Seo company rep says it’s illegal to link to his clients’ websites

By Cory Doctorow at 11:30 am Friday, Jul 20

An SEO company called Guardlex sent a bizarre legal demand to the Big Pink Cookie blog saying that they represented a client that BPC had linked to, and that this link had damaged its googlejuice, and that this was illegal and that BPC had to cease and desist or face the consequences. The letter was from Jacob Getman, who works in the “Anti Piracy Department” — implying that linking to a website constitutes “piracy” in the topsy-turvy world of SEO scumbags.

It has come to our attention that your website (or website hosted by your company) contains links to the [name removed] company website (URL removed) which results in material financial loses to the company we represent.

This material financial loss is due to search engine penalties resulting from the links originating under your control…

It is our understanding; the links in question have not been authorized for use by our client, its agents, or the law.

Therefore, this letter is an official notification to effect removal of the detected infringement listed above.

I have a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by [removed] company, its agents, or the law.

I further declare under penalty of perjury that I am authorized to act on behalf of the trademark holder and that the information in this letter is accurate.

I’m sad to say that this appears to be the kind of legalcomic dipshittery that will come to define the coming century.

Dear Guardlex, You’re Doing it Wrong…

(Image: Dunce, a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from scjn’s photostream)

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