Large Supplement Com Sent Legal Complaint to Godaddy (Pics)

I have a store review site where I mention in the title of one of my reivews the url of the site. I used the exact url with the .com extension as the title of the review and inside the text. Well I said some negative things about the company and I got a bunch of negative reviews from other people too.


Well the admin today just sent a fax to Domains by proxy legal department. Domains by proxy said they didn't release my contact info, but they forwared it to me. I looked at the fax and he said I was using his url without his permission and took a photocopy of my site. he said i could be fined up to 100,000 and to desist from doing it by 8/12.

Basically he sent me a cease and desist through godaddy. The damn general manager of Domains by proxy had to process this bull crap complaint.

Here is a picture of the fax he sent, that was sent to my email forwarding through domains by proxy from godaddy. The other portion of the fax was just a image copy of the page in question.







This is total Bullcrap!!! First off I can use a site name if I want, that has nothing to do with copyright infringement since im not stealing anything, im reviewing his url so of course I have to put his url in the title of that post.




Now I deleted the post because I don't want any problems at the moment. I haven't emailed him back yet. Whether the post remains or not won't really effect my traffic much. This is the 2nd time ive had a problem with this site. The first time the owner of a different site sent me a cease and desist through my contact form, posing as a fake lawyer.

 

wow

you need to post this letter in the actual post that started this.

his letter is unfounded and you did not infringe on a copyright. its like a movie not liking the review and suing the paper to have it removed, it doesnt work like that.

you cant copyright a url and at most maybe it is TM, really easy to check. even then you did nothing wrong.

put the original review back up and add the letter to it as well and people will see how the site really is since they cant handle negative feedback

 

You are generally allowed to give your opinion (there are a few exceptions) and it doesn't sound like this has anything to do with copyright infringement. Use of his tradename doesn't sound like infringement either. You must be sure that anything you state as a fact is true.

Does this person has a legal position to win damages? Very unlikely from what you have posted. Of course they can always file a lawsuit and force you to spend legal fees.

You should consider talking to a local attorney (in the US, laws can vary by state). You can lose some protection you normally have for user comments by deleting some and keeping others as it can be argued that you agreed with the ones you left, and not with the ones you deleted. That is why message boards like yahoo have a tos where postings are only removed under certain circumstances (profanity, threats, etc. or a court order.)

 

I know I think its bullcrap, you don't have copyright protection for a URL just because it was used in the title of a individual post on my site and in the text of the review. He underlined the title in the image snapshot like it was a horrible think to mention the site by their URL LMAO. I think since this guy business is pretty scammy (he has a bad reputation) I think he might tried to sue me just to try and get me to spend legal fees. I don't want to risk keeping it up.

However, there is one alternative. I could sort of blackmail him in order to back off.
I could email him and tell him to F off or else Ill post his fax message on forums, free blogs, and more. I don't know though.

The problem is I can't post that fax image up on the site even for revenge cause I don't want to give other people ideas because there are other stores that receive negative feedback or I say negative things about. This isn't the first time someone tried to "Cease and desist" me. Not the same person though as last time. This was is more official and reputable and this person would have the money to back it up if they wanted to piss me off.

 

your being scammed under the threat of a lawsuit
anyone can sue anyone for anything, doesnt mean its a real case or that it will even goto court.

i will post the review and the letter on my site and you can link to me and i will handle the lawsuit

i hate when people are wrongfully bullied over bs
you have the right to review and comment on anything. it must be true or why would he try to scare you.

 

Yeah but if I link to you, I have to label the post and title I have to use his url in order for people to know who im talking about. Dont you think he will try to cause problems? This guy is supposedly getting recognition and awards but he is a scammer.

 

u can use any url you want
he cant control that
no one sues anyone unless your some large company and have your own legal dept.

there are tons of threads like this on here and all say same thing --- talk is cheap!!!

like its hard to google the c and d letter or to threaten anything

what is the url so i can post on everyone of my sites

 

Being extremely big in the supplement area as far as buying them, recommending them, etc I'd love to know which site this is. If you care to please PM me, if not I understand.

 

So you only had the supplement company name in the title of the post and not in the actual domain name?

 

If he does sue you, you may be able to sue him for malicious prosecution (called "malicious use of process" in some states) and even bring a claim against the attorney who files the suit on his behalf (for filing a frivolous lawsuit). The law varies from state to state but most states have some form of both of those options.

 

it doesnt matter if it is the url the name of the site or the name of the company

you can use the name anyway you want and can review the site however you want

we dont even know the url or what what was said which aggravates me more that we arguing a case with half the info not known so no way to know if slander was said, and thats the only thing you can sue for in the us

 

True. What was said (briefly) and can you let us know the company name? I don't want to be promoting a supplement company using these tactics.

 

Well Id rather not give the name of the company. They do have an affiliate program in shareasale. If you are heavily promoting one and very concerned you can pm me and ill tell you yes or no if its them. But basically I called them scammers (they scammed me) and also other people were claiming negative things to or getting scammed.

I just had the .com name in the url/text of my post. It wasn't in the domain name or subdomain. It was just a simple post/review link inside my site.

Im just a small time operator and I can't play legal hardball with a guy who has a lot of money. Even if he doesn't try to sue me,which i think he doesn't have a leg to stand on, he could probably think of other ways to cause problems.

 

this is absolute bulljizz

you are being scammed by this guy. in fact i recommend you start a campaign to review this guys shoddy site all over the world. lets see if he can sue all 100 of us.

 

What really pisses me off is this guy is getting awards and stuff. This guy is the biggest piece of crap ever.

 

welcome to the real world....most rich & successful people are quite ruthless...sociopathic almost.

btw im curious. is domain by proxy worth it ? i mean i use name.com and just use their hide my whois info for free.

 

Yeah this guy is a prick. Id retaliate, but then hed figure a way to retaliate back. Another company I had to be humbling too, i just deleted it and the person moved on and I had no more problems. I really wanted to fight it, but it wasn't worth it. I think Ill have to do it here too cause the guy has alot of money so could easily file a lawsuit even if there are no grounds, just to piss me off if I piss him off.

They sent a fax to domains by proxy and signed and the general manager emailed me saying they didn't release my contact info and that here was a copy of the fax they received. So in this instance whois privacy payed off. I register my domains with godaddy so I just get their whois privacy. I never get domain registration without whois privacy.

 

Fair enough you don't want to name them in this thread. Can you at least PM me the details?

 

Like i said, if its a company you really care about just ask me and ill say yes or no if its them. But dont waste my time unless its a affiliate you heavily rely on.

 

lol, I'm beginning to understand why this thread was started in the first place