Senator Marco Rubio Dropping His Co-Sponsorship Of PIPA

from the another-down dept

It appears that the some in Congress are finally hearing you. Senator Marco Rubio, from Florida, has announced that he is removing his name as a co-sponsor of PIPA and is urging Senator Harry Reid not to go ahead with the plan to bring the bill to the floor.

Earlier this year, this bill passed the Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously and without controversy. Since then, we've heard legitimate concerns about the impact the bill could have on access to the Internet and about a potentially unreasonable expansion of the federal government's power to impact the Internet. Congress should listen and avoid rushing through a bill that could have many unintended consequences.

Therefore, I have decided to withdraw my support for the Protect IP Act. Furthermore, I encourage Senator Reid to abandon his plan to rush the bill to the floor. Instead, we should take more time to address the concerns raised by all sides, and come up with new legislation that addresses Internet piracy while protecting free and open access to the Internet.

Publicity stunt? Or democracy in action? I vote for the latter. It's good to see politicians actually listening to constituents rather than lobbyists sometimes...

Filed Under: backlash, blackouts, marco rubio, pipa, protect ip, protests, sopa, sponsors

First One Down: Rep. Lee Terry Removes His Name As A SOPA Co-Sponsor

from the who's-next? dept

We were wondering when our elected officials would start realizing just how toxic SOPA and PIPA have become. It appears it's happening today, along with the online protests. Rep. Lee Terry, from Nebraska -- who just last week expressed some concerns about the bill at CES, but still appeared committed to it -- has announced that he's removing his name as a co-sponsor of the bill, becoming the first US Representative to do so. Over in the Senate, Senator Jerry Moran did so way back in June -- and has since become a leading voice against PIPA. Terry's spokesperson claimed that after listening to some of the complaints, he realized that the bill just has too many problems, and could cause more harm than good -- especially for the open internet. Good for him. Now... who's next?

Filed Under: backlash, blackouts, co-sponsors, lee terry, pipa, protect ip, protests, sopa

Some Actual Backlash For Groups That Unthinkingly Sign Their Name In Support Of Telco Positions

from the policy-backlash dept

For years, we've covered how slimy DC-insiders and secretive "lobbying" firms have a list of "interest groups" that they "fund" in order to use them to support various initiatives they don't really care about. The telling quote from someone involved in these astroturfing efforts:

"You go down the Latino people, the deaf people, the farmers, and choose them.... You say, 'I can't use this one--I already used them last time...' We had their letterhead. We'd just write the letter. We'd fax it to them and tell them, 'You're in favor of this.'"

AT&T has been working overtime on this front, and we've seen random groups who really are unlikely to have any interest in the AT&T/T-Mobile merger come out in favor of it, culminating in the ultimate in ridiculous arguments, from a rural education group, that the merger would help kids do better in school (yes, seriously).

Of course, this still goes on because there's almost no downside. We can call it out every time it happens, and most people just don't seem to care very much. But, every so often, actual members of these groups recognize the problems with such things, and they speak up. Broadband Reports has the news of how GLAAD's boss has been pressured into resigning after membership grew quite concerned about GLAAD's sudden endorsement of the merger -- and some connections between the company and the organization are suddenly being scrutinized. Whether or not you agree with the merger, it seems pretty sleazy to line up random interest groups in support of or against it.

It's tragic that this is the way of DC. It's not about doing what's right, or focusing on the best argument possible. It's a purely cynical land grab about who can do whatever it takes to get certain things rammed through. It's nice that, just once, there are repercussions for some of the organizations that let themselves be flat-out used in this manner.

Filed Under: astroturfing, backlash, lobbying
Companies: at&t, glaad, t-mobile

Ski Manufacturer Turns Patent Troll, Igniting Patent Response & Pissing Off Potential Customers

from the bad-chess-players dept

Crosbie Fitch alerts us to the news that skiing manufacturer Armada apparently secured a patent 7,690.674 earlier this year on a "snow riding implement," and the company has started sending out threat letters to a bunch of competitors. Now, two interesting things have happened in response. First, at least one of the companies threatened, Rossignol, has responded by pulling out one of its own patents (6,986,525 and filing a lawsuit against Armada for infringement, while also asking for declaratory judgment that it does not infringe on Armada's patent: Rossignol more or less has admitted that, while it has this patent, it's basically just held it for defensive purposes, such as when someone else threatens it with patent infringement.

