Trek Alliance Attempts To Shut Down MLMSurvivor.com
May 21, 2002
Late in the evening of Mother's Day, May 12, 2002, the site administrator for MLMSurvivor.com received an email. Coming from Collier Shannon Scott, PLLC, the law firm representing XO Communications, the email informed her that Trek Alliance, through its attorney Michael Wachtell of Buchalter Nemer Fields & Younger, had complained about MLMSurvivor.com. He alleged that it violated XO's Acceptable Use Policy (AUP).
The letter stated in part, that
". . . it is a violation of your AUP and an infringement upon our client's rights to allow your posting services to be used in a manner which facilitates the manipulation of popular search engines to direct readers to postings which are intentionally disparaging, and in many cases, libelous to our client. Among other things, the information to which your readers are directed through your services include the republication of offensive, hateful, defamatory and objectionable materials, which in some cases, violates the personal privacy rights of individuals affiliated with Trek and, more significantly, make your firm a party to same by tacitly allowing continuation thereof. Additionally, the use of metatags, associated with Trek's proprietary names and marks infringe copyrights, trademarks and intellectual property rights."
Use of Metatags as copyright infringement.
Let's dispose of this right away. The Ninth District Court recently ruled in a case where a company was claiming copyright infringement through the use of metatags that no infringement existed since the tags were used solely to index a website. There was no commercial competition between the site in question and the copyright owner, and no possibility of confusion in the minds of consumers. The fact that search engines include this site when a web surfer enters the search term, "Trek Alliance" is perfectly appropriate and legal. It's called "fair use," and is part of the copyright law.
Now, let's take a look at what exists on this website regarding Trek Alliance.
First is an article titled, "Trek Alliance."
That article gives a brief history of Trek's formation by disgruntled Equinox reps. It includes an excerpt from Spellbound by Rob Styler, where he quotes a letter send by the founders of Trek to Bill Gouldd (founder of Equinox). The letter accuses Gouldd of "transgressions and unacceptable conduct against wives, girlfriends, and, more generally, any good-looking woman in the Equinox sales organization. . ." It mentions two of the Trek founders by name.
Second is an article titled, "Trek Alliance, Not Quite Lies."
This is an article written by a former Trek rep who rose to a fairly high position in the company, and then left. It describes the author's personal experience with Trek Alliance. It details what new recruits are commonly told, and explains the behind-the-scenes reality. It does not mention a single Trek rep by name.
Third is an articled titled, "Sex, Rich Von, Equinox and Trek Alliance."
Here we get to some pretty gruesome stuff. This article talks about Rich Von (real name Richard J. Von Albenslaben). It describes how Von was convicted in 1996 of sexual misconduct, a charge which was reduced from Sodomy, 1st Degree. Also present on the site are publicly available documents from Kenton County, KY (the court's case log on this incident), testimony from the victim, a copy of the search warrant for the hotel room, and a letter from the victim's lawyer.
Fourth is a brief summary, and a link to the website of the Attorney General for Wisconsin. The article is titled "Wisconsin Attorney General Charges Trek Alliance."
Draw Your Own Conclusions.
Libel? Defamation? Invasion of privacy? What do you think?
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