Is this legal or I am going too far?

[Macik]

Hello there,

I have a fairly simple ( I think) question.

I am an event promoter and I use my website to advertise events. At the moment I am advertising only events that I am an affiliate for.

But I would love to spread the word and advertise great events that don't offer affiliate program as well.

Say I promote gigs and Metallica is in town, but no affiliate scheme for it - can I post that event on my website with all the details and link to the official gig page?

Another question:

One of the managers from affiliate programs said that I can use text from their website and put it on my website if I want to as this is public knowledge so no issues there (disregard SEO implications for now). But can I do the same for those non affiliate events? (assuming I can advertise them)

Your help is greatly appreciated

Thanks
Maciej

 

[Annoying Donkey]

Considering this is what G does all the time, I doubt you'll have any issues, especially as the event organisers would want all the publicity they can get...

If you build a list, you might be able to do a deal with those who don't have affiliate schemes to advertise to your list.

 

[Ashley_Price]

I think the only way you would get into trouble is if you didn't make it clear that you had no part in arranging the event and that you are just promoting it.

You might run into problems if it appeared you were trying to get people believing you had arranged the Metallica gig or are the official promoter.

 

[Ashley_Price]

event organisers would want all the publicity they can get...

As long as the publicity was positive. They might not be too happy if someone was promoting an event for a negative reason or a negative message, even if it's meant to be a fun one:

"Attending a Metallica concert is bad for your health. Studies show that Metallica fans have died later in life"

(Well, we all die at some point, but you'd get the Daily Mail weaving six pages of rubbish out of a statistic like that.)

 

[Macik]

WeblinkPlus and Ashley_Price thank you very much for your advice! Very useful.

That is exactly what my other bits of researched said - if I am spreading the word, they should be happy, as long as I am not spreading negative publicity or pretending to be them (which is also part of any affiliate agreement) I should be ok.

But you never know how someone will respond - they may for example say "thanks to my event you attracted more people to your website and made money off affiliate events. I want £10,000 of that revenue now".

Do you know if the above scenario is "legally possible"?

 

[Macik]

Ashley, your quote about Metallica fans dying later in life is the funniest thing I've heard this week. Who writes this stuff??!

And actually... I nearly died coming back from Metallica concert myself during a head on accident with a truck...

 

[beasty]

Big companies do not allow people to simply plaster their logos around, they like to control the context and presentation, to limit the channels and so on, your traffic is traffic not going to an official outlet.



You would probably be told to take it down as soon as it was spotted as people might confuse you as having an affiliation

If you ever want to be allowed to present them at a later date, best not to piss of these people now

My view is that there is no way that you should do this beyond a line with a date and time and link to an official site.