Widgetheads.Net Down?
 

Widgetheads.net is down. Any ideas on what is happening?

Page says the account has been suspended.

Great website with lots of neat information.

Delta is having an issue with the use of it's logo, etc.

I saw this on Saturday on airliners...but it says it was back up already saturday afternoon.

http://www.airliners.net/aviation-fo....main/4616278/

Looks like maybe it was taken down again...as the current message is the same message as it was on saturday when i looked.

Hopefully it'll be up and running again soon. Great resource.

I would guess that the DL lawyers put in a DMCA notice to the hosting company. According to the other thread they pulled the objected to logos, but the initial request may have put into action a bunch red tape that will keep the site down for a couple days.

Initially the dispute was over the use of the Delta logos, and they were subsequently removed. However, last night the site went down again and Justin (the site's operator) posted the legal problems had grown much larger - to the point where they objected to all of the content on the site and even the domain name. The full posting can be found here: http://www.airliners.net/aviation-fo....main/4618753/ .

I'm hopeful he can work everything out and have the site up again, but it looks to be an uphill battle.

If I were him I would get the help from a specialist in this area:

Electronic Frontier Foundation
454 Shotwell Street
San Francisco CA 94110-1914 USA
Phone: +1 415 436 9333
Fax: +1 415 436 9993

This is bullsh**. Why on earth would Delta want to attack the website of one of their greatest enthusiasts?!

Sad. Very sad.

Might not be an executive business decision, but an internal bureaucratic machine that thinks it's doing it's job.

I too think it's a shame that the company is trying to shut the kid down. He clearly means no harm. Also, a lot of his information comes from the airline itself, on the DL Blog.

Problem is, the Widgetheads kid seems to have access to even more detailed information (which ships are being painted in which bays, etc) which is, in fact, of a proprietary nature. He clearly has someone on the inside, who isn't authorized to release this stuff.

Sure, it poses no corporate risk if people know that ship 665 is being painted in "Bay 3." But If I were DL, I'd worry about what other information this kid could have access to. There's certainly a slew of fleet plans that are not public for competitive reasons. To be honest, I've been amazed the site wasn't shut down earlier.

What's really unfortunate is that DL hasn't decided to go after the source of the information, rather than the nice kid who's little more than a fan.

Corporate lawyers run amuck
 

Unbelievable. This site is a great resource for those of us who are both fans of the airline AND loyal Delta customers -- In fact, it's the availability of this "proprietary information" (which, really, if anyone can get the information freely on the internet, it isn't proprietary) that adds to my desire to fly Delta in the first place. :td:

I bet they want to find out who the leak is.

You can't fault them for wanting to know and it can be a security risk imo for the public to know what bay an airplane is being painted in.

We live in a day and age where you can never be too secure.

Delta should do with him what Microsoft did with the MikroSoft kid.

Why would there have to be a leak? All you need is a zealous group of plane watchers with cameras.

Unless that kid gets the EFF to take his case pro bono he's in for hard lesson on Civil procedures. It doesn't matter if the law is on your side, it matters if you have the money to defend yourself. Maybe if he lives in a SLAPP state like California he might get lucky. His chances aren't good and Delta could decide to bankrupt the kid if they so desire.

I'm pretty sure the post he made "I have details that DL has bought CZ MD-90s and will release them when I'm allowed to" probably didn't help him, either.

The site was harmless, but even I was wondering how in the hell he's gotten all that propietary information.

I'd put $$ down that they found him through the "leak".....