Marsha, Remember Form… Copyright Issues Part 2

First, Thank You for all your comments on my first post about this issue.

Unfortunately these posts are typed out…

We are not sitting having coffee or tea and brownies and talking about this in person, able to express and clarify points that may be misunderstood…

I will be trying to clarify my points as I find the time to write a bit more about it in upcoming posts. Remember, I AM in the midst of copyright infringement cases, so I have to make sure not to open my mouth too much. So these posts take more time than normal to write because I write and edit then re-read, write again (and deal with life in between)…

I also have questions and concerns about what is going on in the industry as a whole - bead and jewelry related.

What is right and wrong. What is acceptable, what isn't. Where do the lines get drawn...

I am learning & really trying to think about things as I get into this, and I want to share with anyone that wants to read about it (or maybe even go have that cup of coffee)…

And since it is Self Portrait Friday, I wanted to talk about my work and my inspirations and touch on why I make the work I do and why I feel I have a fighting chance with my copyright cases.

I thought that since I am constantly behind my iPhone snapping pictures of everything...

My Friday Self Portrait Photograph is appropriately this:

Self Portrait Friday: My iPhone and Me...

I am inspired by nature, by textures, colors, patterns, by fabrics, by architecture, there is so much out there to see if you have the time to look…

Playground equipment rust and wear… So beautiful!

I do not travel about with a sketch book in hand these days to sit and look about and take the time to draw. That is reserved for when I am able to sit and draw and doodle out textures and designs from imagery that I have captured or collected by photographs or fragmented memories of things seen.

I have two little kids (9 months and 2.5 years old) - my hands are occupied by them most of the time (not just holding them, but actually doing stuff with them and for them)...

My hands like to be in the garden, feeling the earth, caring for what grows in it and exploring what depends on it… I find peace out there...

I've got a Bachelor of Science degree in Entomology, concentrating in Wildlife Conservation.

I have a Masters degree in Art: Ceramics.

I like to observe, photograph, to interact, to teach, to explore, to laugh, to get freaked out by a passing insect that surprises me or walking into a spider web - ugh. 

To find inner happiness in the small things.

Heck, I even have a blog dedicated to my garden I enjoy it so much…

So is it any wonder that when we moved into this house five years ago - in the height of my business success, with lots of potential garden areas (there were overgrown ones everywhere), I found inspiration in being outside in nature. One time specifically after encountering earth worms that are freakishly large, wiggly, and plentiful in the garden beds here. 

I'm not into touching slimy things that wriggle all over the place, and move faster when you poke at them: and earth worms fall into that "freak me out" category. 

However, they are cool to look at, and I get a kick out of the way they eek me out. I sometimes wonder what people think as they walk by and see me doing the eww, one just wiggled on me jumping move - you know the one… 

You've probably done it too. 

They fascinate me: the way their bodies move, the way their "skin" is somewhat translucent, somewhat iridescent. And all that other cool stuff: like if you cut them in half, they become 2 (not sure about the technical stuff there), you can see some of their organs looking at them from the outside. Since childhood they have been interesting to me in some manner. I've never met anyone that hasn't had a reaction to earthworms, have you?

So thinking about their appearance of segmented bodies, the way they wriggle, their long, slender body I went into the house and did a few drawings - letting my mind fall into what I had seen and watching the lines appear on the page in front of me…

Soon after, I rolled out a slab of clay and started to carve that drawing into it, and a few hours later, hands numb from carving (I carve all at once for a uniform look), I had created a texture plate full of earth worms (see the bottom of the picture below, that is part of my texture plate)...

When I first started making pendants, I had to figure out how to make them faster to keep cost down. In earth clays, it's not the materials cost that is expensive, it's the time it takes to make something and fire it multiple times…

Carving textures like this allows me to cut many pieces from one slab of clay that I roll out on it (see the square commercially available clay cookie cutters - I use them all the time - as do many other clay artists… LOL). And those many pieces I cut out weren't all identical, but they were in fact pretty similar. You get that right - so I could create a catalog for customers to be able to order something and get what they were asking for, and give them something unique at the same time? 

It was a business move on my part (patting myself on the back for figuring that out - it was a "duh" moment in the studio).

There are many steps that follow in order to get the finished pendant to the level of quality I want my work to be at. I don't like my pieces big and chunky and heavy. Thin, beveled edges, glazed on both sides, clean small holes for stringing - that's what I want. That's how my pieces look.

So now look closely at the picture above...

