And that means more printable coupons available for everyone else. So there are far fewer IP fairies than there once were, with the settlement ensuring there’s even fewer. Quotient has been working to update its systems, and plug the loopholes that the fairies exploited. As coupons hit their print limits and were no longer available, the only way for shoppers to get any was to buy from the sellers, who were profiting off something that makes available for free. Their efforts to print as many coupons as they could, only served to make fewer coupons available for everyone else. Quotient disagreed, and it had a legal team at the ready to help make its case – unlike the defendant, who’s a wife and mother in suburban Ohio, trying to make a buck on the side.īut that’s not to minimize her actions, and those of other IP fairies. “I do not believe any wrong is being done by selling legitimate coupons that have unique PIN numbers.” “We are only using our computers and not altering their software or hacking into their systems,” she told Coupons in the News. In an email exchange shortly after the initial lawsuit was filed, the defendant in the first case disputed the merits of Quotient’s argument. Quotient accused both sellers of violating state and federal computer fraud acts, and misappropriation, for “appropriating for (themselves) the substantial investment of time, effort, and expense that Quotient has expended.” Quotient also ended up filing a second lawsuit against a second Instagram coupon seller, who not only sold coupons, but also sold the print-limit-bypassing software that she claimed to have created. She frequently changed user names, going by “i_slay_ips”, “i_slay_ip”, “ip_queen_”, “pdf_queen” and finally “savings.galore”, before allowing her account and her coupon-selling business to go dormant shortly after Quotient’s lawsuit was filed. It’s unclear why Quotient decided to make an example out of this particular seller, who was far from the most large-scale offender. They’d then sell them, in batches of ten or twenty or more, to willing buyers who didn’t have enough computers to print that many themselves. Each had devised ways to circumvent ’s two-print limit, to get as many legitimate, unique copies of printables as they wanted. Most “coupon fairies” or “IP fairies”, as they called themselves, set up shop on Instagram. The lawsuit, which was filed last August and amended in September once Quotient learned the defendant’s identity, was the company’s most high-profile attempt to stem the burgeoning business of selling unlimited printable coupons online. The settlement agreement makes no mention of any money changing hands, despite Quotient’s initial demands that the defendant hand over all of the profits from her illicit operation, and pay damages. She also provided to Quotient a copy of the computer program she used to get around ’s print limits, and disclosed from who she obtained it. Quotient notes that the defendant has already acted upon its demand that she destroy all coupons still in her possession. The next part probably goes without saying, but the defendant also agrees to “perpetually cease and desist from selling, giving away, or otherwise transferring coupons obtained through any site in the Quotient Promotions Network… for Defendant’s own commercial purposes and/or personal gain.” If she does, and Quotient finds out about it, the company reserves the right to reopen the case. First, her “permission to access Quotient’s servers is revoked permanently.” That means she can’t print any more coupons, even for her own personal use. Quotient will no longer pursue the case, if the defendant meets certain conditions. The two sides have now agreed to settle the dispute. That’s what a “coupon fairy” in Ohio has discovered, six months after she was sued by owner Quotient Technology for offering, printing and selling “unlimited printable coupons” on Instagram. Selling printable coupons to others can mean giving up the right to print coupons for yourself.
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