Q & A Table of Contents
They Sold My Company And The New One Has Grabbed My Business
From: Nancy, Scottsdale, AR
Question: I would like to ask you about how to negotiate possible pay for ads placed on the internet. I worked for a company placing ads for their product and the gave me a free web site to promote, which I promoted to the best of my ability.
This company that I placed ads for has stopped their free affiliate program and partnered with a new company that wants affiliates to pay $99 to join their program. I can not afford to do this.
My problem is that the new company has redirected my old affiliate site to their new site. Is that right or fair? They are not the company I agreed to place ads for. Every place I have an ad is redirected from my old site to their new site.
How should I handle this? I do not know much about laws of the internet or if they are different from regular copyright laws. I started a letter to the new company to bring this to their attention and then I thought of you. I hope you can help me. How in the world did they find all my ads to put redirection links on them? It is not like they have not done this on purpose. I have recieved no correspondance from the new company and I decided not to send my email to the new company until I hear from you.
Response: The question you pose is not peculiar to the internet or even copyright laws. If you had a written contract with the old company that contract determines your rights unless it was extremely poorly written.
Frankly it sounds as if you are the victim of a scheme by which you were encouraged to undertake work that yielded income for your original company. Once your efforts began to pay off, the old company sold itself to the new one. Most likely the sales agreement does not offer any protections to you or others in your position. If you can get a copy of the agreement by which Company 2 bought Company 1, perhaps you will be able to find some protection, but I doubt it.
You need to consider what you have to gain by entering into negotiation with the new company. Can you make more productive use of your time finding a different way to generate income for yourself? Was the revenue stream from the old situation significant enough for you to have saved sufficient funds to hire a lawyer to pursue the new company?
There is nothing wrong in writing to the new company, describing your situation, and asking them a series of questions. Make sure the questions cannot be answered by a simple 'yes' or 'no'. Invite the new company to explain their way of doing business without accusing them of skullduggery. Getting into a shouting match -- even if only using letters -- will probably not yield you any positive gains except the opportunity to vent your anger.
If the new company has an office or a supervisor you can visit, you could make an appointment to attempt to see if they are sympathetic and can offer a solution. Ask them, "What would you do in my situation?"
Candidly, I suspect the new company is surrounded by legal protections -- and you are not unless the old contract contains them.
I wish you good luck -- but have a feeling you can find a more positive way to use your time.
Steve
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