Posted 10/15/2009 at 09:33:43pm

There is NOTHING wrong with requiring a blogger who is being paid to post a favorable opinion about something to disclose that financial relationship. The IAB is completely wrong on this.  Anything less than fair disclosure of such a financial relationship is nothing less than an attempt to deliberately deceive the public.

More importantly, the IAB basing its objection on "affording the same rights and freedoms as other communications channels" is a vacant argument.  By law, a TV spokesman MUST be identified as a "paid spokesman" to clarify for the audience whether the opinion being stated is personal (i.e. based on that person's experience) or is the result of a contractual agreement.  

Posted 10/12/2009 at 07:43:38pm

Check your title, Mr. Barry.  It should be "Peek" not "Peak".

Posted 06/07/2009 at 01:49:04pm

I remember years ago what a movie studio executive (from Paramount, I think) said when he was asked whether consumers should be allowed to make backup copies of movies they had already bought...

 "If they want a backup copy, they can go to the store and buy another one!"

WTF?? I have young kids who are VERY hard on physical DVD media.  It didn't take much convincing for me to look for a better way. Soon after that, I bought AnyDVD and have been making my own backups ever since.