Affiliate Window Code of conduct

[Renners]

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Adam,

Firstly thank you for taking the time to respond to these concerns I'm sure it saves both you and us lots of correspondance time.

you say :

Whilst we understand the language cannot be vague, may at times appear harsh and the demands placed on affiliates quite severe. We anticipate only having to enforce these in a minority of cases and during difficult circumstances. They will not affect the vast majority of you.

and

This clause is included so we can legally request this information from affiliates should there ever be reason to question their activity (e.g. Spyware). We understand it is not always feasible for affiliates to list all their sites. We do not intend to clamp down on affiliates that don’t. We may look at changing the wording on this if we can come up with something a little less severe that still allows us to request the information in extenuating circumstances.

I agree with you, you do need the terms to enable investigation to keep rogue elements at bay however why a blanket term, surely something stating special rules of investigating suspect practices (your own RIPA!) which would also including a notification to the affiliate so the affiliate knows they have moved to a different patch of the Terms. This in itself may make them cease a dubious practice.

As Stephen Pratley said:

I'm all for it, just that the letter of the law seemed a bit vague in cases. At the end of the day it comes down to trust and you guys score well on that front, but regimes change sometimes....

Based on what you have said in the forums I am happy to agree the terms, however I'm concerned should you move on from AW or there is a change in management then there is a risk that your network could gain substantial commerical advantage by using these terms in a different manner to that you say they were designed for.

[Matthew Wood]

Iv'e declined as I'm going to print and read the terms in detail later:

However I get:

Changes to Affiliate Terms and Conditions
You have declined the changes

Your account has now been marked for closure.

Please call Adam Ross, Client Services Director on +44 20 7553 0359 to discuss any concerns you may have in more detail.

Then I can't access my account? I just don't see why this has been rushed through so quickly, sorry.

[lauriebred]

The text I raised a concern about - and which Adam agreed to have removed - is still there so I shan't be accepting and if this means the account will be closed then so be it. I am amazed that in this day and age AW could expect people to accept unreasonable TOCs on the basis of "don't worry, we'll never use that clause" - this is a legal contract we are talking about and anyone who accepts it accepts all of it as far as the courts are concerned regardless of protestations that parts were never meant to say what they do say.

[8601cam]

Lauriebred,

Having amends to this T&C's is not a cut and paste job (how I wish it were though), so in anticipation Adam did highlight in his response that affiliates who accepted the T&C's, that this particular point would not form an active part of the agreement.

So whilst I appreciate that we would want to expedite the removal of this clause, Adam's open declaration does make it void from a legal standpoint.

As mentioned, the aim is not to penalise true affiliates but to restricrt the activity of those who bring the channel into question. We will however endeavour to speed up processing the amend.

Kind Regards

Mark

[lauriebred]

Thanks for the reply Mark. When it's been amended I'll accept it.

[lauriebred]

I see that item 2.10 which forbids affiliates from using any merchant not introduced by AW is still part of the contract. It's all very well saying that this stipulation will be waived but I have no intention of ever having to argue that in court so can you please remove it so that we can move on? I am not prepared to accept any contract that explicitly forbids me from dealing with competitors of any network, no matter how many protestations I get that the clause shouldn't be in there and will be removed eventually - a contract is a legally binding agreement, for goodness sake. Forgive me if I sound impatient but asking people to sign up to this as it stands is just ridiculous.

[adamski]

Hi lauriebred

Your post is timely as I have just got off the phone from our legal team. The new contract has just been agreed and confirmed. I am awaiting an email with the final version after which I will upload it to the site.

I will update this post once it's done.

Adam

[adamski]

The new terms are now live and available here:
https://www.affiliatewindow.com/docu...liateterms.pdf

I'm just about to add a permanent link to the admin area so this is available to affiliates at all times.

The following changes have been made:

- Clause 2.10 removed (see previous posts from lauriebred)

- Removed the need to supply us with all sites and replaced this with a request to provide up to 5 sites so we can examine the quality and style.

- 'Hard Coding' clause changed to reflect the need to hard code banners on occasion but recognise the impact this may have on the future accuracy of those links.

- Change to Code of Conduct to allow us to request traffic origins during the course of an investigation so we can verify this against our referer logs.

There are some other minor changes to wording and the addition of some extra definitions such as 'Referer Logs' and 'Selected Venues' but the main differences are outlined above.

I hope this addresses your concerns. Don't hesitate to get in touch if you have any issues.

Adam

[gunneradt]

I still havent seen this

[adamski]

I still havent seen this

Click this link (https://www.affiliatewindow.com/docu...liateterms.pdf) and all will be revealed!

[adamski]

I still havent seen this

Andrew,

Just checked our records and I'm slightly concerned as you accepted the terms on the 28th July 2008 at 23:35:08. Does someone else have access to your account?

Adam

[Mike_Scott]

Andrew,

Just checked our records and I'm slightly concerned as you accepted the terms on the 28th July 2008 at 23:35:08. Does someone else have access to your account?

Adam

Is everyone going to get the opportunity to accept the new version of T&C's ?
Or those who have already accepted going to be stuck with the old version that was said to be 'unfair' ?

[babrees]

Could you also add a date on the file so that we know when it was last updated and whether or not we have to hunt through to see if/what changes there may be.

[edit] When I view an unread message I get a pop-up window telling me I must accept or decline the terms - I already have accepted them! I have to accept them for EVERY message I wish to read!

[lauriebred]

Thanks Adam, they look quite acceptable now.

[pandadragon]

[/QUOTE]
Also 3.10


For those that remember the CJ javascript links debate of a while back there are a number of reasons why this will cause problems for some affiliates


1) A huge upheaval in changing creative (particularly basic buttons & logos) which may already be hard coded
2)Not wishing to show search engines the connection with AW by serving external images
3)Wanting our own servers to be the last point of failure
4) Not wanting sites to look like picadilly circus because some merchants haven't provided a basic static logo in the size required


-Will there be an equivalent set for merchants - e.g. making sure that their own creative and content is up-to-date, that transactions are approved in a timely manner and that regular checks of the tracking are made? I'm sure I could think of more :-)
[/QUOTE]

Totally agree, my site is banners 120x60 with static images or logos for each company, because i agree i dont want my site like picadily circus, it puts people off.

When i made my site static, i found two problems with awin interface.

1.) Many merchants dont have static logos and at popular sizes.
2.) The awin interface does not put banners in right category which from when i started using awin annoys me and took me ages to find it all.

For example you want a 125x125 or 234x60 to get to them you have to click 468 x 60 to access them, that does not make sense.

Also sometimes in 120x60 banners theres different sizes in wrong categories.

So does this clause mean i cant have my own saved images of logos on my site unless served from Awin, even though merchants dont all provide them.

Hope i have made sense!!

Phil