Dating Site Concept and Bidder\'s

¶ … dating site concept and Bidder's Edge, I have provided some background information. From both a legal and practical standpoint, there is a significant difference between the activities of Bidder's Edge and the activities of the normal eBay customer. Bidder's Edge used automated searches, whereas a normal customer would conduct the search manually. This mattered to eBay for two reasons. The first is that it put pressure on eBay's servers. The second reason is that it detracts from eBay's business. It introduces competition to eBay's auctions, which could drive down prices and volumes (and therefore eBay's cut of sales) and it drives traffic away from eBay onto the Bidder's Edge site. This is exactly the same scenario that is being proposed for the dating site. The dating site business model is that customers pay for access to and contacts with other profiles. This type of model would be compromised by such an automated system as being proposed for the dating site model. Thus, the response from dating sites can be expected to be in line with the response of eBay to the Bidder's Edge.

The tort of trespass to personal property occurs whenever one person injures another person's personal property or interferes with that person's enjoyment of his or her personal property (Cheeseman, 2006). Courts have ruled that the use of automated software to access servers or computers constitutes illegal trespass (Sinrod, 2005). The Supreme Court of California has set a definition of trespass to computer services. This definition, as outlined in Intel v. Hamidi, is essentially the same as the traditional definition of trespass. In this case, the Supreme Court of California took the view that torts involving computer systems were no different than any other form of tort. Specifically, it noted that damage must be caused by the alleged trespass in order for a tort to have occurred.

In the Bidder's Edge case, the unlawful element of the action was that Bidder's Edge was specifically rejected from its bid to link up to eBay's website. The company then needed to use proxy servers in order to access eBay's site. The tort was that such actions resulted in dilution of eBay's mark and damage to eBay's reputation (eBay v. Bidder's Edge, Inc.). There is a strong likelihood that the same could be found with regards to the dating site.

In the Bidder's Edge decision, the courts have determined that deterioration of the service can constitute a tort, even if the deterioration is minimal. While Bidder's Edge did not materially affect the performance of eBay's servers, it could conceivable have grown in size in order to do so. In addition, multiple Bidder's Edge-type sites should cumulatively have such a negative impact.