regretsy

How PayPal beat communists and civil servants at logic

Those brought up in communism (in the Soviet or Cuban sense)--as well as those who have dealt with any nation's civil service--will tell you that logic is infinitely malleable.

So I was slightly less impressed by PayPal's apology for freezing an account that tried to raise money for needy children, than by its beautiful logic in first freezing the account.

Should you have missed this tale, PayPal shut down the account of a site called Regretsy because it tried to use PayPal's "donate" button to accept, well, donations.

Regretsy, knowing that if David had … Read more

Gotcha! Facebook parody site pre-empts a lawsuit

Get this one: A site called "Lamebook" that mocks bad and silly Facebook content had been threatened with a trademark infringement lawsuit from Facebook, so it decided to sue Facebook first. It may sound silly, but Lamebook's rationale is that it's a very obvious parody and hence is protected by the First Amendment.

"Unlike the Facebook website, the Lamebook website does not offer social-networking services or functionality to its users and, therefore, does not compete with Facebook," the complaint explained, adding that Facebook's repeated threats of a lawsuit began in March.

Facebook has, … Read more

Gadgettes Podcast 159: The Bad Marketing Ideas Episode

With the launch of Windows 7 this week, we've seen a number of product marketing attempts that made us ask "what on earth does this have to do with anything?"

Subscribe with iTunes (audio) Subscribe with iTunes (video) Subscribe with RSS (audio) Subscribe with RSS (video) EPISODE 159

Windows Cafe in Paris

Windows 7 Whopper marketing promotion

I'm a PC USB keys

Pistachio ad campaign featuring Levi Johnston

Dolce & Gabbana Sony Ericsson Jalou

Regretsy… Read more