I suppose this doesn't really become a problem until digg starts getting spammed through means such as these -- viagra ads rising to the top of digg won't go down too well...
They may not be able to shut it down legally but they don't need to. It would take them less then 5 minutes to ban everyone associated with that site and you can bet no one is going to pay money for Diggs when that risk is there. Also, Diggers have to Dig like 400 stories before they get paid. If they are banned by Digg within that period, they get nothing (And you can pretty much guarantee that will happen in every case) As far as why Digg would go after any site manipulating results, it has to do with credibility. They don't care if the articles are Viagra spam or Decent Tech related ones. If they gain a front page through manipulation, they will ban the IPs
I can tell you precisely what happens. Digg will have their attorneys send a letter. This letter will say that it is against terms of use to artificially inflate digg voting, and that they have X days to stop the service or they could be subject to legal action. Trouble is, that threat is as far is they can take it. If U/S has not registered a digg account and uses only third party diggers, then digg's ToU do not apply to them in the least. Funny to see so many old remarks stating that this service will never last.
Well bearing in mind that the submit page states and the user page states I suspect this service has already shut down, or at least is massively broken.
It clearly says they are overbooked. You probably would be too if you were featured in wired magazine and then covered by 10,000 blogs. The front page clearly states: But that's ok if people want to believe they're closed. I'm happy to take the business.
As others have stated, I don't see an issue with U/S violating the terms of service, but your site definitely is! From their Terms of Use: I'd be careful when dealing with a Trademarked name....
I think this is a good idea although it will probably be shut down... if your paying users to digg and article they're biased and digg loses it's real meaning. Also, $20 + $1 a dig is a rip off, these guys are paying $0.50 each time a user diggs 3 articles, they are the winers really!
I do not think so. Trademarks are only as valid as the protection that has gone into them. When sites like digglicious and diggriver operate unencombered, it only serves to prove that the trademark was not protected, and has lapsed. Furthermore, that trademark law is not applicable in my location. Even if it were also listed locally here, using it as part of a domain is not prohibited, regardless of what their ToU state. Xerox is one of the strongest protected trademarks in the world, but that doesn't mean I'm not allowed to make a site of XeroxServiceCenters.com, or even XeroxCompetitors.com for that matter. Of course, if they wish to spend a couple of years fighting over it, then by all means let them. Their position is weak and I'm happy to contest it. It would be faster and cheaper for them to just buy the domain from me.
diggriver is the official digg mobile site and is owned by Digg. Digg don't have to sue every site (such as duggmirror) but they would sue sites they don't like.........
this site doing something not ethical to digg.com and others writers that get natural digg from reader. But on the other word it help some people to grow their website and earn some money. It up to digg.com to take an action. p/s: did someone here try the service before?