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Krak.dk still smoking the crack! Krak says "we were wrong. Not!"
2007 January 22
I’m actually down in Per’s house right now, and about 30 minutes ago he got off the phone with Peter Sejer Dypevåg (the boss who was supposed to contact Per earlier).
This gets interesting folks so bear with me. I was sitting here in the room when Per was on the phone, and while Mr. Dypevåg admitted to Per that Krak.dk was in error, he refused to issue an apology.
Per wanted a written apology that could be posted on his blog, but Dybevågs refused to give it instead claiming that it was merely a misunderstanding, where they thought Per was a business as opposed to a private individual.
Because this was a ”misunderstanding” it was alright to send Per a threatening and intimidating (as I’m sure they’ve done to many a Danish web site owner), letter and then dismiss it out of hand.
Now, ladies and gentle bunnies, this is where things get fun.
It’s a good bit more than 30 minutes since Per had the phone discussion. The result of which was that they would send an email which we could republish, stating that Per didn’t have to bay the claim or bill in question. However, an apology <sarcasm>for emotional stress etc</sarcasm> would most definitely not be forth coming.
So we sat and waited for the reply to come in while viewing all the comments of support that were pouring in from bloggers all over the web.
We still haven’t received that email, but we did receive a rather interesting comment on my blog, reproduced here, for all the world to see (link to original):
Official Krak answer:
Every blogger in the world is welcome to use deep links to Krak maps for free. But please ask us.
When it comes to commercial use, Krak has the same policy as Google and others. You cannot use our copyrighted maps without asking.
Krak alone decides whether the use is commercial or not.
In the actual case, the site by nature looks like a blog, but may in fact be a business, so we decided he had to pay.
If we were wrong, and if the blogger in question in fact is not selling anything (no animals or accessories), we will reconsider.Best regards,
Poul Moeller
Kraks Forlag A/S
I love it, around 30 minutes later we get this comment which essentially retracts the statement made on the phone by the Peter Sejer Dypevåg (a director) who agrees that Kennel Kaarup is not a business and the mistake was solely Kraks Forlag AS’s and returns to blame Per for the error.
We await the email from Peter, and of course his explanation of this comment on the blog. Of course we can already guess what the explanation is – “an employee acting without authority”.
I can smell the BS from here.
9 Responses
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I’d say spin… The comment and the recent interview of Peter on computerworld, smells so badly of being a simple spin attempt to twist the focus of the story/conversation into krak.dk having made a mistake which they apologies for. And thereby they’ll try to avoid too much discussion of the actual issue about their illicit business practice of demanding money from deep linkers.
This is just plain silly. I can’t recall Krak asking me if they could add MY property to their commercial product. Didn’t they see the sign I put on the door: “This house is the property of me – please ask me before you put it on your map”. Guess I’ll charge them now..
As I posted on Digg, there is no diffence whatsoever between the two statements. I wrote we might reconsider, and that was what the phone call was about. And since our opinion is the same in both, I wouldn’t put too much weight on the time difference. It takes a little while to get a Digg account, that’s all.. ;o)
Poul, Poul, Poul! Lets not get into semantics here, but don’t you think that your comments were more than a little bit coincidental, considering the phone conversation with your director.
You may say not, and that you’re right! But you forget I was present for his phone calls with Per and your director, and the phone call which resulted from my posting this particular post.
But, I’m not going to get into this any further, because we have it on good faith (in fact your director has just called Per, who called me, to inform him that it as been emailed) that a re-postable apology is forth coming. That apology will be enough for me because we have achieved what we have set out to do.
Take care Poul…
Stefan,I couldn’t agree more. But I’m going to leave it alone… for now
Well, it’s nice that Per don’t have to pay the 00,- kr. but it’s sad that the media had to be involved before Krak suddenly decided to change their mind…
I used to use Krak whenever I needed a route planner, but not anymore, that’s for sure!