ChillingEffects.org Launches...
The Filter
Berkman Center for Internet & Society
March 11, 2002
On February 25, the Berkman Center announced the official launch of Chilling Effects [ http://www.chillingeffects.org/ ], a project and website to counter the chilling effects of legal threats. Conceived by Berkman Fellow Wendy Seltzer, the project works by providing the basic legal information Internet users need to understand their rights in the face of cease-and-desist letters designed to restrict online speech and activity. Filter readers had a sneak peek at the beta version of the Chilling Effects site this past July, and now the rest of the Web knows— the website received over a million hits within the first week of its launch. "The fact that we're seeing so much traffic bolsters our suspicions that a lot of people have been facing legal bullying on the Net," says Seltzer. "In this case, though, the bad news is also good news, as the project will grow in educational value to visitors and researchers each time an Internet user adds a C&D notice to the database."
In addition to leading the Chilling Effects project, Seltzer works as an intellectual property and litigation associate with Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel [ http://www.kramer-levin.com/ ] and as an adjunct professor—teaching cyberlaw—at St. John's University School of Law [ http://www.law.stjohns.edu/law/law ]. Follow the links below for a selection of news articles on the Chilling Effects project:
Copyright 2002