RawAlex

Can you guys explain why would you serve ads for a hotlinking scum site like this?

http://www.firefusk.com/photos/view/47645/plusminus-200

Alex

RawAlex

Oh yeah, posted here after mailing lars directly and not getting an answer, and sending it to AFF support with the same result.

Alex

Babaganoosh

AFF serves lots of ads for sites that they shouldn't. I sent an email to aff as well as an ICQ to Sagi about a couple of warez sites promoting AFF. I never heard shit about it.

Also never heard about the AGS "hacker" who was promoting AFF.
http://www.******************/index.php?showtopic=2530

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RawAlex

Well, I am hoping they might drop in and give some ideas... blocking these people off my servers solves my personal problem, but doesn't stop these people from profiting from hotlinking images, stealing bandwidth, and displaying AFF ads while displaying other sponsors' content.

Alex

Miguel T

bumping this one!

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RobbieRye

I think that it would be a lot of work to police all of the "grey" sites that promote different advertisers like AFF.

clickclickclick

if shady sites sends them legit signups.. and lets say alot of legit signups.. i dont think they would want to ruin this

that being said, there are other geo dating sites out there willing to take their place.

__________________
if you need more than 3 clicks to get to a join page, something is wrong ;)

p.s. i still bring the sales whores here.

RawAlex

clickclicklclick, I am sure there are plenty of sponsors (including AVN / Adbrite) that appear to have no issues supporting theiving sites.

RobbieRye: Considering that AFF provides the ads, they are in a very direct way part and parcel of the hotlink - without the income, the site wouldn't exist. So I am hoping they will have a look and consider this just like they did fusker.

Alex

Damian_Maxcash

How on earth could they manage to deal with everything we throw at them?

clickclickclick

so why even fight it.

there are soo many adult sponsor programs that come from such a shady past its not even funny.

u bring this up, one site goes down, 3 others come up.

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if you need more than 3 clicks to get to a join page, something is wrong ;)

p.s. i still bring the sales whores here.

RawAlex

damian, considering this site has ranked as high as 10k on Alexa (and the traffic spikes look remarkably like spam mail, SE spam, or perhaps browser hijacks) I would suspect that this site has shown up in traffic logs in the upper, say, 20% of all sites pulling these days, maybe higher. You would think that a company as large as AFF could afford a couple of people to monitor the top accounts and the ones with the most sudden increases in traffic to assure a little compliance...

I am not singling AFF out for that either... companies like AVN/ Adbrite really should spend a minute checking sites before approving them into their networks.

Just a thought.

Alex

georgeyw

bump for an answer

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reynold

no AFF people still around?

Rebecca Love

they did to seem to get the geo working.

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RawAlex

I got Sagi on ICQ... let me just say that his answers were, umm, interesting.

I have invited him to come on over and post the AFF rules of thumb for hotlinking scum sites.

I hope he can find a minute in his busy day.

Alex

Penthouse Tony

You'll be the first to know what actions we take. I'm still talking internally on our end.

__________________
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Penthouse.com Business Development
ICQ: 49090846 | Yahoo IM: ff_aamos

RawAlex

Thanks Sagi. Depending on the way that AFF looks at these things may cause link sites and TGPs to reconsider listing policies... so there is much to the table here.

Alex

RawAlex

bump5678

L-Pink

I think you DID get your answer ...


.

L0rdJuni0r

bump for a good thread

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RawAlex

L-pink, the problem is that is a non-answer. If they want to come here and say "we support bandwidth theives, copyright violators, and sites that have no 2257 documentation for the material on their sites, which could potentially be CP" I would be fine with it, mostly because everyone else can adjust their ways of looking at the program accordingly.

Sagi has gotten back to me on ICQ and something is in the works... so let's keep this thread hovering on page one and see what comes out.

Alex

iwantchixx

TRAFFIC = $$$


Bottom line.

RawAlex

Yeah, but how many of your friends did you help rip off to get the money?

A victimless crime that steals bandwidth and gives this guy a financial advantage over everyone else. They can sell traffic at probably 90% less than anyone else because they have little hosting costs.

Alex

RawAlex

Next morning... waiting for news...

Penthouse Tony

http://adultfriendfinder.com/search/... ulHk&models=0

A decision has been made that we cannot allow this affiliate to continue promoting us until he removes all of his hotlinked copyrighted material. Thanks to Alex for bringing this to our attention.

__________________
aamos AT FFN dot com
Penthouse.com Business Development
ICQ: 49090846 | Yahoo IM: ff_aamos

RawAlex

Sagi, thanks for looking into this and resolving this. Interestingly the site itself has gone 404 as well, which might suggest that the income from AFF was in fact keeping it running. So not a bad thing at this point.

AFF is a little bit big and slow at times, but the end results are pretty good. I hope that this (and the Fusker deal in the past) help make it easier to clean these sites off faster in the future.

Thanks for taking the time.

Alex

jayeff

In an ideal world, sponsors would ban all "grey" sites (although I'm not sure exactly what is grey about ones such as have been mentioned in this thread). But the majority are a minor problem and it wouldn't be much work at all to routinely check bigger affiliates: particularly since it would be possible to exclude from such checks sites which have proven over time to be legitimate.

The problem is that most sponsors are short-sighted. Despite today's positive response, AFF has a long record of turning a blind eye to cheats (so long as they themselves are not being cheated). I guess such sponsors ask why should they spend whatever such checks would cost, unless forced to? Why run the risk they might find - and be forced to terminate - successful affiliates?

It isn't necessary to dig into (for some) abstract issues like ethics for the answers. Sooner or later every scam is halted, so the people involved in them are not long-term revenue generators, but so long as they do operate they are hurting others who are in business for the long term. Thus every cheater costs sponsors money in the long run, no matter how indirectly. Sponsors really show themselves up when they support cheats who do not even increase their short-term income.

Without sponsors' support, many cheats would disappear overnight and if sponsors will not deal with this themselves, legitimate affiliates should switch their support to sponsors who will. Unfortunately, most affiliates don't think much about the future either: something that unprofessional sponsors realize all too clearly...

RawAlex

jayeff, one of the things that many sponsors have forgotten is that DMCA pretty much extends to everyone in the tree of copyright violation, including those that fund and profit from it. DMCA is a "prove yourself innocent" sort of situation, and many sponsors (especially the ones who provide Iframe ads) run the risk of getting papered when a copyright violator runs a site like this. Most people complaining keep it to the site itself and it's host, but the monetization of the size is a key component to the ongoing violation, so the companies paying for this ad space and providing the ad content on the fly are potentially "partners in crime", and risk the issues that come down this way.

I don't think too many people have gone down this path yet, but I suspect someone will soon and it will get ugly

Alex