IP: EBAY'S EFFORTS TO BLOCK 'BOTS' DRAW SCRUTINY Edupage, 4 February 2000

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

> EBAY'S EFFORTS TO BLOCK 'BOTS' DRAW SCRUTINY
> The Justice Department's antitrust division is investigating
> eBay's attempts to stop other auction sites from using shopping
> bots to search its site.  Investigators have met with auction
> sites AuctionWatch.com and Bidder's Edge, both of which use bots
> to compile lists of offerings from auction sites, including eBay,
> to allow users to search multiple sites for the lowest price.
> EBay has prevented the bots from searching its site, and the
> Justice Department will determine whether the move is
> anticompetitive.  EBay's Jay Monahan says the issue centers on
> "eBay's right to prevent unauthorized intrusions."  In December
> eBay brought charges against Bidder's Edge, accusing the smaller
> site of trespassing on eBay systems, unfair business practices,
> computer fraud, and misappropriation.  Although eBay permits
> other online aggregators access to its site, the company is able
> to limit the access as part of the agreements.  "What's at stake
> here is the architecture of commerce on the Internet, whether you
> can freely search others' sites or whether you have to have their
> permission," Bidder's Edge CEO James Carney says.
> (Wall Street Journal, 4 Feb 2000)