November 26th 2009
First They Came for the German Marketers… Continuing my theme that regulation should be a much higher concern to digital marketers and their professional associations, I submit that one core digital marketing tool may already be illegal in the world’s third largest economy. Zeit Online reported today that numerous German privacy officials are convinced that […]
November 21st 2009
In April, the FDA sent warning letters to 14 companies, including Eli Lilly and Co and Merck & Co Inc., about their drug marketing online, saying that ads for certain products were misleading and did not contain any risk information. But it’s hard to include risk information when your Twitter post is limited to 140 […]
November 19th 2009
Verizon’s defense against ATT’s request for a temporary restraining order was blazing, and a fantastic read. Its like they let their savage ad team help write the brief. ATT demanded that Verizon pull five disputed ads from the air as they were “misleading”. Verizon’s defense was, literally, “the truth hurts.” Defense’s introduction nails its theme […]
November 16th 2009
There are lots of legitimate reasons people don’t want their names on domain-ownership records. These range from exercising the privilege of anonymous speech, to avoiding spam, to simply preserving one’s own privacy. Of course this practice makes tracking down responsible parties for infringement or other offenses harder, as it requires a court order to learn […]
November 14th 2009
Online marketing has moved many firms toward a publishing model to generate market awareness and engagement. This has spawned a broader range of public exchanges with both customers and the public as they share ideas on company sites, and as company staff participate on others’ sites in official or quasi-official roles. There may fewer customers […]
November 12th 2009
Verizon’s all-3G network makes ATT’s 3G map look spotty at best. However, ATT has tremendous 2G coverage, which means though you may not be able to use an iPhone’s online features, you’re not entirely “out of touch,” as Verizon’s ad states. Engadget is covering this case like a blanket. As Niley Patel notes: All that […]
November 11th 2009
Just over a year ago, Carl Malamud, the founder of Public.Resource.org, a non-profit dedicated to making public records available online, did the Department of Defense a big proper. He noticed that the social security numbers of officers were being printed in the Congressional Record. Hundreds of thousands of them. Since copies of the Congressional Record […]
November 7th 2009
Discussions of regulating digital marketing were just below the surface at New York Ad:Tech. My last post gave an overview of efforts to regulate digital marketing. Now, here’s an interview at Ad:Tech by reporter David Spark with Ted Murphy, CEO of Izea, the company that makes the paid blogging service Social Spark. Ted’s been in […]
November 5th 2009
Nobody Has Noticed, But Regulation is Nearer Than You Might Imagine Earlier this year, the FCC signaled its intent to regulate the Internet. States such as Massachusetts have considered a prohibition against tracking users between sites. And the FTC has strongly suggested that ad networks require users to opt-in, rather than opt out. Interactive marketers […]
November 2nd 2009
Brad Templeton, chairman of the board of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, has produced his own “Downfall” parody video, making fun of the fact that Constantin Films has issued DMCA notices to remove all of the “Downfall” parody videos from YouTube. This little-known film has become an Internet sensation and, as I note below, Constantin Film’s […]
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