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November 14, 2008
Walmart Sends DMCA Notice to SearchAllDeals, TechCrunch
Walmart has sent a DMCA notice to TechCrunch and SearchAllDeals.com, a shopping search engine and deals aggregator. (Think of it as the Techmeme for deals on the web, with a Google custom search engine to boot.)
Both sites posted some information about "Black Friday" sales for discount giant Wal-mart. But Wal-mart is claiming copyright infringement. It's also saying the info wasn't supposed to be out before November 24th.
The problem is SearchAllDeals doesn't host content. It simply links to it. This amounts to free advertising for Wal-mart.
And since TechCrunch also has the info, then Wal-mart has a leak problem, which is neither TechCrunch or SearchAllDeal's problem.
If I were a competitor such as Target or K-mart, I'd be stepping up to the plate and making the most of this "controversy" by freely offering up my own deals.
h/t TechDirt
Related Reading:
Judge Throws Out Copyright Infringement Suit Against Online Video Site Veoh
Pro Intellectual Property Act Passes House
Google Talks On Its Approach To Content & Copyright
Posted by Nathania Johnson on November 14, 2008 4:18 PM
Comments
It's pretty sad how old line businesses, even ones as big and sophisticated as Wal-mart, don't understand how to deal with the online world. In this case TC has every right to just report what is going on at other sites such as aggregation sites.
Allan November 16, 2008 8:43 PM
