Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

Flycast Agreement

Author:Dave Winer
Posted:11/17/1999; 10:26:15 AM
Topic:Flycast Agreement
Msg #:13151
Prev/Next:13150 / 13152

Advertising

We want to run advertising on several of our sites. The flow is starting to get good enough, and we want the experience, and perhaps to add advertising-related features to our web content system.

We've been having trouble getting the service bureaus to return our calls. Yesterday a friend told us, emphatically, to call Flycast. Bierman did, he got thru, and if we were able to sign their service agreement, we'd have ads right now on one of our sites, and would be on our way to having several others being ad-supported.

The agreement

We've reviewed the agreement and are perplexed. If we signed the agreement we would have to fully disclose it to our readers. But it's really impossible. Have a look for yourself:

http://www.flycast.com/members/Asell_contract.html

Content restrictions

"Affiliate's web site(s) and Ad Spaces shall not contain, or contain links to, content promoting the use of alcohol, tobacco or illegal substances; nudity, sex, pornography, or adult-oriented content; user-generated or "posted" content (i.e. Chat, Guestbook pages, hosted home pages); expletives or inappropriate language; content promoting illegal activity, racism, hate, "spam," mail fraud, pyramid schemes, or investment opportunities or advice not permitted under law; content that is libelous, defamatory, contrary to public policy, or otherwise unlawful, or any other content deemed inappropriate by Flycast in its sole discretion.

"Affiliate understands and agrees that a violation of this Section 3.2 may result in the suspension or termination of active advertising campaigns running on Affiliate’s Ad Spaces, removal of Affiliate’s web site(s) from the Flycast Network, or any other action deemed necessary in Flycast’s sole discretion. "

SalonHerringWiredFool.Com

One of the sites we want to run ads on is "SalonHerringWiredFool.Com".

We have no control over the stories on that site, and some of the stories we've seen in these pubs seems to cross some of the lines mentioned in the above paragraph.

This makes me wonder

Do the "established" pubs sign agreements like this? If so, do they disclose it to their readers?

Or are we getting a random contract for sites they don't really care about?

How common are agreements like this on the web?

When you see a site running Flycast ads, does that mean that they've signed this agreement?

Confidentiality

Section 3.7 is a non-disclosure agreement. "Affiliate shall not disclose any of the terms and conditions of this Agreement to any third party without the express written consent of Flycast."

Well, I'm not an affiliate, and I guess we never will be, but how dare they try to force a NDA on us without our consent. I'm sure it's void just on its face. Their license agreement is on a publicly accessible web page. This realllly frosts me, in case you can't tell.

Questions

Are these kinds of agreements commonplace?

If so, then there's no journalism on the web. It's advertising. I don't believe it is. I can't imagine that Salon, Red Herring, Wired or Motley Fool have signed these kinds of agreements.

Since people from a bunch of pubs read Scripting News, I was hoping we could get some more information on this.

Thanks!



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