I am a blogger that has writes about computer stuff and also review software. I've written an article about a FREEWARE called DriverPacks at this link. http://www.raymond.cc/blog/archives...a-cd-with-all-current-drivers-for-windows-xp/ Now the author of DriverPacks is pestering me to remove the article because I am stealing their keywords. (Yeah right, no one in this world owns keywords) Or should I say WITHOUT a reason. The article that I've written is NOT copied from anywhere. I've written the article myself based on my review. DriverPack is also a freeware which can be downloaded by anyone. My question is, did I do anything wrong? Copyright? Plagiarism? Piracy? Since their software is free, I don't think I need their permission to review their software. What do you all think?
No, you've not violated anything. The only POSSIBLE problem is showing the screenshots. But you've credited them to DriverPacks... so I don't really know what their problem is (other than a need to learn to spell). A threat to contact your ISP is problematic simply from a nuisance perspective, unless it's your domain and they can't get your host to shut you down. Anyways, I wouldn't worry too much about it.
This domain is owned by me and also hosted on my dedicated server. Thanks for the confirmation guys. Now another thing that I need to worry is would they try to hack my server? I've already done a full backup and save it at an offsite location.
I didn't look ... but is the name you used a registered trademark. You still in the right but the issue isn't right or wrong is whether they take the next step or not... another that spent the money to trademark is more app to go the court route which costs money to defend yourself regardless of the final disposition. ...anyone that hasn't registered a trademark will never "likely" take it further.
It doesn't matter whether they're trademarked or not. Writing guides with screenshots completely falls under "fair use". Just write those assholes an email saying that they can go ahead and try to sue you.
Yeah that's what I thought. Writing and promoting about their "free open source" tool and yet they are so arrogant. Although I don't want any trouble, but I will report if they will do anything.
maybe their stupid and cant read english properly and they think ur telling their software is not good just ask them why they want their software's review removed!
I can't even imagine why they would complain about getting some "free press". But I would delete the post, who needs the hassle of dealing with a total lack of logic. ~tasty
I agree. The post even provides a download link. It's sad that the author is whining about you outranking him for some keywords. That is his fault and not yours. Tell him to hit the road or you will modify the post and tell the world what a whiner he is!
I hope and trust they'll drop it. But who owns the copyright of the screenshots displayed in your blog?
They would have a common law right to the trademarked name if they are the first to use it for that category of goods.
The reason why I wouldn't want to comply with them is because they are unreasonable. They think they are big bullies and can simply go around asking people to remove articles... First time Jeff, the admin of DriverPacks said that I outranked them on some keywords. Well that is seriously not my fault. Then Muiz, another person from DriverPacks contacted me, again I asked him/her to let me know "what is actually the problem". Muiz said that it is because the article is outdated. Still that isn't a reason why I should REMOVE the post which I've written 6 months ago! I kindly asked Muiz would he like me to update the post by re-reviewing their software, and Muiz got pissed off saying that they'll take other actions. Searching DriverPacks in Google display results of about 180,000. So are they going to go ahead and ask the 179,999 sites to "DriverPacks" word from their website? @snowbird, the download links are NOT direct link to the installer/setup file. It also redirects to their webpage. Basically by doing that, I am not leeching their bandwidth and taking the credits.
Of course you didn't violate anything. But the nice thing you could have done was clearly crediting them. You only provided the link, and did not mention anything about the author of the softwares. That is not illegal, but it is not nice either Anyway, don't worry. Their comments show their level of (un)professionalism. You don't have to care about them.