Re: Unethical Advertising Practices

From: Cliff Kurtzman <cliff_at_tenagra.com>
Date: Wed 06 Nov 2002 22:53:37 -0600

As the moderator of this list, this thread has posed some real
dilemmas for me regarding the appropriate role of the moderator.
A number of the responses that came in to the posted question
constituted advice that seemed dubious at best. Nonetheless,
I decided to let a variety of opinions be heard, with the hope
that the comments that were not consistent with my understanding
of current interpretations of the law would be corrected by others
through our discussion process. I am very pleased to see that
such is exactly what happened.

When legal doctrines are applied to new technologies, there can
be a period of time before clarity is achieved. Cases come
before different jurisdictions at the local, state, national
and international levels. Often such cases are heard by judges
that are absolutely clueless about the technologies which they
are ruling upon. Decisions can be made at one level and then
reversed upon appeal and then reversed again upon later appeal.

In such an environment, my advice to any client would be that in
a situation where things might be unclear, one should error on the
side of being overly conservative unless there is an extremely
strong and compelling reason not to do so... and even then such
action should only be taken after receiving advice from an
attorney with relevant competency. Let someone else be the poster
child or test case in a law suit that costs $200,000.00 to defend
whether or not you win or lose.

In the case of the particular issues posed in this thread, I
would reiterate the advice given to our readers to review the
information at searchenginewatch.com, as well as Christopher
Ulrich's comments regarding the need to have "clean hands" if
litigation should become necessary. Two wrongs do not make a
right--they just put more money into the pockets of the
lawyers.


--Cliff

Clifford R. Kurtzman, Ph.D.
President and CEO Moderator
The Tenagra Corporation The Online Advertising Discussion List
http://www.tenagra.com/ http://www.o-a.com/
281/480-6300
Using the Internet as a Strategic Asset






Received on Wed Nov 06 2002 - 22:53:37 CST