The second interesting thing is that if you read through the threads on either of the links forums above, you see a ton of customers swearing off Armada products. Oops. As Crosbie notes in his submission:

"One thing that patent trolls seem to be unaware of is the growing awareness in their customers of patents as a tool of extortion, so when a market player plays dirty, it's not just their competition they piss off, but their market, especially their current and potential customers."

Of course... that only applies to "trolls" who also make products...

Filed Under: backlash, patents, skiing
Companies: armada, rossignol

How UK Chiropractors' Attempt To Silence One Critic Created The Backlash That May Change Chiropractics In The UK

from the can-a-chiropractor-fix-that? dept

Last year, we wrote about a really troubling incident in the UK, where the British Chiropractic Association had sued Dr. Simon Singh for noting that there was little scientific evidence to back up some of the marketing claims used by the BCA concerning what chiropractors could treat. Rather than responding with evidence, the BCA responded with a lawsuit. As we noted at the time, the backlash against the BCA was pretty impressive, with it calling a lot more attention to the questionable medical claims, as well as tremendous anger towards the BCA and chiropractors for the actions against Singh. It was a classic Streisand Effect in action. What was also interesting was how a group of bloggers then teamed up to do the investigative work that no full-time journalist was doing (and who says bloggers can't do investigative journalism?) to debunk the BCA's claims.

While the lawsuit continues, the loosely organized group of folks who had been fighting back against the BCA have continued to work their magic. Brandon writes in to let us know that they've been going one-by-one through every chiropractor who's a member of the BCA and examining their web sites for false marketing claims -- leading to a situation where a stunning one out of every four chiropractors in the UK is under investigation for misleading marketing or advertising. This isn't just the Streisand Effect, this is the Streisand Effect on steroids. In trying to hush up one critic, the BCA has unleashed a large group of concerned folks who are organized (perhaps loosely, but quite effectively) to bring about massive change concerning the BCA and chiropractor marketing practices in general.

The article linked above also goes through more details of how this group has helped dismantle the BCA's weak attempt at showing scientific evidence for some of those marketing claims:

The statement, supported by just 29 citations, was ripped apart by bloggers within 24 hours of publication, before being subjected to a further shredding in the British Medical Journal. It emerged that 10 of the papers cited had nothing to do with chiropractic treatment, and several weren't even studies. The remainder consisted of a small collection of poor-quality trials.

More seriously, the BCA misled the public with a misrepresentation of one paper, a Cochrane review looking at the effectiveness of various treatments for bed-wetting, claiming that the authors had simply concluded that, "there was weak evidence to support the use of [chiropractic].

One day someone will write a big case study (or perhaps a book) about what happened here. An attempt to silence a critic may end up resulting in massive changes to not just the British Chiropractic Association (the article notes that many chiropractors are horrified and want to leave the organization), but also how people view chiropractors and how chiropractic services are marketed.

Filed Under: backlash, chiropractors, streisand effect, truth in advertising, uk

North Face Lawsuit Against South Butt Going Viral With Facebook App

from the can-you-tell-a-butt-from-a-face dept

Following North Face's incredibly short-sighted decision to sue parody clothing maker, South Butt, it seems that the story is going viral in a variety of ways. Not only is the press and various blogs talking about it, but Paul Alan Levy alerts us to the news that South Butt has released a Facebook app that helps you "sharpen your skills" to see if you can "tell a butt from a face." As Levy notes, this sort of application and attention gaining effort shows why these types of lawsuits are likely to bite you in the butt. Even if there's a legal basis here (and that's questionable), the backlash against such a lawsuit is clear (and was widely predicted when North Face first made its threat). Anyone filing lawsuits these days needs to realize how the court of public opinion can weigh in quite loudly on such things.

Filed Under: backlash, facebook app, lawsuits, trademark, viral
Companies: facebook, north face, south butt

Sega Apparently Learned Nothing From EA's Spore-DRM Mistakes

from the this-isn't-hard dept

You would think that, given the widespread negative publicity generated by EA's choice to use draconian DRM with the release of Spore, that other video game companies might recognize that they'd be better served going in a different direction. Unfortunately, that's not the case with Sega, whose Sports Interactive subsidiary has released the latest copy of its incredibly popular Football Manager product, only to find that many, many legitimate customers are discovering they cannot activate the offering because the DRM is not working properly. And, not surprisingly, this is now leading to numerous negative reviews on Amazon, as people point out how the DRM has stymied their ability to actually play the game they've purchased (while some have noted that cracked copies of the game are already widely available). Congratulations, Sega. Not only have you failed to stop piracy, you've also pissed off many legitimate paying customers, and made sure that the game is poorly rated on Amazon. What do you plan for an encore?

