Interesting Sponsor change - no skimming
 

Noted a change to a sponsors TOS today in their newsletter - from ATKcash - they will no longer allow their content (galleries) to be used on traffic that has a skim set on it
Interesting change - and I suppose legally a different way of looking at things

?????
Weird |twinkle

Well - its kinda unusual situation because in reality it is their right to say that if you are going to use their thumbs on your tgp - the link on that thumb should go to their program or a site advertising their program - I think if you look at most sponsors they have that type of wording in their TOS for the use of their free content.
Some programs do enforce this which is their choice since it is their copyrighted work - I remember a conversation where some people thought that it was out of bounds for a sponsor to have that requirement but legally they are well within their rights - and even if you make money with them they can legally not pay you

This would even extend to hosted galleries since you would be using their content but if you skim you are not always sending the surfer to that specific program

Im sure there is going to be the outcry that this is stupid from some WMs - there was last time - but its really up to the sponsor to make those decisions

It will be interesting to see what happens if the sponsor refuses to pay a webmaster becasue they were skimming some traffic.

I actually wrote back to them, because I found the email a little vague in details. From what I understood you're not allowed to use the free content on your TGP if you're skimming the traffic (they even elaborated on how to change trade script settings, etc.) - but on the other hand they expressed it so general that it would ban anybody from submitting to Thumbnailed TGPs - would they really want that?

- - - 15 hours later and I'm still waiting for a reply - - -

About a year ago another program owner started a rant about a webmaster that used his thumbnails on a skimming TGP and when he clicked it he got onto a site that installed spyware and stuff like that so I can see their point...

What was the guy's name again?? Tron or something like that... |couch|

That was Tom from Tom's World :D

George - thats exactly the way that I read it and it is the exact same discussion we had here a while back - Im really surprised there arent more sponsors doing that with the legal advice most of them got about 2257

Very odd that they would do that since I bet they get a lot of sales from sites using skim and hosted galleries. Some of those types of sites generate a lot of money.

It may be a case of the sponsor not really understanding the traffic sources. A lot of adult sites are starting to bring people from mainsteam that while possibly talented in certain areas do not understand the adult traffic sources.

Here's the exact wording from their TOS:

G. NO SKIMMING of traffic from ATKINGDOM's copyrighted content. This includes thumbnails and banners made from, or that include, material owned or licensed to ATKINGDOM. Thumbnail Gallery Posts (TGPs) must either include ATKINGDOM's content in an exception list or set the skim percentage to ZERO. Failure to comply with this rule will result in immediate suspension (with notification) of the Affiliate's account. Repeated violations will result in termination of the Affiliate's account and forfeiture of all monies accrued.

It seems to me that they not only understand traffic sources in the adult biz but they are very specific to what exactly you can and can't do - no question in my mind anyway :)

As usualy Linkster, you seem to be correct. I guess they're making so much money that they simply don't desire the revenue stream generated by such methods.

It will be interesting to see if they aggressively enforce this across the board or if they use it to selectively as a tool to get rid of some really bad apples.

Well, they purchase exclusive content and I can understand that they don’t want others to use that content to make money/traffic for themselves, instead of ATK. But on the other hand they will lose some affiliates instead, but it seems that this is their plan, to don’t get over saturated.

ATK had been in the business without any affiliate program for at least 3 or 4 years - I remember asking them several times IF they had one, and always received a negative reply until sometime in 2001. Somehow they generate a good chunk of their own traffic w/o reliance on affiliates...

In the meantime I have received a reply from Chris @ ATK:
With my site [picXS.com] this will mean for the future that I'll strongly enforce my own rule "I don't post ATK content" to protect my own income - and to comply with the new rules...

As a TGP owner that is not an ATK affiliate, my reply to such a request to add any specific sponsor to an "exception list" would include more than a few choice words, followed by an addition to my banned sponsor list.

Gee, glad I'm not an ATK Affiliate, I would have had to be pulling their FHG tonight if I were.

It's their right to do whatever they want to with their program. As an affiliate you have the right to drop them...and so it goes :D There's so many sponsors out there if you don't like what one is doing you drop them...just that simple.

Actually: for a long time already their hosted galleries are going 404 as soon as their site detects any link syntax other than the direct link - so if there's a trade script section in your link the surfer won't get the gallery - main page instead.