April 2009

Update: Avoid Facebook Phishing Scam at fbstarter.com and baction.net

April 30th 2009

For the second consecutive day, Facebook has been attacked by phishing scams. Unsuspecting Facebook users get a message from a friend urging them to “check this out” and including a link to a Web page that appears to be a Facebook log-in page.  It is, however, a fake site which steals their log-in credentials, and […]

Social Media + Stupidity = The Frontier of Online Law

April 30th 2009

Note to self: five things not to do on social media. Never make a public Facebook group called: “Make-it-Rain Foundation for Underprivileged Hoes,“ especially if you’re a cop in DC. Don’t Twitter plans for a massacre. Twitter crosses state lines, as does the FBI. Don’t post collections notices on people’s kids’ MySpace pages, even if […]

Retribution Reporting: Media Gutted by Free Craigslist Ads, Makes it Defining Feature of Killings

April 29th 2009

We’ve previously blogged about crime on Craigslist. This post is about something different: retribution. Allow me to confirm what you may already know: When newspapers consider what’s happened to their business model and who is responsible, the first name that comes to mind is often Craigslist. Craigslist Decimated Print Budgets by Giving Away Classifieds Newspapers used […]

Wikipedia Throws Hissy Fit About WikipediaArt.org

April 28th 2009

Recently, the people over at Wikipedia.org have had a bee in their bonnet about a site called WikipediaArt.org. Wikipedia doesn’t like this other site using its name in their domain name, and is threatening to pursue legal action against WikipediaArt.org for trademark infringement. According to WikipediaArt.org: This web site documents performance art work that promotes […]

Heading to Chicago to Speak on Digital Best Practices at BMA

April 27th 2009

I’m thrilled to be heading to Chicago in June speak at the Business Marketing Association’s Annual Meeting. As you can see, the conference theme is to un-learn and empower brands to better adapt to the dramatically changing world of B-to-B marketing. The “dynamic personalization” dream team Last fall I was part of a really fun […]

The Revolution Will Be Mobile: Competition for the Handheld Web

April 17th 2009

I spent a few days this week at the Rhode Island School of Design discussing mobile design.  Naturally, when I picked up the news, it  seemed to be bursting with stories about mobile. Marketing VOX is reporting on AT&T research showing that 49 percent of men like watching live sports on mobile devices. As web […]

Society Doesn’t Need Newspapers; It Needs Journalism

April 16th 2009

Disruption of Technology =  Growth of Journalism I’m holding something cool in my hands this morning: the first weekly edition of The Christian Science Monitor.  They publish the news online daily, free for all, and print a weekly review with some print-only content just for subscribers.  In it you’ll find an editorial about the return […]

Are Your Emails or Websites Breaking French Language Laws in Quebec?

April 14th 2009

According to Canada’s last census, there are more than 7.5 million residents in Quebec. Perhaps some of them would like to do business with you. But there’s a hurdle. The French language. In 1977, the National Assembly of the Province of Quebec adopted the Charter of the French Language. In short, it sets a rule […]

Lego Constructs Case to Dismantle Domain Squatters

April 13th 2009

While domain squatting is on the increase, so is enforcement.  Brands are using research to determine which variants of their domains merit defensive registration, and since all variants can be predicted, they are invoking litigation and arbitration to take control of infringing marks. Lego already owns 450 domain names, and they’ve registered their mark in […]

AP & Newspapers See Internet as a Threat

April 10th 2009

The Associated Press plans to go after news aggregators legally and through legislation (whatever that means) who ‘take’ AP headlines and related content. Despite the obvious arguments of Fair Use and the fact that aggregators drive traffic to AP affiliated newspapers or even to the AP itself, AP Board Chairmen Dean Singleton sees it very […]