FORTUNE — I confessed my fascination with Mordy Tikotzky’s Apple-Tracker.com when I posted a story about it earlier this week.
Tikotzky had written a handy little widget that steered customers to the Apple Stores in or near their Zip Code most likely to have the newest iPhones and iPads in stock.
It also offered Apple (AAPL) watchers like me a rare window into how the company handles the delicate balance of supply and demand.
Well, it was fun while it lasted, as Tikotzky told visitors Tuesday:
Good Bye ☹
I’ve deciced to turn off the site. I’m not doing this because I want to, but rather because I received a DMCA takedown notice from Apple.
I’m not really interested in picking a fight with apple so….. I guess it time to just say good bye.
Before I go though I just wanted to says thanks to all of you for the nice comments and emails that you’ve sent in the last few weeks.
It was fun while it lasted.
Mordy
In its cease and desist notice, Apple’s attorneys invoked the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act and pointed Tikotzky to this paragraph in its Apple.com terms of use:
Your Use of the Site. You may not use any “deep-link”, “page-scrape”, “robot”, “spider” or other automatic device, program, algorithm or methodology, or any similar or equivalent manual process, to access, acquire, copy or monitor any portion of the Site or any Content, or in any way reproduce or circumvent the navigational structure or presentation of the Site or any Content, to obtain or attempt to obtain any materials, documents or information through any means not purposely made available through the Site. Apple reserves the right to bar any such activity.
Below: The full text of Apple’s takedown notice.
321 11th St, San Francisco, CA 94103
Takedown Notice
Date: October 17, 2013
Dear Heroku Legal Agent:
I, the undersigned, state UNDER PENALTY OF PERJURY that:
[1] I am, a person injured, or an agent authorized to act on behalf of a person injured by unlawful web content published via and at heroku.com
[2] I May Be Contacted At:
Name of Injured Party : APPLE INC.
Name and Title: RYAN BRICKER, ASSOCIATE
Company: KILPATRICK TOWNSEND AND STOCKTON LLP
Address: TWO EMBARCADERO CENTER, 8TH FLOOR
City, State, and Zip: SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA 94111
Email address APPLE_COPYRIGHT@KILPATRICKTOWNSEND.COM
Telephone: 415-576-0200
Fax: 415-576-0300
[3] I have a good faith belief that the the website identified by URL below is unlawful because, among other things, the page scrapes and collects data from apple.com in violation of the apple.com Internet Service Terms of Use (see: http://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/terms/site.html) and Heroku Acceptable Use Policy, copied here:
Apple.com Terms of Use
Your Use of the Site. You may not use any “deep-link”, “page-scrape”, “robot”, “spider” or other automatic device, program, algorithm or methodology, or any similar or equivalent manual process, to access, acquire, copy or monitor any portion of the Site or any Content, or in any way reproduce or circumvent the navigational structure or presentation of the Site or any Content, to obtain or attempt to obtain any materials, documents or information through any means not purposely made available through the Site. Apple reserves the right to bar any such activity.
Heroku Acceptable Use Policy
2.2 Your use of the Heroku Services must comply with all applicable laws, regulations and ordinances, including any laws regarding the export of data or software.
[4] Reason:
Content Type / Violation: Automated scraping/copying/acquiring web app, operating in violation of the apple.com Internet Service Terms of Use
[5] Please act expeditiously to remove or otherwise disable the following website/web application:
http://iphone-check.herokuapp.com/
[6] I have a good faith belief that the removal of copyright management information from the material listed above is not authorized by law; and
[7] The information in this notice is accurate.
Thank you for your kind assistance.
Truthfully,
/Ryan Bricker/
Ryan Bricker
Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP
