(Untitled)

[cfd_samurai]

I am regularly amazed at the stuff that The Smoking Gun posts on their site. I take no side in the debate over the veracity of A Million Little Pieces, but I find it supremely amusing that they posted this letter. I don't know if one party in a potential lawsuit can require the opposing party to keep such communications confidential. The letter,

Comments

How can I resist?

[joelreed]

I stumbled across this story yesterday via CNN, and wound up at the attorney's letter on TSG before I had a really good idea of what was going on. When I noted the confidentiality notice, I snickered, and when I got to the copyright notice, I actually laughed out loud. As to the first part, no, attorneys (or anyone, really) cannot unilaterally impose upon you a duty to maintain confidentiality. Typically, duties of confidentiality arise from a pre-existing contractual relationship (usually of an employment nature), but regardless, there must be some sort of agreement to impose and maintain this duty. You can't just tell other parties to shut up and make it stick. (Unless you are a judge or you can get a judge to order it. Unfortunately for the sending law firm, there is no pending lawsuit presenting, and therefore no judge involved. Yet

Re: How can I resist?

[cfd_samurai]

I think you'd have a hard time proving that the elements of this letter are unprotectable for lack of creativity in that at least its organizational structure shows that it's not a computer generated form letter and therefore required the author's creative (even if technically informed) mental processes in order to create (see computer software, vis-a-vis protectable and unprotectable elements).

I think the reason that the publisher is offering refunds is not because there was a public outcry (for refunds), but because people bought this book because Oprah told them to. So, the argument goes, lots of people bought the book that might not have otherwise, and therefore, the publisher has to hold itself to a higer standard of some sort. This is especially true if Oprah was paid to hawk the book (I have no knowledge one way or the other).