Re: Not sure if I'm flattered or offended

From: Cliff Kurtzman <moderator_at_o-a.com>
Date: Fri 05 May 2006 08:34:56 -0500

Janet Attard wrote:

>But having an attorney send the appropriate nastigrams can sometimes take
>care of situations without a terrible amount of expense.

My philosophy is this...

If someone is doing something that really bothers me and is wrongful,
first I'll just ask them nice to stop. In 80% of the cases where I'm
able to reach the person and do so, it solves the problem quickly.

I found someone on Google not too long ago that was coping ALL the
postings from this list onto their site so they would be indexed by
the search engines and they could sell AdSense ads in association
with the content. It was blatant copyright infringement. I asked them
to stop, and the content disappeared not too long thereafter. End of
story I hope.

In this particular instance related to AD:TECH, the situation seemed
more amusing than anything else, and since the ad was related to a
conference which had already passed, I knew the problem would go away
in not too long by itself. Further, it opened up a useful topic for
discussion on this list, and the bottom line is that it made the
folks employing the tactic look sleazy to thousands of people and it
undoubtedly caused them far more harm than good for doing what they
did. One would hope they will learn a lesson and not do it again.

Getting the lawyers involved is both time consuming and expensive,
and it is a last resort tactic. But I do think it can be justified in
situations where someone is engaged in deliberate wrongful conduct
that truly causes harm to me or my staff, especially if it is done
with the purpose and intent of achieving financial gain through the
damage they are causing to others. There are unfortunately people in
this world (not to mention plaintiff's attorneys) that see this kind of
conduct as a viable way to generate their income, and they will get
more and more brazen in causing injury to others unless someone
has the courage to stand up to them and hold them accountable for
their conduct. But I don't think that this situation is nearly of that
magnitude.

--Cliff

Clifford R. Kurtzman
CEO | Moderator
ADASTRO Incorporated | The Online Advertising Discussion List
http://www.adastro.com | http://www.o-a.com
(281) 480-6300





Received on Fri May 05 2006 - 08:34:56 CDT