thestandard.com
Ticketmaster: Think Before
You Link
By Laura Rich
LOS ANGELES ? In the hopes of sparking
industrywide debate on the topic,
Ticketmaster Online-CitySearch is set to
post a statement on its Web site that
argues against certain types of linking.
The manifesto, which will appear Friday,
reflects the opinion of Ticketmaster
Online-CitySearch CEO Charles Conn on
which types of links are acceptable and
which are not. Consensual linking, in which
both companies have discussed the
transaction, pass muster with Conn. But he
rails against those sites that link "for
distinctly commercial reasons" beyond
navigation.
The move comes two months after
Ticketmaster filed a lawsuit against Costa
Mesa, Calif.-based Tickets.com over the
practice of "deep linking." Ticketmaster
alleges that Tickets.com is using
unauthorized links to interior pages on
Ticketmaster's site, as well as illegally
republishing its content. While Tickets.com
argues Ticketmaster isn't losing any sales
revenue from the links, Ticketmaster Online
and Ticketmaster, based in Pasadena, Calif.,
say it devalues their brand, because the site
loses impressions when ticket buyers bypass
upper-level pages. The plaintiffs filed the
suit in August, accusing Tickets.com of
plagiarism, providing false and misleading
information and illegally linking to some of
Ticketmaster's pages.
The concept of linking, which Conn calls an
"essential element" of the Web, is unique to
the Internet industry, because it enables
any company to create a direct path to
another business' site. Links also allow a
company to easily pull content from
elsewhere. Conn points out that in the print
media, "fair use" guidelines under copyright
law prevent competitors from republishing
material outright, requiring them to attribute
printed material to its original owner. With
products, patents govern use by third
parties. On the Internet, though, the sharing
of content has not been determined by any
court to fall under either law. But Internet
companies are growing anxious to resolve
the matter.
Last week, eBay, in San Jose, Calif., asked
San Bruno, Calif.-based AuctionWatch.com
to stop pulling auction content from its site,
claiming it as intellectual property. The two
online auction firms were unable to agree on
a policy for fair linking, and on Oct. 8, eBay's
attorneys drew up a formal
cease-and-desist letter. If AuctionWatch
refuses, eBay will "consider all of our
options," according to a company
representative.
Ticketmaster's Conn says eBay's conflict
triggered his decision to publish the
statement. "There's been no rational
discussion about when it's right to link and
when it's not," says Conn.
A Tickets.com representative said she had
not seen the statement and declined to
comment.
In reference to the lawsuit, the statement
accuses Tickets.com of glomming on to "the
relationships Ticketmaster and Ticketmaster
Online have built with venues, acts, teams, promoters and our ticket
buyers over more than 20 years."
Both Ticketmaster and eBay executives call deep linking an intrusion
that allows third parties to build their brands and reputations on the
established brands and reputations of the original sites. Dan Neary,
AuctionWatch's VP of marketing, counters that his site is no different
than search engines and directories like Yahoo, in that it simply
directs users to content on other sites. Both AuctionWatch and
Yahoo are backed by Sequoia Capital.
While attorneys for Ticketmaster and eBay have had informal talks
about the issue of deep linking, eBay says it does not intend to lead
an industrywide development of guidelines. However, says an eBay
rep, "whatever we decide to do [with AuctionWatch] will have an
impact on the industry." |
