Jangro.com Social Media, Affiliate Marketing, etc. Heavy on the etc.

CJ announced a new publisher service agreement. The email, addressed from Tom Vadnais, CJ’s relatively new General Manager, was quite vague on the actual changes:

Commission Junction is dedicated to continually increasing the quality of its services and the standards of our network participants. We know the quality of our network directly impacts your success. To this end, Commission Junction has made small changes to its policies and procedures that require slight modification of the Publisher Service Agreement (”PSA”).

The revised PSA that governs your relationship with Commission Junction is effective as of October 20, 2005. It is posted at www.cj.com/psa.jsp for your complete review.

Pursuant to Section 7 of the PSA, Commission Junction is providing you with 14 days notice of these modifications. Your continued use of the Commission Junction Network and your publisher account, after October 20, 2005, will be deemed as your acceptance of the new PSA and you will be legally bound by its terms. You have the right to terminate your relationship with Commission Junction in the event that you do not agree to the new PSA.

You are advised to read the new PSA and to seek independent legal advice if you require interpretation regarding any of its provisions, and to assist, if necessary, in determining whether to continue your relationship with Commission Junction prior to the end of the notice period.

That last paragraph prompted a closer look. I reviewed the new PSA after receiving this email, and didn’t find anything alarming. Then I went to compare the old and new to find the “small changes”. It turns out that the document was completely rewritten. So tonight, I went through the exercise of cross-referencing the old PSA with the new to try and determine exactly what changed. My findings are here: Commission Junction Publisher Service Agreement Changes. It is not a thorough analysis of what changed, but provides a mapping between the new and the old and can help compare them side-by-side.

From what I’ve found, the executive summary of what actually changed is as follows:

1. The new PSA is a good deal shorter. There are a few sections that didn’t make it to the new PSA, and otherwise, it looks like they removed some redundant text.
2. There is new language around “special” promotional methods, giving CJ more hand in dealing with publishers engaging in creative methods for driving traffic and transactions.
3. There also appears to be a new requirement that Publishers include a Privacy Policy on websites, including disclosure of tracking performed by Commission Junction on their behalf.
4. CJ has added language allowing them to use publishers’ names and trademarks in marketing material, naming publishers as being clients of theirs.
5. The timeframe for “inactivity” (no transactions or logging in to the account) which allows CJ to deactivate has been reduced from 90 to 30 days.

There may be more, but that’s what I’ve found. I don’t know if I’d classify those as “slight” changes, but decide for yourself.

Again, see the CJ PSA changes for more details.