When did free speech get so expensive?

Late one evening in June, Matthew Inman, the comic genius behind The Oatmeal, received a knock on his door: it was a hand-delivered letter demanding he pay $20,000 for articles he had written and published on his website.

Matthew hadn't violated the law, and he hadn't written anything inaccurate. He was the victim of a bogus lawsuit designed to intimidate him into taking down truthful articles from his website. EFF helped Matthew fight off the lawsuit and defend his rights to online speech.

Now we want to help bloggers all over the country just like him. We're calling on Congress to pass a federal law that will give strong legal tools to victims of similar bogus legal attacks. Help us out by sending an email to Congress now.

Matthew was the victim of a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation (SLAPP). These lawsuits have one aim: shutting down public discourse by forcing critics -- often independent bloggers -- to fight expensive and baseless suits. An independent journalist targeted by such a lawsuit may find it impossible to afford the legal counsel necessary to defend her online free speech, and may be forced to pay huge settlement fees, remove articles, or even shut down a blog entirely.

We need Congress to pass a strong federal anti-SLAPP bill to protect bloggers, authors, journalists, filmmakers, and others who need to defend their Constitutional speech against bogus legal threats.

EFF and the Public Participation Project (PPP) are calling on Congress to support strong federal anti-SLAPP legislation to protect individuals all over the U.S. from frivolous lawsuits designed to squelch public speech. The concept is simple: when a blogger faces a legal threat for legitimate online content, she can file a motion to get the case dismissed quickly. If the case is found to be frivolous in court, she won't have to pay the legal fees.

Help stand up for free speech: click here, add your name, and tell Congress we need strong federal laws to protect speech, online and off.

Defending your digital rights,

Adi Kamdar
Activism Team
Electronic Frontier Foundation

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