The Amazon/Statsaholic dispute went from a simple UDRP domain name dispute to a full blown lawsuit last week (pdf of lawsuit is here).
Statsaholic, formerly called Alexaholic, offered Alexa traffic data graphs to users with a much better interface than Alexa did themselves. Despite the fact that Amazon complimented the service early on, they eventually moved to shut it down based on trademark infringement and unauthorized use of Alexa intellectual property (data graphs). Before resorting to legal action, Amazon reportedly offered $100,000 to simply buy the service outright. Hornbaker refused the offer.
Over the last few days, however, the drama factor has increased exponentially. It has become known that Ron Hornbaker, the founder of Alexaholic, was convicted of extortion in 1996 when he attempted to blackmail AOL users into giving him money. Hornbaker spent 18 months at Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary as part of his sentence.
Hornbaker frequented an AOL chat room called “Married but Looking,” posing as the flirtatious “Rita.” When Rita’s online admirers started talking dirty, Hornbaker then pretended to be her jealous policeman husband and threatened the men with bodily harm unless they paid up. None of the ten men that Hornbaker threatened gave him any money.
A Rockford, Illinois, man eventually turned Hornbaker in to the FBI.
To carry out his blackmail scheme, Hornbaker as the ribald Rita would troll chat rooms. Once he hooked his prey, Hornbaker would offer to show erotic photos of his Rita alter-ego in private rooms. But instead, the men would get threatening messages from the husband alter-ego saying he would track them down and hurt them unless they paid–usually between $500 and $2,000.
I spoke to Hornbaker this morning about the incident. He says that he was led to his actions out of desperation. His infant daughter was born with multiple heart defects, he says, and three major surgeries led Hornbaker and his wife to the brink of bankruptcy. His desperation led to stupidity, he says, and he chose to blackmail men who were willing to cheat on their wives with his fictional AOL user, Rita. He says the first time he went to his P.O. box to pick up checks from these men, the FBI confronted him and he was eventually indicted.
Amazon won’t return calls or emails on any aspect of the Statsaholic dispute. There are a number of rumors floating around that Hornbaker threatened Amazon with a PR smear campaign if they refused to increase their acquisition offer to well above $100,000, something Hornbaker flatly denies.
Hornbaker also says that Amazon is using his conviction as leverage in the case, threatening to disclose it publicly if he doesn’t settle immediately by paying $25,000 and transferring all Statsaholic assets to Amazon.
While Hornbaker will not give us a copy of the letter that Amazon allegedly sent him making these demands, he is offering to post all written communications between himself and Amazon since 2006 if Amazon agrees to do the same. I believe Amazon is very unlikely to agree to this, given that the case is now in litigation.
Hornbaker also said in an email this afternoon:
I’ve been to the bottom, and never again will I even go near the edge. If Amazon thinks they can sway public opinion of this case by dredging up old news, and making unfair comparisons of my behavior, then they should put their email communications where their mouth is, and post everything they’ve written to me, too – so I don’t have to. Let’s let the public decide the truth. I, for one, have absolutely nothing to hide.
The dispute is clearly as much a PR battle at this point as a legal one. Bloggers have largely come out on Hornbakers side in recent weeks, which is understandable given the classic “David v. Goliath” situation. These new facts are going to hurt his position substantially, however.
The only good news coming from this mess is that Hornbaker’s daughter lived through the ordeal and is now a “happy and healthy” thirteen year old.
Update: Alexa now offers graphs as a service. Previously only the data was available. The graphs are free but contain an advertisement.
Update: U.S. v. Hornbaker pdf is here.
Convicted felons becoming .dom CEOs
Pixelon 2.0
This is a sure sign of the bubble.
http://www.wire...s/2000/05/36243
To be honest, I wouldn’t even have thought all the details of the previous conviction needed to be publicised. They’re clearly irrelevant to how much or whether Amazon should pay money to Statsaholic.
I don’t think you did the right thing by publishing them.
Mark
This guy should take any amount of the money- Amazon is offering. He doesn’t have a foot to stand on
I always wondered why Rita did not show up that summer afternoon. This explains it.
Ron take the $100,000 and walk. Did you really think your background wouldn’t be dug up?? $100,000 to save a bunch of public embarrassment at this level feels like a bargain.
Karma chiming in.
1) Amazon’s strategy is woeful
2) Digging deeper. So after you extorted, did your wife/other family members stick with you?
3) Other entrepreneurs. Walk close to the line but when you cross over it, you’re *done* (or way over it)
4) Jay (living in first life). You’re a duck’s butt but you’re bascially right about property rights.
NOTE: I have a criminal record too. Disturbing the peace- noise (party with a live band at my house). I was fingerprinted and have a mugshot in Scottsdale AZ. Lawyer offered to get me off on a technicality and expunge it from the public record. Thanks Tony Bustamante! I owned up and let it stay.
@jay (living in uninformed life)
Alexa uses data collected by people who volunteered to give it up. It is totally relient on FREE data just like all those W2.0 sites
So your statement…
“Thank God there are people who do real work in America and not everyone is busy lifecasting themsleves and creating “neat” sites that allow you to steal content in 1000 new ways!”
