Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Startup Threatened Into Settling Over Hyperlinking

Posted by timothy on from the naughty-anchortexts-forbidden dept.

An anonymous reader writes "A tiny startup that was threatened by a massive law firm over nothing more than a humble hyperlink has been forced to settle and change its linking policies, handing Goliath the win in this gratuitous trademark case. Under the agreement, real estate startup BlockShopper can no longer include hyperlinks anywhere on its website to Jones Day, a massive Chicago law firm, except explicitly on URL text. Essentially, jonesday.com is okay, but not blah blah blah." I wonder if the owners of jonesdaysucks.com feel the same way.

9 of 333 comments (clear)

  1. Re:All those lawyers... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    When the only tool you have is a hammer...

  2. No Justice, No Peace? by clambake · · Score: 5, Insightful

    From TFA: "Do you know, young man, how much money it's going to cost you to defend yourselves against Jones Day?"

    So, basically, here's a just saying, point blank, that he's not in the business of justice... that it's irrelevant if you are right in the eyes of the law, if you don't have enough money, you lose. It's refreshing to see a judge being so honest.

  3. Re:oh yizzo by zappepcs · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I get the feeling that they are soon to learn about what is called The Streisand Effect - You know, it's where you fuck up on the Internet and the entire fucking Internet takes a moment to let you know about it.... lol

    --
    Support NYCountryLawyer RIAA vs People
  4. wtf judge? by KDingo · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Unfortunately, the judge in the case refused to even look at the brief after Jones Day said the brief sided with one party (as most amicus briefs do); he also refused to dismiss the case at the request of BlockShopper. According to TechDirt, the judge even allegedly put pressure on BlockShopper to back down by saying, "Do you know, young man, how much money it's going to cost you to defend yourselves against Jones Day?"

    I may not know much, but that's pretty low.

  5. Re:oh yizzo by larry+bagina · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I wonder if they have a proper license for all their software... I bet the BSA would like to know, too!

    --
    Do you even lift?

    These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.

  6. Re:oh yizzo by The+Master+Control+P · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The Streisand Effect isn't so much that one fucks up on the Internet (people do that all the time), but that one fucks with the Internet. Which then proceeds to try a hundred times harder at doing whatever you didn't want it to do.

    Do not taunt happy fun Internet.

  7. Re:All those lawyers... by blantonl · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ..then you are bound to hit your finger.

    --
    Lindsay Blanton
    RadioReference.com
  8. Re:oh yizzo by Sun · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Possibly this is just an exercise in reverse psychology:

    1. Threaten and win a frivolous law suite concerning not linking to your site, thus activating the Streisand Effect.
    2. Prominent high ranking site Slashdot starts filling an article with links to you, thus upping your page rank
    3. Profit

    Shachar

  9. Re:oh yizzo by ShieldW0lf · · Score: 5, Insightful

    At least you didn't link to gay porn or child porn or beastiality or golden showers or shit-eaters or goatse.cx or any crude stuff like that...

    --
    -1 Uncomfortable Truth