I am being threatened for supposedly having a link to someones site,

Alexa showing a non-existant link?

[papabear1126]

I had done some work for someone over a year ago and tried to help them by adding a few links to their website. We parted ways and as far I I know, I removed the links to their website.
Today they wrote me demanding I remove a link to them from one of my clients sites.
They claim they will persue legal action if I dont take it down. The site it is supposedly on is general merchandise site, not a porn site or anything.
Anyway, I looked the site over and can not find this link they claim is there anywhere.
They claim it shows up in their Alexa report and that the link goes from my clients site, to my site then to their site. I dont know anything about Alexa and how it works and I sure need some advice as they are threating to email my client and demand the link removed. I asked them to send me the url of the page this link is supposedly on but they cant do that as they claim it only shows in their Alexa report.
Can someone suggest anything to me please!
I am trying not to get upset over this but it is a major client and I dont need this nonsense with all this.
Please help,
Thanks
Frank

[lammert]

In general no reason to be upset I think. Linking to other websites is not a big crime, and in most countries, it is not even illegal ;)

But now about your specific case. If I understand it well, you used a site of one of your clients to boost PR for the website of another client. That second client is now threatening you with informing the other party. IMHO using one client's site to boost another client's site is not 100% correct, so they have a point.

My advice is - if you are sure the link does not exist anymore - to be pro-active and inform your major client that someone will send them an e-mail for the removal of a non-existent link. If they know that such an e-mail is comming they will probably read it, and delete it.

If your client does not know about it and they receive such an e-mail, they might think you used their site as a PR pump for other sites (as you did) and they might search the site for other hidden links of this kind. You also might lose a major client.

Don't try to send a lot of e-mails to the persons who are threatening you right now, to ask them about the URL etc. If they want to inform your major client they will, independent if you contacted them. Concentrate on your major client and inform them first, if you lose them you lose money.

[encyclo]

Firstly, you can't be sued for a simple link unless you are actively trying to do harm to the linked site.

Secondly, they will have to provide you with more information. Make it clear that you are happy to remove any link to their site that exists on your site (let's face it, even with your strong case, you don't want the hassle), and push the onus on them to identify where the link where the traffic is coming from. Their server log files will have the details of their referers, so if they search them they will be able to provide an URL. If they only have Alexa data, it's probably not enough for you to be able to do much.

If you get a lawyer's letter you will need a lawyer, and you might want one now - only you can make that decision. Make sure you keep full records of any correspondance. In case it isn't clear, this post is not legal advice. ;)

[kaled]

Simply state that as far as you can establish, the Alexa report is wrong. If they want a link to be removed, they must locate it and inform you of its location.

So far as Alexa is concerned, apparently my site contains loads of popups - in actuality, it contains none.

Kaled.

[jo1ene]

Alexa is not known for accuracy. I can think of a few sites that the reports show wrong thumnails, wrong links, etc. If they will point out the link, you'd be happy to remove it. Even if not, there's not a dang thing a they're going to do to you.

[bcolflesh]

They claim they will pursue legal action if I dont take it down.

Laugh in their face - via email of course.

[Easy_Coder]

but it is a major client

It doesn't sound like they have the same opinion of you if they're threatening legal action.

[Tropical Island]

I have had this happen to me when removing links.

I remove the link in the WYSIWYG page not realizing that the link carried one or two caracters longer.

In other words in the html part of the page there is still a link that does not show on the WYSIWYG page or on the published page. The only way to find it is to go through the html code and delete it there. This may be why you can't see it.

We only discovered this problem when LinkAlarm identified dead links on a page. When we checked the page we didn't see them but they WERE there hidden in the html.

Just a thought.

[monkeythumpa]

Since when is it illegal to link to another site? I can link to any site I want to on my site. It is my site.

[kevinpate]

> that the link goes from my clients site,
> to my site
> then to their site.

That's some detailed Alexa report, but uh, wait a minute.
Griper site = c
Your site = B
Other site = A

Aren't they simply saying: A links to B and then B links to C. Seems their problem is with your site, not A's site. Or am I missing something?

[MarkHutch]

If you get a lawyer's letter you will need a lawyer

We have received them before about various trademark concerns. Each time I called the attorney on the letter and told them we would work with them in any way to get these problems corrected. I never had a problem with any of them because we were doing our level best to comply with the law.

My view is, that just because you receive a letter from a lawyer, you don't have to get a lawyer yourself.

These problems can be worked out without an attorney most of the time. If they can't, there is always time to hire an attorney later on.

Just my view.

P.S. We once got an angry letter from an attorney about some issue. It was two pages long with all kinds of threats about what would happen if we didn't comply. I called the attorney up and told her that we would work with her and her client in anyway to correct any trademark issues.

By the time I got off the phone with her, she said she was sorry about the tone of the letter she sent. She was only six months out of law school. She might just turn out to be a great attorney someday!