Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) - Much gratitude to all of you who donated to our successful fundraiser this year, in which we sought some extra funds to defend Informed Comment from a trolling copyright lawsuit that is without merit.
Your donations helped us secure the services of one of Michigan's top intellectual property attorneys, who also teaches at the University of Michigan Law School.
Our preference is to impress upon the potential plaintiff the frivolous character of the action, and have them back off. If we have to go to court, we will, and we now have the resources to defend IC, because of your generosity.
Longer term, I'd like to see Congress tweak the Digital Millennium Copyright Law to make it impossible for copyright trolls to try to shake down little web sites. I respect copyright and as an author, I benefit from it myself. But allowing predatory law firms to threaten people with massive penalties when they haven't done anything wrong is just not right.
For anybody who was planning to give but didn't get around to it, it is not too late:
Click here to donate via PayPal.
Personal checks should be made out to Juan Cole and sent to me at: