Hey Orbitz, link this!

[giza]

There's an interesting article on Slashdot about Orbitz trying to keep people from linking to their website.

It's slightly amusing, seeing that Orbitz is trying to apply some sort of legal agreement to people who have never visited their website.

I think that Orbitz should go read this article about a court case involving deep linking, wherein the judge stated, "This is analogous to using a library's card index to get reference to particular items, albeit faster and more efficiently". It's good to know that there are judges out there who "get" technology and the fact that the web is all about linking.

Oh, and Orbitz? I'll stick with Travelocity, thanks.

Comments

[shockwave77598.livejournal.com]

I'd love to hear their argument in court. If I am not a member of their site and I put a link to them, what could they say or do about it? What could they possibly tell a judge to get a court order and in what state? Unless it's a court order from Texas, I'd ignore it.

[tgeller.livejournal.com]

Your post is amusing, but I don't think it's going against their edict. They're trying to prevent "deep linking": I.e., linking below the home page.

Or am I missing something?

[giza.livejournal.com]

You mean like (http://www.orbitz.com/App/GetDealsDetailsContent?deal_id=gaytravel&source=hp&type=l) this (http://www.orbitz.com/App/GetDealsDetailsContent?deal_id=disney&source=hp&type=l)?

[randomzen.livejournal.com]

Man, I so bad want to find a giant image hosted by orbitz and display it here. I can't for two reasons:

1) I don't want to blow up this thread with a big, ugly graphic.

2) I couldn't find one (this is the real reason, of course).

[pyesetz]

Here's a bunch.

[shenryyr.livejournal.com]

click to see

hit refresh a few times to do it again and again and again, whee

[randomzen.livejournal.com]

hahha!

[tgeller.livejournal.com]

Heh.

[wesha.livejournal.com]

I bet my bottom dollar it's viral marketing, class 2: "rebellous viral marketing". By provoking a rebellion against stupid policies, they get people all around the Net to link to them, thus highly increasing their rating in Google.

We shouldn't link to them; instead, let's hit them at their weak spot: finances. Namely, money they pay to their customer service.

Here's what they get from me:

Hello customerservice, I am an Orbitz member. I would like to include a link to the Orbitz homepage in a text email to the members of my family. Per the new Orbitz Terms & Conditions, I hereby request permission to include such a link in an email to be sent March 14, 2005. If possible I would also like to secure a standing agreement permitting me to include text links to the Orbitz homepage in future emails, including but not limited to two such emails I intend to send in the year 2005. Finally, because some of my friends and family are not yet Orbitz members, I request a "separate linking agreement" between Orbitz and my email outbox, so that I may direct such persons to the Orbitz registration page. Thank you for your attention. Sincerely, --Wesha. This email is strictly confidentional. Any use of e-mail addresses collected from this email body and/or headers, other than supplying a legal response to the email message above, including but not limited to sending advertisement, sharing it with third parties, or adding to any mailing lists, is strictly prohibited and may result in financial charges. By not answering within 10 business days or otherwise ignoring this email, you explicitly agree to grant the permissions requested in the body of this email and not press any charges against the person requsting such permission by it, or his legal affiliates.

[giza.livejournal.com]

I disagree.

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viral_marketing (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viral_marketing):

> The term "viral advertising" refers to the idea that people will pass on and
> share cool and entertaining content; this is often sponsored by a brand,
> which is looking to build awareness of a product or service.

I've got plenty of words to describe what Orbitz is doing, and I would use neither "cool" nor "entertaining" in that list.

[wesha.livejournal.com]

First of all, you can't deny that in this particular case "people will pass on and share" the name of the site, at the bare minimum. Besides, I was talking about viral marketing, not advertising, and it doesn't necessarily have to be positive -- remember, "there's no such thing as bad publicity". And for all the rebels linking to them, they'll get high rankings in Google, which is most important to them.

[giza.livejournal.com]

>Besides, I was talking about viral marketing, not advertising

The Wikipedia article that I cited uses both terms interchangeably.

> "there's no such thing as bad publicity"

Um, not in my experience. My own experience with Orbitz is that I've never bought anything from them. With this latest silliness on their part, the chance of me buying anything from them drops even more.

Another good example in the tech industry is SCO. In case you haven't been following, some time ago they made vague claims about owning some part of Linux or somesuch, started demanding license fees from people, and other stupid things. For example, search on Google for 'Litigious Bastards' (http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&lr=&safe=off&c2coff=1&q=Litigious+Bastards&btnG=Search), and you'll see what I mean. That's not the sort of image I'd want my company to have.