Problem with Met-Art trademark
 

Hi
I am owner of imediacrew.com network what includes two erotic sites themetart.com and metartx.com.
Today I was got message from Met-Art support :
met-art-videos.com and errotica-archives.met-art-videos.com is not my sites , I own only themetart.com and metartx.com. On this sites I promote only met-art.com. Some traffic I sending to met-art review on lustyguide.com. In 2010 year I was generated more than $17k and I cant understand Met-Art team politics about this situation.
Anybody know how to contact with met-art owner ? Coz I am not sure what support understanding what they doing.

PS. Sorry for my bad english :)

They probably meant themetart.com and metartx.com not met-art-videos.com and errotica-archives.met-art-videos.com. Looks like they copied and pasted an email sent out to someone else and forgot to edit the domains.

I think the only question here is: will they buy you breakfast after they fuck you?

" MetArtMoney.com does not accept traffic from any site that contains materials which constitutes an infringement, misappropriation or violation of any individual's or entity's intellectual property rights including but not limited to copyrights, trademark rights, rights of publicity, patent rights, personal property rights, privacy rights, etc..."

If I had read that clause on the terms I would not have associated it with them meaning their own trademarks etc.

FEGN is Met-Art?

That's exactly how it's designed to be interpreted. But it clearly means both things.

I think yes. This letter sent from [email protected]

Is anybody know how to cantact with met-art owners ?

Try John on 641812205.

Did they change the terms on people?

Seeing a lot of companies doing this and then not paying those who have been loyally sending them traffic. Chalk it up as an accepted way to cheat affiliates.

Accepted, but still fucking scummy.

I wish you to fix it ASAP

this is author of letter

Are you 100% certain it is from him/Met-Art? If you are, then I guess you are fucked.

yes (John Calvelo <[email protected]>). I was talk with him about my domains 3-4 moth ago , he was sayd what he need some time to think about it and today I was got his letter.
One another tgp ovner has the same problem , but he has only "met" in domain names.

They wouldn't mind if they knew you'd promote them forever, but what they don't like is that one day those sites could be used to promote a competitor, so surfers who were searching for Met Art would end up going straight to a competitor. For example, a competitor could make you an huge offer for the domains. Playboy have something similar going on, but they don't mind you using the domain as long as they have control over it, they point it to your servers.

they are just trying to steal your first page serps and traffic and cut you out of your revshare.

before you hand it over make sure to kill any traffic and get it banned from google.

What I was getting at was, I can send you an email and it looks like it comes from Met-Art, but it isn't. The FEGN part sounds odd to me but I guess it could easily be them. As long as you've confirmed it is from MetArt then it's something you have to sort out with them.

I also have sites with metart in the domain, I've not had any email or convo with them recently about this. I did ask them about it years ago though so maybe that is the difference here.

They have a trademark for metart, they also have control over whether they want you as an affiliate or not so I guess you are playing by their rules.

Good luck getting it sorted.

you mean like this site hxxp://pure-femjoy.com/ that does not have a single femjoy gallery listed?

:1orglaugh

Hello Everyone, let me explain what this is all about.

We are extremely thankful for our affiliates and more than happy to buy each and everyone of you breakfast if you are ever in the L.A. area :) However, there are some affiliates who are hurting our brand.

As llporter mentioned, there are many sites that are abusing (or can abuse) a brand. You can find many examples of sites that use our images to promote other sites and that use our trademarks in the domain to link to other sites. This may earn the affiliate money in the short term, but in the long term it hurts MetArt, and that will eventually hurt the affiliate, too.

I know we are all here trying to make money and we want to make sure our affiliates are happy promoting MetArt. We are not trying to take someone's income from them, but we do need some restrictions in place to protect what we have built. As long as the domain operator abides by our terms and conditions we will allow them to continue to operate the site as long as the domain is in our control. This will give us the assurance that out intellectual property will not be abused while allowing the site operator to continue promoting MetArt and keeping his income in place.

We are putting a lot of resources into development, communications, and improvements. We are working hard to give the users a high quality product and to help our affiliates make more money. Our terms and conditions are designed to protect and defend the MetArt brand. The stronger our brand, the more money our affiliates stand to make. It really is that simple.

Please contact me directly if I can further clarify, or if you have additional questions.

Best regards,
Amnon Lisbona
[email protected]
Skype: Amnoniko
ICQ#: 125178678

or

John Calvelo
[email protected]
Skype: jcalvelo
ICQ: 641812205

lol at met art ... you know, it is only their name in domain that is making you money with them, not your skills ... lol, as someone else said, send the traffic to similar sites if they dont want it :2 cents:

Not a good idea. Met Art has a really good claim here and would no doubt be successful in getting this domain from the guy. I think it's smarter to talk to them and work something out. Try to find something that works for both companies but know that they have full rights to that domains so anything you get from this is a bonus.

Well said. We deal with the same issues. It's a delicate balance trying to keep every affiliate happy without compromising what makes your brand what it is.

If Charlie ain't provided for, the goddesses ain't provided for :pimp:pimp:pimp:pimp:pimp

Building a site dedicated to Met Art and promoting that is one thing.

Building a free site that benefits from the Met Art name for his own personal gain is another. This site trades with other sites and surfers see The Met Art in the top lists and land on his site. He is benefiting from the name and yet not doing the brand justice. I wouldn't allow this either.

http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/twistysdownload.com#

http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/hardsextube.com

Yeah Very well aware. Twistys download is a very different scenario. He isn't an adult site :disgust

Why not take the domain and leave it as it is. ie with all the affiliates links embedded in the galleries / whatever else there is? That way you have defended your trademark and the affiliate is still able to be paid for the sales.

It's a skim site probably not an option

I only just noticed that after I posted.

If it was not a skim site would it cause the same problems if my suggestion were to be taken up?

I think it was lightspeed that addressed this problem by taking ownership of the domain, but leaving it delegated to the same name servers, ie the original owner continues to maintain the site. If the affiliate goes rogue then the program can simply change the name servers to kill it.

That's what we do too

Sounds like Metart could have a good case for trademark dilution.

If they own the trademark, it would be an easy case for them to win $$$:2 cents:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trademark_dilution

when metart or any sites accepts you are an affiliate, they also end up granting you license to use their name, trademark, and logos for promotion. otherwise you would not be able to mention them or use their banners.

If you weren't skimming like that with their images it wouldn't be a problem and I kind of see their point. You do have options to change domains and keep your traffic though and any rankings though if that's what u want to do.

Granting use of their name doesn't give you the right to abuse their trademark.

You can't go buy a domain name with Microsoft in it, or Toyota or Lexus and not expect them to come after your ass and the same goes for adult trademarks.

Met-Art is their trademark. They own it. That means if you buy a domain name with their trademark in it, you can expect to lose it, period.

This is why i never wanted to register domain with name of paysite/model/etc,not just because of trademark it's also because then surfer expect such content on site and you cannot change content since it will not always convert.