Well I guess you can't say I didn't warn you. Have fun in court telling the judge "it's ok because he's black hat!"
If it's YOUR OPINION that the sites mentioned on your site are using SEO spam tactics, what's wrong with that, you're entitled to your opinion. I think it's a good idea to allow feedback for each site for webmasters to express their motive for those tactics and as someone else mentioned, show GOOD examples also. As far as the copyright infringement for the screen shots....that's stretching it....Alexa and Thumbshots.org would be out of business. Did anybody here give Alexa or Thumbshots permission to take a snap shot of their site? If someone gets booted from the google index, how the hell would they prove it was because of your site. With as much as Google adjusts the algorithm, it'd be hard for someone to blam you for dropping from page 2 to page 50. Why don't all the spam sites sue Google because of their algorithm discriminating against them? How many times have you seen this thread title: "GOOGLE WON'T INDEX MY SITE". There are several reasons: Maybe they don't want too, maybe they haven't got around to it or maybe your site, or according to our (google) indexing algorithm rules, isn't good enough!!! People have got to quit whining, take all that energy your using in trying to trick google (and other SE's) and develope a site with ACTUAL CONTENT. I was just over at: http://dmoz.org/Computers/Internet/Abuse/Spam/Blacklists/ Every blacklist site has hundreds if not thousands of urls of sites that are spammy in one way or another. Now if these blacklist sites aren't worried about getting sued for exposing spam sites, then if I were you, I wouldn't be either. As a matter of fact, you should find SEO spam using the urls from blacklists, that way you're using an already known spam sites. keep your site professional, give honest opinions why YOU think a particular site is using SEO spam tactics and provide feedback for those who disagree. What if someone started a thread entitled: "Best examples of SEO spam and give examples" Do you think the example sites can sue Digital Point? Jeeze, I would hope not!! I'm no expert and neither are you, if we were we'd be Google Engineers!! ED
Yes, and your slanderous or libel opinion can get your sued and empty your bank account. Actually either archive.org or alexa was being sued for copyright infringement. In civil courts you don't have to prove it. You just have to win over the judge and he/she can award you up to $5,000 If it is slanderous or libel they can be sued. There's been numerous times when companies have threatened lawsuits if sites didn't take down users comments. I believe SEObook is going through a lawsuit right now for just that.
Actually here you go, legal basis for a lawsuit: The definition of spam is roughly "unsolicited messages" by any deffinition of the word: Therefor a site with hidden text, hidden links, cloaking, etc are NOT TECHNICALLY SPAM. I've just proven you made false accusations against those websites - those accusations are libel, slanderous and defamatory - I sure hope none of them decide they want to sue. I'm not even an expert on any of this stuff and I can make a good case for it
Schmidte, you basically are forgetting that a lawsuit doesn't need to have merit to be effective. The mere threat of one has caused many webmasters to either pull content or pay an out-of-court settlement because the settlement would cost less than fighting the lawsuit.
More lawsuit basis: Archive.org sued for caching web pages: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/13/t...rss&adxnnlx=1121261524-49PiboNGByP2ywaMqsnshw http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/technology/archives/2005/07/13/caching_in_archiveorg_sued.html
Points well taken Yo-Yo. But SEO spam is not an exact science with a set of laws. If I say a site is using SEO spam tactics because of X, Y and Z and that's my opinion, the site owner can't say I'm wrong because where's the written SEO spam law that I broke. SEO spam is subjective and in the eyes of the beholder (or something like that). NOW.... If he says "don't visit this obnoxious, lying, SEO spamming site and don't buy their product because of deceptive practices" then he'll end up in court. You might not have to PROVE it in civil court, but the judge (who's computer is full of spyware and spam emails) is going to need proof that adolix's site was slanderous. Exposing the fact that someone used hidden text in not slanderous........ ED
Thanks That's the whole problem here. You can't just go around publicly labeling things that have a negative connotation like "SPAM" if they aren't actaully SPAM. Wether or not he would lose the law suit is another issue. The point is he can be sued and quite possibly he could lose. He has to decide if we wants to that kind of a financial risk.
Oh by the way, SEObook is being sued for users comments: http://news.com.com/2061-11199_3-5845201.html
Worked on the Legal Disclaimer, here is what I have now: ================================= Legal Disclaimer All data on this website is provided for your personal information only, and not intended for legal or commercial purposes. The Stop SEO Spam (SSS) project, the persons who administrate the website and its data providers shall not be liable for any errors in the site or other data, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. If you don't agree with any of disclaimers above please do not use this site! DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES AND LIABILITY NEITHER THE STOP SEO SPAM PROJECT NOR ANY THIRD-PARTY SUPPLIERS OF DATA, SOFTWARE OR EQUIPMENT TO THE STOP SEO SPAM PROJECT MAKE ANY WARRANTY, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, AS TO THE RESULTS TO BE OBTAINED BY ANY USER OR OTHERS FROM THE USE OF THE INFORMATION PROVIDED HEREUNDER. THE STOP SEO SPAM PROJECT MAKES NO EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF FITNESS OF THE INFORMATION FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR USE. * The information contained in the Stop SEO Spam Databases has been obtained from the VISITORS of the website. However, the accuracy and completeness thereof are not guaranteed and the SSS and its data suppliers shall have no liability for errors or omissions regardless of the cause or source of such error or omission. * The information, provided by the visitors of the website, is subjective and is based on the visitors' right to have an opinion and share it with other people. * The existance of sites in our database should NOT be taken as imputation to defame / harm any individual or organization! * We do not suggest our visitors not to use / browse / buy from the sites listed on this site. * We hope to discourage use of unethical techniques so as to protect the interest of people using any search engine and impute correct results while searching for any desired information on the internet! NEITHER THE SSS PROJECT OR ANY OF ITS THIRD-PARTY DATA SUPPLIERS SHALL HAVE ANY LIABILITY TO A USER OR TO OTHERS FOR ANY LOST PROFITS OR INDIRECT, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES, EVEN IF ADVISED IN ADVANCE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. If you believe that your site was included by mistake in this archive, please report it here. But please make sure your site doesn't include any spam techniques before reporting, or otherwise it might not get removed. Copyright This website and its' concept is © 2006 Stop SEO Spam. All rights reserved. All the data (images in the screenshots and .html source) about the URLs submitted by the visitors are the property of the respective websites and can't be used in any commercial purpose. ======================================= Feel free to give suggestions... but don't be an asshole
adolix, if you're losing sleep over it, and you probably are after reading this thread....dump the project. Yo-YO has some good examples of what others will go thru to protect their STUFF! You'd probably never get sued, but it only takes one crack smoking, rich, pissed-off spammer to ruin your day. Put up a fishing site, they're pretty safe!!! Good Luck, ED
Ok - totally trying not to be an asshole... Do you know if a "legal disclaimer" is actually "legal" at all? Willl a legal disclaimer hold up in a court of law? If it would then anybody could throw up a child porn site with a big fancy legal disclaimer saying "hey we're no responsible!" and get away with providing everyone child porn. Even though you say it, I still doubt it has any legal presidence in a real court.
Adolix, that is the absolute smartest thing you can do. (getting a lawyer). BTW, Remember that you can't really say something like "If you don't agree, please don't use this site" and bury it in a page linked from the footer of your main page. It needs to be on a splash page, or at the top of the index page (or perhaps even every concievable entry page).