Filed Under: backlash, drm, football manager, spore, video games
Companies: sega, sports interactive

Understanding The Backlash Cost In Copying Someone Else's Work

from the thinking-things-through dept

Earlier this month, we wrote about a neat marketing campaign put on by the Eepy Bird guys using tons of Post-It Notes. It wasn't clear if 3M, the makers of Post-It Notes was actually involved or not -- but it appears the company is busy at work on its own viral marketing campaign, though it's off to a poor start. As a bunch of folks have sent in, 3M apparently decided to make make its own car covered in Post-It Notes photo after the company failed to license the original photo that was made famous a few years ago.

Now, I find the people who claim that 3M was "stealing" the concept just as (if not more) silly as those who claim that downloading an unauthorized song is "stealing." 3M tried to license the photo and couldn't agree on a price, so it made its own. It didn't "steal" the idea, it just found it more cost effective to do it on its own (the classic buy vs. build decision). However, it does appear that the company didn't take the backlash cost into account in figuring out that buy vs. build equation.

This is actually quite important. Often, when we talk about things like plagiarism or copyright infringement, people insist that others will always "rip you off" and copy your work and there's absolutely no recourse. Yet, they fail to acknowledge the importance of reputation. If you are caught so uncreatively copying someone else, without doing anything new or innovative on top of that, it's not surprising that people will call you out, often vehemently, for your uncreative copying efforts. That can have quite a big cost in terms of reputation and credibility, probably a lot more than it would have cost to have reached an agreement with the original creator. So, before thinking it's so easy for big companies flat out "rip off" someone else's creative work, just remember that there are some pretty serious hidden reputation costs in them doing so.

Filed Under: backlash, copying, costs, post-it notes, viral videos
Companies: 3m

Will Spore DRM Become EA's Rootkit Moment?

from the increasing-parallels dept

With the news coming out that some purchasers of the video game Spore have filed a class action lawsuit against EA for its inclusion of SecuROM DRM, it's reaching the point where you have to wonder if this is becoming EA's "rootkit" moment. The parallels are there. Both involved an overly draconian form of DRM that severely limited how a "purchased" product could be used. Both involved hidden files installed on a computer -- and both resulted in massive backlash from consumers, and a very slow response from the company. And, of course, the rootkit resulted in class action lawsuits as well. At some point, perhaps, companies will start to realize that treating your customers as criminals is probably a bad idea.

Filed Under: backlash, class action lawsuit, drm, rootkit, spore

Did Amazon Delete Spore Reviews? [Updated]

from the they're-all-gone dept

Want to know how not to respond to criticism? By deleting it. Yet, it appears that's what Amazon has done. Earlier this week we wrote about the controversy of EA's decision to put cumbersome DRM on the highly anticipated video game, Spore. The response was that thousands of people started posting one star reviews of Spore, noting the problems with the DRM. Things then got worse when people realized that EA had misled customers about the fact that they could only have one user account on Spore.

Now, a bunch of people have noticed that Amazon appears to have deleted all of the reviews on the Spore page. This is only going to end badly. When you try to shut down a large group of people who feel wronged, you're not just whacking the bees' nest with a stick, you're setting it on fire with a flame thrower. The folks who were complaining are only going to complain louder, and louder. Remember what happened when Digg tried to takedown the AACS crack? Whoever was responsible for removing the comments -- whether it was Amazon or EA -- they may find that the reaction to trying to shut down the angry mob is only going to make folks that much angrier, and alert that many more people to the problems they have with EA's use of DRM.

Update: It appears that some, or potentially all, of the reviews are now back on the site, and Amazon is claiming that it was a "glitch" that they disappeared. Some people claim that their own reviews are not back yet, though, so the whole situation is a bit fluid. Either way, if it really was a glitch, it was a pretty bad time and place for such a glitch to occur.

Filed Under: backlash, deletions, drm, reviews, spore, streisand effect
Companies: amazon, ea