| "eToys Drops Lawsuit Against eToy" | Login/Create an Account | 94 comments | Search Discussion |
Etoys (Score:1)
by quanix on Wednesday December 29, @02:52PM EST (#1)
(User Info) http://digitalx.tsx.org
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If the world was a fair place, Etoy would sue Etoys for damages and win a couple million dollars. I hate when companies do this sorta crap.
"The most abundant thing in the the universe is hydrogen and stupidity." |
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coinky dink? (Score:1, Interesting)
by zonker (bobjones@spamkillsgaywhalesforjesusmy-dejanews.com) on Wednesday December 29, @02:52PM EST (#2)
(User Info) http://members.xoom.com/zonk3r
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I figured this would happen... right after Christmas... Coincidence? I think NOT!
/ k.d / earth trickle / Monkeys vs. Robots Films /
*rm spamkillsgaywhalesforjesus to email me* |
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- Re:coinky dink? by Anonymous Coward Wednesday December 29, @02:59PM EST
- Re:coinky dink? by KnightStalker (Score:3) Wednesday December 29, @02:59PM EST
- Re:coinky dink? by Anonymous Coward Wednesday December 29, @03:12PM EST
- Re:coinky dink? by EricWright (Score:2) Wednesday December 29, @03:19PM EST
- Re:coinky dink? by KnightStalker (Score:1) Wednesday December 29, @04:07PM EST
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Sounds like they got nervous (Score:2, Insightful)
by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 29, @02:52PM EST (#3)
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Etoys has nothing to lose by dropping the claim. Christmas season is over, the shopping is done. They have all thier sales. In addition they are risking losing a case to Etoy, who could then sue them for damages. In my view this made sense. I wish Etoy would continue thier lawsuit though, this whole thing was concocted for publicity and christmas sales. They should be punished.
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HEY! THAT'S NOT 'DROPPED' YET! (Score:2)
by Nicolas MONNET (nico@nospam.monnet.to) on Wednesday December 29, @02:52PM EST (#4)
(User Info) http://www.hetoys.com
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They just said they won't 'press' the suit, whatever it means.
-- Boycott eToys! |
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Is this not a SLAPP style lawsuit? (Score:2)
by Travoltus (travoltus@hot.mail.com) on Wednesday December 29, @02:53PM EST (#5)
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I'm sure that eToy can sue these guys under California's Anti-SLAPP ordinance.
SLAPP == Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation, or a shut-you-up-with-big-money lawsuit.
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Don't Drop the Counter Suit! (Score:0)
by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 29, @02:53PM EST (#6)
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Well, I can't see any reason for etoy not to press a countersuit. This was clearly frivolous seasonal bullying, and now is the time for justice and recompense.
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Glad to hear it! (Score:1)
by Sylvestre (rjones@airgap.net) on Wednesday December 29, @02:54PM EST (#7)
(User Info) http://www.howtomakebombs.net/
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Good to see eToys did the right thing. Now, should we all run over there and buy some toys to thank them? After all if you're going to boycott someone for doing something, you should reward them for not doing it.
-- Without fear or favor |
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Justice was done (Score:0)
by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 29, @02:54PM EST (#8)
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There is a certain satisfaction knowing that, in this case, justice was done. Now, what's up with the DVD hearing?!?!?
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This should have gone to court... (Score:4, Informative)
by xyzzy on Wednesday December 29, @02:54PM EST (#9)
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...but not for the obvious reason.
If it had gone to court, and Etoy WON, it probably would have been a precident-setting decision. Now, of course, we will probably have to go through this AGAIN with the next bone-head that tries to sue over similar names.
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What about NSI (Score:1)
by tweek (john@[nospam].lusis.org) on Wednesday December 29, @02:55PM EST (#11)
(User Info) http://www.lusis.org/
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Now I want to see how long it takes NSI to get the domain info straightened out. Knowing them etoy.com will be back up sometime next july ;)
"Fist in the air, in the land of hypocrisy" - RATM |
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Just to black out hits to etoy.com (Score:1)
by IAmATuringMachine! (billstevenson@uses.yahoo.com.to.avoid.spam) on Wednesday December 29, @02:55PM EST (#12)
(User Info) http://sun0.muhlenberg.edu/~wstevens
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It makes sense that they dropped the suit- they would not have won since etoy had the domain first and there was no "conflict of business."
