The celebrity (although I’m not sure why) Kim Kardashian is suing Old Navy and its parent company Gap, Inc. in Los Angeles federal court for using a lookalike model in their advertisements. Specifically, Kardashian claims that this video violates her rights of publicity by featuring a model who very closely resembles Kardashian. The video itself has generated more than 2 million views on YouTube to date. Kardashian’s suit alleges that the reality TV star “has invested substantial time, energy, finances and entrepreneurial effort in developing her considerable professional and commercial achievements and success, as well as in developing her popularity,…
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Avoiding Issues With the New .XXX Domain
July 19, 2011
Recently, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) approved .xxx to join the elite ranks of .edu, .org, and, of course, .com as the next domain extension. As the name implies, .xxx will effectively try to create a voluntary Internet red light district for pornographic websites. It’s not hard to imagine why .xxx would be controversial, but why is .xxx necessary? The reasoning is that it will be far easier for search engines, employers, and schools to block any domains ending in .xxx. While this is good news for schools that want to protect against adult content, it…
Claim Your Domains: The Cheapest, Easiest Way to Prevent Domain Name Issues
July 15, 2011
This is a common tip that I give to all of my clients, but I can’t say it often enough: register common alternatives to your domain name. Don’t zone out on me, this is a big deal. Let’s say you own MyBurrito.com. It’s easy to think of the common variations that your customers might type in when they’re searching for your page: My-Burrito.com MyBurritos.com MyBurrito.net MyBurito.com (not everyone is a world-class speller or typist) Now go back over that list and come up with all the other reasonable variations (My-Burito.net?). Register those domains and have them point back to your…
NBA Websites Locked Out of Player Photos
July 12, 2011
Many fans are wondering why NBA.com and their favorite NBA teams’ websites no longer have pictures of current players. The Philadelphia 76ers website currently features an image of the late Armen Gilliam – a fitting tribute, but what most fans are expecting is images of today’s stars. The answer stems from the current lockout between the National Basketball Association and the corresponding players’ association. As a quirk of the lockout, teams can no longer show images of current players on official websites. A typical team website contains roughly 1,000 individual pages, which means that on the eve of July 1,…
