Online advertisers joined the blogger backlash against the Federal Trade Commission’s new guidelines that require bloggers, Twitterers and others to disclose any cash or freebies they’ve received to hawk stuff online.
Noting the new guidelines have created a “firestorm of controversy within the ad-supported interactive-media industry,” Interactive Advertising Bureau President Randall Rothenberg suggested the FTC rescind the new guidelines.
The Internet has been dead and boring for a while now. It has reached a point of stability where flashes of technological creativity are rare, but every now and then some new technology can put a spark back in the ole gal (no sexism intended).
I have been intrigued by the back and forth between Chris Anderson, Malcolm Gladwell, and Mark Cuban on the topic of “Free” as a strategy and business model. … Here is where I come down on all of this. First and foremost, Free is a disruptive force. This does not mean that if you deploy a free business model you will be successful.
by Chris Gatewood, Guest Writer, ZDNet, Social Business
Each of them being famous in part because of their lack of self-censorship, Courtney Love and Mark Cuban probably surprised no one when they (separately) got themselves in trouble for mouthing off via Twitter.
A few weeks back, someone pointed me to a Twitter message where one Twitter user was (jokingly) accusing another of copyright infringement for repeating a message. While the situation was amusing, you knew it was only a matter of time until the question became more serious. Mark Cuban put up a blog post this weekend asking about the copyrightability of Twitter messages. His question revolves around whether or not it’s copyright infringement for someone like ESPN to repeat what he wrote in a Twitter message, which he would have preferred they didn’t quote.
Here is a hard cold fact of the Internet age. Any content creator whose sole business is selling their content à la carte will have a hard time surviving. In a world of unlimited digital choice, the cost of creating and marketing content that generates a profit is expensive and difficult. Which is exactly why the successful sites have been aggregators. So what are newspapers to do?
It’s easy to write about what the government or other people should do with our/their money. It’s harder to come up with a course of action that I can undertake on my own that possibly, somehow could make a difference. My first inclination is always to try to look “for the next big thing.” But the next big thing is just that–next. It’s not now. Its Venture Capital. It’s not self-funding, renewal capital.
by Kevin Kelleher, Contributing Writer, GigaOm.com
It’s a classic PR play: When you start to look like the bad guy, call out a bigger bad guy. And it seems to be the strategy that the Securities and Exchange Commission–besieged by accusations of lax enforcement before and during the credit crisis–is using in going after Mark Cuban for insider trading.
If you haven’t read, ESPN has said that they will be aggressively bidding for the retransmission rights for the 2016 Olympics. Notice that I didn’t say TV rights. The battle for the Olympics rights will be in spreadsheet projections done by ESPN, NBC and probably DirecTV that will take into account what revenues can be [...]
For years, people have been saying that they will watch things in high-definition TV that they would never ordinarily watch. In the 12 years I have been involved in Internet video in one form or another, I have yet to have anyone tell me they will watch something just because it’s on the Internet. That’s [...]
The future of any technology can be defined by the economic opportunities it creates. Take just one look around Pittsburgh to see the explosion in the number of businesses built around advances in medical technology and the importance of entrepreneurs focusing on new technology. The impact has been enormous. Which brings us to today. What [...]
There is a lot of money being spent trying to turn internet video into something it’s not. It’s not TV. It’s certainly not going to be HDTV. What is shocking about the entire attempt to turn the internet into a TV/HDTV distribution medium is how much people lie to themselves about what is actually happening.
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