Ethics question: What do you do when others in your industry are breaking the rules?

[Harold Mansfield]

There is one violation in my field that bugs the crap out of me and I find it hard to let go.
It's other service providers using the word "WordPress" in thier company name and website URL.

WordPress makes it clear that the term "WordPress" is protected and that you cannot use it in your URL or company name, and yet every year someone thinks that they have miraculously found domain gold because they found a domain using the word "WordPress" that no one else has registered.

They are very liberal in allowing people to use thier logo to promote WordPress services, and using the word "WordPress" in product descriptions, keywords and so on. They even make it known that they do not own the rights to "WP" so you can use that.

It bothers me because it gives them an unfair advantage in the SERP's and is misleading to an unknowing public that assumes that they are somehow directly associated with the software company. And just about everyone else has no problem following the rules.

The opinion of some people is that reporting these violations is petty and that I shouldn't worry about what other people do. And I admit that it only bothers me (or I only notice it) when one of these URL's outranks mine for my targeted words or phrases. I don't mind getting beat fair and square, but I hate putting in the work and getting beat by someone who is cheating.

I have also had at least one client that used one of these "services" in the past and got pretty crappy service and now wanted to scrap WordPress because she thought she was dealing with someone who worked for them. And that makes it bad for all of us.

What are your opinions?

[nealrm]

Turn them in. If they are violating someones trademark, then they deserved to be turned in.

[Steve B]

I don't see that as petty at all. Turn them in - although Wordpress will probably aleady know about it by the time you tell them.

[Harold Mansfield]

There's a list of about 5 that I'm sick of seeing in the SERP's. I'm thinking of reporting 3 of them, and leaving 2 alone because the website's are so God awful ugly and outdated that when people get down to mine I look like a superstar.

[huggytree]

dont they already know?

if they know and choose not to do anything about it then its fair game for everyone to use

your at a disadvantage by not doing it to??

if you have lots of free time then go ahead and turn them in.

[Harold Mansfield]

dont they already know?
They do catch a few every year and I see them disappear, but they also encourage the community to act responsibly.


if they know and choose not to do anything about it then its fair game for everyone to use
your at a disadvantage by not doing it to??
I don't think Trademark infringement is "fair game". It's illegal.

Not only that, it's the principle of the thing. They've created this great publishing platform that is used all over the world by millions, free of charge. They keep it updated and provide all of the Docs, Specs, millions of lines of code, support and encourage you to use it to make money with it.

The only thing they ask is that you not infringe on thier trademark. And some people are so arrogantly selfish that they can't even respect that?

I hate that and it's this kind of disrepect that make people not want to make things Open Source.
Even if you give it away, some are still going to try and run all over you.



if you have lots of free time then go ahead and turn them in.
Takes about 2 minutes. I already did it.

[Ted]

I would report the ones outranking you for sure. They are essentially breaking the law to get an advantage over you.

And yes I think it is also unethical to use a major brand name in a domain name like that. I think it should be allowed later in the URL though, just not in the domain name. (I think that is the current law here in the US...could be wrong?) (seems like right to free speech should apply to URL usage where Domain Name applies to infringement of trademark)

Doing business online is much more susceptible to these kinds of issues simply because it costs so little to launch a new website. It sucks and it is annoying, but it comes with the territory. If you want to do business on the internet, it is something you have to deal with.

I think it happens with every major brand.

[Harold Mansfield]

I would report the ones outranking you for sure. They are essentially breaking the law to get an advantage over you.

And yes I think it is also unethical to use a major brand name in a domain name like that. I think it should be allowed later in the URL though, just not in the domain name. (I think that is the current law here in the US...could be wrong?) (seems like right to free speech should apply to URL usage where Domain Name applies to infringement of trademark)

Doing business online is much more susceptible to these kinds of issues simply because it costs so little to launch a new website. It sucks and it is annoying, but it comes with the territory. If you want to do business on the internet, it is something you have to deal with.

I think it happens with every major brand.

You can do this:
webcompany.com/wordpress

But you can't do this:
wordpresscompany.com/websites

[Ted]

You can do this:
webcompany.com/wordpress

But you can't do this:
wordpresscompany.com/websites

Okay. Thanks for clarifying. That is what I thought.

[billbenson]

Since its a trademark issue, if you get permission it's ok. I doubt that Wordpress is offering permission.

It is also a widespread activity that is frequently unenforced. hp-printers is up. I did a search on hp-whatever a while back and got a ton of trademark violations. HP obviously doesn't enforce it.

Also, I don't think it does much for SERPS these days. In days gone by it gave you a jump start, but I don't view it as a particularly good SEO tactic today.

[Harold Mansfield]

I think a lot of corporations stopped registering every possible violation. They have the trademark and can shut anyone who violates it down in a matter of days. Probably take any money they make from it too. That's probably good enough.

[billbenson]

Well, in the case of HP-printers.com, as long as the site isn't saying they are HP and they are selling / advertising HP products, why would HP care? It's free advertising. Now if the site was hp.net or hp.ws I think HP would not like that.

In the case of Wordpress, why would they care if someone has a site called wordpress-templates unless the site also tried to depict itself as 'wordpress.org. It really is just promoting Wordpress.org unless the site is really doing something stupid like using the same format and colors etc. to portray itself as Wordpress.

And I really don't think it helps SERPS these days any more than bobsSite.com/wordpress-templates.php

[Harold Mansfield]

In the case of Wordpress, why would they care if someone has a site called wordpress-templates unless the site also tried to depict itself as 'wordpress.org. It really is just promoting Wordpress.org unless the site is really doing something stupid like using the same format and colors etc. to portray itself as Wordpress.


Nooooo...not the old "By using your trademark I'm giving you free promotion" argument. C'mon.

The problem with that "unless" is that by the time it happens it's too late and the damage done. I agree with WordPress and every other trademark holder, and everyone else that has digital property.

When I was running my music blog, I had a kid ( I assume) email me asking me how I got all of the news and information that I posted on my site. The URL of my site was 124bpms.com, which was a shortened version of 124 Beats Per Minute. I didn't have it trademarked or anything, but the kid's site was 124beatsperminute.com (or something simular like 124beatsaminute.com)

That pissed me off. Not that I could claim any kind of infringement, but that he was trying to piggy back off the identity that I had built up, instead of creating one of his own. I just think that's chicken sh*t and if that's the extent of your web prowess then you should think about getting into another line of work. Of course that's just my opinion, but I couldn't imagine trying to build my business by trying to piggyback someone else's brand to intentionally create confusion and capitalize on it.