Zynga the company that owns Mafia Wars (a game played on Myspace and other locations) , Launched their new toolbar application two days ago. after a year of my kid having a toolbar for mafia wars, they decide to make their own toolbar. Since my kid’s toolbar had greater page rank, they send a cease and desist notice to conduit, the company my kid uses to make his toolbar.
After you read this cease notice, I want you to remember, all that my son had in his toolbar was links to his favorite websites that where focused on Mafia Wars for Myspace. Well he removed everything from his toolbar and started a new one focused on his own website (about Myspace Mobsters Family HFS). Soon after, Conduit removed the link to his toolbar from their search engine (powered by google) and then, the following day (today) Google removed him from their search. Wow, zynga threw a big tantrum because they had an idea to late and could not out PR a teen age kid. Remember though. THIS IS MY BOY we are talking about. I give high props to my son. I totally respect his intentions to shut down his toolbar before it got all covered in stupid, and I appreciate his modesty and integrity for allowing Zynga to capitalize on it’s income a little bit further.
I do suggest and recommend that Zynga go ahead since they threw the hissy fit, to register with conduit and take over the name of that toolbar because it’s PR, I would respect them a little bit more if they compensate him for his efforts in keeping people interested in their game. I on the other hand will discontinue my Zynga account, and spend all efforts in promoting the fun created by playdom (mobsters). Zynga has lost my respect. I am not trying to rally troops and cause everyone to quit the games they create, Their games are fun, but man, they sure have no idea how the internet works and what free advertisement is worth. They need to respect their users a bit more.
———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Legal <Legal@conduit.com>
Date: Tue, Dec 1, 2009 at 7:03 AM
Subject: “Mafia Wars” toolbar – violation of the Publisher Agreement
To: *******
Dear Publisher of the “Mafia Wars” toolbar;
Thank you for choosing Conduit to power your community toolbar.
It has recently came to our attention that the community toolbar that you publish [CT2101201] [http://mafiawarstoolbar.ourtoolbar.com/] contains materials (such as marks, signs, images, or texts) that allegedly infringe the intellectual property rights of third parties [your toolbar name, logo, links, pictures and / or other contents include contents which were taken from or referring to Zynga’s Mafia wars application without receiving their written permission first].
This activity is considered a violation of the terms and conditions of the Publisher Agreement that you have approved prior to using the Conduit platform (http://www.conduit.com/license.aspx).
We kindly ask you to remove any content that may violate the terms and conditions of the Publisher Agreement from your toolbar within the next 12 hours [or less] from the date of this email. If you fail to address the issues described in this email within such timeframe, we will be forced to take the required actions to resolve such violations. For the avoidance of any doubt or misunderstanding please be aware that all Zynga’s related materials should be removed from your toolbar [This includes your toolbar name, logo, and all the content which is related to Zynga].
We kindly request that while utilizing the Conduit platform, you will refrain from using material or content that is legally owned or licensed by third parties without receiving an approval from such third parties.
Thank you for your cooperation. Please do not hesitate to contact us should you have any questions.
Regards,
Conduit Compliance Department
They would not have acted out like this after year of the toolbar, if Zynga had not just launched theirs two days ago and saw they Suck at Page Rank
thanks! :)
lets write them until the admit it, or stop doing it! i am writing them now!
:)