Lack of action is not the same thing as policing

Zango spokesman Corey Magnus acknowledged that "as the e-mail clearly indicates, we had at one point looked into opportunities" on MySpace. But Magnus again said it was Zango's policy not to target the social site. (Informationweek)

...hm, perhaps someone should've told your employee that.

"This practice was immediately halted last month upon learning of MySpace's 'Non-commercial user by members' term of use shortly thereafter,"

"Upon learning"?!

Come on guys, I expect more! You guys make it sound like discovering Myspace didn't allow you to pimp your wares commercially was some kind of epic quest and yet, somehow, you somehow missed the fact that when you sign up to Myspace, the first thing you see is this:






Oh look, you have to tick a box and confirm you agree to their Terms of Service.

You don't just "accidentally" fall onto Myspace with a profile pushing Zango, it's entirely pre-meditated and assumes that yes, you did read the Terms and Conditions and didn't just click right through. I took the liberty of editing the relevant parts into one chopped up screenshot and placing it to the left, there.

Might want to keep it handy next time!


Never again will the "...but the Zango EULA is displayed" excuse be given any credibility whatsoever next time an affiliate of yours is found doing something naughty.

"As of a result of this finding, there are no longer MySpace users/profiles commercially benefiting through installations of our software."

...is not only incorrect (as you'll see), but also directly contradicts....

"We do have partners that provide tools to MySpace usersbut sites like this are individual sites not directly tied to MySpace.

Half the sites that recommend to Myspace users that they should add Zango videos to their profiles have a GREAT BIG ADD US TO YOUR FRIENDS LIST BUTTON on their webpage.

Here, have a picture of one such site (that also pops a DRM prompt when you visit - guess he was reading this Email) on the house. Took me all of ten seconds to find it:

Can someone explain to me how that "isn't tied to Myspace"? How this isn't breaking their Terms and Conditions?

Because forgive me for being dense, but if that webmaster is not only encouraging Myspace users to add Zango content to their profiles - which he is - and that webmaster is failing to disclose the fact that Zango Adware will be served from their profile - which he is - and if that webmaster is also trying to have them add him to their friends list - which he is - then isn't it just a case of second verse, same as the first?

Looks that way to me.

By the way, the webmaster of the above site is - you guessed it - Mark Arruda.

Here is the bottom line - Zango are, without a doubt, still continuing to make money from having their partners / affiliates / whatever they're called this week

1) Encouraging Myspace users to place their videos on their Profile pages without disclosing to them on their website that in return for placing these videos, their visitors will be served a prompt to install Zango Adware;

2) Encouraging Myspace users to add their "website" to their Friends list, thus spreading the videos at a much speedier rate.

You can spin it, dress it up, whatever you want as much as you like but it just looks worse the longer Zango continues to relent from putting this puppy to sleep. We now have a situation where Zango are not theoretically telling their affiliates to go out and do this actively, but they're not going out and dissuading them from doing it, either.

Lack of action is not the same thing as policing.

From the evidence on display here, it looks like that's something Zango will be learning again and again.