Ed Bain vs Brisnet

[mbeychok]

I\'m going to attach a link to a lawsuit filed by Ed Bain against Equibase, HDW, Brisnet and the Jockey Club that I find very disturbing for everyone who uses their various products.  Many of you know, Ed Bain is a trainer stat guy who publishes his Layoffs and Claims.  I\'ve been a use of their information for a few years and find it a useful compliment to Thorograph info. His company and family has been under attack, according to the court document, by Brisnet for the past year as Brisnet has set out to destroy his business.  Their tactics are shocking but read for yourself.  

I\'ve cancelled my membership to Brisnet as I beleive the charges made by Ed in his lawsuit based on my friendship with Ed over the years.

Anyway, thought this is interesting reading for those of us who use product and buy product from vendors not affiliated with Equibase etc.  I am not advocating buying Ed\'s product. I\'m just trying to get his story out.

Michael Beychok

here is the link to the lawsuit:
http://www.edbain.com/comp.htm

[dcajero]

As far as I can tell from the suit, the only complaint against Brisnet is that they contacted Ed and told him he couldn\'t resell their data - a policy clearly stated on their service agreements.  Certainly Equibase and The Jockey Club are merciless in establishing themselves as the sole owner/provider of horse racing data and that brings in all sorts of questions and problems for handicappers, but they are within their rights to limit resale of their data.

As for the Jockey Club and/or Equibase hacking into his business computers to place trojans and viruses, I find it surprising that they would do so from an IP address clearly traceable to their corporate entities and that these business computers would operate on the Internet without adequate virus protection.  Hopefully if these were targeted, malicious attacks from TJC or Equibase authorities have gathered enough evidence to step in and perhaps seize computers at those offices that contain \"stolen information and trade secrets, removed files from Ed Bain’s computers...\"

[TGJB]

I don\'t have any opinion or comment about anyone else involved in this dustup other than Equibase (and I\'ve had far more than my share of conflict within this industry myself). The only thing I will say is, having had a relationship with Equibase for years (we were the first, I think, to cut a deal with them for electronic data), there is NO WAY they would threaten to blacklist anyone, or send anyone a virus. a) They are completely straight, corporate, and by the book, and b) they don\'t have to. They own the data. If you use it (meaning take it electronically from them or a reseller) they have legal recourse.

[dcajero]

When Equibase drove the format change for results files from HTML to PDF it broke all my collection and parsing scripts but as you say, it\'s their data and they are intent on controlling it.

[beyerguy]

Whether they can legally control the data is another story that will play out eventually.