NONE: RE: ONLINE-ADS>> Peter Bull's fanciful "ad piracy" hypothetical
RE: ONLINE-ADS>> Peter Bull's fanciful "ad piracy" hypothetical
Michael Curl (curl_at_btinternet.com)
Sun, 30 Nov 1997 04:18:33 +0000
Peter Bull has expounded some interesting ideas - but fortunately for
the future of the World Wide Web they are quite erroneous.
I will leave it to Mark Welch to address the legal issues involved, and
reply as a simple web "publisher" - one of the breed seemingly so
despised by Mr Bull - pointing out the most egregious of Mr Bull's
errors. This is not intended as a "flame" - merely an attempt to set
the record straight.
Error 1.
Mr Bull raises the question: who "owns the customer's eyeballs"? - and
says "I own the customer's eyeballs".
Really? I have news for Mr Bull - the customer owns the customer's
eyeballs! And I predict his customers will soon learn that he has as much
contempt for them as as he does for web publishers.
Error 2
Mr Bull describes his ads, as opposed to those carried by the web
publisher, as "more relevant". Why are they more relevant? Because they
are local, says Mr Bull. Great news for the local bookstores in
Rockhampton, but bad news for the people in Rockhampton who might just be
interested in Amazon.com or the Internet Bookshop.
Error 3
Mr Bull accuses web publishers of "taking money under false pretences"
because they can not guarantee delivery of their advertising messages.
He is obviously unaware that almost all banner ads are tracked and the
advertiser only pays when the banner image itself is displayed.
Error 4
Mr Bull's entire scenario is posited on advertising being in the form of
banner ads or buttons that he can strip out of a web page. While it is
certainly true that the banner ad is the predominant form of web
advertising currently, that will not necessarily be the case in twelve
months time. Or does he also propose to strip out text ads, Java ads,
audio ads, sponsored contests, etc.?
And can he be so certain that he can distinguish banner ads from other
graphics? That may be the case now, but would almost certainly not be the
case if his scheme were ever to gain ground. I can confidently predict
that web publishers will take steps to protect their content. Mr Bull's
unfortunate customers will see either the web page as the publisher
indended it to be seen, or will see some some completely mangled version.
Error 5
Mr Bull says:
"But here comes the scary bit for websites that carry ads. When my
customer asks for a particular web page, I'll go fetch it for them, and
when the HTML comes down, it more than likely contains the URLs for the
banner or button ads that have been sold on that page, and then I will
get a request from the customer's browser to go fetch them too. But my
customer has given me the right to decide whether to display any graphics
or not, so I might just not bother to go get any of them."
Mr Bull should not be so sure that the HTML will come down when
requested
I can put in my webpages a few lines of Javascript that will recognize
the fact that the request has come from Mr Bull's ISP. Perhaps his
customers won't have a chance to see my original page at all. Perhaps
they will see another page listing alternative ISP's that give them
unrestricted access to the Web. Perhaps my Javascript will be made
freely available to anyone who wants to use it.
In conclusion, Mr Bull's attempt to "send a shiver down the back" of
website publishers needn't frighten anyone. I, for one, am confident in
my future as a web publisher dependent on advertising revenue.
Michael Curl
Editor and publisher, thinks.com
Brain games, puzzles and pastimes
http://thinks.com
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