Coupons.com DMCA Fight Over… Again
from the nobody-wins? dept
We’d been covering the Coupons.com DMCA legal saga for a few years now, and we thought it had ended back in November, when Coupons.com dropped its case against John Stottlemire. If you don’t recall, Stottlemire was sued because he’d realized that if you deleted a few files on your hard drive, you could reprint coupons issued via Coupons.com’s software. The company claimed this was a DMCA anti-circumvention violation — though it seemed odd to claim that simply telling people to delete some files eliminated any sort of copy protection. Also there were significant questions as to whether or not what Coupons.com was doing was actually copy protection. Stottlemire was doing a pretty good job (as an individual) fighting back, and the company finally dropped the case.
But… apparently after Stottlemire bragged that he “kicked [Coupons.com’s] ass,” the company tried to reopen the case, claiming that Stottlemire had breached the non-disclosure agreement on the settlement and claiming that they need to reopen the case to “set the record straight.” It’s difficult to see how claiming you “kicked their ass” breaches any disclosure agreements, since it’s hardly giving away much of anything. And, it appears, a judge has agreed, denying the request to reopen the case. The judge did say that Stottlemire’s statement was a breach, but hardly an egregious one, and certainly not a big enough deal to reopen the case.
Filed Under: copyright, coupons, dmca, john stottlemire
Companies: coupons.com
Comments on “Coupons.com DMCA Fight Over… Again”
Who cares about coupons.com?
Not sure if its every Walmart, but the ones around here are no longer accepting computer printed coupons.
Well, Coupons.com loved to create new printer drivers and such to prevent people from getting double coupons on a $0.45 off deal. Then, if I remember right (I could be wrong) they started suing people who printed two coupons off from the same IP address for violation of DCMA.
Maybe they forgot sometimes people have more than one computer behind their public IP address.
“Hey, can you run this coupon off on your computer” some Mom may say to their child. Suddenly, they are DCMA infringers entitled to millions! Wooo! For $0.75 off coupon for StoveTop Stuffing.
For fucks sake. Are you kidding me?
If you buy two copies of the Sunday news, you get two coupons. Why the hell Coupons.com thinks they are entitled to a DCMA infringement is beyond me. It just makes people not want to use Coupons.com or any online coupon site.
Re: Re:
Why the hell Coupons.com thinks they are entitled to a DCMA infringement is beyond me. It just makes people not want to use Coupons.com or any online coupon site.
i think it’s an emotional reaction to being outsmarted. if you put a digital protection in place and some guy on the internet circumvents it, you feel foolish and your investors and board members start wondering what it is they are paying you to do.
“It’s difficult to see how claiming you “kicked their ass” breaches any disclosure agreements,…..”
“The judge did say that Stottlemire’s statement was a breach,…”
It can’t be that difficult to understand !. Perhaps the Masnicks should try harder to understand the things they don’t want to be true.
Material breach
Saying that he “kicked their ass” might in fact be an actual disclosure of what he agreed not to disclose. 🙂
perchase
Who needs to reprint coupons. I go to http://couponsearcher.blogspot.com/ and reprint new ones. Or any other site that has coupons for that matter. The internet makes finding coupons so easy. Forget about coupons.com.
Gag agreements
John Stottlemire should not have been forced to accept a gag agreement by the court in the first place. It is far too common for bad players to try and cover up their dirty deeds in this manner.
We need decent anti-SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) laws in every state of the union.
Ronald J. Riley,
Speaking only on my own behalf.
Affiliations:
President – http://www.PIAUSA.org – RJR at PIAUSA.org
Executive Director – http://www.InventorEd.org – RJR at InvEd.org
Senior Fellow – http://www.PatentPolicy.org
President – Alliance for American Innovation
Caretaker of Intellectual Property Creators on behalf of deceased founder Paul Heckel
Washington, DC
Direct (810) 597-0194 / (202) 318-1595 – 9 am to 8 pm EST.
Setting the story straight.
The comment I made, “and in my opinion, I kicked their ass” was not what Judge Lloyd said was a breach.
The fact that I posted to my blog that Coupons, Inc. would dismiss the lawsuit against me with prejudice is what the Court determined was a “breach.” Had I left the words “with prejudice” off of that statement, there would have been no breach at all since Coupons, Inc. had (just a few days earlier) released a statement that they were dismissing the lawsuit against me.
-john
Coupons ROCK!
I like http://couponsearcher.blogspot.com. What I do is use that site to search for everything I want to buy before I go shopping and it saves me tons of money. Can’t beat that!
Coupons can save you a wad
Always do a quick check before you order online, you don’t know what you will save.
I saved £300 off a holiday on expedia, coupons can get you a bargain.
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