Lawyers for the social networking site MySpace.com have warned of legal action against two entrepreneurs who created clever code to track the relationship status of MySpace users.The site SingleStat.us was active for only 10 days before a cease-and-desist letter from MySpace.com caused its creator, David Weekly, to shut down the site. SingleStat charged a small fee for users to be notified by e-mail when the status of a MySpace user changed—for example, from “in a relationship” to “single.”In a letter dated June 15, MySpace cited several violations of its user policy, including a ban on the commercial use of information about its users. Weekly’s automated script program, which allowed for the notifications, also put “an undue burden on the MySpace servers,” according to a copy of the letter posted here.MySpace officials reached in London Wednesday morning could not immediately comment. SingleStat burned briefly but brightly, an example of the agility of creative coders who springboard off popular ideas and add new functions, often faster than large companies are able to. Two days after SingleStat launched, Weekly wrote, close to 10,000 people had visited the site, and 65 blog posts were written about it in six languages.MySpace was purchased last year by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. for US$580 million and has a growing base of at least 73 million users. It allows users to create a simple webpage, post photos and music, and build contact lists based on friends of friends. Just a day after SingleStat was launched, Weekly said the newspaper USA Today linked to it in its online blog, and a venture capital firm came calling. On Tuesday, a website with similar functions was also shuttered after a warning from MySpace. Jared Chandler, who started DatingAnyone.com in April, said MySpace further requested that he not release the source code for the project.MySpace bared its teeth in Chandler’s letter, writing that the site violated California laws against hacking and federal trademark laws. “I have no doubt that it provided a real service to its users, and it’s unfortunate that there is no avenue for outside improvement of MySpace,” Chandler wrote.The operator of a third search site, Stalkerati.com, wrote that MySpace appears to have added a script to prevent searches, but he is working on a way to get around it.Jared Kim runs Stalkerati.com, which is still in beta and consolidates what would be separate searches for personal information at sites such as Google, Google’s image search, Friendster, Facebook and the blog-hunting site Technorati. Kim’s site allows searches of all in one search box. Kim wrote that he created the code for Stalkerati in about two hours in May when a friend wanted to research a blind date and his sister was asked out via e-mail “by a guy that Googled her.”“I hope to eliminate the hassle of going to four to five sites to find information/check out/cyberstalk (insert excuse for cyberstalking here) on someone,” Kim wrote.-Jeremy Kirk, IDG News Service (London Bureau)Related Link: MySpace Sued by 14-Year-Old for Enabling Sexual AssaultCheck out our CIO News Alerts and Tech Informer pages for more updated news coverage. Related content opinion Website spoofing: risks, threats, and mitigation strategies for CIOs In this article, we take a look at how CIOs can tackle website spoofing attacks and the best ways to prevent them. By Yash Mehta Dec 01, 2023 5 mins CIO Cyberattacks Security brandpost Sponsored by Catchpoint Systems Inc. Gain full visibility across the Internet Stack with IPM (Internet Performance Monitoring) Today’s IT systems have more points of failure than ever before. Internet Performance Monitoring provides visibility over external networks and services to mitigate outages. By Neal Weinberg Dec 01, 2023 3 mins IT Operations brandpost Sponsored by Zscaler How customers can save money during periods of economic uncertainty Now is the time to overcome the challenges of perimeter-based architectures and reduce costs with zero trust. By Zscaler Dec 01, 2023 4 mins Security feature LexisNexis rises to the generative AI challenge With generative AI, the legal information services giant faces its most formidable disruptor yet. That’s why CTO Jeff Reihl is embracing and enhancing the technology swiftly to keep in front of the competition. By Paula Rooney Dec 01, 2023 6 mins Generative AI Digital Transformation Cloud Computing Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe