Your internet law PSA of the day

[rivkat]

If a private lawyer sends you a letter and tells you not to quote or discuss it, that's not a legal requirement. Sending a letter to a stranger doesn't create a confidential relationship. You wouldn't believe it if the letter promised you 50 million dollars as long as you kept the matter confidential and provided access to your checking account; don't believe it here. Chillingeffects.org is a good place to learn more, and even maintains a database of threat letters submitted by recipients.

Publicity, of course, has costs and benefits, but it should be considered on its own merits, not distorted by threats.

Comments

[ciaan]

Am I correct in thinking that, outside signing an NDA, gag orders have to be issued by a court/judge?

[rivkat.livejournal.com]

Well, there are a lot of possibilities for obligations to stay silent--I've just been reading about trade secrets and implied duties of confidentiality in business negotiations and employment relationships. But that isn't the situations we're dealing with here, when one person whose interests are hostile to another's claims a right to confidentiality for adversarial communications. Settlement negotiations can also be confidential, but that's subject to agreement between the parties.

Question

[mustangsally78.livejournal.com]

A) How proud am I of you for the NPR thing?

:::beams:::

B) Is there anything I should worry about on Fanhistory wiki? Unlike you, it could be a problem for me in my job (because public schools are so paranoid!)

Re: Question

[rivkat.livejournal.com]

I don't go there, so I don't really know, but I would be hugely shocked if there were. There was no comprehensive outing, and not much research done on the outings that were featured--there was even a blatant error in one of them. So esp. with a nice popular username like yours, I wouldn't worry.

[cryptoxin.livejournal.com]

It sounds like an aggressive (and so far somewhat successful) tactic to preempt the Streisand effect (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect).

[hulamoth.livejournal.com]

is this in anyway related to the C&D letters being sent out regarding Twilight spoilers?

[rivkat.livejournal.com]

I haven't even heard of that one! Boy, Twilight really is Harry Potter all over again, isn't it?

[hulamoth.livejournal.com]

somehow that does not make me feel better.

(by the way, I love and adore your user icon)