Presidential candidate Ben Carson rattles copyright saber at own supporters

Presidential candidate Ben Carson rattles copyright saber at own supporters

Boing Boing|Rob Beschizza

This news of the good doctor's idiocy is a couple of days old, but I'm an aficionado of the little flourishes of smack-talk that lawyers put in their responses to outrageous legal threats and wanted to share it with you.
Carson's lawyers sent this cease and desist letter to CafePress to try and get it to nail people selling "unauthorized" shirts and other tat that tours "Ben Carson For President". A smorgasbord of legal rationales— "Digital Millennium Copyright Act, The Lanham Act, Federal Trademark Infringement, Federal Copyright Infringement, state misappropriation and privacy laws"—is offered without much to support any given one. It comes to K. Clyde Vanel, Esq. of the Public Citizen Litigation Group, to deliver the goods (PDF).

To borrow a slogan much-used in this campaign, it doesn't take a brain surgeon to understand how baseless these claims are. … The notion that expressing views about Carson's candidacy violates any of this right is simply absurd. It is shocking that a lawyer whose expertise touts his expertise in intellectual property law would sign his name to such a communication.

Shocking, sir, you hear, I say! [via MetaFilter.]