someguyineo77
New Member
I have a question about an internet business venture I'm seriously considering taking. I'm not so much worried about breaking the law in what I'm planning in doing, and I don't feel there are any ethical issues either. I am a little bit worried that this could result in a lawsuit, though, because:
1. I don't know much about internet law and I don't know what a high-dollar lawyer might be able to do.
2. What I'm doing could very well make at least one of a few multi-million dollar companies pretty unhappy.
So let's say that the following situation exists: You have a total of four different internet companies who deal in a particular type of merchandise. Sale of this merchandise is perfectly legal, and is not morally questionable (it's not sexually explicit... it's not contraband or anything of the sort). But this merchandise isn't sold by mainstream retail companies, so we're talking about a niche industry where there are really only 3 or 4 big players.
The two biggest players are ranked number one and number two respectively in search engines. Number three isn't ranked well in search engines at all, but is still pretty big. Then there's me: #3 in searches for this type of merchandise at google, but not even really a player in the industry. I get a lot of traffic for the simple fact that my website appears #3 in the list in search engines, but I don't do much business, and am not thought of as a player in the industry.
It's a tough market to break into, and would require a lot more capital than I'm capable of coming up with. So I had a thought: rather than trying to establish myself as a retail company in this industry and make money in retail sales, I would turn my website into a search engine for this particular type of merchandise. I'd be able to capitalize in advertising and affiliate commissions rather than retail sales.
What I'd do is create a search engine that would index the products found at the major 3 websites, and make all the products of all 3 companies searchable at one location: my website. So someone interested in this type of merchandise would use my website to find the products of the major players' websites.
My website would simply provide search-engine like results to people who use it, with direct links to the items of my competitors. I wouldn't in any way give the appearance that the results my search engine turned up are my own. In fact, the logo of my competitors appear in each result that is turned up, clearly showing that the results displayed aren't my items.
If things go according to my plan, and my website is very popular for the ease it provides consumers in finding products, I'd see a serious increase in traffic to my website, and overall more people would be using my website initially, as a start to find products they're looking for.
There are two ways for my competitors to look at this:
1. It's good--It's free advertising, since I'm listing their items in my search engine, which will result in traffic to their website.
2. It's bad—Fewer people will start at their website, like they may be already. They will instead start at my website, and may not end up at their website—they may end up at a competitor's website.
I see this as being something that could put me in a position of real power, because a good working search engine is something that many people would use. Look at the power that google has, as a company who doesn't sell anything, only lists things in their search engines.
If things go according to my plan, my competitors would also realize that I'm in a position of real power, and probably wouldn't like that.
I know that after reading this you're probably thinking this sounds like a pipe dream, and are questioning the odds of this working out the way I'd like it to. It might sound like I'm getting my cart before my horse. So now after all this rambling let me present you with a scenario, followed by the question I'm asking at this forum:
SCENARIO:
Tomorrow the president of the #1 player in this industry is informed that there's now a search engine for the products he retails that includes his products, and the products of his competitors' as well. He wasn't informed that his products would be included in my search engine. He had no idea that my website, which is #3 in all the search engines, would become a search engine for his line of products. He's probably asking his IT guy how I'm doing this. His IT guy will soon take a look at his web stats and notice that his website is being crawled the same way a search engine crawls it every so often, by a new IP address, which would be my mine. He could have his IT guy shut me down immediately if he wanted to, but if he did, this search engine would include the results of his competitors' and not his, which probably wouldn't be good.
And the president of the other two major companies in this industry might go through the same thing. They might not like the idea of being included in a search engine that places their items right alongside their competitors', but they'd know that shutting me down would leave their competitors at an advantage.
The success of this whole plan hinges on none of the three major players shutting me down for fear of leaving their competitors at an advantage. So, if things go according to my plans, which I know is a big IF…
QUESTION:
Could this possibly result in a lawsuit?
Thanks in advance.
1. I don't know much about internet law and I don't know what a high-dollar lawyer might be able to do.
2. What I'm doing could very well make at least one of a few multi-million dollar companies pretty unhappy.
So let's say that the following situation exists: You have a total of four different internet companies who deal in a particular type of merchandise. Sale of this merchandise is perfectly legal, and is not morally questionable (it's not sexually explicit... it's not contraband or anything of the sort). But this merchandise isn't sold by mainstream retail companies, so we're talking about a niche industry where there are really only 3 or 4 big players.
The two biggest players are ranked number one and number two respectively in search engines. Number three isn't ranked well in search engines at all, but is still pretty big. Then there's me: #3 in searches for this type of merchandise at google, but not even really a player in the industry. I get a lot of traffic for the simple fact that my website appears #3 in the list in search engines, but I don't do much business, and am not thought of as a player in the industry.
It's a tough market to break into, and would require a lot more capital than I'm capable of coming up with. So I had a thought: rather than trying to establish myself as a retail company in this industry and make money in retail sales, I would turn my website into a search engine for this particular type of merchandise. I'd be able to capitalize in advertising and affiliate commissions rather than retail sales.
What I'd do is create a search engine that would index the products found at the major 3 websites, and make all the products of all 3 companies searchable at one location: my website. So someone interested in this type of merchandise would use my website to find the products of the major players' websites.
My website would simply provide search-engine like results to people who use it, with direct links to the items of my competitors. I wouldn't in any way give the appearance that the results my search engine turned up are my own. In fact, the logo of my competitors appear in each result that is turned up, clearly showing that the results displayed aren't my items.
If things go according to my plan, and my website is very popular for the ease it provides consumers in finding products, I'd see a serious increase in traffic to my website, and overall more people would be using my website initially, as a start to find products they're looking for.
There are two ways for my competitors to look at this:
1. It's good--It's free advertising, since I'm listing their items in my search engine, which will result in traffic to their website.
2. It's bad—Fewer people will start at their website, like they may be already. They will instead start at my website, and may not end up at their website—they may end up at a competitor's website.
I see this as being something that could put me in a position of real power, because a good working search engine is something that many people would use. Look at the power that google has, as a company who doesn't sell anything, only lists things in their search engines.
If things go according to my plan, my competitors would also realize that I'm in a position of real power, and probably wouldn't like that.
I know that after reading this you're probably thinking this sounds like a pipe dream, and are questioning the odds of this working out the way I'd like it to. It might sound like I'm getting my cart before my horse. So now after all this rambling let me present you with a scenario, followed by the question I'm asking at this forum:
SCENARIO:
Tomorrow the president of the #1 player in this industry is informed that there's now a search engine for the products he retails that includes his products, and the products of his competitors' as well. He wasn't informed that his products would be included in my search engine. He had no idea that my website, which is #3 in all the search engines, would become a search engine for his line of products. He's probably asking his IT guy how I'm doing this. His IT guy will soon take a look at his web stats and notice that his website is being crawled the same way a search engine crawls it every so often, by a new IP address, which would be my mine. He could have his IT guy shut me down immediately if he wanted to, but if he did, this search engine would include the results of his competitors' and not his, which probably wouldn't be good.
And the president of the other two major companies in this industry might go through the same thing. They might not like the idea of being included in a search engine that places their items right alongside their competitors', but they'd know that shutting me down would leave their competitors at an advantage.
The success of this whole plan hinges on none of the three major players shutting me down for fear of leaving their competitors at an advantage. So, if things go according to my plans, which I know is a big IF…
QUESTION:
Could this possibly result in a lawsuit?
Thanks in advance.
