fred

There is a very, very good chance that if you're reading this site, you're not a fan of "Fred." But there are lots of Web surfers who are. More than 1.9 million of them subscribe to his YouTube channel.

So Fred, a character created by Nebraska teenager Lucas Cruikshank, is indeed getting his own TV movie next month.

That's interesting, because it marks one of the first times a celebrity constructed entirely on the Web has crossed over into the mainstream. And it's sort of interesting, because the stuff Cruikshank makes is so … Read more

Fred von Lohmann, likely the technology's sector most recognized legal advocate, has called it quits as senior staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

One of Grokster's lead attorneys in the landmark MGM v. Grokster case, von Lohmann confirmed he is leaving EFF to take a job as Google's senior copyright counsel. In an e-mail Wednesday, von Lohmann declined to comment further.

If you're a fan of unimpeded innovation, the free distribution of content over the Web, and Internet users' right to privacy then you should take your hat off to von Lohmann. The way his … Read more

U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood apparently goofed by suggesting that a prominent pro-technology attorney acted improperly in dealings with the firm that oversees LimeWire.

Two weeks ago, Wood granted summary judgment in favor of the Recording Industry Association of America in the trade group's copyright case against Lime Group, parent of file-sharing service Lime Wire, maker of the LimeWire software. While Wood's decision generated enormous interest from file sharers, as it likely means the end of LimeWire, according to legal experts, Wood's written decision stirred controversy in legal circles by including a short note about lawyer … Read more

The trade group for the top four record companies is ratcheting up the pressure on a pro-technology attorney who may have offered controversial advice to file sharing service LimeWire.

U.S. District Judge Kimba Wood, in the Southern District of New York, last week ruled in favor of the music industry in its copyright case against the company that operates LimeWire. Wood included in her 59-page decision a reference to Fred von Lohmann, senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an advocacy group for tech companies and Internet users.

In describing testimony from Lime Wire founder Mark Gorton, Wood … Read more

The lawyers who do most of the jousting over Internet copyright issues were abuzz last week after learning that a federal court judge suggested one of the more prominent among them had advised clients to destroy evidence.

On Wednesday, U.S. District Court Judge Kimba Wood issued a 59-page decision in Manhattan granting summary judgment in favor of the Recording Industry Association of America in its long-running copyright fight against file-sharing service LimeWire. The order opened the door for the top four record companies to force a closure of the service.

In addressing an issue of whether statements made by … Read more

Most people working in Silicon Valley can rattle off a list of influential venture capital firms and individual venture investors. But if you're wondering which of them are being the most actively discussed in the media, you'll find some interesting data available in a new report from ITMemos. (Disclosure: I am an adviser to ITDatabase, the parent company behind ITMemos.)

That Kleiner Perkins, Sequoia, Benchmark and Accel top the list of most quoted VC firms is not terribly surprising. However, Fred Wilson of New York's Union Square Ventures, a significantly smaller firm, tops the list as most … Read more

Pizza night is a staple in our house--it's my go-to meal when I really don't have the energy to make something that requires more effort, when I forget to defrost meat the night before, when I don't start thinking about dinner until the kids start asking for it....you get the picture. We eat a fair amount of pizza in this house.

I'm thinking that the Pizza Boss 3000 might be a fun addition to pizza night. It's an ordinary pizza slicer dressed up as a circular saw, but without all the potential lethality of … Read more

This morning, Fred Wilson introduces us to one of Union Square Ventures' portfolio companies that is coming out of stealth and launching publicly. Tracked.com is a sort of re-imagining of a business information service that provides personalized information on businesses and the people associated with them.

The start-up is positioned to be a competitor to Google and Yahoo Finance, which are largely ticker-based, as well as user-driven information sites like CrunchBase, Wikipedia, and, to some extent, LinkedIn.

Conceived by Mike Yavonditte, formerly of Quigo, Tracked.com, of course, provides extensive information on ticker-based companies, including company financials, much like Google and Yahoo Finance do, but it's not just a stock service. Its strong point is that it also tracks privately held companies, gathering any available information on them. For all of these companies, Tracked shows a wealth of information and news as well as the people associated with the company, complete with fleshed out profiles on them as well.

Tracked helps you keep an eye on the companies and people that you find important in the business world. It has a completely customizable "My Tracker" section that allows you to pick what companies and people to watch. For public companies, it has more robust functionality than Google or Yahoo Finance. It even calls out a lot of interesting data like executive compensation. For example, you can view a list of the executives with the highest compensation in 2006. For private companies, Tracked might be the most extensive, publicly available database in existence (aside from Wikipedia) and it's sure to grow even more.

One thing that is notably different about Tracked as compared to Wikipedia or CrunchBase is that users cannot edit current entries or add new ones. This ensures that the data on Tracked is accurate since the team can check all of the data that comes in. The downside to this is that it cannot possibly include as much information as a user-driven site.

Overall, Tracked.com is a strong, customizable alternative that will pull some users away from Google and Yahoo Finance. It is a convenient and highly addictive way to browse through information on public and private businesses as well as people. The information is so extensive and interesting that you should plan to burn a couple of hours the first time that you check the site out.

You may notice that Tracked.com is operating a little slow right now with the surge of traffic from its launch. Hopefully, as they work out the kinks, performance will improve.

Here are some additional screenshots to give you a better idea of the site's functionality, but you should really just check it out yourself.… Read more

Call me astonished.

But Fred Berenson, a clearly fascinating research associate at New York University, has managed to gain sufficient funding to attempt a project that I feel sure none of you has contemplated.

For Berenson has decided to rewrite a veritable whale of a book, "Moby-Dick," entirely in emoticons.

This enterprising cove used Kickstarter to impress those who might have money to drown in such an eccentric quest.

He describes, with quite fetching enthusiasm, how he intends to turn all 6,438 sentences of the great Herman Melville opus into Japanese Emoji, rather picturesque emoticons that are … Read more