Coupon-Clipping Guru Faces Big Lawsuit
A California coupon-clipping guru is in the hot seat after figuring out a way to get around the copy protection for printable coupons offered by Coupons.com.
Coupons.com offers printable coupons mainly for grocery and drugstore products to registered Web site visitors. Customers are required to download software on the site which will then track and limit the number of coupons per product which can be printed. The software issues a unique serial code for each coupon and puts an identifier on the person's computer as a controller.
According to ABC news, Coupons, Inc. alleges that Joh Stottlemire, 42, of Fremont, California, designed software which hacked into the control identifier plus shared the information with other couponers on various coupon web sites. The software allows users to print an unlimited amount of coupons from Coupons.com. According to the suit, this action goes against the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).
"All I did was erase files or registry keys," he says. "Nothing was hacked. Nothing was decoded that was in any way, shape or form the way the DMCA was written." says Stottlemire. "I honestly think there are big problems when you are not allowed to delete files off of your computer."
Hackers Drain the Coupon Pot
Coupons, Inc. works with numerous companies such as General Foods in order to offer a predetermined amount of printable coupons on its site. If hackers go in and print more than what is allotted per visitor it drains the coupon inventory for other customers who follow the site user agreements.
"We're protecting copyrighted information that is free to consumers already," says Coupons, Inc. CEO Jeff Weitzman. "We're trying to make sure everybody can get their fair share."
Whose Fault Is It?
Stottlemire says Coupons, Inc. is suing him because "Coupons, Inc. does not have the technology in place that would limit the number of times that a person could print a coupon."
Not only does Coupons, Inc. have to deal with alleged hacks, but it also has incidents of visitors photocopying the coupons they print from the site. Weitzman says that such duplication of the coupons is tracked very carefully and once violators are identified, they are blocked from future access to the site.
The bottom line is that violations of company coupon distribution policies hurts manufacturers' profits which ultimately hurts how many future coupons can be made available to the public. Whether or not Coupons, Inc. has a legitimate case against Stottlemire is uncertain, but some legal experts feel Stottlemire may be "swimming in murky waters" at best. However, if Stottlemire's claim is that he merely is offering a way to remove files which are not deleted when people uninstall Coupons.com software, then the strength of Coupons, Inc. lawsuit could be compromised.
If Coupons, Inc. wins its suit, Stottlemire could pay millions in damages and be forced to turn over the names of anyone using his software.
See Also:
Coupon Hacker Faces DMCA Lawsuit
The Wired/ABC news refers to him as a Dealideal Member. He was a troll who was quickly banned & kept returning under different IP addresses. He also created the impression in a coldfusion forum that dealideal was his site & then offered $50 for help scripting into the site.
He claims to only have deleted files & registry keys. In reality he hacked Coupons Inc installer to identify & delete the controls & reprint unlimited coupons, & commercially offer them on his site.
He also attracted visitors with a coupon decoder using EDI databases likely not in the public domain. His wife bragged on their site of easily defrauding Walmart USCANs.
Previously he faked his death on flightsim sites after hacking that software.
I resent having any company’s software hanging around in my computer after I’ve used their uninstall program to get rid of it. I don’t care what the reason is and if this guy has come up with a way for me to get rid of it, more power to him.