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[pages.alexa.com...]
Would Google go down this route?
- CDs Date, so you can go and buy the entire website of any site that went for a subscription model how it was JUST before.
- I havea website chokefull with stuff and ALSO sell the EXACT SAME stuff on CD (like linuxe distributions). Now Alexa does the EXACT same thing as me without nay COST and profits from my work, and stealing my customers.
- alexa does not fully reproduce my pages. Websites aren't just documents, they are often applications with complex backends, tracking visitors and doing all sorts of magic in the back. My bsuiness model maybe be based on advert/affiliate link rotation. When somebody looks at my site on an Alexa CD 1 year from now, none of the ads will work anymore, and I will lose the money I'd have gotte if that person went on my site.
- I have a large directory with many visitors and categorised around a niche or local area. My sole business model consists of selling usage pattern information (just like Alexa does) for my niche. Every Alexa-CD user is cutting into my product and profit.
- If 100,000,000 sites loose only 1 cent from an Alexa CD, it acuses a damage of $1 million. Of course nobody will sue for 1 cent.
- I've been sued myself for copyright which I haven't even commited and have currently 150,000 bucks in blocked accounts for an indefinite period (the suit hasn't even started yet). If that can happen to small fry like me I sure as hell hope it can happen to Alexa.
- For my own suits I have done extensive case studies, and the law is clearly broken. Alexa cannot copy even without causing loss, jsut like I cannot walk around carying a nuke simply because I don't detonate it. It's potential damages, and Alexa can POTENTIALLY cause a lot of damage with their selling of their DB.
I'm sure there are dozends more. You won't find a single reason where every webmaster will lose $1000s clearly, but you'll find 1000s of reasons were some webmasters will loose some money, and it adds up.
Please note these are all thought experiments and don't apply to me... (don'T sell CDs, usage info or any of that.)
SN
Been running to catch up on the thread and skipped the last page.
;-)
- I have a website chokefull with stuff and ALSO sell the EXACT SAME stuff on CD
This is Chiyo's point of contention.
(like linux distributions)
OK, not quite like Chiyo, but another useful point. I presume the "service" that you're offering is the compilation of those distributions under the GPL?
alexa does not fully reproduce my pages. Websites aren't just documents, they are often applications with complex backends, tracking visitors and doing all sorts of magic in the back.
Good point, as yet missed out of the thread.
My bsuiness model maybe be based on advert/affiliate link rotation. When somebody looks at my site on an Alexa CD 1 year from now, none of the ads will work anymore, and I will lose the money I'd have gotte if that person went on my site.
This is a point we already raised a while back, and I think the one that Key-Master has landed on.
I have a large directory with many visitors and categorised around a niche or local area. My sole business model consists of selling usage pattern information (just like Alexa does) for my niche. Every Alexa-CD user is cutting into my product and profit.
Actual financial loss.
If 100,000,000 sites loose only 1 cent from an Alexa CD, it acuses a damage of $1 million. Of course nobody will sue for 1 cent.
What Alexa's lawyers and other professional advisors have no doubt told Alexa and on which advice Alexa have gone ahead with the program.
For my own suits I have done extensive case studies, and the law is clearly broken. Alexa cannot copy even without causing loss, jsut like I cannot walk around carying a nuke simply because I don't detonate it. It's potential damages, and Alexa can POTENTIALLY cause a lot of damage with their selling of their DB.
The problem with that is, commercially, the bulk of webmasters won't sue. This is what's been discussed - the commercial realities of litigation - and by the sound of it you're well aware of what they are.
I'm sure there are dozends more. You won't find a single reason where every webmaster will lose $1000s clearly, but you'll find 1000s of reasons were some webmasters will loose some money, and it adds up.
But Alexa have been advised (at a guess) that they will make more money out of sales of the disc than they will have to pay out in damages. That's their commercial decision.
And a lot of webmasters won't actually lose a single cent, although they'll still be irritated by it, and the judge is still left with the problem of where you draw the line between duplication of content, and provision of content. And who is due to get paid what.
TJ
Out of interest, what's your take on it and why don't you like the idea in respect of your particular situation?
I don't really see any financial loss for myself personally, but the idea that someone is copying my content and selling it doesn't feel right. The only loss I may have is less visitors (which in turn means less chance of advertising, although I doubt it would actually come to that). A lot of my content is the same as killroy's - lots of backend. The CD-copy will really not serve as much more than a snapshot of what my site looked like at that point and time. Still, it just doesn't feel right. And I agree with Visi on the suggestion that Google's cache being 'leased' is in essence the same issue.
The analogy you used, TJ, of the radio station is a good one I believe.
-The radio station pays the artists for the right to play their music (just as a website may pay an author for the right to use their words, or a photographer for their photos).
- The radio station makes that content freely available for all of us to listen to. (just like it's free to visit the website).
- If someone were to record off air a compilation of tracks and sell that to someone, that seems to me a copyright violation. And that is exactly what Alexa is doing if you ask me.
Dave
