Cease and Desist

Plan for it now

[grandpa]

I returned from a 3 week hiatus to discover a C&D message in my inbox. I won't go into the specific details, they are unimportant and were actually unfounded. However, I was struck by the nature of the C&D, and it occurred to me that the person who wrote it could benefit from a little forethought, as could we all.

The fellow who wrote me was extremely upset, and rightfully so. However, that is probably the absolute worst time to construct a C&D. Emotions are high. The letter began not with "Dear Webmaster" or "Sirs", but with "Hey A$$4ole". I can assure you, no self-respecting C&D will begin with that phrase. The letter then went on a 3 paragraph rant, complete with mispelled words, poor grammar, 4 letter words and angry threats.

So, if you don't have a legal representative and you haven't created your own C&D, now may be the best time, before you have an opportunity to get upset at some situation. Check your spelling. Check your grammar. Later, you can fill in the blanks for most situations.

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

Good idea Grandpa. It's not wise to do anything like this while you are angry (or drunk!)

[keyplyr]

The Digital millenium Act (DMA) spells it out pretty clear for us. Lycos/Tripod, Google and others will only accept a C&D that follows the DMA guidelines, so that is what I use when contacting offending webmasters; then I have that copy to forward as my initial contact attempt if it becomes necessary to go upstream.

[kaled]

An opening salvo should always be polite. It should also indicate that you've done your homework. Depending on circumstances, threats of legal action might be appropriate, but scumbags are usually oblivious to threats so this may be pointless.

Kaled.