MONSTER.com TRIES TO SCARE CAREERPATH.com

By: Jennie L. Phipps Online Employment Leader Sends Cease-and-Desist Letter



CareerPath.com, the newspaper company-owned recruitment Web site, is
having a run-in with its competitor, the appropriately named
Monster.com.



For the last month, Los Angeles-based CareerPath.com has been making a
search tool called Resume Scout available to recruiters for $200 a
month. Resume Scout allows them to search multiple paid and free r?sum?
databases simultaneously. A recruiter who is already a paid subscriber
to Monster.com can use Resume Scout to access Monster's posted r?sum?s
without ever going directly to the site.



Maynard, Mass.-based Monster.com isn't taking too kindly to this
encroachment. Myron Olesnyckyj, Monster's in-house attorney, sent
CareerPath a clearly worded cease-and-desist letter last week, warning
the company that Monster.com's Terms of Use prohibit the use of any
'browser, spider, robot, avatar or intelligent agent' to search its
site.



CareerPath hasn't quit. Rob Feinstein, vice president of product
management, says Monster.com shouldn't be unhappy. After all, his
company is sending users to Monster's site. 'We're quite happy to allow
users of Resume Scout to take advantage of their Monster subscription
in a more efficient manner.'



Olesnyckyj isn't impressed. 'We'll decide when we're happy and when
we're not happy. And right now we're not happy. We believe CareerPath
is enducing people to violate the federal computer fraud and abuse act,
which says it's illegal to intentionally access a computer without
authorization or exceed authorized access.'



Feinstein denies that his company is violating any laws. He says Resume
Scout resides on a user's computer and the user, who is already a paid
Monster subscriber, simply relies on the software to visit the site and
log in - eliminating steps for the user.



'We believe Resume Scout is a terrific thing and doesn't violate their
terms of use,' Feinstein says. 'Monster is making several claims, none
of which we feel are on target. They are attempting to describe Resume
Scout as something that it's not.'



So what happens next? Olesnyckyj says he's not sure. 'We're reviewing
our options,' he says. 'Although Internet speed is quick, I think we
can take a day or so to decide what we're doing.'



According to Media Metrix, Monster.com had a reach of 4.9% of Internet
users in March. Its average page view per visitor was 33.2. For the
same month, CareerPath had a reach of 2.2% and average page view per
visitor of 6.9.



CareerPath.com has financial backing from eight large newspaper
companies, including Knight Ridder and Gannett Co. Inc. Monster.com is
a division of TMP Worldwide Inc.