Dear Friend,
I am writing to you to ask that you join us in an internet organized protest and boycott. A number of stores have threatened litigation under the DMCA (1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act) to a number of consumer websites that had posted the sale prices on some of their future print ads.
According to Cindy Cohn, legal director for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the incident is a "clear misuse" of the law. "You can't copyright facts. How much something costs is not expression," said Cohn. "The DMCA is the wrong process to use here."
However, the threat of costly litigation has forced the consumer websited to comply as they do not have the resources to question the validity of the corporate claims.
What we can do is boycott these stores on Black Friday - the day after thanksgiving (November 29):
Wal*Mart
Target
Best Buy
Staples
Office Max
Jo-Ann Stores Inc.
Also, please forward this email to as many of your friends that you can so that we can collectively and financially tell the big corporations that the misuse of the DMCA and a threat to our rights of free speech will not be tolerated. What harm is there in sharing what is in an ad that is coming out in the newspapers anyway?
Thanks for your support. If you want to read more in detail about the origins of this protest, you can read about it here:
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,56504,00.html
Sincerely,
Your Friend.
Edit: Spread this around!
I am writing to you to ask that you join us in an internet organized protest and boycott. A number of stores have threatened litigation under the DMCA (1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act) to a number of consumer websites that had posted the sale prices on some of their future print ads.
According to Cindy Cohn, legal director for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the incident is a "clear misuse" of the law. "You can't copyright facts. How much something costs is not expression," said Cohn. "The DMCA is the wrong process to use here."
However, the threat of costly litigation has forced the consumer websited to comply as they do not have the resources to question the validity of the corporate claims.
What we can do is boycott these stores on Black Friday - the day after thanksgiving (November 29):
Wal*Mart
Target
Best Buy
Staples
Office Max
Jo-Ann Stores Inc.
Also, please forward this email to as many of your friends that you can so that we can collectively and financially tell the big corporations that the misuse of the DMCA and a threat to our rights of free speech will not be tolerated. What harm is there in sharing what is in an ad that is coming out in the newspapers anyway?
Thanks for your support. If you want to read more in detail about the origins of this protest, you can read about it here:
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,56504,00.html
Sincerely,
Your Friend.
Edit: Spread this around!
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