[Ecommerce] Banning Negative Reviews

[James Love]

Subject:   [Ucita] Banning Negative Reviews
       Date: 
           Wed, 31 May 2000 14:57:45 -0400
      From: 
           Vergil Bushnell <vbushnell@cptech.org>
 Organization: 
           Consumer Project on Technology
        To: 
           ucita@venice.essential.org

Todays's Slashdot (www.slashdot.org) contains a discussion
(http://slashdot.org/articles/00/05/31/1748223.shtml)centering around a
software gaming company's (Apogee) alleged prohibitions on negative
reviews, comments, etc.

The "Apogee Software LTD. Intellectual Property Rights -- Terms of Use"
agreement may be found at
www.3drealms.com/policy/index.html

Here is a portion of the agreement concerning the use of Apogee's
Trademarks:

"Trademark Use
1.You may use the Marks on a web site, on bulletin boards, in chat rooms
to discuss or promote Apogee's games and/or products. 
2.You may use the Marks as metatags or as key terms in a search engine. 
3.You may not use the Marks in banner advertisements or other internet
advertising mediums.
4.You are not allowed to vary the spelling, add or delete hyphens (even
for normal hyphenation at the end of a line of text), make one word two, 
or use a possessive or plural form of the Marks. 
5.You may not use the Marks in a derogatory or defamatory manner, or in
any negative context. Such use will terminate your license to use the Marks. 
6.You may not use the Marks as part of any third party products,
services or trade name, without Apogee's express written permission. 
7.You may not use the Marks in a manner that is likely to cause
confusion with, dilute or damage the reputation or image of Apogee or any 
of its products. 
8.The Marks, or any portion thereof, may not be used by you or any third
party as a domain name or as part of or incorporated in to a domain name. 
If you learn of such unauthorized use, please inform us. However ..."

Sincerely,

Vergil Bushnell
Consumer Project on Technology
email: vbushnell@cptech.org
phone: 202.387.8030