Originally Posted by Quick Buck

The problem is that most cookie overwriters don't use the browser to set a cookie, they physically alter the cookie file on the machine.

Well written spyware will also alter the referring URL and alter the links in the page. There is simply no way for the sponsor to know or do anything about it.

Poorly written spyware though will not do those things and may indeed overwrite the cookie, but my question about this is how do you suggest sponsors disallow the overwriting of cookies?

If affiliate A sends a user to the site and the user does not buy and then affiliate B sends the user to the site and the user buys, clearly affiliate B needs the credit. Theoretically yes you could not allow overwriting for say 30 minutes, but with surfers who are browsing galleries or search listings for example, it's quite likely that they will visit the same site more than once.

We would be more than happy to implement a suggestion that will not impact affiliates but would ensure that affiliate codes are not hijacked.