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Thursday, October 28, 2004

help stop rolex spam

today’s proposition:

google + lawyers = trouble

over at boingboing, there’s a little teaser about the rolex spam anti-massacree movement.

you can read more about the circumstances of this incident, including an analysis by chilling effects and an editorial here.

briefly, some lawyers decided that the best way to protect rolex was to go after mailing lists that got hit with spam for fake rolex watches.

now, before i cast this stone, let me confess my own sins. i’ve come after, in very harsh ways, people who turned out later to be innocent third parties in spam/scam situations. there is a small difference, of course, and that is that i’m not billing three-figures (just a guess) an hour for my efforts, and i’m not doing this for anyone but myself. i do try to be nice about things, but sometimes, the only way i can get someone’s attention (maybe because i can’t afford the gibney, anthony & flaherty, llp letterhead) is to make a lot of noise. i guess another difference is that i generally don’t make specific seven-figure threats.

now for the stone.

i’ve got a small collection of domains that actually appear to sell fake rolex watches, but most of them are overseas (mostly korea, it seems). on the other hand, the domain in the specific spam in question seems to be registered in pennsylvania.

anyway, i’m sure rolex paid very well for the research, and i hate to see a company get such crappy results from a law firm, so i’m going to go a wee-bit further with the cluebat, and provide a public service to the good people at rolex and gibney, anthony & flaherty, llp. if you get rolex spam, maybe you could forward it to the suggestions address at gibney, anthony & flaherty, llp. they are apparently interested in identifying potential brand dilution on behalf of their clients, one of which is apparently rolex. i believe that a thousand eyes are even better (for now) than a “technologically savvy research department,” (we’ll get to that in a minute) so we can all do our little bit [i have about 150 spam messages with “rolex” in the subject at the moment] to help them identify the true source of these messages.

of course, you’re not going to get paid like the research department at gibney, anthony & flaherty, llp, but you can help put an end to this scourge of the internet. but probably not…

TECHNOLOGICALLY SAVVY
Gibney is rapidly moving into the advanced world of technology. In the earlier part of 1999, the Intellectual Property team developed a branch of their department that both governs and enforces Intellectual Property rights, including trademarks and copyrights, on the Internet. The Internet Governance Team has been well trained in identifying trademark and copyright violations on behalf of clients in the luxury goods, fashion and entertainment industries. Our team of researchers actively seeks out Intellectual Property violations on the World Wide Web by conducting daily searches of Internet auction sites, independent web sites and bulletin boards.

(maybe it’s time for some new training)

and because even rolex needs someone to watch their back, from the gibney, anthony & flaherty, llp statement of client’s rights [pdf], i remind them of the following:

You are entitled to an attorney capable of handling your legal matter competently and diligently, in accordance with the highest standards of the profession.

lawyers, of course, could spend centuries debating the precise meaning of “capable” and “competently,” but I don’t really want to go there. i just hate to see money, even from a company like rolex – perhaps particularly from a company like rolex, that has a great history of philanthropy – frittered away on law firms spinning wheels. rolex has much better things to do with their money.

because i believe in redemption and making things right, i’m even going to suggest that gibney, anthony & flaherty, llp could donate the fees generated in this haphazard and incompetent (yes, i said it) effort to protect the rolex brand to the rolex mentor and protege arts initiative or the rolex awards for enterpreise.

and for the nice people at gibney, anthony & flaherty, llp – this whole thing is my opinion.

posted by roj at 11:17 pm  

Saturday, October 25, 2003

$2m spam fine

california court smacks down a spammer

the court ordered a $2 million fine and imposed a 10-year injunction on pw marketing llc, paul willis and claudia griffin.

bad paul. bad claudia.

rock on, california. another 2500 or so of these, and you’ll close the deficit (if the last number i heard – $5b operating deficit – was accurate)

posted by roj at 1:03 am  

Sunday, October 19, 2003

spam music

via (metafilter)

i thought i’d take this opportunity plug a very deserving spam-musician.

i was lead on a merry path to outside the inbox, a 14-track album inspired by spam. and they’re missing something. something very, very important.

deirdre flint‘s the irish email song [128k mp3].

(and check out the rest of her music too…)

posted by roj at 8:55 pm  

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