Mt. Dew had a "Dub the Dew" campaign to let Internet users choose the name for a green-apple infused soft drink... Awfully optimistic.
The Mt. Dew marketing team forgot just what they were dealing with. After all, they were asking the same people who exiled rapper Pitbull to a Walmart in Alaska for advice. As could have been expected, the results of Dub the Dew were so offensive and useless that the entire promotion needed to be shut down.
M3Server promo:
Use Coupon Code: 50off1024 when signing up.
Engadget reports:
So Microsoft launched a new email service today -- not a redesigned version of Hotmail, but a completely new, built-from-the-ground-up service. It's called Outlook.com, and for now, at least, it will exist separately from Hotmail, as Microsoft attempts to distance itself from Hotmail's bad rap.
So far, so good. But when we visit outlook.com, what is the first thing that happens? We get redirected to a live.com login page. The help section there is not dedicated to the new outlook.com site, but it's the generic live.com stuff.
Why would I want to sign up for an outlook.com account, if you can't even visit outlook.com without a live.com account? What features does does an outlook.com account have? I don't know because outlook.com doesn't even have a "features"-page or a "faq"-section. Or maybe it does, but unless I first sign up for a live.com account, I'll never know.
After reading the engadget article, I was curious and wanted to find out more. Two seconds after visiting outlook.com, it looks like Microsoft dropped the ball again. But then again, when was the last time Microsoft didn't drop it when they developed an internet service?
A confidential internal report of the music industry outfit IFPI has been inadvertently made available online by the group itself. Penned by their Head of Internet Anti-piracy Operations, the report details the global strategy for the major recording labels of IFPI. Issues covered include everything from torrent sites to cyberlockers, what behavior IFPI expects of Internet service providers, the effectiveness of site blocking, and how pirates are accessing unreleased music from industry sources.
The IFPI report says it has 5 possible reactions to a threat:
IFPI splits illicit content availability into two sections:
IFPI is also keeping a close eye on the downloading and sharing of content across mobile data and other wireless networks. IFPI worries that these networks are providing here-and-now streaming of content via all-you-can-eat plans. Making matters worse is that IFPI reports challenges when it comes to matching an IP address to a subscriber.
The recording group also reports that Apple and Android architectures are encouraging the creation of 3rd party music apps. IFPI say they are crawling both the App Store and Google Marketplace and are focusing on "quick take down agreements" with Apple, Google, Microsoft, Nokia and Palm to remove apps they don't like. They are also mulling an expansion of their "payment provider program" to target "rogue" Android app developers.
Unauthorized music sites
IFPI say they have identified in excess of 50 Russian and Ukrainian pay MP3 download sites. The group reports that law enforcement authorities have "secured evidence that the illegal sites are annually stealing hundreds of millions of dollars" which is creating opportunities for money laundering and tax evasion investigations. IFPI say their next steps will include strangling the sites' finances with the help of payment processors, recovering proceeds of crime, and developing asset confiscation.
Disruption of revenue streams
IFPI's advertiser strategy is based around the "disruption of revenue streams" to unauthorized sites by several methods. In the report they speak of a "structured notice and take down program targeting Google's AdSense and DoubleClick advertising networks," plus "out reach" to IASH and IAB to implement "comprehensive infringing block lists." IFPI says it also initiates direct contact with advertisers to flag when their ads appear on infringing sites. Agreements are said to be in place with VISA, MasterCard, PayPal, CTIA, Monitise, PaySafeCard and PhonePayPlus to strangle finances to unauthorized sites.
The European Parliament rejected ACTA, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, with a large majority on 4 July 2012, but just one week later the EU is trying to push back the rejected agreement through the back door, that is, through CETA, the EU–Canada trade agreement that includes measures similar to ACTA.
The negotiations between EU and Canada on CETA started in November 2009 and will probably be ended by the end of this year. Just like ACTA, the trade deal has been drafted in secret but leaked documents, dated February 2012, have shown parts of ACTA being introduced in this new agreement.
MEP Nigel Farage drew the attention over the similarities between ACTA and CETA:
If the commission has a glimmer of respect for the voice of the people it would change CETA as soon as possible and stop trying to bring ACTA into legislative life by stealth. ACTA is like a Frankenstein which has been bolted together and keeps on moving. It is dangerous and must be brought to an end immediately.
The backdoor ACTA approach creates enormous risks for Canada's trade ambitions. Given the huge anti-ACTA movement, the Canada-EU trade deal could face widespread European opposition with CETA becoming swept up in similar protests.
In January, a federal judge in Dallas imposed $10,000 in sanctions on the Texas-based lawyer Evan Stone and required him to pay $22,040 in attorneys' fees. Mr. Stone, in his zeal to get the names of those who illegally downloaded a German porn flick Der Gute Onkel, had knowingly sent out subpoenas without the court's permission.
From The Wall Street Journal:
U.S. District Judge David Godbey used words like "wanton" and "grave" to describe Mr. Stone's conduct. The judge accused Mr. Stone of transforming the use of subpoenas "from a bona fide state-sanctioned inspection into private snooping."
Mr. Stone appealed the sanction to the New Orleans-based Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. On Thursday, a three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit swept Mr. Stone's arguments aside, saying he never raised them in the lower court so they weren't preserved for appeal. The court was unsparing in its criticism of Mr. Stone:
No miscarriage of justice will result from the sanctions imposed as a result of Stone's flagrant violation of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and the district court's orders. Stone committed those violations as an attempt to repeat his strategy of suing anonymous internet users for allegedly downloading pornography illegally, using the powers of the court to find their identity, then shaming or intimidating them into settling for thousands of dollars, a tactic that he has employed all across the state and that has been replicated by others across the country.
TechDirt warns us about the dangers of patents and how China is using them to harm foreign competitors:
For many years, US companies and government officials complained publicly and privately that China just didn't "respect" patents. They would point to how various Chinese companies were famous for making knockoffs of various products as evidence of this, and they'd put strong diplomatic pressure on China to both "respect" foreign patents more and beef up its own patent system. Of course, for years, we've been warning about just how stupid this is. China recognizes that patents are really a protectionist tool, and is using them as such. It has certainly increased its patenting effort... but nearly every single major patent lawsuit in China has been about punishing foreign companies and blocking competition to domestic Chinese companies.
Chinese companies and politicians must be laughing at just how self-defeating the Americans and Europeans are. Despite it being obvious that patents harm the economy, American companies and politicians will still continue to insist that China needs to "strengthen" its patent system and EU Commissioners like Karel De Gucht continues to promote ACTA. If ACTA (the so called Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement) would come into play, Chinese companies would be able to enforce their patents in the US, Canada and the EU, harming even more companies.
