Wal-Mart Now Going After Search Engines For Linking To Sites With Black Friday Ads

from the gotta-keep-the-lawyers-busy dept

It would appear that Wal-Mart's lawyers need to come up with excuses to keep billing Wal-Mart every year around this time. Despite the fact that Wal-Mart employees admit that sites posting "Black Friday Ads" help drive more business, Wal-Mart's hired guns keep threatening sites for posting the ads, falsely claiming a copyright on the content (hint: you can't copyright prices). This year, they've stepped it up a notch and are claiming that it's illegal to even link to a site that has such content.

Specifically, Wal-Mart's high-priced law firm has sent a takedown notice to the site SearchAllDeals.com, which is a search engine/aggregator of various deals sites. The site doesn't host any content itself, but that didn't stop Wal-Mart from sending a false DMCA takedown claim to the site (and, of course, a false DMCA takedown is illegal). So, we have Wal-Mart, whose employees think deal sites are helpful, getting its lawyers to send out bogus takedown notices over content that isn't copyrighted, and then sending them to search engines that don't even host the content in question.

It makes you wonder how much the lawyers are charging Wal-Mart... and if the fees are being paid out of the legal budget, or the marketing and promotions budget.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: ads, black friday, copyright, facts, lawsuits, prices, trade secrets
Companies: searchalldeals, wal-mart


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  • identicon
    anon, 14 Nov 2008 @ 11:16am

    something tells me someone at the walmart corporation is gonna get subpoenaed

    at least, i wish ):

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      teraom, 17 Nov 2008 @ 2:47am

      Re: subpoenaed

      It is not walmart who is called to the court. Walmart is dragging search all deals to the court..

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 14 Nov 2008 @ 11:30am

    Illigal

    "are claiming that it's illegal to even link to a site that has such content."

    it should be illigal to give out false legal info without clearly stating that you're joking/lieing

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Lonnie E. Holder, 14 Nov 2008 @ 11:44am

    Accurate Pricing

    Mike:

    There is one little detail in this notice that I would find concerning, if true. The notice requires publication of a notice that the advertisement included unauthorized changes that reflected inaccurate price information. If that allegation is true, I can see Wal-Mart being rather annoyed because of all the people that would go into Wal-Mart pressing to be sold whatever item or items were advertised at the incorrect price, assuming the price or prices were too low. Then you get those people that threaten to sue for false advertising, when Wal-Mart had nothing to do with the erroneous price.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      BinaryRock, 14 Nov 2008 @ 12:31pm

      Re: Accurate Pricing

      I may be wrong, but I thought there was some sort of law that protected companies from typos in advertisements. Would this fall under the same category? Besides, I believe all sales papers have fine print that says something along the lines of "prices subject to change without notice."

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Lonnie E. Holder, 14 Nov 2008 @ 12:48pm

        Re: Re: Accurate Pricing

        Binary:

        Yes, there are laws that protect companies from typos. However, if the company put the price in intentionally and later realized before release of the advertisement that pricing was erroneous, then they would be unable to argue typographical error.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Snarky Comment Alert, 14 Nov 2008 @ 11:53am

    Non issue

    Best Buy will probably have a better Black Friday special this year anyway.

    Best Buy also appears to have better grasp of this concept called "Marketing" and how "Promoting" creates this funny thing called "Demand", which generally creates something called a "Profit".

    But whatever.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Jarrett, 14 Nov 2008 @ 12:00pm

    TechDirt has written about how when corporations take actions like this to shutdown a site (PirateBay for example) they end up driving more traffic to the site. Could Wal-mart actually be smart enough to use legal action as a ploy to gain attention for their black Friday prices?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      ChurchHatesTucker (profile), 14 Nov 2008 @ 6:30pm

      Re:

      "Could Wal-mart actually be smart enough to use legal action as a ploy to gain attention for their black Friday prices?"

      Huh. I wonder how WalMart would react if I posted a site that attributed insanely high prices to them (best estimates, of course, not based on advanced knowledge.)

