FatWallet To Sue Best Buy Over DMCA Threat

jkeyes writes "Online deal site FatWallet announced today that they will be suing Best Buy and other companies that sent them DMCA takedown notices. They are seeking a declaration from the court stating that Best Buy and other companies' demands were an abuse of the DMCA, and also violate the 1st Amendment." We covered Best Buy's original DMCA invocation a few days back.

Comments

Good.

[Selecter]

Its about time somebody didnt just roll over and play dead. Sic em.

Truly...

[scifience]

Since when is posting an ad flyer online illegal? If it is, TechTV should get sued also for showing their "Real Deal" segment every Monday in which they compare Sunday ad flyers. My guess is that they are just going after the "little guys" hoping that they will just give in and not fight.

Re:Truly...

[merdaccia]

It's all about expectations. Right now, people expect Best Buy, etc. to have great deals on Black Friday. People are waiting in anticipation, people will line up, and Best Buy will sell hordes of crap from people thinking they're gonna get good deals.

But then FatWallet (thanks FatWallet) comes along, and lists what these deals are. After people see what's really on sale, a lot of people will lose interest because the sales aren't great (as you said, "the only remotely great deal is"). Consumers have time to see whether something is really a deal or not by comparing prices in advance. This results in a lot less people expecting good deals, and a lot less people going to Best Buy on Black Friday. And a lot less money for Best Buy. Hence, the takedown notices. They know they'll lose money if people see the hype for what it really is ... hype.

Restoring people's faith

[BlackSabbath]

This decision will be interesting as many people have lost faith in the "system" thinking that laws are made by and for those with money.

A good decision here could go a way to help restoring people's faith in the law.

Of course a bad decision will confirm everybody's worst fears.

Re:Restoring people's faith

[danheskett]

Courts aren't in the business of restoring peoples faith in hte law. And they are not in the business in picking which laws are good or bad. Courts are in the business of ruling on how laws should be applied, which laws conflict with each other, and which laws are not enforceable.

A good decision here could go a way to help restoring people's faith in the law.
In my book, a good decision is a ruling rooted only in the law. In a lot of /. opinion, a good opinion is one that is what they want to hear to promote their agenda.

Of course a bad decision will confirm everybody's worst fears.
The worst fear beaing that the laws are made by and for those with money? If you think that is the case then your beef is with Congress.

Let me ask you this, to kinda of solidfy my kind of meandering point:

If Congress passes a law with the purpose of enriching the powerful and wealthy at the expense of the little guy, would a court ruling that enforces this law and bilks the little guy out of money bve a good ruling or a bad ruling?

Around here, the expectation is that it would be a bad ruling, regardless of how the ruling adheres to the written law. In my book, that ruling would be a good ruling.

My hope with this whole DMCA case is that the court follows the word of the law exactly. And in the future, I hope courts fully enforce every aspect of the DMCA, so that in the future, I can go to my congress person and use it as Exhibit A. I've gone to my people in Congress, and talked to them, and you know what? In every case they want examples of how the DMCA has been abused and how courts ruled.

The bottom line here is that a good and a bad ruling are really interesting questions.

Re:Restoring people's faith

[TyrranzzX]

And I, and millions of others, have written letters to congresspersons, only to get predigested letters back stating "everything is ok, please vote for me".

I could garountee you that if you sat me down infront of the senate and asked me to explain to them why the DMCA is bad I could convince them within an hour as could just about any well educated technically inclined individual could.

To put it bluntly, when your ruling body passes laws that creat more conflicts than they solve, that is a bad ruling body. Much of the time this isn't due to people saying "hahahaaa, we'll get you and your dog too!" but more along the lines of most of the people in congress being traditonally educated buisnesspeople with plenty of education in other areas who, imo, trust corperations too much.

So, what I really thing has gone on is a fundemental change since the past. Corperations began creating all the resources we had and after a few generations, the old guys who said "corperations are bad, we must regulate this tool lest it gets out of control" died off to leave new people to come in and get elected. The new people had more faith in the corperate system than they did before, and as time went on, congress simply became more corperate friendly without realizing the folly of this, which is that if you give corperations all the power they want, and let them have flawed leaders, you unbalance the power system (such as competition) that keeps the peasants happy. When this happens guys at the top get greedy, and they'll conspire with their friends to force the mark of the beast onto us as an example and force us into slavery.

Add to this bribery, er, lobbying and you've got a corrupt goverment. With every law nobody agree's with, respect for all law by this goverment will decrease until there is no law.

The measure of a goverments success, in any incarnation, is it's ability to solve conflicts between people. A good decision would solve the majority of conflicts, while a bad decision would solve the minorty of them and a really bad decision would cause even more conflicts.

SAY NO TO DMCA Abuse

[tonyz2k]

It seems like the DMCA is a card often played by large technology-oriented companies. Its time for Fat Wallet, and Slick Deals and the rest of them to fight for what they believe in. After all it is america and they need stick it to Best Buy and these other tools who insist on using the DMCA. I mean seriously this DMCA shit has got to stop, first kevin mitnick, then that kid from northern europe with his DVD stuff, that russian kid for his adobe font stuff, whats next, are the Creators of Linux going to jail for using code from the Windows TCP/IP stack!? Wheres the DMCA Sux tshirt when you need it. Think Geek, make that and also a bumper sticker, I'll wear it down in DC and show the Senator Hatches whats what!

Thank WallMart et al.

[shis-ka-bob]

I didn't know about FatWallet until I read this story. This site seems like a useful way to find good deals. Sometimes, a lawsuit is better than advertising.

Re:Limiting DMCA

[SharpFang]

Next time somebody patents oxygen-nitrogen mix and the court will say you don't have to pay royalties for breathing air. Yeah, big win.

Sorry, but this reminds me "victories" from state of terror. In a country where people get killed for the way they think, you're happy if you go free from prison (with barely your toenails missing) and announce everyone that after all they decided you DO have right to paint your fenceposts green.