

Could Affiliate Links Kill Pinterest? - jakeludington
http://www.hasoffers.com/blog/affiliate-links-kill-pinterest/

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duskwuff
The analysis of the DMCA Safe Harbor status in this article is incorrect.
Subsection (a) -- "Transitory Digital Network Communications" -- is just one
of four distinct ways in which a service provider can qualify for Safe Harbor
status. (The author is correct only in that it doesn't apply to Pinterest.) Of
the three others, the most relevant for Pinterest is subsection (c),
"Information Residing on Systems or Networks At Direction of Users".

In any case, links are not copyrightable works, so the fact that Pinterest is
modifying them to alter or remove affiliate tags is most likely irrelevant.

Read the whole thing for details:
<https://images.chillingeffects.org/512.html>

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jakeludington
A link doesn't need to be a copyrightable work for the "material" posted by a
user to be considered altered. What matters is how a court defines "material"
and whether or not the court would define that "material" as modified by the
service provider or not.

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codexon
This was written by an affiliate marketing website.

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apgwoz
For some reason, it seems likely to me that they are doing this so that they
can eventually add their own partner/affiliate tracking. It could be the only
real viable model for them.

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draggnar
It seems reasonable. As long as the quality on the site is not dropping what
is the problem with affiliate links?

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duskwuff
One word: Spam.

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jakeludington
The primary argument being that altering links might be construed as a a
modification of material hosted on the service.

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fennecfoxen
I would suspect that a judge would be eminently willing to hear an argument
that such a modification isn't really substantial and need not indicate the
sort of editorial control that the law is considering when talking about who
qualifies for various protections. It's _far_ from clear that
s/&refererId=.*//g exposes them to additional liability.

~~~
FireBeyond
Agreed. Especially not when algorithmically managed. It is in no way
comparable to a curated service / site.

The author refuses to admit any bias in their position, too (that they make
money in and around the world of affiliate marketing).

