Poker NewsMuch more than just a poker blog...
After PokerStars issued a Cease and Desist order to PokerTableRatings, the data mining site deleted all information on PokerStars players from their main page.
As previously reported [3] (on RakeRace.com), PokerStars took legal action against PokerTableRatings (PTR) for hurting intellecutal property laws and room regulations. As a first step, PS sent PTR an official letter demanding that PokerTableRatings put an end to their sharing information on PS players. PS had announced that a group of lawyers were already working on analyzing the situation, and declared their determination towards their goal.
It soon turned out that this had not been a boast, as PTR's Internet provider started blocking the site on the 18th April, which thus became temporarily unavailable. Though PTR solved this by quickly "moving" its website, this wass not enough for PS.
“Unfortunately, PTR has moved quickly and resurrected their site with a new ISP,” said Paul Telford from PokerSTars. “This indicates the nature of the people we are dealing with and the lengths they will go to continue their infringing activity. Our cease and desist notices were issued after repeated unsuccessful attempts to ensure PTR only supplies information on players who have opted in and agreed to have their playing statistics made public,” Telford went on. “PTR never took up this offer. They would rather infringe our intellectual property rights and breach the terms and conditions of our software license than comply with our legitimate request.”
Telford also assured everyone that their lawyers were working hard and more and more aggressively to reach their goal.
PTR's resistance, however, did not last very long. On the 18th April they declared that although they did not agree with it, they fully accepted PokerStars' requirements.
You can read PTR's official statement here:
"Whether we are providing replays of infamous hot streaks, colossal downswings, finding critical security breaches in poker software clients or publicly outing bot and collusion rings for the sake of game integrity, PokerTableRatings has had a long history of being actively involved in the online poker community.
Recent contact by Stars has led to the removal of this network’s player profiles from PTR. The current management team of PTR has been in place for just under a year and since day 1 we have been exploring ways to compromise with brands in order to create positive relationships for the betterment of the community. Through these valued partnerships we have created innovative promotions and features for our users and have many more in development. Unfortunately we have been unable to gain communication with Stars during this time and it has come to a hostile dissolution of service for this brand. They have taken formal action against us and we will comply with their demands and have the brand removed from the site.
The most contentious aspects of PTR seem to be the premium services we provide, namely player stats, however when compared to widely-accepted poker HUDs from other software providers, we believe the differences are negligible. Tools exist to give advantages to players who know how to use them and who are willing to pay for them, plain and simple and these will not go away. Players will always be looking for advantages and we are just one of many services offering an advantage.
That said, we will fully adhere to the cease and desist notice by Stars, though we do not believe that we are a disservice to the online poker community. We continue to search and most importantly detect bot rings month after month and provide information about these true game-breaking activities to brands that care about the integrity of their games. We’ve provided unrivaled publicity to players who have gone on to become sponsored celebrities of the online poker world and we have given all players a public forum to show off their impressive wins or gain sympathy for their crushing defeats.
We still fully believe in our product and will continue to introduce new and exciting features to our customers. We have been actively developing new tools that will give more control and ownership of profiles to their respective players so that PTR can be a service that every poker player would be proud to use. The latest events, though a disruption in our plans, do not derail them. Our team is committed to evolving PTR even further in order to continue to provide hundreds of thousands of members of the online poker community with valued services and tools to keep the game of poker fun and engaging for all".
This way, PokerStars profiles are no longer available for viewing on PTR. However, if you would like to make yourself visible again, you can do this by contacting PokerStars support.