Text Link Ads Says We’re Naughty

Written by John Cow on August 5th, 2007

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So after our little joke, the fake, pretend, non existent and imaginary copyright infringement lawsuit, we received an email from Jonathan Dingman, who’s been a product manager at Text-Link-Ads for a whole month now. Reason being is because we had applied with them and got accepted on their site just the day before that, and we mailed their tech support to find out if it was possible to run both their regular text links in our sidebar along with the new inLinks program their site invited us for.

Now here’s where we get confused. You see, Patrick Gavin is the head honcho at Text-Link-Ads and Jonathan states in his Linkedin profile that he reports directly to Patrick! Have a look at the screenshot from his Linkedin profile.

jonathan_experience.JPG

When Patrick, Jonathan’s boss for those of you who still didn’t get it, announced on his company’s blog that they bought Auctionads, we commented as the first to ask about the service uptime. Patrick, who even wrote a small article about us before, replied with the following:

Hey John Cow, explosive growth has its challenges :) Rest assured we are making big infrastructure investments to get ahead of the growth. Looking forward to servicing you as a publisher!

We’ll just throw in another screen shot to get the point across.

gavin-patrick.JPG

Yes, Patrick Gavin says he’s looking forward to servicing us as a publisher with AuctionAds, but in the meantime, his employee Jonathan Dingman is accusing us of copyright infringement and has declined us from participating in Text-Link-Ads a day after their site accepted us! What’s going on people?! Here’s the email chain of us and Jonathan, trying to get clarification why he figured TLA should not be associated with us. Start reading at the bottom if you want it to make sense.

———————————————-
I could easily spot that as copyright infringement, whether you posted it or not. the domain name is copyright infringement in the first place. It would surprise me if he actually did press charges on you for it.

Jonathan Dingman
Product Manager

Text-Link-Ads
a MediaWhiz Holdings, Inc. Company

Tel: 877-480-9755 ex. 2977
Fax: 646-417-5084

———————————————-

On Aug 3, 2007, at 4:03 PM, John Cow wrote:

Is your opinion about the site being copyright infringement one that has formed after or before you read the latest post? Just curious.

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless handheld

———————————————-
—–Original Message—–
From: Tech Support - Text Link Ads

Date: Fri, 3 Aug 2007 11:58:09
To:John Cow
Subject: Re: Text Link Ads Inc. Online Contact Form - Publisher Technical Support

We reserve the right to reject any site that we feel that is not suitable for our network.

Your site is pure copyright infringement, even prior to that post, we can’t allow it.

Jonathan Dingman
Product Manager

Text-Link-Ads
a MediaWhiz Holdings, Inc. Company

Tel: 877-480-9755 ex. 2977
Fax: 646-417-5084

———————————————-

On Aug 3, 2007, at 3:57 PM, John Cow wrote:

What was your reason prior to this.

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless handheld

—–Original Message—–
From: Tech Support - Text Link Ads

Date: Fri, 3 Aug 2007 11:52:11
To:John Cow
Subject: Re: Text Link Ads Inc. Online Contact Form - Publisher Technical Support

Well, reading your last post, it’s an illegal site now.

Jonathan Dingman
Product Manager

Text-Link-Ads
a MediaWhiz Holdings, Inc. Company

Tel: 877-480-9755 ex. 2977
Fax: 646-417-5084

———————————————-

On Aug 3, 2007, at 3:50 PM, John Cow wrote:

Are you kidding me? This blog is twice as popular as my accepted one. What qualifications do I not meet?

bob

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless handheld

———————————————-

Date: Fri, 3 Aug 2007 09:47:57
To:John Cow
Subject: Re: Text Link Ads Inc. Online Contact Form - Publisher Technical Support

Sorry, your site is not qualified for our publisher program.

Jonathan Dingman
Product Manager

Text-Link-Ads
a MediaWhiz Holdings, Inc. Company

Tel: 877-480-9755 ex. 2977
Fax: 646-417-5084

———————————————-

On Aug 2, 2007, at 5:51 PM, John Cow wrote:

Text Link Ads Inc. Online Contact Form

Name: John Cow
Email: John Cow

Comments: I have just added my other blog, www.johncow.com. I have entered the inLinks program, can I not use the regular sidebar text links anymore now?
———————————————-

Geewhizz! Jonathan is accusing us of copyright infringement but does he really know what it means? Here’s the definition:

Copyright infringement (or copyright violation) is the unauthorized use of material which is covered by copyright law, in a manner that violates one of the original copyright owner’s exclusive rights, such as the right to reproduce or perform the copyrighted work, or to make derivative works that build upon it.

Now can anyone tell us what material we’ve been using unauthorized? We write all the content ourselves. The blog theme and all the plugins are made freely available by their respective creators. The domain is just a name, John Cow! Seriously, we don’t see it! Jonathan, please tell us where we are doing this copyright infringement thingie and we’ll say sorry if you’re right!

sca1.jpgWell the question remains. Are we going to get accepted into TLA as John Cow dot Com or has Jonathan just got severe case of lactose intolerance? We’re kindly asking TLA to clarify this issue for us. Cows have feeling too! We’d like to take this opportunity to award Jonathan with this month’s stupid cow award! Cowgratulations!