Can you pick out my pieces and the ones I am calling knock offs?

Don't scroll down yet - it's like seeing the answers on a test. 

I tried to put in extra line spaces to help.

The ones with the Earth Worms texture?

Which - I must say - is a unique texture in itself.

And yes, is copyrighted by Marsha Neal Studio, LLC.

The ones that are not created in my studio are crossed out in the above picture.

Now here is another picture that my friend snapped with her phone in the gift shop in Colorado of a knock off pendant necklace with the Earth Worms Texture pendant.

Ok, wait… This one - it's different right - because someone went in and removed the lines from my drawing… Is it different enough? I would have to argue firmly NO. 

It's still my Earth Worms design - the outline anyway.

And yes - my flower design, cluster spirals, frog eggs, urban grid, and many more...

Why No? 

Well the technical stuff on taking a piece, or a picture of a piece and making a mold or copy can get a little boring (see the beads-of-clay blog if you want to learn technical insights on making clay beads - it is an invaluable resource). 

And I am tempted to actually make molds myself & photograph the steps in detail to give my lawyer even more technical evidence on how it would be done to help our case. Heck, I think it would be funny to do a bead challenge to see how many of my clay friends would want to do it too just to prove the point about the ease of making a mold from someone else's finished piece. 

Something being easy to do does not make it right.

I shouldn't even have to type that...

But just at the surface level of seeing pieces, take a look at this series of pictures for a quick general idea.

Scale is about the same.

Color is similar (again - it's a glaze - not a unique special to me thing - I am not claiming to have made up "green translucent glaze").

And you can see how the texture was removed.

You know it was removed because the actual carving is deeper (higher relief) but the outline is the same.

And if you look at the group shot a few pictures up, there are various sizes, but scale remains the same which means the mold was made from one of my larger pendants.

Oh, the molds that are used - and how they have to botch up a perfectly clean design by making molds from glazed pieces. Ugh - the loss of detail. So not pretty...

Ok, now before you continue to say: Marsha, move on, make new stuff (that is obvious by the way, and will happen as soon as inspiration is let free again and I get enough brain cells built back up after birthing 2 kids)… I can't do everything all at one time and actually have a semblance of a life outside of "beads". Because really, my life does not revolve around making art.

I don't have a point to prove.

I make beads because I like doing it…

I like making them for people to use in their beautiful jewelry designs…

I love the colors and textures of the designs and the glazes…

I am quite fond of their individual unique qualities that each firing offers...

I have to say that I made the decision to hire a lawyer after I got the many (many!) various pieces in hand, and into my studio and the similarities were astounding - definitely my actual designs.

I'm more amazed that they would just make copies, because clay is one of the easiest materials to make things from and make it somewhat unique… I mean - really?!

And it really started to hit me after I had customers come up to me at a show or email me to see if I had earrings that matched the pendant they picked up at a bead shop on vacation "because you do have ceramic pendants too, and this looks like it would match" (hello - that is because it is my design, but not my piece…).

Because over the last 8 years I made sure to make a name for my business within the bead industry by putting a ton of money & time into print advertisements, website design, and redesign, printable catalogs, new stock, new designs (again, my own drawings & texture plates), new glazes, time traveling, away from my husband, missing family events because of selling at shows, establishing relationships with customers, figuring out how to run a business and keep it afloat in a recession, teach people about what I was figuring out through Beads of Clay (our great wonderful family of clay bead makers!), then deal with some major personal losses and changes in the last four years…

I am not just going to sit here and let this just pass me by and lose any rights that I have to something I have created. This is a business. This is not a one of a kind super expensive piece of artwork that is going to hang in a gallery somewhere. 

I make and sell porcelain pendants & beads. Why would someone that doesn't realize the difference pick an $18 piece vs a $2 piece? Why would I let someone come in and just take everything I have worked hard for? I don't even allow people that buy from me at wholesale to sell regular priced individual retail pieces more than $.05 under my retail price to avoid undercutting and competition and the de-valuing of my work. I ran into an issue years back with an online store doing this, and I refused to sell them any more work. The foot went down then too...

I do not dwell on this. I do not spend my days doing nothing but mope about this situation. I have worked hard to distinguish my line of work in today's industry before this current huge boom in technology took over… By creating my own texture plates, documenting dates, copyrighting my designs, made it very easy for me to make the decision to hire my lawyer, and to give her information at the drop of a hat so she can use it to defend my work and have these knock offs removed from the market.

