StopScum

A Story To Help You Understand The Issue

"Mom and Pop have a business... say a small hotel in central NY state. They rent a server. They buy the services of a web site designer to put together a site that talks about what a cozy hotel they are right next to all the skiing, etc. and encourage people to make reservations with them.

They pay money to looksmart, msn, yahoo, etc to get the link to their website, (their own on-line advertisement bought and paid for), linked with the appropriate directories.

Essentially they have bought and paid for an online advertisement just as they might buy a TV commercial, radio commercial, a yellow pages ad, an ad in a newspaper, a brochure, etc.

Along comes "Smart tags", "toptext", and other forms of software. They sell keywords like "hotel" and "skiing" to the top bidder.

They then give away their software so that mom and pop's bought and paid for advertisement now has the ability to take mom and pop's "paid for" traffic away from their bought and paid for "ad". Because now we can, with this wonderful software, (and without mom and pop's permission,) use mom and pop's own property to encourage people to stay at some other (the highest bidder's) hotel and ski some other place (the highest bidder's) that may not even be close to mom and pop's hotel.

Mom and Pop not only have their website "stolen" (that IS the term used when someone take's someone else's property without permission) but, what's worse...
THEY ARE PAYING TO HAVE IT STOLEN FROM THEM, BECAUSE THEY ARE NOW PAYING FOR THE HOSTING, DESIGN AND MARKETING OF AN AD THAT PROMOTES THEIR COMPETITION.

The content of their ad has been changed by an outside source using mom and pop's own "ad" (i.e Website) as the vehicle to move their own potential customers elsewhere.

There is absolutely no justification, legally, ethically or morally for this type of theft.

THAT is the issue with this sort of technology. THAT is the essence of the idea that needs to be communicated.

It does NOT matter if I have downloaded TOP TEXT as a matter of choice.

It does NOT MATTER that we have the technology to do this stuff.

Basically, If someone overwrote mom and pop's radio ad there would be lawsuit and damages. If someone overwrote mom and pop's TV commercial there would be lawsuit and damages. If someone did the same thing to mom and pop's yellowpages ad there would be lawsuits and damages.

I would suspect that if mom and pop were aware of it in these terms there will be some very large class action suits initiated and some very large damages paid by any and all companies using their technologies to subvert the advertising mom and pop paid for. I would also suggest that perhaps this may be the only way to stop this."

Bill Hall, CEO
VisitorsNetwork LLC

Publisher/Webmaster/Site Owners

Technology which defaces and alters the content of your Website for financial gain. These procedures do not obtain you're prior written consent, do not notify you of these actions, and do not share any of their revenue with you. In some cases they insert "Adult and or Gambling" links in your "PG" site which you would never permit. These actions compromises your visitor relationship and your reputation. Click here for resources to protect your site.

Merchants

Technology which steals your customers and dilutes your revenue. In some cases it may also alter your paid advertising on other sites. This technology does not obtain your prior written consent, does not notify you of these actions, and does not share any of the revenue with you. Click here for resources to protect your site.

Surfer/Consumer

Technology installed on your computer which lacks adequate disclosure and often is not easy to remove. This technology produces instability in your operating system and compromises your privacy. Your Web surfing is stealing money from other sites. I know with absolute certainty that a significant number of you have no knowledge of these actions. Click here to learn about resources which will remove these programs from your system using several different methods. Click here for instructions on removing eZula and TopText.