February 2011 - Legal Bytes

02/11/201104/28/2022

Advertisements going Mobile – something new or just the matrix reloaded?

Wow! I thought I was cool playing “Going Mobile” by The Who (from their album – remember albums? – Who’s Next, released in the United States August 14, 1971) to introduce my presentation about the legal implications of mobile advertising and mobile marketing (see Advertising on the Go – Mobile Marketing or Mobile Mayhem).

But I tip my hat to you Legal Bytes readers. You are on the ball. After blogging about the presentation, a friend and avid Legal Bytes reader reminded me of an article I wrote in 2005, published in the New York Law Journal Magazine, entitled “Transformed“, in which I stated: “No longer tied to desks or offices located in centers of commerce and society, we carry our electronic tool boxes with us wherever we go. We have pagers, cell phones and wireless PDAs with names like Treo™ and the BlackBerry® . . . whose addictive qualities . . . (make us refer to them) as ‘crack’ berries! We carry them with us into restaurants, Broadway shows, buses and even bathrooms.”

Wow, déjà vu all over again (with respect to Yogi Berra). Can you make it through the day without your BlackBerry or your Smartphone (we didn’t call them that in 2005)? What’s the first device you look at in the morning? What about before going to bed? Now I can even access Legal Bytes with a scan using my mobile. Wow!!

I am reminded of one of my favorite quotes from George Santayana, Spanish American philosopher (perhaps most remembered for his remark, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”). My personal favorite quote of his is, “We must welcome the future, remembering that soon it will be the past; and we must respect the past, remembering that once it was all that was humanly possible.” (The Philosophy of George Santayana, Northwestern University Press, 1940, p. 560). Oh, and if you actually like The Who, you can listen to Going Mobile:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=tQ5pi3UR5dY

Indeed. Déjà vu all over again!

02/10/201104/28/2022

Advertising on the Go – Mobile Marketing or Mobile Mayhem

February 9, 2011—one day before the Association of National Advertisers held its TV & Everything Video Forum—Joseph I. (“Joe”) Rosenbaum had the privilege of presenting a pre-conference legal educational seminar at the New York offices of Rimon. Joe’s presentation, in PDF format, is available for your personal viewing right here: “Mobile Advertising, or I Know Where You Will Be Next Summer & Other Mobile Marketing Myths”.

You won’t be able to see the embedded videos – if you want to see those or any other presentations Joe and the Advertising Technology & Media practice has presented over the years, or if you want to arrange a customized presentation on any or all things ATM-related, contact Joe at joseph.rosenbaum@rimonlaw.com.

02/04/201104/28/2022

Useless But Compelling Facts – February 2011

For this month, lets switch gears to what have you done for me philately. When did the U.S. Postal Service begin formally copyrighting its U.S. Postage Stamps, and what was the first stamp issued with the formal copyright notice.

If you are the first to send me the complete and correct answer, you’ll win. Please send your answers directly to me at joseph.rosenbaum@rimonlaw.com. Good luck!

02/04/201104/28/2022

Useless But Compelling Facts – January 2011 Answers

Last month we asked you to tell us where the phrase "your name is mud" comes from. Now I’ll give credit to Samuel Dressler, who first wrote, ”’Your name is mud’ refers to Dr. Samuel Mudd, who is widely reviled for his part in the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. Dr. Mudd gave medical help to John Wilkes Booth, who broke his leg while escaping after shooting Lincoln in 1865.’ Although I don’t reveal the answers until the next UBCF is posted, I did let him know that was not really the correct answer, and after some digging he then added, "it may be from a book called Hell Upon Earth of 1703 that includes the word in the sense of a simpleton or a fool." Dr. Samuel A. Mudd was the physician who set the leg of Lincoln’s assassin John Wilkes Booth and was imprisoned as a conspirator in the assassination. He was released after three years and was pardoned by President Andrew Johnson for taking over from the prison doctor, who died in a yellow fever epidemic.

But the saying "name is mud" did not originate with Dr. Mudd. The Oxford English Dictionary cites the first example from 1823. The term also appeared in A Dictionary of the Turf, written by John Badcock under the pen name John Bee, who died about 1830, well before Lincoln’s assassination. His entry in the slang dictionary reads: "Mud, a stupid twaddling fellow. ‘And his name is mud!’ ejaculated upon the conclusion of a silly oration, or of a leader in the Courier." And, as Sam pointed out, Hell Upon Earth of 1703 includes the word in the sense of a simpleton or a fool; and so even though it took a quick second follow-up, we will award a prize to Sam!