There have been multiple forum threads lately about people believing it’s OK to copy (steal) a vendor’s squeeze page without asking for permission and put it on their affiliate site to build their own list to promote the vendor’s product.
The belief seems to be that since they know a couple of vendors that wouldn’t care if they did that, somehow they extrapolate that to believe that ALL vendors/merchants are OK with that.
It’s a fallacious argument. The truth is, it’s both unethical AND illegal to do that. Let’s look at why:
Simply put, the vendor’s promotional materials are copyrighted, and just because you’re an affiliate doesn’t give you permission to use anything they don’t give you permission to use. Case closed.
Here’s just some of the ways a vendor could be damaged by affiliates who do this:
Subscribers to the affiliate squeeze page (which looks just like the vendor’s own squeeze page because it was taken verbatim, including the logo, etc) could be mislead into subscribing to a list they don’t want to be on. That’s deceptive.
Continuing on, the affiliate could choose to promote the vendor’s offer through followup emails that are hypey or misrepresent the product offered. It’s nothing new for affiliates to over-hype an offer, but subscribers could mistakenly attribute the hype to be coming from the vendor, not the affiliate.
The affiliate could promote competing products to their list that was built through using the vendor’s squeeze page. In other words, the affiliate is leveraging the vendor’s creatives to build a list they promote other products for other than the vendor.
The squeeze page that was copied could have a “test headline” that the vendor quickly decided wasn’t appropriate. For instance, maybe a weight loss vendor did a quick test of “Lose 10 Pounds In 7 Days Guaranteed” as the squeeze page headline, only to learn that it breaks the FTC advertising guidelines regarding specific results claims.
Even if the vendor quickly changes their headline to be in compliance, if rogue affiliates copied that potentially illegal headline and continued to use it while representing themselves to BE the vendor, the vendor could come under scrutiny of the FTC due to the affiliate’s use of their squeeze page headline.
Those examples just scratch the surface of all the reasons why it’s damaging to the vendor for affiliates to use/steal their content without permission.
Most vendors provide an affiliate tools section for affiliates, giving them banners, text links, headlines, and ad creatives for them to use. That’s what the tools section is for: To tell affiliates what they CAN use.
Affiliate marketing covers an enormous amount of ground. Someone who is primarily a Clickbank affiliate may get the impression that vendors in general don’t care too much about how a sale is made as long as they make money.
On the flipside, an affiliate network like Commission Junction has merchants that explicitly state all the many ways that affiliates are not allowed to promote them.
Some people try to weasel away from the issue by saying, “I always think it’s better to ask for forgiveness rather than ask permission” News Flash: When it comes to copyright theft, that’s a terrible idea. You can get sued for doing it ONCE, and it doesn’t matter what your stated intentions are.
If you don’t believe, me, Google this phrase: sued for using without permission
On a final note, I learned my lesson about not doing something that “everyone else is doing so it must be OK” in High School. Parking was full at my local beach, but there were about 100 cars all parked on the road leading to the beach that had “no parking” signs on it.
I figured… Well, if there’s 100 other cars doing it, it must be OK.
When I walked back to my car a few hours later, every single car on the road had a parking ticket on it, including mine. Lesson learned.
When it comes to online business regarding copyrights and trademarks, the rules ARE posted, and it’s your job to find them and understand them. Saying, “I didn’t know” after you use copyrighted material (whether it’s text, images, whatever) doesn’t get you un-sued.
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About Tim Gross Tim Gross is an online marketing consultant, direct response copywriter, author, and video training developer. For the latest free training videos, free advice, and additional resources, subscribe now at http://InternetMarketingCourse.com or at his blog http://TimGross.com |
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Localbusiness
560 days ago
A very good message and warning Tim. Far to many take these to lightly.