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FRED WROTE:
> You may remember my comments recently about a "Robot
> that Clicks" on banner ads for you. Well, during that
> development we've come upon another interesting bit of
> coding genious that we just had to jump on right away.
> I'm posting it here to see if anyone on this list
> thinks it's interesting or worth the trouble to code.
TO WHICH HUGH SMITH REPLIED:
> Your idea to pre-empt national banner ads and replace
> them with local ads is creative, but I am not sure
> legal. Typically, someone is paying to have their ads
> displayed. If an ad agency, for example, billed a
> client for an ad that was not actually displayed, could
> your actions be construed as a theft of service? I
> don't know; I'm not a lawyer or expert on the net. But,
> if it was me, I'd want to be very certain before I
> engaged in this activity.
TO WHICH DAVID MCKNIGHT RESPONDED:
> This would not be theft, but it would clearly be a
> copyright violation if you did not have an agreement
> with the content holder to alter the page that was
> being served.
I am a webmaster and have mixed feelings about this
idea.
As a technical person, it is very innovative idea and
from a technical standpoint easy (but non trivial) to
implement.
As a webmaster who depends on ad revenues to pay for
the site I have some problems with this idea. First of
all, any ISP implementing this would essentially be
stealing revenue from me.
This would be similar to the free newspaper that
everyone picks up from the local bar or restaurant.
That newspaper relies on the advertising revenues to
pay for its production. Now, imagine if I ran an Indian
restaurant and figured I could take the editorial
content from the newspaper (I recall someone saying
that it would be difficult to call ads 'content'.) and
replacing the adverts with highly focused ads which
might be of interest to the patrons of my restaurant.
I have a feeling that it would not be difficult for
the newspaper to find a judge or two might have
problems with my actions.
It would be interesting to get a real legal opinion on
this. I for one strongly belive that advertising MUST
be delivered with content. So, to extend your idea, If
I were an ISP, I would probably be more inclined to
create a localised Alexa type toolbar. This toolbar
would be served up from the local ISP and would give
its users an idea of what people of similar
demographics and geography are doing on the net. Are
they buying books from Amazon? What are the most
popular websites, what are the most popular search
items they enter.. the list goes on. You now have a
browser add on which serves the voyeuristic needs of
every surfer and gives you the browser real estate to
serve up your banner.
For those of you not familiar with Alexa. Take a look
at
http://www.alexa.com. This was developed by a group
of folks who are now a part of Amazon.
Shriram
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Received on Fri Jan 07 2000 - 19:04:08 CST