So I just wanted to share a bit more of my journey into understanding copyrighting your work in today's world. It's nuts out there… And unique one of a kind ideas are rare. But there are still rules and regulations to follow, even for something as small as a pendant (those little things add up). And in a world that is so lawsuit happy, you have got to protect yourself and know your rights.

I never thought I would be dealing with something like this in my life. I always think "well, better be safe than sorry and do it right - just in case". And then pray to come out of it with a fair decision and no bad karma… 

It was not me that decided to make a mold of someone's work and have it mass produced and distributed around the world. 

Someone did that to me… 

To my business...

And I am letting my lawyer deal with it…

I'm just backing her up with the details and proof…

And with that being said, I have wasted enough of my evening on thinking about this…

I hope I explained my unique situation well enough to give you better insight and thoughts about making your own work "yours".

Another post will possibly follow in a few weeks.

I will be traveling unexpectedly somewhat last minute to visit my FL family then head strong into the rest of my house/studio organization before the holidays hit.

I want this winter for making all kinds of new stuff…

Endless possibilities are hopefully on my horizon…

Thanks for stopping by!

I appreciate all the feedback...

Marsha, Remember Form… Copyright Issues Part 2

First, Thank You for all your comments on my first post about this issue.

Unfortunately these posts are typed out…

We are not sitting having coffee or tea and brownies and talking about this in person, able to express and clarify points that may be misunderstood…

I will be trying to clarify my points as I find the time to write a bit more about it in upcoming posts. Remember, I AM in the midst of copyright infringement cases, so I have to make sure not to open my mouth too much. So these posts take more time than normal to write because I write and edit then re-read, write again (and deal with life in between)…

I also have questions and concerns about what is going on in the industry as a whole - bead and jewelry related.

What is right and wrong. What is acceptable, what isn't. Where do the lines get drawn...

I am learning & really trying to think about things as I get into this, and I want to share with anyone that wants to read about it (or maybe even go have that cup of coffee)…

And since it is Self Portrait Friday, I wanted to talk about my work and my inspirations and touch on why I make the work I do and why I feel I have a fighting chance with my copyright cases.

I thought that since I am constantly behind my iPhone snapping pictures of everything...

My Friday Self Portrait Photograph is appropriately this:

Self Portrait Friday: My iPhone and Me...

I am inspired by nature, by textures, colors, patterns, by fabrics, by architecture, there is so much out there to see if you have the time to look…

Playground equipment rust and wear… So beautiful!

I do not travel about with a sketch book in hand these days to sit and look about and take the time to draw. That is reserved for when I am able to sit and draw and doodle out textures and designs from imagery that I have captured or collected by photographs or fragmented memories of things seen.

I have two little kids (9 months and 2.5 years old) - my hands are occupied by them most of the time (not just holding them, but actually doing stuff with them and for them)...

My hands like to be in the garden, feeling the earth, caring for what grows in it and exploring what depends on it… I find peace out there...

I've got a Bachelor of Science degree in Entomology, concentrating in Wildlife Conservation.

I have a Masters degree in Art: Ceramics.

I like to observe, photograph, to interact, to teach, to explore, to laugh, to get freaked out by a passing insect that surprises me or walking into a spider web - ugh. 

To find inner happiness in the small things.

Heck, I even have a blog dedicated to my garden I enjoy it so much…

So is it any wonder that when we moved into this house five years ago - in the height of my business success, with lots of potential garden areas (there were overgrown ones everywhere), I found inspiration in being outside in nature. One time specifically after encountering earth worms that are freakishly large, wiggly, and plentiful in the garden beds here. 

I'm not into touching slimy things that wriggle all over the place, and move faster when you poke at them: and earth worms fall into that "freak me out" category. 

However, they are cool to look at, and I get a kick out of the way they eek me out. I sometimes wonder what people think as they walk by and see me doing the eww, one just wiggled on me jumping move - you know the one… 

You've probably done it too. 

They fascinate me: the way their bodies move, the way their "skin" is somewhat translucent, somewhat iridescent. And all that other cool stuff: like if you cut them in half, they become 2 (not sure about the technical stuff there), you can see some of their organs looking at them from the outside. Since childhood they have been interesting to me in some manner. I've never met anyone that hasn't had a reaction to earthworms, have you?

So thinking about their appearance of segmented bodies, the way they wriggle, their long, slender body I went into the house and did a few drawings - letting my mind fall into what I had seen and watching the lines appear on the page in front of me…

Soon after, I rolled out a slab of clay and started to carve that drawing into it, and a few hours later, hands numb from carving (I carve all at once for a uniform look), I had created a texture plate full of earth worms (see the bottom of the picture below, that is part of my texture plate)...

