Originally Posted by jayeff

Are you really foolish enough to believe that the little guy, to whom no-one pays any attention when businesses are making their first millions, suddenly becomes everyone's concern when those companies are making tens of millions? Laws do get passed which businesses do not want, but many are promoted by businesses themselves for their own benefit. Trade associations (in whatever form) are not created to give mom-and-pop businesses a leg up: their primary purpose is to protect the interests of the biggest operators.

This Zango/scumware issue is exactly the kind of activity which can force major operators, however unwillingly, to begin applying standards. Because while most of the fuss on boards like this has been generated by affiliates, scumware isn't like shaving and other things allegedly used to harm only affiliates. Scumware costs targeted sponsors the same percentage of their business as their affiliates lose: the difference is that applied to their income, that percentage represents a vastly more significant dollar loss. Use whatever common sense you possess and ask yourself for how long dozens of sponsors will tolerate such losses.

You are a dinosaur waiting for the asteroids to hit. When someone starts in business and doesn't have a pot to p*ss in, scamming someone out of $10 might be a big deal, especially if a thousand people can be scammed. But once you have a million in the bank, a scam needs to be worth $10K a pop or whatever, to be interesting.

The other side of that coin is that your targets can't be the little guys that no-one cares about any more. Each time you are successful at one level, your next targets have to be richer. Before long, big companies are fighting each other. And before too much longer a few of them figure out that if they can level the playing field (in their favor), they will be a lot better off. Business 101. Not idealism, left-wing politics or whatever it is you think you are railing against. Simple self interest.