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On being gagged

I've been blogging for quite a few years, and mostly I've been allowed to get on with it and say my piece. Even on Twitter, I've never managed to raise anyone's ire, other than a fellow author who decided one of my reviews was not nice. (You can see the review here if you wish.) But I did once receive a cease and desist order for a blog post which was an interesting experience I think it's worth sharing.

Back in 2009 (yes, I've really been at it this long) I received an interesting piece of traditional mail. It came in a green envelope, hand written with a second class stamp. Inside it was a cutting from a newspaper with a scribbled post-it note from a 'J' saying (s)he thought I would be interested.

I was a bit suspicious and noticed that the 'handwritten' envelope and post-it note were actually printed in a handwriting font. Yes, the whole thing was an advert - very clever, if decidedly sneaky. They had even made the edge of the 'cutting' frayed. I wrote this up on this blog, half admiring, half dubious about the approach. Soon the comments started to flow in, and this became by far the most viewed post, even beating the perennial favourite Why I hate opera.

Lots of other people received the same mailing. Many thanked me for pointing out that it was a mailshot. After a while, a commenter noted that there was an ASA ruling against this advert, which I linked to. Surely this meant that the dodgy mailings would have to stop. But no, the comments kept coming in, some furious at the deception. Those 'cuttings' were still being sent out. It seemed the ASA had no teeth to back up its stop order.

At this point, I got a Fed Ex package from San Diego in America. It was a 'cease and desist' order from a US law firm. I had a choice. I could do as requested and take down the blog post, or I could stand up to the bullying. I would have loved to have been another Simon Singh and to have done what was right as he did when chiropractors took him to court. There is no doubt that I was in the right - but any further legal process could have been very expensive, and just being in the right doesn't necessarily win in court. I didn't have Simon's financial clout, so I took down the blog post.

What's interesting now is looking back on the cease and desist letter 13 years later. Wow, did my blog post cause deep suffering for the poor person sending out those letters. Apparently I was guilty of defamation of character, fraud, malicious conduct, harassment, intentional infliction of emotional distress, trademark infringement, copyright infringement, tortuous interference with X's business practices, interference with prospective business advantage, solicitation of X's clients and prospects, and unfair competition and business practices.

Some of these claims are laughable - but who wants to be tied up with legal tangles? As well as sending my a copy of my blog post, the legal firm attached 20 pages of comments - only underlining how many people had either been deceived by this mailshot or thought that it was despicable. 

Perhaps surprisingly the person behind all this is still in business - so I can't name him, nor is it probably wise to name the law firm capable of coming up with such a bizarre set of accusations. But it just go to show that free speech is something of an illusion when someone has enough money to bring in the lawyers.
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