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)