[Infowarrior] - Best Buy tries to copyright sales prices

[Richard Forno]

 Best Buy tries to copyright sales prices
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20061114-8218.html

11/14/2006 12:08:57 PM, by Eric Bangeman

Deal site BlackFriday.info yesterday removed the Best Buy "Black Friday"
sales price list after the big box retailer threatened to deliver a DMCA
takedown notice to Black Friday's ISP. In a brief posting, Black Friday
said, "While we believe that sale prices are facts and not copyrightable, we
do not want to risk having this website shut down due to a DMCA take down
notice."

In recent years, information on the post-Thanksgiving sales has become a
highly prized commodity, with a number of sites featuring copies of major
retailers' ads. Consumers looking for the best prices and wanting to
streamline their shopping are responsible for the sites' popularity.

Deal sites such as BlackFriday and Fat Wallet are a source of irritation to
retailers at this time of year, although DMCA takedown notices tend to be
the exception rather than the rule. In November 2003, Best Buy issued a
takedown notices to FatWallet over a Black Friday ad posted on the site.
FatWallet responded by suing Best Buy for abuse of the DMCA. Such lawsuits
are permissible under the DMCA if a company knowingly misrepresents a DMCA
notice. FatWallet's case was dismissed with the judge ruling that the
bargain-hunting site had not suffered injury because of the takedown notice.

By issuing DMCA takedown notices, Best Buy is alleging that its sale prices
are copyrighted information and that posting the information before it is
publicly released constitutes copyright infringement. While companies may be
able to argue that disclosing sale prices weeks ahead of time can cause them
harm, it doesn't necessarily follow that a list of products and prices is
copyrightable.

Best Buy and other retailers that churn out takedown notices are misusing
the DMCA, but the larger problem is the law itself. The powers granted by
the DMCA are broad enough that it is tempting for companies to wield the law
as a bludgeon against whomever is displeasing them. Until the law is
changed, companies will continue giving into the temptation to misapply it.