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63 Comments »

Comment by dcr
2007-08-05 19:15:28

In addition, parody and satire are protected speech, and not considered copyright infringement.

Then again, these days it seems like laws are frequently what the judges say they are and not what the laws themselves say they are.

Comment by Steven
2007-08-05 22:45:11

The law is very subjective, always has been, always will be.

 
 
Comment by Making The Money
2007-08-05 19:39:27

I’d go straight to Patrick, I’ve found that he’s fairly open about things and will no doubt get you sorted again. Johncow.com has the potential to make TLA some decent money.

Comment by Steven
2007-08-05 22:45:43

Decent money indeed, ad money is a must :wink:

 
 
Comment by Markk
2007-08-05 19:51:46

Somebody is gonna get a big kick up the you-know-where and it ain’t gonna be John Cow. We’ll see soon enough.

 
Comment by GnomeyNewt
2007-08-05 20:07:09

Show them the post on the real JohnChow website about helping your blog out. Looks like he thinks the real deal tried to sue you. Obviously he doesn’t know how to read between the lines! I’m sure it will be sorted out in time.

Comment by Steven
2007-08-05 22:46:56

Speaking of that, how is the whole lawsuit letter going. I noticed for a couple days that the site was forwarded to John Chow’s site… Good thing I never stopped checking back :smile:

Comment by Steven
2007-08-05 23:10:02

Just read the previous post, LOL

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Comment by fatgadget
2007-08-05 20:14:50

dont belive you I think its Linkbait :twisted:

Only joking :razz:

Don’t worry Mr Moo, we got turned down for TLA got the ‘your site doesnt meet our criteria crap’, but have been using auction ads for a while now and its been quite good.

If they don’t let you in just sell your own text links, thats what we intend to do.

:mrgreen:

Comment by Cash Quests
2007-08-05 22:28:11

I agree. Pure linkbait and I expect a post tomorrow letting us know that it was all BS and that JohnCow is now running TLA. :smile:

Perhaps spreading the word that your site contains illegal material was not the best form of linkbait! :grin:

Comment by John Cow
2007-08-05 22:32:23

Last time we heard, the Internet is thriving on illegal material :twisted:

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Comment by Steven
2007-08-05 22:47:29

LMAO

 
 
 
 
Comment by lilian
2007-08-05 21:00:39

Sent Jonathan to the barn now. But Patrick and his accounts and marketing staffs are very, very efficient. TLA works very well for me. But I thot the inLinks is super-duper ‘I swear’ secret?

2007-08-09 00:21:30

LOL, not anymore!

 
 
Comment by J.D.
2007-08-05 22:00:16

This Jonathan Dingman - Product Manager - sounds like a complete and total tool. He rushed to judgment, made a bad decision, and is sticking with it instead of announcing a mea culpa and helping you out.

Challenge him to a boxing match. Fight fight fight!

This looks like something that you could easily mooooove up the TLA food chain with and get overturned.

John Chow has no problem with the site, but even if he developed a brain tumor tomorrow and decided JohnCow had to go, there’d be nothing he could do about it unless you had some material lifted from his site.

 
Comment by Martin
2007-08-05 22:51:17

So you lie to everyone about your site being shut down as a publicity stunt. And now you are crying because you can’t use Text Link Ads. What does everyone see in this site? It is garbage.

Comment by John Cow
2007-08-05 23:03:15

How precious, our first negative comment! :cool:

Of course, this wouldn’t have anything to do with your previous three comments in which you’re asking us for a link back which still has not been posted yet?

Comment by Steven
2007-08-05 23:19:24

LOL, thats just hilarious :lol:

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Comment by Martin
2007-08-06 02:00:57

If you read my blog, I state that this site was decent when I first came here, then it all went downhill fast. I have since taken his link off my blog.

And Steven, what’s hilarious is your 1 rss reader.

 
Comment by Joyce Babu
2007-08-06 03:07:24

@Martin - To you this site may be full of garbage. But there are hundreds of regular visitors here, to whom this site is good. And I am one of them.

And I really liked the stunt he carried out. Because, it was unexpected and he carried out it well. I don’t visit blogs just for the information they give. It should be entertaining too. And I feel sorry that you couldn’t enjoy this joke.

 
Comment by Steven
2007-08-06 04:56:07

My blog is very new. Although I’ve own the domain for a while now, I just set up the blog not more than 2-3 months ago. And for about a month or so, I didn’t update at all trying to pick a theme that I wanted to go with. There is nothing wrong with new blogs having low RSS subscribers, everyone’s been there.

 
Comment by Navjot Singh
2007-08-06 10:58:40

Displaying just 1 feed reader will distract readers away. Its user maintaility. if you have low subscribers and are showing that low figure, people will believe your blog is not good. So better wait till your rss subscribers reach near 50 or sow before you start displaying your feed chicklet.

