Submit Express Newsletter #19
March 15, 2000
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1- Intro
2- Terminix Drops Meta Tag Lawsuit
3- Search Engine News : Go.com and AltaVista
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1- Intro
Back in December we published a story on Trademark Law and Domain
Names. We had a very strong response from our readers who had similar
experiences. Recently, we came across a story regarding Terminix suing
a website for using Terminix trademark in their Meta Tag. This lawsuit
was dropped recently, which could mean a big victory for many others in
similar situations.
As always we ask that if you like our newsletter, please forward it to
all your Webmaster friends or whoever might be interested.
Subscription is completely free and can be obtained at:
http://destinationsite.com/c?c=71857.37409.0.32394.1
Thanks,
Submit Express
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2- Terminix Drops Meta Tag Lawsuit
For the past two-plus years, Carla Virga, a California Secretary, has
been operating a website bashing Terminix for bad service. You can see
this website at:
http://destinationsite.com/c?c=71857.37409.0.32394.5
If you type "terminix" in any of the major search engines, she is
listed in the top 10 right there with the official company web pages.
Terminix, who is one of the biggest pest control companies, has been
trying to exterminate Virga's website since the beginning. They lost a
first defamation lawsuit, filed in March 1998, which was dismissed by
the judge, saying that it was protected by her first amendment right,
freedom of speech.
In October 1999, Terminix filed a second lawsuit claiming trademark
infringement, and claimed that Virga should not be permitted to use
their name in her website and Meta Tags. In case you don't know, Meta
Tags are hidden text placed on the websites for the search engines to
be able to find you based on your keywords. Please see details at:
http://destinationsite.com/c?c=71857.37409.0.32394.6
Relying on cases in which companies have successfully prevented others
from using trademarks on sites, Terminix argues that consumers who
create websites should also be prevented from publicizing their views
by using Meta Tags. Terminix's parent company, ServiceMaster, last
week abandoned the Meta Tag lawsuit. This could mean that Terminix
realized that their arguments were not strong enough to win them the
case. It is a major victory for many people in similar situations and
it will make some companies think twice before they slap a lawsuit
against non-profit sites practicing their freedom of speech.
"This tells other consumers with websites that they shouldn't roll over
and play dead if a corporation comes after them," said Paul Alan Levy,
a lawyer for Public Citizen. "It also sends a message to other
companies that the way to respond to criticism is by answering it, not
suing to stop it."
In a trademark case the plaintiff has to prove that the defendant's use
of the trademark is confusing consumers. "How could Virga's Meta Tags
be confusing anyone when they're not visible?" asked Public Citizen
lawyers in a brief filed on Virga's behalf last month.
Terminix's response: "The tags confuse the search engine, which is
acting as the consumer's proxy".
"That's not a totally frivolous argument, except that the Terminix Meta
Tags direct consumers to a site that's about Terminix," Levy said.
"Moreover, Virga's site is a non-commercial Web site, so trademark
issues don't apply."
You can find more details about this story at:
http://destinationsite.com/c?c=71857.37409.0.32394.7
http://destinationsite.com/c?c=71857.37409.0.32394.8
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3- Search Engine News
- Go.com (Formerly Infoseek):
We noticed sometime in the middle of February that Go.com stopped
accepting submissions via their regular form and is was only accepting
submissions via email. You will be glad to know that if you used our
service during this time, or wish to use it at any time in the future,
our submission script automatically sends submissions to Go.com via
email if their regular submission page is down.
However, just before press time today, we noticed that the regular URL
submission page is back with a different look. They now include more
instructions on how to submit your site. Couple of important changes
include: a note asking that only root URLs should be submitted and
another one that says it takes up to 6 weeks for your pages to be
indexed by them.
You can see the current URL submission page below. However, note that
our free submission script will send your site to Go.com and you will
not need to use the submission page here.
http://destinationsite.com/c?c=71857.37409.0.32394.11
- AltaVista:
Some of our visitors have been informing us about AltaVista submission
failures. Apparently, many people have been receiving the message:
"Too many URLs at that site have been submitted today. Because of abuse
of this feature by spammers, we limit the number of pages that a site
can submit per day. We apologize for the inconvenience but this is
necessary to protect the index from a minority of very aggressive
people. Limits are reset every day. Please try to submit your URL again
tomorrow."
This problem may happen to people who have sites with free hosting
companies. AltaVista may think that one person is submitting all the
sites. However, many of the sites in question were not on free-hosted
sites and were not submitted previously. We tested several sites
ourselves, even tried it several days apart, and we still got the same
message. It is not known what the real cause of this message is, but is
very possible that AltaVista is considering some sites as spammers
based on other criteria. It is also possible that this could be the
result of a bug.
Recently, there have been other reports of bugs with AltaVista, such as
listings linking to different sites than what is listed.
Currently, there is a bulletin board at AltaVista, with many postings
of people having similar problems:
http://destinationsite.com/c?c=71857.37409.0.32394.12
You will find that many people are complaining about AltaVista not
answering their emails and even voice mails. However, we still think
that if you are having a submission problem, the best way to fix it is
to email or call them. They may eventually catch up with you.
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Website: www.submitexpress.com
Past Issues of this Newsletter:
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