They only wanted an injuntion and some evil PR karma to get NSI to take down the etoy domain so that potential visitors didn't go to etoy (perhaps on a random stab) and shop there.
If life hands you lemons, make lemonade. If life hands you limes, well, your fsck'd. |
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Finally, something changes (Score:1)
by Optical_Delusion on Wednesday December 29, @02:56PM EST (#13)
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Etoy declined comment, saying it had not yet been contacted by the toy seller
For some reason i just found that part funny.
Anyway, I am just glad that reason kicked in, apparantly some companies still read their 'comments' mail and act appropriately.
O.D.
Who loves to see that backpeddlin 'Oh no, we didn't want to stiffle artistic expression.'
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I just hope this isn't indicitave of the future... (Score:1)
by viking099 on Wednesday December 29, @02:56PM EST (#14)
(User Info) http://garnet.acns.fsu.edu/~nah2581
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If stuff like this happens every time a company's crunch time is around the corner, there are going to be a lot of irate little guys out there with their pet projects put on hold by corporations who don't want any confusion.
feh.
"In the end, there can be Obi Wan" -Anonymous Coward |
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Kinda nice finally (Score:1)
by Yhcrana on Wednesday December 29, @02:57PM EST (#17)
(User Info) http://gladstone.uoregon.edu/~jfairfax/
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| Seems odd how the world today is embroiled in lawsuit after lawsuit. There is no real solution anymore on anything other than to sue other party involved and hope for the best. :sigh: Oh well at least someone got the idea finally.
Insanity isn't a disease, it's a way of life |
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etoy back up? (Score:1)
by dvorsd on Wednesday December 29, @02:58PM EST (#19)
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| So if this is true, how long until etoy can put their sight back up? If at all. Just what does not "pressing" the law suit mean anyway? As they did not say that they were going to drop it altogether. I'll confess to be slightly confused. -dvorsd
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word from the arts community... (Score:1)
by kevin lyda (kevin@suberic.net) on Wednesday December 29, @02:59PM EST (#20)
(User Info) http://suberic.net/~kevin
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obviously word from the stunningly obvious community just wasn't enough...
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This just proves... (Score:1)
by Cheesewhiz (Cheesewhiz@yahoo.com) on Wednesday December 29, @02:59PM EST (#24)
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This just proves, in my humble opinion, that this is mearly a ruse to exploit the average coder -- by hangin' on to outdated imperialist dogma which perpetuates the economic and social differences in our society. We're living in a dictatorship. ..... A self-perpetuating autocracy in which the working class of coders and average lowly geeks are exploited to serve the purpose of the upper class slime.
Just my personal opinion though ;) (Hehe, Commie alert!)
"I am the Blue Screen Of Death...no one hears your screams." |
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- Please.. by Anonymous Coward Wednesday December 29, @03:11PM EST
- Re:Please.. by Biff Cool (Score:1) Wednesday December 29, @03:24PM EST
- Please.. by Anonymous Coward Wednesday December 29, @03:11PM EST
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Artists turned the tide? (Score:2)
by UncleRoger (Roger@Sinasohn.Com) on Wednesday December 29, @03:00PM EST (#25)
(User Info) http://www.sinasohn.com/uncroger.htm
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The reason they're trying to do this is that they've heard from people, quite a bit over the last few weeks. Quite a number of people from the arts community had contacted them, and they are responding to this, says Ken Ross of eToys. I don't know about the rest of you, but I sent a couple of e-mails indicating that I was not buying from eToys because of this, as I'm sure plenty of other slashdot readers did. Perhaps they aren't admitting the influence slashdot and other aware folks have? (If they did, perhaps more people would start voting with their pocketbook, so to speak, and big corps wouldn't be able to get away with quite so much.)
Uncle Roger Roger@Sinasohn.com
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I can understand... (Score:2, Interesting)
by Ex-NT-User on Wednesday December 29, @03:02PM EST (#29)
(User Info) http://zeb.dhs.org
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eToys wanting to protect their trademark. (After all if they don't protect it they loose it) But there are much better ways of doing so. I mean if I was eToys the only thing I would ask is to have "etoy" put mabey a one liner "If your looking for toys click here" with a link to eToys. (And vice versa from eToys to etoy)
Does that seem fair?