 
Comment by Steven
2007-08-08 02:50:39

Thanks for the advice. I will take it down later this week ^_^

I am actually out of town on vacation right now so I don’t want to spend too much time on the computer other than checking on my favorite cow =]

 
 
Comment by Glen Allsopp
2007-08-06 00:23:04

Ouch :mrgreen:

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Comment by fatgadget
2007-08-06 08:32:17

Anyone up for getting a donation together to buy ‘Martin’ a sense of Humour ? :twisted:

Comment by Steven
2007-08-06 10:19:35

LOL count me in.

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2007-08-09 00:30:19

Life is too short to get your panties in a wad over a really good joke Martin. Can’t get rid of MoneyBlogSite so you’re hating on everyone else..sad.

LMAO @ “How precious…” - JC

 
 
Comment by Colin Klinkert
2007-08-06 01:11:47

In all fairness,

this is a simple mis-understanding brought upon by the cow himself. John, he obviously thinks that it is Chow that is suing, why not get chow to mail him, stating this is not the case and it was just a prank? :roll:

No need for the long, dramatical post is there?

Comment by Joshua
2007-08-07 07:55:46

This is a much better way to deal with it, if you think twice. :twisted:

 
 
Comment by Blog Contests
2007-08-06 01:33:09

TLA is a good moneymaker. They haven’t accepted my new blog yet either… which is a bummer. But I am sure they will soon.

 
Comment by John Buffalo
2007-08-06 03:25:27

WOW,

Looks like a lot of heat is moooving around the barn … Hey Cow … Want me to “Horn” someone!

LOL

JB

Comment by Steven
2007-08-06 04:54:19

Will the real John Chow please stand up, please stand up. LOL

Comment by Navjot Singh
2007-08-06 11:04:16

It is already at johnchow.com! :mrgreen: BTW when did buffalos arrive? I noticed too late. :mrgreen:

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Comment by SimplyBananas
2007-08-06 03:30:58

TLA turned me down for not meeting criteria as well, shit happens MOOve on

 
Comment by limadang
2007-08-06 05:16:26

Well wel, nice post twin cow, :)was wondering what the real problem here actually.lols

 
Comment by B. Durant
2007-08-06 06:52:00

I wouldn’t sweat it. We can pretty much be guaranteed that Jonathan Dingman hasn’t a clue what the legalities of copyright infringement are. And that’s if he can somehow honestly convince himself that is what this blog has done.

 
Comment by roundouts
2007-08-06 11:38:14

talk about kicking your self in the butt. Oh well I’m sure you will get it sorted out.

 
Comment by Personal Blog
2007-08-06 14:18:34

I am in love with TLA. At first it started out with 3 links and then almost every other week or so i get a new e-mail. This month I’ve sold another 2 links. I’m up to 6 and some good extra cash.

Now if only Adwords accepted Paypal.

Comment by Cubofild
2007-08-06 15:29:08

Try epassporte, Adwrods accept their virtual CC plus you can send money to your Paypal via them!

Welcome Back John!

 
 
Comment by blog contests
2007-08-06 18:24:31

Just got my TLA check today. I got a nice $25 for an affiliate referral as well. Completely forgot about that. Need to push that more now.

 
Comment by Mike
2007-08-06 21:12:21

One might be tempted to write this off as the “Cow” bringing this one on himself. However, I think a fair number of us suspected the “lawsuit” was a stunt.

The real kicker is this, just where is this copy that was infringed upon? John Chow’s blog looks like any number of other blog templates out there, so that really cannot be claimed. The site is clearly a parody, which pretty much eradicates any weak claim about “look and feel” or similar sounding names. Furthermore, credit has been given and no known DMCA was issued in this matter.

Finally, reading the content and comparing the two sites for more than 5 minutes yields no similarities in terms of actual written copy. Although, this blog seems to offer a consistently higher quality “value” than John Chow.

TLA looks foolish in this matter for not applying any common sense or rationale thought to the matter.

 
Comment by digitalnomad Subscribed to comments via email
2007-08-06 22:22:35

This whole thing is too funny. There is no copyright infringement on your part.

You could end up owning TLA, if you get a good lawyer that will take the case on contingency.

 
2007-08-07 15:08:15

John Cow, you are turning out to be of the latest Internet Phenomenon, do you know that ? One more example of why controversy gets you maximum exposure…

 
Comment by Christoph Subscribed to comments via email
2007-08-09 09:56:46

Now, so except for publishing the errtic back & forth between you and that new hire and TLA - what’s the point of your post?

I understand you are pissed about Jonathan’s answers, but still you have no reason to believe that you have a RIGHT to be in the TLA publisher program, or?

christoph

Comment by John Cow
2007-08-09 10:06:52

What’s the point of any of our posts? And Patrick Gavin seems to believe we have a right to be in the TLA publisher program so we don’t need a reason.

 
 
Comment by Vik
2007-10-21 02:52:28

People are getting a bit too Mooish around the web now-a-days! :lol:

 
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