Last week Intuit, makers of Turbo Tax, sued H&R Block for mimicking its advertising campaign. Block’s ad “copies the physical appearance, dress and mannerisms of the characters in the TurboTax ad, as well as the set, staging and pace of the advertisement,” said Intuit in a statement.
Government Policy
Gizmondo’s ‘Fat Stefan’ Eriksson Arrested For Car Theft
By 4.10.06
You may remember Gizmondo founder Stefan ‘Fat Stefan’ Eriksson. He’s the guy who crashed a $1 million Ferrari, claimed a mysterious German man named Dietrich was the driver, identified himself to the police as a Deputy Commissioner for the counter-terrorism unit of a handicapped bussing service and apparently had a group of employees identify themselves as Homeland Security at the scene of the crime and tamper with evidence. There’ve been many other wrinkles, but who can keep up? ‘Fat Stefan’ is a highly entertain lunatic.
Verizon on Net Neutrality: “Trust Us.”
By 4.7.06
With the depressing defeat of the Net Neutrality bill before the House Telecom and Internet subcommittee yesterday, many Internet users are getting a bit nervous. Are we on the precipitous edge of one of those nefarious slippery slopes people are always talking about? Will common sense prevail? If it doesn’t, can we trust providers like Verizon and AT&T to not cripple the Internet?
Shocking New Evidence Reveals Airlines Suck
By 4.6.06
Department of Proving What We Already Know: A study shows that airline quality and consumer satisfaction has plummeted to new lows.
$5M Starforce Class Action Lawsuit
By 4.5.06
Hate Starforce? Want to sue them? Well, Christopher Spence has already done it on your behalf. Christopher has filed a $5M class action lawsuit against Ubisoft for using Starforce DRM in their games, and if he wins, you’ll be entitled to collect if you’ve ever had your system infected by Starforce.
Costlier Tax Preparers Encourage More Fraudulent Returns
By 4.4.06
NBC sent an undercover intern to different tax preparers. It looks like the big names in tax prep may charge higher fees, but that’s more than made up for by their ability to help you commit tax fraud.
GaMillions of ID Theft Victims
By 4.3.06
Victims of identity theft numbered an estimated 3.6 million in 2004, according to a new report by the Justice Department.
Mesothelioma, Debt, Lawsuits Tops Google AdWords List
By 3.27.06
Seen via Boing Boing, seen via Battelle, this list of the top Google AdWords. We’re not ashamed to admit that we’re amazed at the strong showing of mesothelioma on the list… hell, we had to look it up. Who knew absestos huffers were such a lucrative clientele? The rest of the list, of course, is an interesting vivisection of the American psyche: debt and lawsuits are the biggest businesses.
Michael Crichton On Companies Owning Products Of Nature
By 3.20.06
Michael Crichton has an excellent essay up over at the New York Times concerning medical company Metabolite’s efforts to defend its patent of a scientific fact before the Supreme Court tomorrow. There’s a lot of interesting commentary on the negative ramifications of companies owning ideas, associations, scientific theories, surgical procedures, products of nature… and, in the case of the Human Genome, the building blocks to human life itself.
Elliot Spitzer Sues H&R Block for Tricking Customers
By 3.16.06
New York Attorney General Elliot Spitzer sued H&R Block today for fraudulent IRA marketing.
Starforce Is Sorry For Warezing Critic’s Game
By 3.16.06
Earlier this week we reported on Starforce, a gaming copy-protection company located in the cold, vacant womb of Ex-Soviet Russia, actually encouraging their site visitors to warez a game made by Stardock, a company that had criticized Starforce and its ilk’s heavy-handed DRM methods. They even posted links to where users could download Stardock’s game.
How The Pirate Bay Fights Big Media Business
By 3.14.06
Despite the claims of the software industry and organizations like the MPAA and RIAA, file sharers are not thieves. They may be copyright infringers, certainly, But no matter what the claims of the RIAA, downloading K-Fed’s PopoZao off of Limewire is not the same as walking up to a small child, turning him upside down, tucking his head between your knees and then — his tiny limbs flailing impotently about you — pile-driving him into the sidewalk for his milk money.