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Christmas is Over (Score:1)
by -eddy (eddy-nospam@eddys.net) on Wednesday December 29, @03:02PM EST (#30)
(User Info) http://www.eddys.net
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Of course they have dropped the issue. Christmas is over.
They took a shot, lost big, and now are trying to `make nice` for the public because they didn't expect such an outcry.
Hopefully they have learned. You can't bully the small guy on the Internet. It will not be tolerated.
-eddy
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they already won (Score:1)
by NightHwk on Wednesday December 29, @03:05PM EST (#33)
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Christmas has passed, and with it eToys' worries about the etoy.com domain. Before xmas, when many people were shoping online eToys became concerned that people would end up at etoy.com by accident, and didn't want this to hurt their sales, so they pulled this little stunt to
1. Remove what they deemed offensive from a similar domain
2. Get their name in the news
Xmas is over now, and they dont have anything to gain by dragging this out any further.
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Bah. (Score:1)
by Paul_Taylor on Wednesday December 29, @03:06PM EST (#35)
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I guess they expect this to get them some goodwill after they pull the suit. I say they can still go to hell.
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Possible "real" reason (Score:2)
by finkployd (fsck@first.posters) on Wednesday December 29, @03:08PM EST (#40)
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It could be they made the connection between the massive decline in their stock value and the bad press they have been getting since starting this whole mess.
Kudos to everyone who boycoted them, they got what they deserved and lost in the process.
Finkployd
If you take cranberries and stew them like applesauce they taste much more like prunes than rhubarb does -Groucho Marx |
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And I suppose... (Score:3, Interesting)
by Amphigory (patrick at extremehope dot organization) on Wednesday December 29, @03:09PM EST (#41)
(User Info) http://www.extremehope.org
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| And I suppose that its entirely coincidental that this happened after the Xmas (please don't associate Christ with that) shopping season? If the lawsuit wasn't both valid and necessary, why did they pursue it in the first place???
-- Religion begat prosperity, and the daughter devoured the mother -- Cotton Mather |
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corporate tactics (Score:1)
by downix on Wednesday December 29, @03:09PM EST (#42)
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This was a perfect tactic for eToys, using a suit to guarantee customers. By eliminating a potential mis-understanding by eToy through this suit, they managed to keep customers focused on it's own website, thereby eliminating a possible "confusion" which could send their customers to their competition. Now that the key season, the "make it or break it" season for eToys I'd note, is over with, they are happy to drop the suit and no damage is done, completely innocent. No damage done, except to eToy. eToys has managed to make the VC's happy, and will likely shortly begin another round of financing. With the influx of cash, they won't care if they are sued. It's a win-win situation for them.
Such a sad commentary when a lawsuit is a marketing tactic
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It's over until next xmas(tm) (Score:1)
by Octos (octos@austin.rr.com) on Wednesday December 29, @03:10PM EST (#45)
(User Info) http://home.austin.rr.com/octos
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Maybe I'm paranoid, but it seems to convinient to drop the suit after the xmas(tm) buying frenzy is over. I hope Etoy retaliates and makes an example of etoys so that this won't happen again. If they don't, I wonder if the suit will be brought back up next xmas(tm).
"I am not a number! I am a free man!" --The Prisoner |
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Welcome to the Good Olde Days of the wild west (Score:3, Insightful)
by Mr. Protocol on Wednesday December 29, @03:11PM EST (#48)
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This is a skirmish in a wider war, a war that's going to go on for a long, long time.
We live by the rule of law. Man, there are times when it hurts to say that. The Internet wouldn't be what it is today if it weren't for the secret (and sometimes not-so-secret) admiration of many of its builders for the outlaw image. Except for Peter Neumann, of course. However, I live in a neighborhood where I'm glad the police saturate the streets, having had many personal belongings appropriated by other residents of the neighborhood in my absence, over the years.
But in any frontier, society arrives first and the law plays catch-up. These are the Good Old Days of the Internet, folks, and you should enjoy them while you can. Trademark law, copyright law, trade secret protection, contract law, all are having real, and in some cases severe, problems adapting to the new territory.
Eventually, all of this will get fixed. But it's going to get fixed in the light of what we do now, during the period of time when things don't work so good. It's the squeaky wheel that gets the grease, and the Internet violates so many of the assumptions under which the existing legal framework was constructed that sometimes it's hard to hear the packets whiz by for all the squeaking.
