KittyCatS Love & Frustration

[Tad Carlucci]

The fact you paid for it, or how much you paid, is immaterial. Like most merchants he has a no-refunds policy stated, so he never owes a refund.

He is not violating the Linden Labs and Marketplace Term of Service or other policies by denying your use of his web site. Linden Labs does not require him to keep is website operational forever, or to be available to every past purchaser. Marketplace rules simply require that it work as advertised at the time it is sold,

It is apparent from the above conversation that he is well aware that he cannot name Torgon. He's rightly accusing you of "playing games" because you're trying to get him to specifically name who or what product he is insisting you not use. That would be a clear violation and he would lose his Marketplace store and, possibly his Second Life account.

He thinks he's smarter than you.

But he does not need to name it. The only possible person he is talking about is Torgon and the only possible product is his profiler.

The only thing you (all of you) can do is:

* keep your cool, don't get angry or call him names

* drop the talk about payment, it does not matter

* keep insisting that he specify the person or products

* specifically ask him to be clear: he wants you to stop using someone else's product

* ask him for his ToS URL

* quote the line and ask if that's what he's talking about

* include your unedited chat log in your Abuse complaint

* explain that even though his is not naming names, it is clear he is attempting to force people to not use a competitors product

Do not expect any given Abuse Report to succeed. What is needed is a continuing series of rational complaints about him. Eventually one of two things will happen: either Linden Labs will see there is a problem and move to stop it, or he'll have chased enough people away he can no longer remain in business.

If you have not done so, and you purchased his product on the Marketplace, you should file a clear, calm, rational 1-star review which explains what he is doing without attacking him or naming Torgon or his product. You're simply warning people that he is capricious, harasses his customers, and will discontinue your use of his product if you mute him, ban him, or do anything else he does not like.

If he really had a complaint he could enforce about Torgon or his product, he would file a DMCA take-down request. He does not, and filing a false complaint would open him to personal liability. Similarly, he has no rights to the name. Torgon is not selling "RM's Kittycats Profiler" he does not own "Kittycats" and the term profiler it too generic, so he would be unable to obtain and defend a trademark.

The man who really has a cause of action is Torgon. He could get a lawyer to issue a cease-and-desist letter and take Rene to court if he fails to cease activities such as above. You could help him by keeping your chat logs so he would have evidence should he do so. But, unless he asks, don't offer them or send them! Torgon would almost certainly prevail in court. At that point, Torgon simply need have the court order Linden Labs to close RM's Marketplace shop and remove his account and, by their ToS, they will do so.

This mess has gone on long enough that, perhaps, it's time for Torgon to consider taking legal action and, maybe, set up a GoFundMe campaign to help defray his expenses (since it's unlikely he's making anywhere near enough money to handle it alone).

It occurs to me Kittycats also might have a cause of action. Its their brand name and his activities are degrading its value and depressing their trade. That's a bit harder to show, but it's possible.

The only other action I could see is for Kittycats to declare his web scraping an abuse and potentially degrading the good operation of their web site and blocking his access. That would effectively render his product unusable. While fairness might indicate they should stop Torgon's scraping as well, they don't really need to be 'fair' by stopping all scraping. It's their web site and they can deny anyone they choose; just like RM is doing.

(something-something about sauces, geese and ganders)