arstechnica.com — Deal site BlackFriday.info yesterday removed the Best Buy "Black Friday" sales price list after the big box retailer threatened to deliver a DMCA takedown notice to Black Friday's ISP. In a brief posting, Black Friday said, "While we believe that sale prices are facts and not copyrightable, we do not want to risk having this website shut down"
Nov 14, 2006 View in Crawl 4
aukxsonaNov 15, 2006
Go figure...next they'll copyright our Dna. Yeah isn't the copyright law GREAT KIDS!
shrimpcrackersNov 15, 2006
Although Best Buy is probably abusing the DMCA and potentially turning away hundreds of dedicated shoppers, the reality is that anyone who knows, shops at Fry's, etc for Black Friday.Besides, looking at the BF2006 price list, I can confirm the Best Buy's Black Friday sale hasn't been good since 2001.
jonesinNov 15, 2006
That's the problem with lawsuits, the guy with the most money always wins
pixogenNov 15, 2006
Read up: <a class="user" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Friday_(shopping)">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Friday_(shopping)</a>
illyriahNov 15, 2006
DNA ownership already exists. (And no, you don't own your dna.)
kremvaxNov 15, 2006
Didn't K-Mart have a big legal case like this in the 80s?If I remember correctly, they tried to assert that their prices were a trade secret or somesuch, and prevent other chains from recording their prices and matching them.I do remember that K-Mart lost that battle...
Closed AccountNov 15, 2006
"That's the problem with lawsuits, the guy with the most money always wins."Not always. For instance, I sued Best Buy last year because they failed to honor an extended warranty I purchased on my iPod. They immediately offered to store credit as long as I would drop the case. The last they Best Buy wants is to send a lawyer @ $300 an hour to defend a $400 case.
librarygeekNov 22, 2006
I went to the BlackFriday site today and it appears that they have reached the same conclusion many of you have -- namely that Best Buy does not have a leg to stand on if all they do is list product and price.See their page posted 11/21/06 <a class="user" href="http://www.blackfriday.info/ads/best-buy-black-friday-ad.html">http://www.blackfriday.info/ads/best-buy-black-friday-ad.html</a> for a text only listing of products and prices.Of course, this doesn't negate the shortsightedness of Best Buy's legal department. Their marketing department needs to educate the executives and lawyers!