tailspin

Who is Finley? I'd like to find out how he managed to get them to take his photos down. They are using numerous pictures of our aircraft, word for word text I wrote, and even a photo of my wife and i flying that they use to compete dishonestly with us.

Received this reply from the FTC within 12 hours of submitting a complaint about 1800SKYRIDE: Anyone with a stake in this issue can fill out the form at https://rn.ftc.gov/pls/dod/wsolcq$.startup?Z_ORG_CODE=PU01. Should only take about 5 minutes to fill out, less if you use your browser's autofill feature and copy/paste details of your complaint about 1800SKYRIDE from an old email or forum post.

For several years we've struggled to find a way to stop 1800SKYRIDES' deceptive and probably unlawful business practices. These scumbags apparently have expanded from skydiving into other forms of air sports. We offer biplane sightseeing, air combat, and warbird flights from CRQ, about 30 minutes north of San Diego and they've begun to impact our business too. My first exposure to them came when I discovered a picture from our Web site (http://www.barnstorming.com) listed in Google with a link to another site. Yup, you guessed it, 1800SKYRIDE. A quick perusal of the site showed that they were using a bunch of our pictures and had also lifted alot of text from our site word for word. Our initial reaction was to simply call and ask that they be removed. But our first interaction with them was so weird we were convinced they were up to something a lot worse than stealing copyrighted material. Sure enough, a quick web search revealed a host of complaints from people and DZs that had been ripped off. After trying to use WHOIS to find out who owned their Web site--and finding out that it apparently had been registered in the name of an apparently oblivious and innocent consulting firm--I called back and indicated I owned a flying business and wanted to talk to their president or owner. Several days passed until someone called saying she was returning my call. I asked if she was the owner or president and she said no she worked in customer service. I told her I wanted to talk to her boss and she demanded to know why. I said it was concerning our businesses and when I refused to be more explicit she became abusive. I politely explained that what I wanted to discuss was none of her business and repeated my request to talk to the owner. She hung up on me. We talked with a lawyer about options and he basically said how much are you losing and what are you willing to spend to fix it? The former is hard to quantify and the latter, of course is as little as possible since we run on as narrow margins as y'all do, I'm sure. He said to just stop worrying about it then. But I'm still pissed off by the fact that another company is using pictures I took, words I wrote, and even pictures of me, to promote their business--which is in competition with ours. The most recent encountered occurred a few months ago when some gal waltzed into the office asking to talk to the owner, offering to sign us up as an "approved provider" for their service. When we heard 1800SKYRIDE we snapped and ran her out on a rail. In retrospect we'd have been smarter to play it cool and get as much information as possible, but hindsight is 20-20. One solution we've considered is to create a legitimate competitor that fights them in the marketplace by doing what they do better...and honestly. The only other solution is through the USPA, AOPA, EAA, etc. but the response from AOPA and EAA have so far been unsatisfying. Perhaps if more people complained to them? In summary, much like this thread, we started out pissed, we can't find a solution, and we remain pissed. But count us in if anyone can figure out a way to stop their deceptive and dishonest practices. Meanwhile I've filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commmission at http://www.ftc.gov and have emails in to AOPA and EAA (again).