Should Companies Be Responsible When Their Affiliates Spam?
from the better-management-needed dept
Wired News is pointing out that a big contributor to the spam mess are all of these affiliate marketing programs that encourage people to use any method possible to get sales with their affiliate ID attached. In many cases, perfectly legitimate companies are simply looking the other way, claiming they're not responsible at all for what their affiliates do. However, the FTC and ISPs are starting to look at cracking down on companies who don't reign in rogue affiliate spammers. Still, it's not really clear if the company's themselves should be legally liable. In some sense, it's like the whole Grokster case: they just set up the program. The people who are abusing it should be responsible. On the flip side, however, companies should realize that spamming affiliates give their brand a really bad name, and should realize that it's in their own best long term interests to keep the spammers out. Unfortunately, fewer and fewer businesses seem to take the long term view any more.
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Yeah had this with netflix
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Blockbuster Online
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Definition
v. af�fil�i�at�ed, af�fil�i�at�ing, af�fil�i�ates
v. tr.
To adopt or accept as a member, subordinate associate, or branch: The HMO affiliated the clinics last year.
To associate (oneself) as a subordinate, subsidiary, employee, or member: affiliated herself with a new law firm.
To assign the origin of.
THEREFORE, if the company in question ALLOWS an AFFILIATE to spam me, then the company that CHOOSES to do business with their AFFILIATES that spam me, then THEY are ULTIMATELY responsible for the spam.
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spamming affiliates
Summary: the sellers are responsible for whatever crimes the spammers commit in an effort to find them customers.
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