So when something like this comes up, I think it's a good idea to think about the situation not in terms of "big ugly bad corporation against innocent little guy", but in terms of: "Suppose I owned etoys.com? Suppose I owned etoy.com? Suppose I were a customer of one? Of the other?"
This might help provide a perspective on the real issues. Remember, ownership doesn't depend on how nasty the owner is. Our legal system is founded on the theory that what's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander, even if you're a vegetarian.
Once you've gained that perspective...well, then it's time to beat up on the big ugly bad guy. Hopefully, with better weapons in your intellectual arsenal.
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It's about time, but... (Score:1)
by DaPhreaker on Wednesday December 29, @03:14PM EST (#51)
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I applaud etoys decision to drop the suit, and the people of the Internet community that pushed them in that direction, but there is a more significant issue at stake. How did they ever get the injunction in the first place? The mere fact they won a temporary injunction is frightening to me. Based on the fact that they never owned the domain, it was not even the same name, and last but far from least etoy was around years before etoys, how could any rational person grant an injunction, it boggles the mind. At this point it looks good for the Internet community you know, all is well that ends well and that type of stuff. But what is going to be the out come when this happens again? And what will happen when the site in question is not an internationally acclaimed web site? Will that web site receive the same support as etoy received? The fact that etoys is pulling the suit is a step in the right direction, but there needs to be a clearly defined procedure in place that will not allow this to happen again. And it should be defined by the people/institutions who make the Internet thrive and not by those who thrive off the Internet. Maybe etoy should follow through with their suit and put the screws to etoys. If they win then it would be a major coup for the internet community, something that would make Mr. A. Huge Korporation think twice about hassling little Johnny web site owner. Removing the injunction is wonderful, but that only remedies a symptom, the cause is what needs to be fixed.
root@localbrain root>ps ax |grep thoughtd ............. 12156 ? S thoughtd root@localbrain root>kill -HUP 12156 |
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Is anybody else offeneded (Score:1)
by handorf (handorf@penguinARGHNOSPAMPLEASEGODpowered.com) on Wednesday December 29, @03:18PM EST (#55)
(User Info) http://handorf.penguinpowered.com/~benvh
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at the blatant maniuplation of the legal system by Etoys? They get through the lucrative Christmas season then go "Oops, this is stupid. Sorry!".
10 on 1 says somebody does something similar. Oops, lucrative time! Use the courts to shut down anyone who might be mistaken for us!
Pisses me off.
-- "Listen to the horny termite! You're on FIRE!!!!" If you want to quote me in an article, contact me for permission. |
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Flame works for us - live with it! (Score:3, Insightful)
by konstant on Wednesday December 29, @03:19PM EST (#56)
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So here we have another victory for flame, one of seemingly dozens that I've seen since I began trawling Slashdot. CmdrTaco posts an "outrage" story, thousands of screaming techno monkeys are released from their cages, and the "evildoer" is inundated with everything that the more sanctimonious Slashdotters hate: brainless insults, threats, aimless fury, severance of business relations, and (presumably) a little rational argument thrown in for seasoning.
And the result? WE WIN!
Let me spell that out again for you sourpusses who can't abide being represented by puerile mudslingers.
W E W I N E V E R Y T I M E
Now I'm sure some of the aforementioned are already warming up their typing fingers to explain how we don't really win, that this sort of victory is phyrric, that we can only reduce our influence and tarnish our credibility by proceeding in this way, and that eventually we will be ignored.
I disagree. Oh, how much I disagree! I say, it's time we stop shunning natural righteous anger. How long will we claim that human emotion is a bastard of which we should be ashamed? Forget it, no, if the actions of another anger me, then I won't suppress that anger in pursuit of the ideal Spock-like discourse that the Slashdot ethics police endorse.
Rational argument is fundamental, I disagree. But not all atrocities or moral infractions have their roots in reason. Some are emotional, or even legitimately evil. Those cannot be address by reason; emotion must be an allowable tool in our arsenal.
My two cents.
-konstant
Yes! We are all individuals! I'm not! |
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Hasn't their goal been achieved? (Score:5, Insightful)
by |DaBuzz| (send-me-your-spam@spam.a.lama.ding.dong.com) on Wednesday December 29, @03:19PM EST (#59)
(User Info) http://www.pdabuzz.com/
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I mean, if you think about the timing of the law suit, Etoys.com main goal was to prevent people from going to Etoy.com when they meant to go to Etoys.com. The best way to fix this type of confusion beyond hijacking the domain and redirecting it is to bring it down all together.
Scenario:
Customer remembers something about the "etoy" toystore on the web from a TV commercial so they punch up Etoy.com into their browser ... if Etoys.com hadn't brought etoy.com down, that user may have been marveled by the content of etoy.com and forgotten that they wanted to go to etoys.com in the first place, only later to go to toysrus.com. If Etoy.com fails to resolve for the customer, there is more of a chance that they'll try "etoys.com" and get to the toy site.
Etoys.com main goal here was to prevent the loss of even a SINGLE possible customer due to the distraction that is etoy.com ... and they did just that.
Now they want to come off as the Good Guys™ for not pushing the suit while all along, their plan worked 100% as expected.
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Like there was any confusion (Score:2)
by richj (rich-at-saturnlink-dot-com) on Wednesday December 29, @03:20PM EST (#61)
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From the article:
"People are telling us they want the art of
etoy and the e-commerce of eToys to
co-exist," said eToys spokesman
Jonathan Cutler. "We've agreed. We're
not pressing the lawsuit."
Like there was any confusion in what people wanted. "Oh, Etoys decided to try and run them off of the Net because that's what we wanted".
Baloney.
Cutler:
"Our intent was never to silence free
artistic expression," he said.
No, it was just corporate greed, which happened to shut down an artistic Website. They're obviously only "doing the right thing" due to the negative reaction they got, and not because they've "figured it out".
Personally, I'll never buy from them because of the way they acted, they proved they're not concerned with treating their "neighbors" fairly on the 'net.
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Excuse my French. (Score:2)
by jelwell on Wednesday December 29, @03:23PM EST (#63)
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But this is so much bullshit on the part of etoys.com If you remember correctly the initial injunction was set so that etoy.com would not have a hearing date until the 27th of Christmas - barring etoy.com from Christmas shoppers (etoys big season). The only reason etoys is "dropping" the suit, is because they've already won. Christmas buying season is over and etoys successfully stymied etoy from recieving hits from users who mistyped the etoys website.
Now is not the time for a pathetic sigh of relief. Now is the time to fight back against etoys.
I have never in my life seen so clearly the damages one large company can do to good ole fashion people despite "Social Stability" created through government and law.
Etoys needs to pay. Etoy should not relent. I think RtMark would agree with me when I say that Etoy crossed the line of law on this one.
Joseph Elwell.
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Should have... (Score:1)
by Me_n_U on Wednesday December 29, @03:24PM EST (#66)
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They SHOULD HAVE just contacted eToy and asked them to put a link on their site for mistakes. I've seen that a few times. That would make to much sense though I guess...
If you lika me like I lika you... |
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MAL = Mutually Assured Litigation ? (Score:1)
by RomulusNR on Wednesday December 29, @03:32PM EST (#75)
(User Info) http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/romulus
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I guess some of us learned more from the Cold War than did others.
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Etoy should continue lawsuit (Score:1, Insightful)
by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday December 29, @03:38PM EST (#78)
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I think without question Etoy should continue their lawsuit agains Etoys. Etoys was clearly out of line and went so far as to even shut down their website. How can we have a government and judicial system that is this stupid about technology and the world in general. I think Etoy should definately continue with their lawsuit and if they agree to continue persuing the suit I would gladly donate to their cause. I think that Etoys deserves to be punished severely for this crap. I think the the only good part about this is that it did get Etoy a lot of publicity, and I think if they tried they could turn that publicity and attention that they have drawn for this case and get enough donations to continue with their lawsuit. Etoys clearly did this for a lot of publicity, so why can't Etoy turn it around on them? I'm hung over and tired, so if you want me to work here you better serve good coffee, and a lot of it.
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I missed something, who said it was over? (Score:1)
by bons (bons@home.com - $500 fee for commercial e-mail) on Wednesday December 29, @03:49PM EST (#81)
(User Info) http://members.home.net/bons/start.htm
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All I see is that ETOYS has offered to drop it's suit if ETOY drops theirs.
I have seen nothing that says ETOY has any intention of dropping their suit.
Now if I were ETOYS, would I drop my suits? I dunno. Maybe just my pants.
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Posted by Hemos on Wednesday December 29, @02:34PM
eToys Drops Lawsuit Against eToy