Is it legal to monetize your browser add-on by changing others advertisements?
I'm about to develop an interesting, from a functional perpective, extension for Chrome but got a lot doubts in terms of how to monetize it.
I was wondering if it's ok from a legal perspective to change the advertisements in the original page for your own ads.
At a first glance, I thought It is ok since all extensions modify somehow de original page and it is the final user the one that accepts the terms of the extension during the installation process.
Lately, Ive been thinking about it and now I'm not really sure. Any thoughts?
Thanks in advance.
Ivan.
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This is a really really interesting question from a legal point of view but I don't think this feasible – Dvb 12 years ago
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I agree Jesper on every point, I'd just add that I doubt Google would allow you to stay in the Chrome web store very long if you were doing this. – Jonathan 10 years ago
1 Answer
Is it directly illegal with a clear legal precedent? Hmn, maybe, maybe not, depending on which country you're looking at.
Is it something which content publishers and ad networks would absolutely frown at, and would take steps (technical/legal) to block as it becomes widespread? Absolutely. You're in essence taking their money and diverting it to yourself.
Don't do this, while it may not exactly be obvious how content owners would notice this and take action, it's clearly not a sustainable revenue stream.
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I agree, content publishers wouldnt be happy with this behaviour and will throw me to sharks. So I'm probably staying still. Anyway, it's not clear where is the limit since any addon modifies the page content (showing a top layer or adding a link to somewhere). It's the end user the one in charge of accepting and allowing those modifications and those changes come from the client, not from the source, dont you think? So the question remains the same, where is the limit? what am i allowed to change? Thank you so much. Iván. – Ivo Es 13 years ago
