Betterbidding Lawyers Bully Me…. again?
Hello everyone,
I have not had a chance to work on Travelgoop much recently. I have been extremely busy pursuing my non-hobby pursuits. For the most part, this consists of working at a new job researching the many unknowns of the human brain. Very interesting stuff and quite far removed from travel bidding. That being said, I like to think that I created a vehicle that can run pretty well and hoped users would utilize it to its fullest while I was away. I remain convinced (as I’ve mentioned in earlier blog postings) that the forum system for posting travel bids is a severely flawed way to deliver this information. I started travelgoop because I love and believe in the travel bidding processes that Priceline and Hotwire have made available. After staying in a 4* hotel for $40, you too will understand the inexplicable joy that is ‘get more, pay less’… that coupled with traveling make for great experiences. I am impressed with the growing number of ‘travelgoopers’ (as coined by jgibson7 over at FlyerTalk) and the amount of feedback and comments I have received.
So, funny story… I went out of town for the weekend. Upon returning, I decided to check my Travelgoop email which I hadn’t checked for a healthy amount of time. What do I have? A letter from John W. Forehand of Lewis, Longman & Walker, P.A.. I’m not going to get too into it, but essentially I have been accused of hosting copyrighted information on Travelgoop that in fact allegedly belongs to betterbidding.com .
Ok. This is a little bit of a sidetrack, but this is not the first time Mr. Forehand of Lewis, Longman & Walker, P.A. has contacted me on behalf of betterbidding.com . I had the pleasure of hearing from him about 2 months ago. The issue then was that I was using ‘betterbidding’ as a keyword for Google AdWords. Mr. Forehand informed me that I was violating the law by using ‘betterbidding’ as a keyword because it is trademarked. This first exposed me to the confrontational mentality of the betterbidding administrators. I was generating so little traffic from this keyword that I removed it even though this isn’t settled law at all. If you want more information on this topic, you can look up the current court case that Google is in against American Blind and Wallpaper Factory (ABWF)… here is a sample article for those interested. To give you some perspective, I spent $2.50 on this campaign. For this, betterbidding.com ’s lawyer contacted me.
Back to now… I have removed the content that betterbidding.com claims is their copyright. Not because I believe one can copyright a price for a hotel for a certain night. Not because they claim that information at Travelgoop is damaging their site because users will stop posting for “fear” of having the information disseminated on other sites (people posting in a public venue for completely altruistic reasons “fear” a number and date being shown somewhere else?). I removed it because I am not doing this for a living. I haven’t run a single ad or brought in a single penny from Travelgoop. I scrape by for now, but it’s not the money that interests me. I wanted to practice my hobby of computer programming while helping people save money. So I developed an improvement to something I thought was flawed. I really truly believe in the generosity of people and I am always impressed by the support of my members and the fact that people do take the time to post information… only because they want to help others.
The real issue I have going forward is with betterbidding.com . Merriam-Webster defines a bully as “one habitually cruel to others who are weaker”. I plan to expose the betterbidding.com administrators for what they are… bullies. Don’t get me wrong, I believe in laws and intellectual property is crucial to our society. But, I never received a single email from an administrator at betterbidding. Not one single email asking me about anything they were unhappy with. They go straight to their lawyers and threaten a small operation with litigation.
What I ask of you is that you take into consideration betterbidding.com ’s actions. Some things you could do if you felt so inclined:
1) Don’t post your information there. You don’t even have to post it at Travelgoop. Post it at biddingfortravel.com or create your own site and post it there. You could name it bettergoopfortravel.com or something maybe a little more enticing.
2) Remove your content from betterbidding.com .
3) Tell fellow posters to try out suggestions #1 and #2.
4) Create bumper stickers and T-shirts
5) Bring the issue up at cocktail parties
6) Canvas your local neighborhood
7) Get a tattoo on your neck explaining the situation
Some of these are more doable than others. If you have any more suggestions, feel free to let me know and I can expand the list.
Until next time.
Marc