woot.com http://www.maximumpc.com/taxonomy/term/22327/ en Amazon Allegedly Picks Fight with Mom and Pop Porn Site http://www.maximumpc.com/article/news/amazon_allegedly_picks_fight_mom_and_pop_porn_site2013 <!--paging_filter--><h3><img src="/files/u69/amazon_adultwoot.jpg" alt="Amazon AdultWoot" title="Amazon AdultWoot Graphic" width="228" height="222" style="float: right;" />A family-owned adult DVD store claims Amazon is trying to shut it down.</h3> <p>Oh, the injustice! The owners of AdultWoot.com, a small, family-owned online store that sells adult themed DVDs (read: pornography) for under $5 a pop, claims <a href="http://www.maximumpc.com/tags/hewlettpackard"><strong>Amazon</strong></a> is the one playing dirty by trying to shut the site down using underhanded tactics. Why would Amazon go out of its way to shutter an online porn shop? Simply put, <a href="http://www.woot.com/blog/post/breaking-woot-to-be-acquired-by-amazon-then-left-to-amuse-ourselves" target="_blank">Amazon owns Woot.com</a>, an online deal site it acquired last year, and it doesn't want customers thinking the two sites are in any way related.</p> <p>According to AdultWoot, Amazon retained lawyers from Texas (where everything is bigger) to secretly take down the website by only serving notice to its hosting provider. The site claims Amazon never made an attempt to contact it directly.</p> <p>We don't know much about AdultWoot other that what's laid out in the site's press release, but in its attempt to blow the whistle on Amazon's backdoor tactics, several references are made to "Ms. May," who we assume to be the owner of the mom and pop DVD store and who is only looking to keep her children fed. By selling sexually explicit videos. For under $5. We've all been there, right? Right!?</p> <p>Grab a tissue for this one.</p> <p>"I fear that without my online business and loyal customers, income will be taken away from me and my children," <a href="http://www.blog.peacemagazine.com/2013/02/08/amazon-com-owners-of-woot-com-in-legal-battle-with-adult-company-adultwoot-com/" target="_blank">Ms. May laments</a>. "Adult businesses are real people too, people like you and I who need to provide for our families."</p> <p>Ms. May, who claims she can't afford to battle Amazon in court, has tried contacting the e-tailer's lawyers to no avail. Barring that, she's hoping to bend Amazon over the court of public opinion in hopes of, well, we're not really sure, but here's her beef.</p> <p>"An online search of 'woot' does not pull up AdultWoot.com and Ms. May wonders why, with the plethora other companies who operate with the word ‘woot’ in their name, how Amazon isn’t trying to vigorously shut them down as well, especially when domain names of acronyms, whole categories of products, services and common expressions are ineligible for trademark protection," AdultWoot points out.</p> <p>Maximum PC tried reaching out to Amazon, which sells sexually explicit videos and e-books, but have not heard back (shocking, we know).</p> <p><em>Follow Paul on <a href="https://plus.google.com/113266473617484509826?rel=author" target="_blank">Google+</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/#!/paul_b_lilly" target="_blank">Twitter</a>, and <a href="http://www.facebook.com/Paul.B.Lilly" target="_blank">Facebook</a></em></p> http://www.maximumpc.com/article/news/amazon_allegedly_picks_fight_mom_and_pop_porn_site2013#comments adultwoot.com amazon Internet legal online woot woot.com News Fri, 08 Feb 2013 19:47:24 +0000 Paul Lilly 24991 at http://www.maximumpc.com