Update 1840h:

Looks like Tim O’Reilly is weighing in with some added information direct from Jeff Bezos, namely that Alexaholic is still owned by Jeff Hornbaker, and is directing traffic to Statsaholic; Alexa did try in good faith to try and purchase the name from Mr. Hornbaker, but he turned their sum down; the official Alexa API has never offered the trend graphs; Alexa feels that Alexaholic/ Statsaholic’s only purpose is to repurpose Alexa’s own information without adding much else.  This information does make Amazon’s suit look a little more worthwhile, particularly as it looks like Statsaholic is pulling information that has never been publicly, or “officially”, released.  Whether or not this kind of information *can* be sued over, since its information that’s culled from publically accessible websites, however, is another issue.  So is, as Mr. O’Reilly says, whether or not this ought to go to court, both from Mr. Hornbaker’s point of view (can’t afford it), nor from Amazon’s (PR).

Original Post: 

Its hard to imagine Jeff Bezos as such, but its hard to imagine him as anything but a petty spiteful tyrant in the wake of the Statsaholic/ Jeff Hornbaker lawsuit. Om Malik declared the web2.0 Age of Innocence over when Google Maps decided to cherry pick some some great ideas as it made its API open and available. Well, with this suit, the Web2.0 has clearly moved beyond that as Amazon has declared “open-season” on web developers who are making a successful go of it through their API.

ZDnet has a great recap of the issue, so go on and read about it in detail over there; however, the gist of it is that Jeff Hornbaker created a great mashup of Alexa called Alexaholic. Amazon (who owns Alexa) got upset and decided to lay down a lawsuit (not just a cease and desist) *after* Jeff switched the name to Statsaholic. What really stands out is item #65 of the lawsuit which states that Alexaholic seeks to do “irreparable harm” to Alexa. Check out the full document, which someone has uploaded to Scribd over here.

What’s the take home message? If Google Maps new additions were a shot across the bow of web developers, Amazon’s lawsuit against Mr. Hornbaker is clearly a declaration of war. Over the top? A little too hyperbolic?

Let me clarify myself. In an age where certain companies are beholden to shareholders, VC’s, their mortgages, or otherwise known as the Bottom Line, its clear that larger companies are happy to make their API’s public. This has great benefit to them, much like the situation with Google Maps, because it allows them to see how their services *could* be used. Free R&D at the expense of open source hippies, right?

If you can imagine a time line of events, Google Maps new additions happened *before* a developer was using the API to make a really popular site (no backhanded remarks here — its all relative to the size of Google, and what they would deem important).

What happened if Google had sat on its hands and allowed some of these great mash ups to get really popular, and get some real traction? Would Google simply allow them to exist, even though their API allows it to be?

I doubt it.

Its clear that parent companies — the ones that web developers are hoping to buy them out, ironically — are only too happy to let you use their API’s so long as you don’t get too big, too popular, or too profitable.

That’s *their* job!

At that point, it doesn’t matter the spirit in which their API was released, because the parent company will, like Amazon, bring out their lawyers, and sue the pants off of you, no matter how meritous the lawsuit is. Its one part bullying, but two parts petty spiteful tyrant. In this case Amazon knows the terms upon which the API was released, and it knows that Jeff Hornbaker changed the name of Alexaholic to Statsaholic *before* the lawsuit was initiated. I mean, its got to be more than the issue of paying for its services (because its not free — its about $0.15 per thousand requests), because that’s easily solved.

It seems like for whatever inexplicable reason Jeff Bezos is listening to his lawyers this time (or, perhaps his shareholders), all the while speaking out of the other side of his mouth, claiming how great the open-ness of his services are. These litigious developments ought to serve as a reminder to ambitious developers the world over: Use API’s at your own risk. The parent company may not only start competing *with* you, but may sue you if you get too successful.

Yes, the age of Innocence is over. Let the age of petty, spiteful tyrants begin.

[yes, this a particularly poignant idea given that Digg has just released their *own* API]