In such case, my opinion would be that referal stripping should be OK. It is the customer choice, even if automated, and the extension clearly tell what he does. You can see it, using the metaphor used in the video exposing the problem, as just not giving the referal card the store salesman gave you.
In the case of Honey, they do it behind the customer back, and the original video metaphor is quite right. They could at least ask i f the user wish to attribute the sale to Honey instead of whatever influencer/website originally pointed you to the product, but they don’t.
I’m thinking this lawsuit will be more about how they wronged creators, and less about how they wronged customers. I don’t expect there to be any justice or concern for the customers who were wronged. Therefore, I agree with TAG, I would worry that them losing would set a bad precedent, and possibly make it so that tampering with referral codes, tracking links, etc isn’t allowed anymore because it hurts creators and sellers/companies, and thus that could outlaw adblockers entirely by extension which would not be great.
That’s like worst-case scenario, though, I don’t necessarily expect that to happen, but I think it’s possible.
That is not the issue at all. This lawsuit has nothing to do with user of honey, only on behalf of creators and affiliate marketers. Langley in part because users of honey signed a class action waver and makes it a sticky issue to also include them in the lawsuit.
In such case, my opinion would be that referal stripping should be OK. It is the customer choice, even if automated, and the extension clearly tell what he does. You can see it, using the metaphor used in the video exposing the problem, as just not giving the referal card the store salesman gave you.
In the case of Honey, they do it behind the customer back, and the original video metaphor is quite right. They could at least ask i f the user wish to attribute the sale to Honey instead of whatever influencer/website originally pointed you to the product, but they don’t.
I’m thinking this lawsuit will be more about how they wronged creators, and less about how they wronged customers. I don’t expect there to be any justice or concern for the customers who were wronged. Therefore, I agree with TAG, I would worry that them losing would set a bad precedent, and possibly make it so that tampering with referral codes, tracking links, etc isn’t allowed anymore because it hurts creators and sellers/companies, and thus that could outlaw adblockers entirely by extension which would not be great.
That’s like worst-case scenario, though, I don’t necessarily expect that to happen, but I think it’s possible.
The issue here isn’t that the tracking link has been tampered with, but that it was done without the user’s informed consent.
Honey doesn’t advertise how it makes its money to consumers; it is just a fancy plug-in that could save you money.
That is not the issue at all. This lawsuit has nothing to do with user of honey, only on behalf of creators and affiliate marketers. Langley in part because users of honey signed a class action waver and makes it a sticky issue to also include them in the lawsuit.
One of the lawyers taking part in it explicitly points this out: https://youtu.be/ItiXffyTgQg?t=182