I previously wrote an article entitled “The Legality Of Social Media Gaming”. I analyzed a legal dispute between USocial and the social media giant Digg. USocial is an Australia based company in the business of selling Diggs for money. They are in the business of gaming Digg. I analyzed the Cease and Desist sent by Digg to USocial. I looked at whether Digg would win a lawsuit against USocial or could shut them down through economic warchest superiority. After writing the article I emailed USocial advising them that I was an attorney and had written about the case. I asked if they would keep me updated as to any developments. I received a very nice reply stating that they would be happy do so. After not hearing anything for a month I once again wrote USocial asking for an update. I was not expecting to get anything more than a perfunctory response with the current status if I received any response at all. I was surprised when received an email basically laying out their position and admitting they use a software program to game Digg. I contacted USocial to confirm that this information was already in the public domain. I received a response that it was. My article addressed most of the issues raised although I admittedly did miss the fact that USocial is based in Australia. I have no experience in international jurisdiction issues or how any business USocial does with Diggers residing in the United States(if any) would affect venue. I will leave that one alone. Digg could also go after those involved in the design and marketing of the software aruging that its sole purpose is to game Digg and whatever legal arguments go with that. As it appears that none of the involved parties lived in the United States, it is questionable whether Digg, being in the weak financial it is would do anything unless it could get venue in the United States. Here is the email. It is self-explanatory.
My apologies for not getting back to you sooner, we’ve been getting flogged here with work. We’ve just conducted interviews with several UK publications, a few Australian radio stations and now we have an upcoming story in the LA Times tech section this week so I think things are going to get even more hectic and as such, it’s slipped my mind to send you a reply.
In short, there is no clear-cut answer as to whether they have a legal case against us as there has never been a case like this put forward, especially internationally. The problem lies in the fact that we are not directly interfering with their systems and it becomes complicated for Digg legally as they are located in the United States, we operate out of Australia and the people who submit votes for us are located in several other countries.
Many pay-per-Digg sites have come before us (User/Submitter for example) but to our knowledge all have shut down, we’re guessing because of a Digg C&D notice. We think that if Digg were to pursue someone over this matter it would probably be us as so far they haven’t been able to crack the method we’re using to game their system, which is simply a piece of software we developed specifically for the purpose over a period of 9 months, combined with users around the globe using it.
The main thing to take from this all is that at this stage we are not going to cease trading. If Digg did decide to pursue legal action however we may have to, not out of fear of being shut down, but possibly as we would not be able to match the legal resources put up by Digg to ount such a case — unfortunately, we cannot yet boast to turnover the same kind of cash that Digg does.
Please let me know if you’d like any further information. Do you have a copy of the C&D order sent to us by Digg?
Regards,
Serena Adamson.
Publicity & Marketing Manager — uSocial.net.
serena@usocial.net










February 24th, 2009 at 1:19 am
I'm surprised at the thought put into their letter. It was a nice and intelligent response.
(Probably in hopes of enticing your assistance; if and when necessary.)
February 24th, 2009 at 1:43 am
People talk about Digg's huge war chest, but frankly all they've got is venture capital. They still haven't turned a profit and the numbers are working against them. Spending money on a lawsuit just increases their burn rate. Being embroiled in a lawsuit does not make them attractive to further rounds of venture capital — VCs hate funding lawsuits. I doubt Usocial affects Digg's bottom line enough for them to justify spending a lot of money on it. Digg's best course would be to just ignore them and let the market figure it out.
February 24th, 2009 at 8:06 am
I don't think that they are doing anything illeagal, even if they were located in the US. What I'm not sure about is their users. A more general question derive from that: Is violating a site's TOS considered breaking the law? What law does it break?