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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Oct 2005 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Rapid Satellite Rugman ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ May 2005 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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Illegitimacy of Unauthorized Third-Party Pop-Up Ads: |
| Can I walk into a McDonald’s restaurant, grab a booth, and proceed to give away free Burger
King Whopper coupons to folks as they eat? No, because the business McDonald’s doesn’t
allow it. Arguing about whether the patrons want the coupons or not, is irrelevant.
If patrons want coupons, they can go get them elsewhere. The business owner, the McDonald’s
brand owner and the owner of the real estate property, have rights. These rights, among
many others, include refusing to allow third-party advertising to occur on their premises.
Let’s say I create a new business called Zongaz where I give my customers a free 50” HDTV for their living room, in exchange, they agree to allow me to install a box downstream of their cable/satellite receiver that inputs to their HDTV. My box can do many things – it can replace the ads shown on NBC, with other ads that my new company gets paid for. It can also sense the show you’re watching, and deliver targeted relevant ads, superimposed right over the show you’re watching. So you’re watching Friends on NBC, and the Zongaz box opens a picture-in-picture window over the top of the show and offers an ad to sell you the furniture you’re seeing on Friends. Or the Zongaz ad shows you an ad for a show on CBS that competes with Friends. The consumer loves their HDTV and can click a button on their remote to close the Zongaz ads if they so choose. Can I start this company? Sure. Can I find willing customers? You bet. So what’s wrong with this idea? NBC didn’t agree to it – that’s what. NBC creates the show Friends – they own it. You cannot materially alter it, link to it, replace it, adulterate it, manipulate it and mess with it! It isn’t yours! It doesn’t matter how much you love your Zongaz HDTV (or toaster), this is not a legitimate business model. Why? Because it infringes upon NBC’s rights of ownership! If however, NBC had an agreement with Zongaz, it would be legitimate. NBC has nationally and locally syndicated advertising sponsors (buyers of ad space) already. They could certainly and willingly enter into an agreement with Zongaz to do this. But if Zongaz proceeds without even contacting NBC, what happens? NBC sues them and easily wins. So where then is advertising legit? Answer – wherever the media owner (website owner or book publisher or television network or billboard sign owner) sanctions it. Google decides what ads it shows on its site. Using AdSense and other ad delivery vehicles, a website owner agrees to show ads on their website that they have authorized. A newspaper has the right to decide which ads it shows and where it shows them. NBC has the right to determine what ads it shows. In fact, some media owners exercise their right to show no ads at all. Bookstores have the right to give you a bookmark (with an ad on it) to use – but they can’t glue ads into the books they have on their shelves – because they don’t own the intellectual property in those books. And while my own websites are not as entertaining or polished as NBC, I assert the quality and quantity of my site, is not a factor in determining my rights – even the Lifetime Network gets to decide which ads they show. |
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