When I first started making pendants, I had to figure out how to make them faster to keep cost down. In earth clays, it's not the materials cost that is expensive, it's the time it takes to make something and fire it multiple times…

Carving textures like this allows me to cut many pieces from one slab of clay that I roll out on it (see the square commercially available clay cookie cutters - I use them all the time - as do many other clay artists… LOL). And those many pieces I cut out weren't all identical, but they were in fact pretty similar. You get that right - so I could create a catalog for customers to be able to order something and get what they were asking for, and give them something unique at the same time? 

It was a business move on my part (patting myself on the back for figuring that out - it was a "duh" moment in the studio).

There are many steps that follow in order to get the finished pendant to the level of quality I want my work to be at. I don't like my pieces big and chunky and heavy. Thin, beveled edges, glazed on both sides, clean small holes for stringing - that's what I want. That's how my pieces look.

So now look closely at the picture above...

Can you pick out my pieces and the ones I am calling knock offs?

Don't scroll down yet - it's like seeing the answers on a test. 

I tried to put in extra line spaces to help.

The ones with the Earth Worms texture?

Which - I must say - is a unique texture in itself.

And yes, is copyrighted by Marsha Neal Studio, LLC.

The ones that are not created in my studio are crossed out in the above picture.

Now here is another picture that my friend snapped with her phone in the gift shop in Colorado of a knock off pendant necklace with the Earth Worms Texture pendant.

Ok, wait… This one - it's different right - because someone went in and removed the lines from my drawing… Is it different enough? I would have to argue firmly NO. 

It's still my Earth Worms design - the outline anyway.

And yes - my flower design, cluster spirals, frog eggs, urban grid, and many more...

Why No? 

Well the technical stuff on taking a piece, or a picture of a piece and making a mold or copy can get a little boring (see the beads-of-clay blog if you want to learn technical insights on making clay beads - it is an invaluable resource). 

And I am tempted to actually make molds myself & photograph the steps in detail to give my lawyer even more technical evidence on how it would be done to help our case. Heck, I think it would be funny to do a bead challenge to see how many of my clay friends would want to do it too just to prove the point about the ease of making a mold from someone else's finished piece. 

Something being easy to do does not make it right.

I shouldn't even have to type that...

But just at the surface level of seeing pieces, take a look at this series of pictures for a quick general idea.

Scale is about the same.

Color is similar (again - it's a glaze - not a unique special to me thing - I am not claiming to have made up "green translucent glaze").

And you can see how the texture was removed.

You know it was removed because the actual carving is deeper (higher relief) but the outline is the same.

And if you look at the group shot a few pictures up, there are various sizes, but scale remains the same which means the mold was made from one of my larger pendants.

Oh, the molds that are used - and how they have to botch up a perfectly clean design by making molds from glazed pieces. Ugh - the loss of detail. So not pretty...

Ok, now before you continue to say: Marsha, move on, make new stuff (that is obvious by the way, and will happen as soon as inspiration is let free again and I get enough brain cells built back up after birthing 2 kids)… I can't do everything all at one time and actually have a semblance of a life outside of "beads". Because really, my life does not revolve around making art.

I don't have a point to prove.

I make beads because I like doing it…

I like making them for people to use in their beautiful jewelry designs…

I love the colors and textures of the designs and the glazes…

I am quite fond of their individual unique qualities that each firing offers...

I have to say that I made the decision to hire a lawyer after I got the many (many!) various pieces in hand, and into my studio and the similarities were astounding - definitely my actual designs.

I'm more amazed that they would just make copies, because clay is one of the easiest materials to make things from and make it somewhat unique… I mean - really?!

And it really started to hit me after I had customers come up to me at a show or email me to see if I had earrings that matched the pendant they picked up at a bead shop on vacation "because you do have ceramic pendants too, and this looks like it would match" (hello - that is because it is my design, but not my piece…).

Because over the last 8 years I made sure to make a name for my business within the bead industry by putting a ton of money & time into print advertisements, website design, and redesign, printable catalogs, new stock, new designs (again, my own drawings & texture plates), new glazes, time traveling, away from my husband, missing family events because of selling at shows, establishing relationships with customers, figuring out how to run a business and keep it afloat in a recession, teach people about what I was figuring out through Beads of Clay (our great wonderful family of clay bead makers!), then deal with some major personal losses and changes in the last four years…

I am not just going to sit here and let this just pass me by and lose any rights that I have to something I have created. This is a business. This is not a one of a kind super expensive piece of artwork that is going to hang in a gallery somewhere. 

