Hello,

I am looking into hosting a site just like freeipods.com. The products
I offer will not be ipods, and therefor all of the artwork will be
different. My question is this: Do I need to get permission from the
company who sells the product I am offering? I think the answer is no
because I am not actually selling the item for a profit, but rather
giving it away as a reward. I will have to actually purchase the
product from the company and then ship it to my customers. So is that
breaking any kind of law? Or can that just be generalized as giving
someone a gift? Also is it permissible to use the companies name in my
website? For example the name Ipod is licensed to apple. But the
website freeipods.com is not run by apple. It is run by a completely
different company.

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Clarification of Question by forti4040-ga on 06 Oct 2005 08:43 PDT

Thank you for the comment. Do you or anyone else know where I could
find the legal statements/documents stating that it is in no way
illegal?

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Clarification of Question by forti4040-ga on 07 Oct 2005 04:55 PDT

as much as people would like to believe it...www.freeipods.com is not
a pyramid scheme. In a pyramid scheme you have to get people to sign
up, and those people also have to get people to sign up. That allows
you to get your product. In this case all you have to do is get 5
people to sign up period. The difference is clear. In a pyramid scheme
that requires each person to get five people you yourself are signing
up and having to wait for 30 more people to sign up. This means that
almost noone will ever get their products. The ipod website is very
different. I as well as several people that I personally know have
received our free ipods. I don't want to turn this topic into a debate
about the pyramid theory. I simply want to know the facts about the
legalities of the companies site.

It is not Illegal for you to do so but it may be a good idea to post
something like the following at the bottom of the page to clear up any
legal problems just as Free Ipods has done.  "Neither freeiPods.com
nor its parent company, Gratis Internet Inc., are directly affiliated
with the Apple Computer, Incorporated. The Apple trademark, logo, and
products found on this site are the property of Apple Computer, Inc.
and Gratis Internet does, in no way, claim to represent or own any of
the Apple trademarks or rights. Apple Computer, Inc. does not own,
endorse, or promote Gratis Internet or any of its websites."

See if pyramid sales are legal where you live.

Well what you would need to do would be to go to your nearest law
library and ask a librarian there. However, if you're serious about
starting up a business doing this, you will need to hire a legal
consultant to handle all legal implications etc. I don't think one
person can run such a site. There'll be a load of programming and
advanced scripting involved, as well as a lot of PR business, and
major work finding "offers". You'll need to rent an office space and
hire at least a dozen people to start up with. By the way, you should
learn to spell iPod. It's iPod, not Ipod. Just a thought. Let me know
when you get started up!

A) I wasn't asking you how to run the website. One person can in fact
run one of these sites.
B) Odds are in today's age you can find any of the legal information
you might need on the internet.
C) iPod....happy?