…shows that you are a *real* whanker.
Hornbaker just made a better mouse trap with alexaholic. Whoops I used an amazon trademark. Sorry amaz0n.
You missed the real story here Mike, Bezos was one of those AOL guys Hornbaker tried to f*** over.
Ooops their goes another Urban Myth.
.
Does amazon have a “one click settlement” option yet. Because hornbaker is going to need it!
@ Beefy Boy:
Wait, you’re saying that it doesn’t cost Alexa anything to collect that usage data?
If you think it’s so fucking easy, why doesn’t Hornbaker collect it himself instead of sponging it off Alexa?
@ n00b. It doesn’t matter if it costs Alexa money to get their data. What matters is that it is provided by Alexa for free. Using screen-scraping or other technology to accumulate what is freely and publicly available isn’t theft, it’s smart.
Amazon originally offered Hornbaker money for the site and technology. Presumably they had no problem with him doing it at that stage, otherwise they would have sued him then. When he didn’t accept their offer, they got nasty. And nastier.
I’m not sure even Microsoft ever stooped this low.
What does this say about someone who creates a cool product or useful service and then declines to be taken over by the big boys? I call it courage. I call it independence. I call it an example that we can all follow.
Clearly Amazon’s tactic is to grind Hornbaker down with their six floors of corporate lawyers to the point where he can’t afford to fight the case. Dredging up his past adds to the pressure on him. This isn’t justice, it’s legal terrorism.
Amazon is looking really bad in all this. Probably would have been worth more than 100k to avoid it.
What we know for sure is he spent 18 months in Leavenworth. If the maximum sentence was two years, then that’s probably what he got, and got out early for good behavior.
What we don’t know is whether the “I did it to save my daughter” story is true. I think it’s very unlikely that someone with no previous criminal history, trying to save a life, would get the maximum sentence or anything close to it.
Sorry, but I’m just not buying it. In both cases I see greed as the motive and extortion as the method.
“Amazon is looking really bad in all this. Probably would have been worth more than 100k to avoid it.”
Looks like someone is making true on his PR smear campaign threat.
@Larry, you asked “Digging deeper. So after you extorted, did your wife/other family members stick with you?”
Wife, no. But at the time of my crime, we were separated already and not talking to one another (another stress point). See divorce stats for couples with chronically ill children. All other family members and friends, yes.
@Dennis, you said “What we know for sure is he spent 18 months in Leavenworth. If the maximum sentence was two years, then that’s probably what he got, and got out early for good behavior.”
The maximum sentence was in the neighborhood of 5 years, iirc. Note that the crime was technically “mailing a threatening communication,” and since that took place across state lines, it automatically became a federal offense. Thus, the federal sentencing guidelines came into play, and even though the judge was quite sympathetic to my family situation, and acknowledged I didn’t hurt anyone or profit from my crime, he was bound by law to give me a two year sentence.
@Dennis, you go on to say: “What we don’t know is whether the “I did it to save my daughter” story is true. I think it’s very unlikely that someone with no previous criminal history, trying to save a life, would get the maximum sentence or anything close to it.”
See above. I got the minimum sentence possible for the crime. And I’m not going to defend my motives here – I was sick with grief and depression at the time, and not thinking clearly at all. My daughter being gravely ill at the time is not an excuse – it’s simply context to my actions.
I accepted the consequences of my crime and paid a very severe price nearly a decade ago. Since then, I’ve rebuilt from zero and done some good things (besides Alexaholic) if anyone cares to look, and this current situation with Amazon has absolutely nothing to do with me trying to get a better offer from them. I turned down their offer, decided not to sell, and then was forced to defend myself against both a UDRP complaint and a trademark infringement suit.
After deciding against their offer, I never asked Amazon for more money, and in fact, offered to pay them money to serve their graphs if they would let me continue to feature them on Statsaholic. I’d love to publish the entire email conversation between myself and Amazon for the last 7 months to clear up this issue right now, but my attorney says no, for now.
@ surgeonsmate
“It doesn’t matter if it costs Alexa money to get their data. What matters is that it is provided by Alexa for free.”
it actually does matter. alexa is providing that data, for free, to visitors of their site, not for anyone to come along and just use wherever. show me in their terms of use where they say it’s okay to just take their data and use it as one likes. it’s like the concept of the “take a penny, leave a penny” tray at your local convenience store.
the concept is that you can use a penny, while you’re in the store, even though they’re not your pennies, to help you out when you need it, in the store. you can’t just go in, scoop up all the pennies to help fund a public sculpture you’re building. life doesn’t work that way.
Different but related query. Have Amazon acquired TextPayMe and why?
“alexa is providing that data, for free, to visitors of their site, not for anyone to come along and just use wherever. show me in their terms of use where they say it’s okay to just take their data and use it as one likes.”
BWAHAHA. That’s not the way it works. So long as copyright is not infringed, anyone can take the data published freely and publicly and do whatever they want with it. The web is full of robots harvesting links and other data and re-presenting the results.
websiteoutlook.com, cubestat.com and my favourite, http://www.estimix.com, all provide similar and much better traffic estimations. All of them are based on Alexa traffic ranking though.