I make and sell porcelain pendants & beads. Why would someone that doesn't realize the difference pick an $18 piece vs a $2 piece? Why would I let someone come in and just take everything I have worked hard for? I don't even allow people that buy from me at wholesale to sell regular priced individual retail pieces more than $.05 under my retail price to avoid undercutting and competition and the de-valuing of my work. I ran into an issue years back with an online store doing this, and I refused to sell them any more work. The foot went down then too...

I do not dwell on this. I do not spend my days doing nothing but mope about this situation. I have worked hard to distinguish my line of work in today's industry before this current huge boom in technology took over… By creating my own texture plates, documenting dates, copyrighting my designs, made it very easy for me to make the decision to hire my lawyer, and to give her information at the drop of a hat so she can use it to defend my work and have these knock offs removed from the market.

So I just wanted to share a bit more of my journey into understanding copyrighting your work in today's world. It's nuts out there… And unique one of a kind ideas are rare. But there are still rules and regulations to follow, even for something as small as a pendant (those little things add up). And in a world that is so lawsuit happy, you have got to protect yourself and know your rights.

I never thought I would be dealing with something like this in my life. I always think "well, better be safe than sorry and do it right - just in case". And then pray to come out of it with a fair decision and no bad karma… 

It was not me that decided to make a mold of someone's work and have it mass produced and distributed around the world. 

Someone did that to me… 

To my business...

And I am letting my lawyer deal with it…

I'm just backing her up with the details and proof…

And with that being said, I have wasted enough of my evening on thinking about this…

I hope I explained my unique situation well enough to give you better insight and thoughts about making your own work "yours".

Another post will possibly follow in a few weeks.

I will be traveling unexpectedly somewhat last minute to visit my FL family then head strong into the rest of my house/studio organization before the holidays hit.

I want this winter for making all kinds of new stuff…

Endless possibilities are hopefully on my horizon…

Thanks for stopping by!

I appreciate all the feedback...

Figures - Facebook, Skype, Foursquare

• Facebook = 500++ Million
• Skype = 560++
• Foursquare = 3 Million (15.5K per day or 0.5 M per month growth)

Photography Help! If you have suggestions...

Ok, if there is one thing that frustrates me to no end it's this...

All the same piece, different lighting - frustrating!

Proper lighting for photographing one's work is starting to drive me a little batty…

This Hibiscus Flower Cutout Pendant in Stormy Night Sky would SO like to be listed up on Etsy, along with a number of other pieces (see picture below) just out of the kiln, but I'm hitting a wall with trying to do some quick photography to reveal the truest color of the actual piece without my hand in the background and all the bright spots from the lights.

Cutout Flowers, Hibiscus Flowers, Leaf Shapes, colored loops, smaller sizes, new glazes from glaze tests.

I have tried natural lighting, overcast days, different backgrounds, I have a white pop up tent for photographing things to sell through pictures online, a digital SLR, a point and shoot, and my iPhone.

So now I think I need to figure out what kind of light bulbs work best for shooting indoors, within that cloud tent, with my digital SLR. 

Any suggestions from those of you that may have a similar setup with shooting glossy pieces? What kind of light bulbs do you use with your digital camera? And do you use light sources that point away from the cloud tent, or should they be pointed directly onto it?

Just thought I would ask before jumping into the internet to search out some ideas and running more tests for my setup.

I even spent this morning getting my "basement office" area cleared out to set up a place for taking pictures. It gets too frustrating trying to work in 5 different areas of the house on different things. "All in one place" is my current mantra for my studio organization (I think this would count as like day 7 or something if you have been reading my blog about it). I've been squeezing the organization in as I can.

The new office area went from this:

Before...

To this:

After...

See… there is a floor under there and some cabinets & counter top to work on…

Now to run to pick up some shelving for the area to the left and move my shipping area and Etsy pieces up here…

Then there will really be flow and hopefully less frustration which leads to more motivation!

Then I can get this feeling of "I still have to work on that too" out of my head and make room for creativity and inspiration…

Thanks Jenny for the - business stuff up front motivation - I needed that 2nd set of eyes and another brain to look at the areas I am dealing with (and frustrated about) and hear what I was saying, then pull it all together for me in a way that will allow me to get going with this all. 

