Description
On the internet, competition is rife, with millions of websites pursuing billions of “surfers” (i.e. website visitors/users) worldwide. The more surfers who “hit” (i.e. visit) a website, the more “traffic” it generates, thus the more valuable that website becomes to advertisers, who will pay to have their advertising “banners” (i.e. window or box style advertising strips) or “pop-up” ads (as the name implies, the advert “pops-up” in a box or banner strip when a visitor hits the site) appear on the websites containing content with a high amount of traffic.
The most popular “browser” or search engine networks such as Google as well as websites such as Amazon and eBay can command huge sums for advertising banners on their home page. Choosing the right mix of content to attract visitors and to keep them coming back is therefore paramount to success.
A content creator/provider is attracted by the added exposure on the internet which its content will have when displayed within any of the large website(s) with a large number of visitors.
However, the content provider must ensure that the content is not devalued by being placed on unsuitable or even illegal or harmful, websites or webpages or next to material it does not want to be associated with (for example, a content provider for children does not want its content appearing on a webpage with adult material). As this Contract is drafted for the content provider’s benefit, clause 6 includes such provisions in addition to other safeguards.
This Contract also includes the parameters in which the website owner may use the content (clause 4). This is especially important to protect the content provider’s copyright in the material. For example, the “look and feel” of the content may not be changed by the website owner nor its content “framed” within a third party website in a manner so that the content provider is not identifiable as the originator/owner.
On the question of fees and charges payable, it depends purely on the name and reputation of each party. If the content provider is the larger, well-known party, then it would want to be paid a fee (perhaps annual) to grant the licence for its content as well perhaps as a percentage of the website owner’s increased revenue generated from the increased traffic to the website. This can be established from the website statistics before and after the content is displayed.
