A popular site, Apple-Tracker.com, which offered a much more efficient method of checking for availability of Apple products than on Apple's online store has been shut down by Apple. Apple-Tracker was a simple Web app that checked Apple's inventory in order to help prospective buyers find out which Apple Retail Stores had their preferred products. The site showed product availability of all capacities of a given color/connectivity combination at the 20 closest retail store locations to a give zip code on a single screen. Apple's online store requires users to select a single color/connectivity/capacity combination, enter a zip code then navigate through four pages of availability listings to see all 20 closest stores.
Late yesterday the site's operator suddenly shut down the stock tracker, referencing a takedown request from Apple's lawyers sent to Heroku. the takedown notice claims that Apple Tracker is "unlawful because, among other things, the page scrapes and collects data from apple.com in violation of the apple.com Internet Service Terms of Use (see: http://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/terms/site.html) and Heroku Acceptable Use Policy." The request had been sent by Apple on October 17 when the site was tracking iPhone 5S device availability. And the shutdown finally happened once Apple-Tracker started availability searches for the iPad Air and would eventually have search results for the Retina iPad Mini.
The site's operator noted in a goodbye note that he didn't want "fight with Apple" and honestly who would? Here is the final goodbye note from the operator, it reads: I've deciced to turn off the site. I'm not doing this because I want to, but rather because I received a DMCA takedown notice (you can see the full text below) from Apple. I'm not really interested in picking a fight with apple so..... I guess it's time to just say good bye. Before I go though I just wanted to says thanks to all of you for the nice comments and emails that you've sent in the last few weeks. It was fun while it lasted. Mordy.
Below is the full DMCA takedown notice sent to the owner of the Apple-Tracker website.
321 11th St, San Francisco, CA 94103
Takedown Notice
Date: October 17, 2013
Dear Heroku Legal Agent:
I, the undersigned, state UNDER PENALTY OF PERJURY that:
[1] I am, a person injured, or an agent authorized to act on behalf of a person injured by unlawful web content published via and at heroku.com
[2] I May Be Contacted At:
Name of Injured Party : APPLE INC.
Name and Title: RYAN BRICKER, ASSOCIATE
Company: KILPATRICK TOWNSEND AND STOCKTON LLP
Address: TWO EMBARCADERO CENTER, 8TH FLOOR
City, State, and Zip: SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA 94111
Email address APPLE_COPYRIGHT@KILPATRICKTOWNSEND.COM
Telephone: 415-576-0200
Fax: 415-576-0300
[3] I have a good faith belief that the the website identified by URL below is unlawful because, among other things, the page scrapes and collects data from apple.com in violation of the apple.com Internet Service Terms of Use (see: http://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/terms/site.html) and Heroku Acceptable Use Policy, copied here:
Apple.com Terms of Use
Your Use of the Site. You may not use any "deep-link", "page-scrape", "robot", "spider" or other automatic device, program, algorithm or methodology, or any similar or equivalent manual process, to access, acquire, copy or monitor any portion of the Site or any Content, or in any way reproduce or circumvent the navigational structure or presentation of the Site or any Content, to obtain or attempt to obtain any materials, documents or information through any means not purposely made available through the Site. Apple reserves the right to bar any such activity.
Heroku Acceptable Use Policy
2.2 Your use of the Heroku Services must comply with all applicable laws, regulations and ordinances, including any laws regarding the export of data or software.
[4] Reason:
Content Type / Violation: Automated scraping/copying/acquiring web app, operating in violation of the apple.com Internet Service Terms of Use
[5] Please act expeditiously to remove or otherwise disable the following website/web application:
http://iphone-check.herokuapp.com/
[6] I have a good faith belief that the removal of copyright management information from the material listed above is not authorized by law; and
[7] The information in this notice is accurate.
Thank you for your kind assistance.
Truthfully,
/Ryan Bricker/
Ryan Bricker
Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP
Eighth Floor | Two Embarcadero Center | San Francisco, CA 94111
office 415 273 4368 | fax 415 354 3467
rbricker@kilpatricktownsend.com | My Profile (http://www.kilpatricktownsend.com/en/Who%20We%20Are/Professionals/B/BrickerRyanT15273.aspx) | vCard (http://www.kilpatricktownsend.com/_assets/vcards/professionals/BrickerRyanT.vcf)
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