[thelist] A legal question (was: Lawyers and stuff)

Writing a comparison of your product and a competitor's product is not a
problem, as long as all issues are acknowledged. For example (this is not an
endorsement):

http://www.blueworld.com/blueworld/news/10.14.99-Lasso_v_ASP.html

Writing a glowing article about your own product and what it does is
advertising and marketing. On your own site, there's obviously nothing wrong
with that, but if you start posting that kind of review without identifying
yourself as related to the company, you'll come off sleazy when the truth is
revealed.

The original idea of planting competing product name(s) in your meta tags in
hopes of bringing search engine traffic to your site really rubs me the
wrong way. I have experienced a similar situation where a search for a
product name brought up a banner ad for a competing product. My first
thought was "ooh...brilliant...sleazy...I wonder which party thought of
it..." My point (and I do have one) is that I was looking for info about a
specific product and being given info about a competitor and it left me with
a bad taste for that competitor.

------------------
David McCreath
Website Coordinator
Anchorage School District
http://www.asd.k12.ak.us
(907) 257-8230

> ----------
> From: 	Peter Bancroft
> Reply To: 	thelist@lists.evolt.org
> Sent: 	January 7, 2000 10:18 AM
> To: 	thelist@lists.evolt.org
> Subject: 	Re: [thelist] A legal question (was: Lawyers and stuff)
> 
> 
> 
> 
> > very interesting, thanks!
> > But is writing an article about products of you and your competition
> illegal?
> > Peter
> 
> Not_as_such.. though you'd have to be very careful about libel.  You
> couldn't call your software "better", "more good", "improved" or anything
> else.. Criticising the competitor's software is also probably a no-non.
> All in all.. I wouldn't go there. It's more risk than it's worth
> And yes, it's evil, it's unfair, and it's probably asking for something.
> Sorry about not being more enthusiastic.
> -Another Peter
> 
> 
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