On May 9, 2007, CJ updated the Code of Conduct with little fanfare. Indeed, I’m not sure if they even made any type of announcement regarding the update. They may have an announcement through the Publisher interface if you are logged into your CJ account, but I can’t verify if they did or didn’t do that since my CJ account was terminated a couple of weeks ago. But that’s another story. There’s seems to be very little talk about the updated Code of Conduct (COC), so either many are not aware of the change or people don’t care about the change. The changes are rather interesting and abiding by the COC is part of the Publisher TOS, so it’s probably good to be aware of the changes. (more…)

Over the last couple of weeks there have been rumors that ValueClick would be a target of an FTC investigation regarding web properties owned by ValueClick which promote gratis offers. ValueClick denied any knowledge of any such investigation during their last earnings call. Those rumors of an FTC have now become a reality.

The SEC 8-K filings mentioned in the above news article can be found here. Government investigations of certain types of cpa offers and the manner in which they are marketed don’t seem to be limited to just ValueClick at the moment. It will be interesting to see how this develops as these types of offers are certainly big business for more than just ValueClick.

In the online world, we come across terms and conditions and end-user licensing agreements all the time. We’re all busy and it’s so easy to just check the “I Agree” box and continue with our business. But there are times when TOS and EULA’s can be very enlightening. And they are legally binding agreements, so there is prudence in knowing what you are agreeing to in many situations. I came across this EULA the other day. I have to think it falls nicely into a EULA from hell. I have to wonder how many end users would still install the software if they a) read the EULA and b) understood it. This EULA is for some “free” P2P enhancement software that comes bundled with adware. The adware is put out by AdSingular, who does operate as an affiliate. Let’s take a look at this particular EULA and see what exactly the end-user is getting with this free ad-supported software.   (more…)