Fw: Re: Government Web Site Taking Paid Ads?
Shirl Kennedy
skenned1 at tampabay.rr.com
Fri Jun 11 05:59:42 EDT 1999
Interesting topic surfaces on the GOVPUB mailing list. Have any of y'all
confronted this issue re: paid ads on your (public sector) library Web
pages? Various city officials make this "suggestion" to me from time to
time. So far, I've managed to fend them off with a variety of common
sense-type arguments:
1. As a public entity, must we accept ads from anyone and everyone?
(Yikes!)
2. What happens the first time someone gets fleeced and/or injured after
they patronize one of our advertisers? We are likely the entity with the
deepest pockets...
3. If a paid advertisement appears on any of our Web pages, does it not
look like an endorsement by us...regardless of how many disclaimers we post?
4. How or by whom will the ads be sold? I don't think we have anyone
in-house with the ability to handle this function? Shall we outsource? In
which case, how profitable can the whole venture be, considering that there
is currently a glut of Web advertising space anyhow?
5. It's tacky and it may well annoy the public.
Shirl Kennedy
Web Doyenne
City of Clearwater (Florida)
http://www.clearwater-fl.com
We are not afraid to entrust the American people
with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies,
and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid
to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an
open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.
-- John F. Kennedy
----- Original Message -----
From: <Don.Norbeck at PHILA.GOV>
To: <GOVPUB at LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU>
Sent: Thursday, June 10, 1999 3:25 PM
Subject: Re: Government Web Site Taking Paid Ads?
> This is a great and unsettled topic. There are however some web and non
web
> models that may inform the discussion. On the face it would seem that
there are
> deep issues of public endorsement of private companies and well as some
free
> speech issues. There is a case out there just decided where a local
company
> challenged a local government to place a link to their website. I am
including
> the mail that I got on the case:
>
> >>From mlemley at mail.law.utexas.edu Sat Jan 09 23:05:41 1999
> >From: "Volokh, Eugene" <VOLOKH at mail.law.ucla.edu>
> >To: "CyberProf" <CyberProf at mail.law.utexas.edu>
> >Subject: Interesting restriction on Web site access
> >Date: Sat, 9 Jan 1999 22:52:14 -0800
> >Reply-to: CyberProf at mail.law.utexas.edu
> >Sender: Server at mail.law.utexas.edu
> >Comments: Originally To: "cyberprof (E-mail)"
<CyberProf at mail.law.utexas.edu>
> >X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.5.1960.3) (via Mercury MTS
> (Bindery) v1.43)
> >
> > As you probably know, Putnam Pit, Inc. v. City of Cookeville, 23
> >F. Supp. 2d 822 (M.D. Tenn. 1998), recently held that the City of
> >Cookeville, which has a Web page containing links to local businesses,
> >wasn't required to add a link to the Putnam Pit, an alternative
> >newspaper. (The Pit's theory was that the city page was a public
> >forum.) Apparently miffed by the City's intransigence, the Pit put the
> >following disclaimer on its Web site. Question: If one of the people
> >to whom the disclaimer purports to apply accesses the free site, are
> >they guilty of (1) breach of contract, (2) copyright infringement, (3)
> >trespass to chattels, or (4) violation of a computer crime statute? The
> >disclaimer is at http://www.putnampit.com
> >
> >
> >
> >Because of the costs associated with producing The Putnam Pit caused by
> >local government civil rights violations,
> > government officials, employees and or agents, or their
> > their attorneys may no longer access this site without a
> > subscription.
> > This site is a private forum. It is private property and protected by
> >copyright law and the fourth amendment to the
> > United States Constitution. If you do not work for or represent the
> >Cookeville or Putnam County, Tenn.,
> > governments, are not using a government computer or government
> >Internet account and agree no portion of any
> > material posted here will be made available to the governments of
> >Cookeville or Putnam County, Tenn., or their
> > agents,
> > click here for free access.
> > Notice to employees, officials, attorneys or agents of the Cookeville
> >or Putnam County, Tenn., governments, their
> > attorneys and those using a government computer or
> >government Internet account:
> > If you are an employee, official or agent of the Cookeville or Putnam
> >County, Tenn., governments, attorney representing one of these classes
> >or with a firm representing one of these classes or you are using a
> >government computer or government Internet account you must purchase a
> >subscription to access The Putnam Pit. A subscription costs $20 and may
> >be obtained by sending a check to The Putnam Pit, P.O. Box 1483,
> >Cookeville, Tenn. 38503. If you access any page of the material managed
> >and owned by The Putnam Pit, Inc., without a subscription, you agree by
> >that access to pay $500 per incident of access to each page accessed
> >every time you access it. You further agree to waive all rights to
> >contest collection of any debt thereby incurred, and enter into this
>
> >agreement on behalf of the government entity on whose computer or
> >through whose Internet account your access was facilitated. You further
> >represent by clicking below and accessing The Putnam Pit's private and
> >copyrighted property to allow The Putnam Pit or its agents to inspect
> >the hard drive of your computer to determine the number of times the
> >site was accessed according to the terms of this contract to determine
> >the amount owed.
> >
> >
> >Eugene Volokh, UCLA Law School
> >405 Hilgard Ave., L.A., CA 90095
> >
>
> ********
> Paul Marshall, V|Logic Corp. & Lecturer in Law, Univ. of Durban
> Realpaul at hotmail.com
> ********
>
> Finally the non web examples include; the sponsorship of stretches of
highways,
> where a private company pays a percentage of a public upkeep. Another
example
> also on highways is the exit signs on interstate highways and in some
cases
> local highways. Finally government in the terms of tourism routinely
allow for
> the sponsorship of events, even large and gaudy highlighting of private
> companies.
>
> I hope that this adds to the discussion.
>
> Don Norbeck
> City of Philadelphia Internet Services Manger
>
>
>
>
>
> ____________________Reply Separator____________________
> Subject: Government Web Site Taking Paid Ads?
> Author: John Abolins <JABOLINS at dep.state.nj.us>
> Date: 6/10/99 11:13 AM
>
> In some recent government Web publishing discussions, the question of
policy
> issues and
> examples of government agencies with Web sites accepting or soliciting
paid
> advertisements.
> Offline, there are some government agencies who take paid ads in their
> newsletters.
>
> I see some issues that can come up in taking ads and that need to be
addressed.
> (E.g.;
> avoiding the appearance of endorsement; conflicts of interest with some
> advertisers; liability; the
> use of profits, etc.) But I'll hold off from posting thoughts on these
issues
> for a while.
>
> Does anybody know of government agencies doing this?
>
> Has anybody else been going through these issues?
>
> Any agencies have policies on advertisements in government publications?
>
> Thank you.
>
> John Abolins, NJ Department of Environmental Protection
> jabolins at dep.state.nj.us
> http://www.state.nj.us/dep
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