiving a cease-and-desist letter from Big Tech
#65Earlier quoted context omitted.
Before we sold our fintech SaaS startup in 2015, we received a C&D from Dealogic and I thought, wow, we've made it into the big leagues! My adrenaline wore off pretty quickly though, because after our attorney sent them a defiant letter warning their London law firm to not mess with a Texas LLC, we never heard from them again. We were flying below the radar, so we just surmised some Dealogic customer had showed a Dea…
Never heard about Dealogic so I just Googled -- the title of the click says: > Dealogic: A trusted partner to top financial firms worldwide Oh well, I probably don't need to dig deeper to know what it does then.
At the risk of sounding very dumb — what were you able to determine from that? I have no idea what it means, almost sounds like the mafia
Edit: their about page sounds even more mafia-esque. “Dealogic connects banks and investors in the only truly global network… Firms who use Dealogic see results in increased profitability and productivity… Whether you want to analyze wallet share, execute a deal, align operating units, manage risk, or comply with regulation, there is only one answer.”
Re: How to deal with receiving a cease-and-desist letter from Big Tech
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
What's the proper course of action if you don't have an attorney?
I'm going to avoid the snarky "hire an attorney" answer but once you get past that necessary first step I do have a few tips: * get comfortable reading legal documents, this will allow you to have more intelligent conversations with your attorney * don't let your attorney make your business decisions, one of their jobs is to point out risks, one of your jobs (owner/ceo/leadership) is to figure out how to mitigate ris…
As the (non lawyer) who fell into managing all US legal firm interactions for my day job, I support this list.
If you are comfortable with legal documents; have a law dictionary to understand what specific language means; and read historical case law on the topic in question, you will be well prepared to have a seat at the table with your attorneys.
Re: How to deal with receiving a cease-and-desist letter from Big Tech
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
What's the proper course of action if you don't have an attorney?
I'm going to avoid the snarky "hire an attorney" answer but once you get past that necessary first step I do have a few tips: * get comfortable reading legal documents, this will allow you to have more intelligent conversations with your attorney * don't let your attorney make your business decisions, one of their jobs is to point out risks, one of your jobs (owner/ceo/leadership) is to figure out how to mitigate ris…
Okay, since you failed to avoid the snarky "hire an attorney" thing, I'm going to ask: how much would it reasonably cost to hire an attorney for advice on this? Assuming the contacting lawyer is on shaky ground. No "it depends" please, a ballpark.
Maybe it's cheaper to have one on retainer. How much per month, if like a normal citizen your only daily legal risks are random megacorporations threatening you?
Should everyone in the US have a lawyer on call? Should we consider it a normal tax for being a member of the US legal system? An insurance everyone signs up for like drivers insurance and life insurance? Is this only a concern for software developers?
Re: How to deal with receiving a cease-and-desist letter from Big Tech
#68[deleted]
Re: How to deal with receiving a cease-and-desist letter from Big Tech
#69As an attorney who has experience responding to Meta’s “anti-scraping team,” I think there might be more opportunities for amicable resolutions than you might expect (depending on the specifics of what you’re doing, of course). Meta is not oblivious to the fact that they’re under significant social and regulatory scrutiny. They sometimes play nice if you’re willing to accommodate certain considerations.
Either way, my recommendation would be to find an attorney with industry-specific expertise to address the norms of your industry. C&Ds range from idle shake downs to definite pre-cursors to litigation. Without industry-specific knowledge, it’s hard to know which is which.
Re: How to deal with receiving a cease-and-desist letter from Big Tech
#70My attorney always said:
1) Good problem to have. 2) If they had something, they wouldn't threaten you, they'd just act.
It's the risk/reward ratio. Unless it's worth reacting to, file 13 that shit.