Re: Web Sweep

On 7/20/98, Mike Lean <m.lean[_at_]qut.edu.au> wrote:
>
> G'day Copyright-ers,
>
> Has anyone seen the announcement from Kessler and Associates regarding
> Web Sweep? Under the circumstances, I'm not going to quote the whole
> item, just the following portion, claiming fair dealing for the purpose
> of reporting news.
>
> I wonder where this will lead? Seems to be somewhat different from a
> well-known mens' magazine using a webcrawler to track digitally
> watermarked photographs of women in deshabille....
>
> > To assist publishers, companies and their legal representatives in
> > protecting intellectual assets, Kessler & Associates uses a new
> > proprietary search program they have developed called Web.Sweep.
> > Web.Sweep detects unauthorized uses of company names, essential phrases
> > and can detect libelous statements made by competitors or disgruntled
> > customers. Web.Sweep searches the entire World Wide Web including
> > Usenet, commercial online services, newsgroups (archived at a Web site)
> > and discussion lists. For specific information about Web.Sweep access:
> >
> > http://www.kesslerassociates.com/
>
> Comments, anyone?

Web Sweep sounds ambitious, to say the least. Unless the program is exceptionally sophisticated, I don't see any way it can distinguish between "authorized," "unauthorized" and "fair use" mentions of a company's name -- such as my mentioning that I drink Coke or Starbucks coffee on a website. It's not an "authorized" use of the trademarks, but it would be pretty difficult for Coca-Cola or Starbucks to make me stop. (For a real-life, and even more telling, example: Playboy couldn't prevent a former Playboy model from using the phrase "Playmate of the Year" on her website. It was found to be a fair/descriptive use of the phrase -- she had been Playmate of the Year in 1981 -- even though Playboy has trademark rights in the phrase.)

In terms of identifying "libelous statements," I have to wonder what sort of algorithm Web Sweep uses to determine (i) the falsity and (ii) the derogatory nature of statements about the user's company.

Ultimately, I suspect -- without benefit of actual knowledge -- that Web Sweep will be very effective at retrieving a boatload of references to the user's company or products, but that a human being will have to go through and spot (and analyze) the objectionable references anyway.

Daniel J. Schaeffer
<daniel_schaeffer[_at_]kirkland.com> Received on Mon Jul 20 1998 - 14:47:23 GMT