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    RBSplat, 14 Nov 2008 @ 12:11pm

    Come On Think About It

    Sure the takedown notice seems a little.. all right a lot.. ridiculous, but how many sites spread the ad around and bring notice to an ad that a lot of people might not see any other way.

    It's called free advertising...

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Sean, 14 Nov 2008 @ 12:16pm

    Not only Search Engines... TechCrunch also...

    TechCrunch also got "educated" by Walmart lawyers... Look at this...

    http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/11/14/walmart-wants-it-both-ways/

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Gil S, 14 Nov 2008 @ 12:43pm

    Playing with fire...

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 14 Nov 2008 @ 12:44pm

    pft

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Joel Coehoorn, 14 Nov 2008 @ 12:45pm

    Streisand

    This is another case of your 'streisand effect'.

    Some of these sites are really only relevant one month out the year or less, and the best site changes every year. So November rolls around and even people who are interested in this kind of thing aren't exactly sure which site will have the best info.

    It sure is nice of the retailers to clear that up for us, and make it possible for more people to find these sites via the publicity generated from the lawsuits.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 14 Nov 2008 @ 1:35pm

    Walmart could probably make their prices even lower if they didn't try to sue everyone they possibly could for frivolous reasons.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Scott, 14 Nov 2008 @ 1:37pm

    Look at the TechCrunch/CrunchGear one

    Click through to the ad. They reproduced a sales circular. Evidently without permission. If so, WalMart has a case. Against CrunchGear.

    I think if CrunchGear had linked to blackfriday.info and summarized the contents instead, they should have been in the clear. But that photo is on CrunchGear.com and contains the IP of WalMart.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      DanC, 14 Nov 2008 @ 2:09pm

      Re: Look at the TechCrunch/CrunchGear one

      But that photo is on CrunchGear.com and contains the IP of WalMart.

      And it should fall easily into the realm of fair use. Fair use provides for the use of copyrighted material for the use of critique or comment, which is exactly what TechCrunch is using it for.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Anonymous Coward, 14 Nov 2008 @ 3:41pm

        Re: Re: Look at the TechCrunch/CrunchGear one

        How so? All the text does is list the items included and a suggestion that "It might even be good enough to forgo post-turkey sleep and wait in line with soccer moms at 2:00am to ensure you get one of ‘em. Just make sure you’re a Sam’s Club member before Black Friday."

        What's the "critique" or "comment" that is a fair use there?

        link to this | view in chronology ]

        • identicon
          DanC, 14 Nov 2008 @ 4:06pm

          Re: Re: Re: Look at the TechCrunch/CrunchGear one

          What's the "critique" or "comment" that is a fair use there?

          Not exactly sure why critique or comment are in quotes, but to answer your question, the use of the picture is fair use, because it's being posted for the purpose of commenting. In addition to the minimal comments in the article itself, there's also the 17 user comments on the ad/article. And they posted an update correcting the pricing error.

          They don't have the whole ad book, they used a single picture from it, commented on it, and linked to the full book (which is no longer working). Looks like an open and shut fair use case to me.

          link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Hello, Welcome to Walmart, 14 Nov 2008 @ 6:17pm

    What a Nightmare

    If Wallyfart spent less money on silliness like this then maybe they could give their employees better compensation.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Erik, 14 Nov 2008 @ 11:00pm

    Wal-Mart would do well to embrace these sites that are providing them with publicity and advertising. But, since Wal-Mart is run by shortsighted greedheads, they sic their lawyers on people they have no business attacking. Stupid, always stupid.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Brow, 18 Nov 2008 @ 5:29am

    Why are they complaining? Walmart is one of few companies that are surviving in this economic slump...makes no sense to push business away.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Adam Patterson, 18 Nov 2008 @ 2:48pm

    Google

    Considering the site search says powered by Google should Walmart not take on Google?

    That would be an interesting battle.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    JULIE PIERCE, 19 Nov 2008 @ 8:58am

    WALMART BLACK FRIDAY ATTORNEY FEES

    ARE PROBABLY BEING PAID THROUGH THE WALMART ASSOCIATES CRITICAL NEED TRUST FUND.
    THEY USE IT FOR RELOCATION FEES SO WHY NOT?

    link to this | view in chronology ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.