Cease and Desist

I guess most bloggers in this part of the blogosphere know by now that Mark Brewer of SSG, the company that took over SPCK, has sent a Cease and Desist letter to Dave Cartoon-Church Walker. The strangeness of this event is apparent to anyone who knows Dave (a nicer man you couldn't hope to meet) or who read his 75-odd posts about the demise of the SPCK bookshops under the new management. He reported events mildly, with sadness, certainly, but without malice as far as I could see.

It seems that under the threat of expensive and exhausting court action, Dave took all his blogposts down once Mr Brewer of SSG issued the C&D notice against him. I daresay most of us would have done the same. But it is, of course, a blow for free speech, and I'm fascinated and somewhat heartened to see quite what a stir this has created in blogland. The affair has given rise to a large number of blog-supporters, several of whom have tracked down his posts on cache and re-published them; two facebook pages have been launched as a means of protest on behalf of Dave Walker, and two or three bloggers are keepin ga daily record of who is reporting on the affair in blogland.

I read somewhere today that a Cease and Desist order costs £100, and is considered by some as a cheap way to scare people into doing what you want. Is this true? I don't know the ins and outs of Cease and Desist Orders. Evidently Sam Norton is more up on this than I am; he has been republishing Dave's posts, and has now been issued with a Cease and Desist order himself. Sam has stated that he would be willing to state his case in open court if that's what it comes to. 

I shall watch with interest to see what hapens next.

Comments

[Brian]

Hi Maggi

This is indeed a very unfortunate situation.

The letter itself is basically a threat to bring legal action, so the only cost involved is paying a lawyer to draft it. It's therefore very easy for a large organisation to impose their will over someone whom they know is unlikely to be able to afford legal representation. It can make little difference how strong their case actually is.

I notice that a lot of the Facebook groups are referring to US law, whereas it seems likely that SSG would bring a defamation action in the UK. Liberty provides a short guide to the relevant law.

Dave should really get himself to a Citizens' Advice Bureau. The famous "McLibel Two" managed to argue that it was a breach of the European Convention on Human Rights for them to be denied legal aid to defend a defamation action, so he might have a chance!

[Neale]

For us who haven't followed the dispute, is there a simple explanation of what the SPCK issue is all about?