

Angie’s List Sues Amazon Local - lutesfuentes
https://casetext.com/posts/trade-secrets-behind-a-paywall-angies-list-sues-amazon-local

======
greenyoda
I don't understand how the list of highly ranked providers can be a "trade
secret" of Angie's List if they make it public to their millions of
subscribers. Isn't a trade secret usually something like a closely-guarded
process, like the recipe for Coca Cola?

~~~
icebraining
Well, trade secret laws vary state by state, but _Data General Corp. v.
Digital Computer Controls, Inc._ seems to support their claim that a paywall
is enough to claim the information is "protected."

In that case, Data General sent design documents to anyone who bought their
computers, with a contractual agreement informing about their confidentiality,
and that was deemed to be protected and therefore DCC to be at fault for using
them for making a nearly identical computer.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_General_Corp._v._Digital_...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_General_Corp._v._Digital_Computer_Controls,_Inc%2e).

~~~
GabrielF00
Unfortunately, it looks like Hacker News deletes periods at the end of links,
so this link won't work.

If you want to read the article, you can just add a period to the end of the
URL.

~~~
jacquesm
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_General_Corp._v._Digital_...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_General_Corp._v._Digital_Computer_Controls,_Inc%2e)

You can use %2e at the end of your URL it seems to come out as intended.

~~~
dang
Good idea. I've done that above (hopefully icebraining won't mind) and will
add it to our list of things to fix (edit: if there's a way to do so that
doesn't break normal punctuation). Thanks to both of you!

~~~
aptwebapps
Stripping periods is probably beneficial more often than not. Also commas and
closing parentheses, I imagine. Ideally the script would test url before
modifying.

~~~
saurik
I seriously, just a few minutes before reading this thread, out a period after
a URL and was concerned "will this break? who is parsing the links, and in
what scenarios will the period accidentally be considered part of the URL?"
and decided "engh, I bet nothing expects periods at the end of URLs and
thereby it will get chopped off, and people putting periods at the ends of
URLs probably learn quickly that that causes problems and avoid doing that"...
and then I read this thread ;P.

~~~
aptwebapps
I actually have seen urls that ended with a long row of commas, now that I
think of it. Empty parameters, I guess.

~~~
jacquesm
Empty parameters won't affect the url resolution (normally), they'll just be
passed as empty to the same url. (Assuming the parameters were in the
querystring as they should be...).

~~~
aptwebapps
No, not in the querystring. I didn't mean GET parameters.

------
justboxing
" _Instead, it alleges that at least twenty Amazon Local employees signed up
for their Angie’s List, some using fake names, and used the information about
providers on Angie’s List to approach their competitor’s top rated providers
for listings on Amazon Local._ "

How could Angie's List possibly prove that Amazon Local employees signed up
for their service using fake names? If they use IP logs coming from Amazon,
that doesn't mean anything, because Amazon employees may be signing up for
Angie's List for their own personal reasons, correct?

What am I missing?? Does Angie's List have a strong case here or naw?

~~~
icebraining
Maybe they used the equivalent of a trap street[1], creating fake providers to
catch scrapers? If Amazon had them in their service, it'd be pretty damning.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trap_street](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trap_street)

~~~
Azkar
So you're proposing that amazon didn't bother to check that the provider was
real before listing it on their website? I just don't see amazon blindly
adding service providers to their website without any sort of vetting process.

~~~
millzlane
They shouldn't be, they contacted us a Nissan and Infiniti auto and wanted us
to sign up. Basically they would take a large percentage off of the top for
service items (e.g.: Brake job, Turbo kits install, oil change.) We decided
not to because we would have to raise cost to make the same profit.

------
salimmadjd
This lawsuit will have far reaching ramification.

What if a company buys an app just for competitive benchmarking and then copy
the essence of the app's user onboarding or some other aspect of the app's
unique features that is considered a trade secrete. Buying an app is like a
paywall.

Or what if a company subscribes to a competitor's SAAS service just to copy
their most valuable features.

If Angie's List wins this one, I think we should brace for many more to come.

edit: typos

~~~
dnissley
Something tells me that courts will be able to draw a line between scraping
data and copying an idea. But who knows, maybe not.

------
serge2k
> include computer trespass and violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act

sigh.

~~~
jacobheller
Sigh indeed. The CFAA is a scary statute and it's being used in all kinds of
ways.

------
tylermauthe
This could have bad repercussions, but it seems to me like Amazon was in the
wrong here. They probably could have just bought this company.

~~~
dnissley
As an employee at AL I have mixed feelings about an acquisition like that.
Part of me fears they would just gut the company. Another part of me hopes
that a close working relationship with a more successful technology company
would really be beneficial.

~~~
delecti
As an employee at Amazon, having seen a few acquisitions, they tend to not gut
them, they tend to incorporate them into the fold. They seem to assimilate in
the employees fairly gracefully.

------
atriix
I find it slightly ironic that this site requires JS to display any content at
all.

------
swehner
Nothing less is expected from the desperate gang called Amazon.

