[thelist] Meta Name Key words

Bob Haroche bharoche at usa.net
Mon Oct 30 09:47:34 CST 2000


>When using key words how unethical would
> it be to use words the same as an competing site?

Seems to me that if your site is offering the same service or product as
your competitors, there's no way not to duplicate some of their keywords.
You'll want to make sure that your keywords do in fact match your content,
though, and you don't want to steal the competition's keywords verbatim.

As for the first point, both McDonalds and Burger King fast food
restaurants, for instance, can legitimately have keywords such as:

"fast food, burgers, french fries, grease, indigestion"

However, Burger King cannot legitimately include keywords such as "Big Mac"

As for the second point, think of keywords as a copyrighted story or song.
You can't simply take someone else's fiction or music wholesale and pass it
off as your own.  But on the other hand, no one "owns" words or musical
notes.  It's the choice and sequencing of those elements that creates a
protectable intellectual property interest.






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