ALI Engages in Cheap Intimidation Tactics in Its Attempt to Ram Thro...

05/16/19

As Credit Slips readers know, I've been fighting the American Law Institute's Consumer Contracts Restatement project for several years.  I think it started with good intentions, but it's unfortunately turned into a remarkably anti-consumer project.  The ALI has accused yours truly of a copyright violation for making the draft Restatement available through Dropbox to other ALI members in the context of a link in a letter urging those ALI members to vote against the Restatement.    

ALI's actions on this are the pettiest sort of bullying to try and quash the "vote no" campaign against a project that would seriously harm consumer rights.  ALI filed a DMCA takedown notice with Dropbox that resulted in Dropbox preventing me from sharing all my files, not just the one file in question. (Damages, damages...) ALI even went so far as to freeze me out of its website, which prevented me from reading comment letters about the draft or filing motions to amend it.  

Fortunately, there's a good way to deal with bullies, and that's get a lawyer.  ALI restored my website access after hearing from my righteous copyright counsel, and has in fact since made the draft Restatement publicly available, even while still insisting (on a completely factually misinformed basis, but ALI never bothered to ask me) that what I did was somehow outside of fair use and refusing to rescind the DMCA takedown notice. It's become clear that ALI desperately needs to finish its Restatement of Copyright so it can understand how fair use actually works.    

The fact that ALI is making the draft publicly available now just shows what nonsense its claim was—it was nothing but a cheap intimidation tactic. ALI ought to be ashamed for acting this way. Is this kind of thug behavior really how the nation's preeminent law reform organization rolls?  

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