Marketer wins damages for mailing list spam
A Scottish court has ordered an internet service provider to pay £750 plus expenses and interest to a man it "spammed" by sending a single e-mail obtained via a discussion list.
Gordon Dick took Transcom Internet Services to court in Edinburgh after receiving a marketing message apparently via an email group operated by UK domain registry Nominet. Both parties belonged to the group.
France cracking down on online gambling?
The Guardian is reporting today that online gambling group PartyGaming has closed its French website, without notifying investors. One shareholder has offloaded around £50m of stock in the firm.
Meanwhile, John Anderson, the former chief executive of 888 Holdings, has been summoned for interview by the French authorities, prompting speculation that French authorities are about to crackdown on online gambling.
This in itself is prompting speculation that the French and American governments actually agree on something.
Inventor challenges Slingbox on patent claim
A Texan inventor has launched an audacious court case against TV-shifting hardware maker Sling Media, claiming a patent infringement.
Stuart Mershon claims the Slingbox, which uses the internet to rebroadcast TV content from a user's lounge to a PC or mobile phone anywhere in the world, infringes on a system he invented to transmit home audio signals to a remote speaker over wireless telephone networks.
MySpace to test video filtering
MySpace is experimenting with a content-filtering system in a bid to prevent the site's members from uploading videos containing copyrighted material.
News Corp's popular social network will use technology from Audible Magic, which examines the audio tracks of video clips to create a unique signature.
Sales of virtual goods stopped by eBay
Auction giant eBay has prevented the sale of virtual goods for online games such as EverQuest and World of Warcraft on its site.
All listings related to these virtual goods, which include currency, characters, weapons, and online game accounts are being removed by eBay due to legal concerns.
Viacom asks YouTube to remove 100,000 clips
Viacom, the parent company of MTV and Comedy Central, has requested YouTube to remove 100,000 clips of its programming.
Viacom had been negotiating with Google over a deal that would allow the clips to be shown on YouTube in return for a share of ad revenues, but pulled out of talks after failing to reach an agreement.
Online gambling shares drop after US investigation
A demand from the US Department of Justice for financial institutions in the UK and other European countries to hand over data connected with online gambling has hit shares in betting firms today.
Shares in the world’s biggest online gaming group, PartyGaming, fell 9.8%, Sportingbet shares dropped by 3.4% and 888.com’s share price fell by 3.5%.
The benefits of a relaxed blogging policy
One of the main fears of corporate blogging is the risk to reputation and the damage that employee bloggers can do to their own company.
If a firm does choose to allow employees to blog in work time, it is my experience that many legal and HR advisors advocate having a restrictive and detailed blogging policy to protect the firm.
A danger with this approach is that if you set up such a blogging policy, it will become so tight that no employee would dare to blog...
Neteller founders arrested for 'money laundering'
The two founders of online payments company, Stephen Lawrence and John Lefebvre, were last night charged with conspiracy in connection with what's being described as "money laundering", linked to internet gambling.
A FBI operation had discovered that Neteller was being used by Americans to place bets on sporting events via foreign-based internet gambling companies.
Wal-Mart ads 'keep Pirate Bay afloat'
Asda parent Wal-Mart is reportedly placing banner ads on under-fire BitTorrent trading site The Pirate Bay.
Sweden-based The Pirate Bay grew into the world's largest torrent tracker last year, doing a roaring trade in illegally shared TV shows, movies and more. Law enforcers shut the site down in May, but it resurfaced, more popular than ever, just days later to torment the entertainment industry again.
Social media: the best and worst of 2009
Email marketing: six steps to improving customer engagement in 2010
Web 2.0
Graham Charlton
Strategy & Planning
