Thanks to bernadette I've been browsing the Chilling Effects database. There are a few cease and desist letters from the same law firm and one for Discovery Channel that is much more harshly worded than the one I received. They are a bit nicer in their wording now, though the arguments I feel still conflate copyright and trademark and are awash in slippery slope non sequiturs. It's still not clear to me how one defends against a cease and desist letter without financial liability.
I also found this fair use article online, which I'll link to because of it's title:
Copyright Mythbusters: Believe It or Not, Fair Use Exists
For now I've updated the MythBusters episode summaries to really, really try to make it clear that this site is not Discovery affiliated. I've also decided that I'll leave all the broken image links in so that future visitors can appreciated the absense of screenshots.
Comments (1)
Hey there :-)
Today I discovered your blog. I did a search on MythBusters -- amazing work you've done here; all those summeries and episode details! I'll be sure to check out this blog regularly.
Sorry to hear about Discovery's letter -- and the subsequent action you have had to take. It's a shame you had to remove the images; but a good thing that you've left the spaces where they used to be.
Catch you later,
Lilly :-D
Posted by Lilly | February 18, 2006 1:52 PM
Posted on February 18, 2006 13:52