Cease and Desist
I guess most bloggers in this part of the blogosphere know by now that Mark Brewer of SSG, the company that took over SPCK, has sent a Cease and Desist letter to Dave Cartoon-Church Walker. The strangeness of this event is apparent to anyone who knows Dave (a nicer man you couldn't hope to meet) or who read his 75-odd posts about the demise of the SPCK bookshops under the new management. He reported events mildly, with sadness, certainly, but without malice as far as I could see.
It seems that under the threat of expensive and exhausting court action, Dave took all his blogposts down once Mr Brewer of SSG issued the C&D notice against him. I daresay most of us would have done the same. But it is, of course, a blow for free speech, and I'm fascinated and somewhat heartened to see quite what a stir this has created in blogland. The affair has given rise to a large number of blog-supporters, several of whom have tracked down his posts on cache and re-published them; two facebook pages have been launched as a means of protest on behalf of Dave Walker, and two or three bloggers are keepin ga daily record of who is reporting on the affair in blogland.
I read somewhere today that a Cease and Desist order costs £100, and is considered by some as a cheap way to scare people into doing what you want. Is this true? I don't know the ins and outs of Cease and Desist Orders. Evidently Sam Norton is more up on this than I am; he has been republishing Dave's posts, and has now been issued with a Cease and Desist order himself. Sam has stated that he would be willing to state his case in open court if that's what it comes to.
I shall watch with interest to see what hapens next.
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Maggi has kept a blog since September 2003, writing about theology and faith, the arts and literature, and a little about life and random nonsense...
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Religion certainly makes great entertainment… not quite the same thing.