December 19th 2008
The Wall Street Journal reports that the RIAA has decided to shift an ISP-focused enforcement approach, which would result in prosecution of individual P2P sharers only in extraordinary circumstances. Since 2003, the recording industry has opened legal proceedings against 35,000 people, including children, single mothers, and a dead person. It’s been a PR nightmare, inspired animosity […]
December 15th 2008
My take on brands (which I hope someone will just once call “the Wieneke proposition“) is that brands are vessels that hold the good feelings generated by experiences created by staff or products. The implication is that those experiences have to be placed in front of the brand. Brands don’t create their own love; experiences do. […]
December 13th 2008
The core palette of my firm’s new website has changed to white and a medium soft gray. That sounds pretty light. But these soft elements help create a canvas for the site’s accents: the use of stronger photo elements and the introduction of orange as a highlight color. Here’s an example of how an image […]
December 11th 2008
Tip of the hat to Gamasutra. A group of students at Redmond, WA-based DigiPen Institute of Technology spent three semesters working on a game that went on to win some awards. Unfortunately, part of the admissions process for this program included signing over the copyright of anything they created for assignments. The students incorporated and […]
December 6th 2008
Are video games the future? A colleague and I have been discussing what areas of legal practice will thrive in this economic downturn. There’s growing buzz about video-game law as a hot niche practice area. The Xconomy blog suggests casual video games, those without monthly subscriptions and fancy gear, may be recession-proof. Sheppard, Mullin, Richte […]
December 5th 2008
Naughty or Nice? The recording industry has described the free airplay their songs receive on AM and FM radio as “a form of piracy.” It has sued customers for copying purchased CDs to their own computers, and for selling or simply tossing out unsolicited promotional CDs. In a year in which arguably the best album is […]
December 3rd 2008
Each quarter, Google issues a brief summary of the legal threats it faces through its quarterly SEC 10-Q filings. Here’s that part of Google’s 10-Q Filing for September 30, 2008. Note 11. Contingencies Legal Matters Companies have filed trademark infringement and related claims against us over the display of ads in response to user queries […]
December 1st 2008
Loved by browsers – despised by newspapers What’s the top destination for mobile browsing in the US? Craigslist. US mobile users averaged a whopping one hour and 39 minutes per month on Craigslist alone. Though Craigslist doesn’t have much of a business model (no ads, mostly free posting, few staff) it has absolutely transformed print […]
November 27th 2008
The Missouri mother on trial in the landmark cyberbullying case that originated from the MySpace-related suicide of Megan Meier has been found guilty of three misdemeanor violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. I began writing about the tragic suicide of Megan Meier just under a year ago. The post questioned the widely reported […]
November 27th 2008
This morning, LinkedIn began promoting its new User Agreement. #3 in its list of Don’ts is: (Don’t) include information in your profile or in Status Updates which reveals your identity such as an email address, phone number or address or is confidential in nature; Of course, simply by linking to the User Agreement, I may […]
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