An open letter to the owners of ActiveRain: Show us the contracts
By: Greg Swann,
Phoenix Real Estate,
Post Archive,
RSS FeedPosted: Friday, September 28th, 2007, 1:09 am MST
Category: Blogging,Marketing,Real Estate,Technology
Messrs. Heaton and Washburn, owners of ActiveRain,
My take on your having released your lawsuit against Move, Inc., and their response is that you know with a high degree of confidence that you cannot prevail in court. I read your original lawsuit as an attempt to extract something from Move, Inc., even though there is no chance they will proceed with the planned acquisition of ActiveRain. When that initial foray failed, my thinking is that you released your petition and their response because you hope to pressure Move, Inc., in the court of public opinion.
All that’s as may be. Those two documents don’t interest me nearly as much as whatever acquisition agreements were executed between ActiveRain and Move, Inc. Those documents will detail specifically what information you had agreed to disclose, and what Move, Inc., had pledged to do — and not do — in its turn.
Attorney’s briefs are full of bluster and bravado, but, in fact, it is these acquisition agreements that will be dispositive in any formal hearing of your allegations.
Ergo, I ask that you release those documents for public scrutiny. When we have had an opportunity to determine what was actually agreed to, in writing, we can better judge the validity of your complaints.
I know that your knee jerk response will be to insist that those documents are too vital to your court case to be disclosed. But, if that were true, the corollary proposition would be that the documents you have made public — your initial petition and Move, Inc.’s response — are not vital to your court case — are not actually of any importance at all. This I am completely prepared to believe.
In fact, it’s one or the other. Keeping one’s private business to oneself is everyone’s right, but partial transparency is necessarily deception. If your goal is to proclaim to the world that you have been badly used, you must show us the violated terms of the contracts by which you were so cruelly violated.
If you will not do this, I will regard your having released your petition and Move, Inc.’s response as nothing but a publicity stunt, a pantomime of transparency.
As much as I might be disgusted by defending the likes of Move, Inc., my frank opinion is that you got caught with your hands in the cookie jar and now you are desperately striving to cling to a few crumbs. If I’m wrong, prove it. Put up or shut up.
Greg Swann
Our story so far: Trying to keep up with developments in the ActiveRain/Move saga? These are all the BloodhoundBlog posts to date:
- ActiveRain discovers that the Code of Web 2.0 is the Code of the West: Do unto others before them others do it unto you
- Active Rain Wuz Robbed
- ActiveRain.com v. Move.com: The Nagging Question
- An open letter to the owners of ActiveRain: Show us the contracts
- ActiveRain.com v. Move.com: Where’s Caleb?
- The voices of bitter experience: ActiveRain’s petition against Move, Inc., is a heart-breaking sob story with no legal merit
- You can view or download mirrored copies of ActiveRain’s complaint and Move, Inc.’s response at BloodhoundBlog
- Activerain.com v. Move.com: The Duplicity at Activerain.com
Technorati Tags: blogging, real estate, real estate marketing
Related posts:13 comments
13 Comments so far
I totally agree with Greg. If you have truly been cheated by them, show that. Let everyone actually see what they did. If you want to try them in the court of public opinion, present the evidence.
Otherwise you just come off as someone attempting extortion.
Well, THAT will solve the caper before the World Series.
Wow..I would have expected a different tone here. Put yourself in the shoes of the active rain team.
The documents released by active rain are public domain…requesting active rain to release any sensitive docs that could be helpful to their case (if they have a case) is ridiculous.
Even suggesting it is ridiculous and far below your usual, well thought out arguments/rants (which I usually enjoy). I think you dropped the conch shell on this one.
Frankly, you have asked for the impossible and that isn’t fair.
Why do you hate ActiveRain so much?
Active Rain can’t in their right mind show acquisition papers. For two reasons:
1) By publishing ANY sensitive information, including the contract, they are weakening their position that they gave Move sensitive information.
2) I’m sure there have been OTHERS that were interested in acquiring ActiveRain. Nobody would show a potential acquirer the product of a previous negotiation.
On another note, even though NAR and Move are affiliated, I think this does make NAR look bad by association. Having ActiveRain integrated into Realtor.com would have been, and can still be amazing.
(remember when Myspace cut off Photobucket, only to acquire them a couple weeks later)
Frank- VA Broker FranklyRealty.com
If Move, Inc., were actually in violation of the acquisition agreements, ActiveRain would have made those documents public yesterday.
The documents filed so far are available to the public for examination in the courthouse where they were filed. Scanned PDFs are not part of the service. ActiveRain posted them to try to sway public opinion.
If I have time later today, I will parse ActiveRain’s petition, an amazingly inept pleading.
> Why do you hate ActiveRain so much?
I don’t. I don’t decide anything on the basis of emotion, but, of these two companies, I like Move, Inc., a lot less. That has nothing to do with anything.
From my email:
You can stop holding your breath now.
My response:
[...] Kevin Boer also weighs in at 3 Oceans. As does Brian Brady. And, of course, Odysseus. (And I finally beat Greg to a post on something. Maybe the man does sleep after all.) [...]
[...] Four posts at Bloodhound. Greg, Brian, Brian, Greg. [...]
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[...] Greg Swann raised the stakes by pointing out that Active Rain has thrown this lawsuit into the court of public opinion. Elevating its membership to advocates is risky. Public support and misplaced outrage has divided the community. Members are questioning whether the commitment they’ve made to the network was really worth it. [...]
[...] An open letter to the owners of ActiveRain: Show us the contracts [...]