You gave me my starting point… THANKS!

Photography Help! If you have suggestions...

Ok, if there is one thing that frustrates me to no end it's this...

All the same piece, different lighting - frustrating!

Proper lighting for photographing one's work is starting to drive me a little batty…

This Hibiscus Flower Cutout Pendant in Stormy Night Sky would SO like to be listed up on Etsy, along with a number of other pieces (see picture below) just out of the kiln, but I'm hitting a wall with trying to do some quick photography to reveal the truest color of the actual piece without my hand in the background and all the bright spots from the lights.

Cutout Flowers, Hibiscus Flowers, Leaf Shapes, colored loops, smaller sizes, new glazes from glaze tests.

I have tried natural lighting, overcast days, different backgrounds, I have a white pop up tent for photographing things to sell through pictures online, a digital SLR, a point and shoot, and my iPhone.

So now I think I need to figure out what kind of light bulbs work best for shooting indoors, within that cloud tent, with my digital SLR. 

Any suggestions from those of you that may have a similar setup with shooting glossy pieces? What kind of light bulbs do you use with your digital camera? And do you use light sources that point away from the cloud tent, or should they be pointed directly onto it?

Just thought I would ask before jumping into the internet to search out some ideas and running more tests for my setup.

I even spent this morning getting my "basement office" area cleared out to set up a place for taking pictures. It gets too frustrating trying to work in 5 different areas of the house on different things. "All in one place" is my current mantra for my studio organization (I think this would count as like day 7 or something if you have been reading my blog about it). I've been squeezing the organization in as I can.

The new office area went from this:

Before...

To this:

After...

See… there is a floor under there and some cabinets & counter top to work on…

Now to run to pick up some shelving for the area to the left and move my shipping area and Etsy pieces up here…

Then there will really be flow and hopefully less frustration which leads to more motivation!

Then I can get this feeling of "I still have to work on that too" out of my head and make room for creativity and inspiration…

Thanks Jenny for the - business stuff up front motivation - I needed that 2nd set of eyes and another brain to look at the areas I am dealing with (and frustrated about) and hear what I was saying, then pull it all together for me in a way that will allow me to get going with this all. 

You gave me my starting point… THANKS!

The Chance to jailbreak Apple TV 2 since its on iOS 4.1

1. Its great to hear that Apple's latest Apple TV 2 is based on iOS 4.1 as reported from Covering Web.
2. This opens up new possibilities for jailbreak.
3. Once the Apple TV is Jailbroken, it can do a lot of wonders just like iPhones and iPods.

600K Users of 3G Change to Broadband - Still A Small Figure

BERNAMA reported in the recent news "600K Users of 3G Change to Broadband" on Sept. 21, 2010. The exceprts are shown below:

About 600,000 out of the 7.9 million users of the 3G service have changed to the broadband service, said Information Communication and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim.

The government had earlier targeted to reach a 50 per cent penetration rate for broadband which would raise the gross domestic product (GDP) by not less than one per cent.

Currently the high-speed broadband (HSBB) project together with Telekom Malaysia in the Klang Valley and several industrial areas is giving coverage to more than 300,000 premises.

As of June 2010, the broadband penetration rate had reached 36.1 per cent.

Currently, there are about 16 million Internet users in Malaysia.

1. Only about 7% of 3G users actually subscribed to Broadband services. Others, most probably only owned 3G Simcards and phones. Read my blog post regarding "A Myth: Mobile Broadband User".
2. If Malaysia's population is about 28 Million, it meant about 2.1% of Malaysian users are 3G Broadband users.
3. WIth the current rate at 36.1% in June and the target to reach 50% in end of 2010, its going to be definitely an uphill task.
4. Malaysia need a proper and healthy ecosystem. Read the following blog "DNA of a Broadband Nation".

Get Ready for Greenpois0n Download!

This is the news that we are waiting for! Greenpois0n is about to be release!

As stated in the Covering Web recently:

Good news everywhere floating on the web about iOS 4.1 jailbreak with GreenPois0n. The hacker behind SHAtter exploit has just published all decryption keys to jailbreak iOS 4.1 on iPhone 4. This means that the new USB-Based (Greenpois0n) jailbreak tool is completely done and ready to be released.

The keys were published on the iPhone wiki for iPhone 4 on iOS 4.1 to confirm that the tool is completed. According to multiple tweets from Pod2g, the developer of SHAtter's exploit, MuscleNerdhas already used SHAtter with a pwned iBEC to get real proof that the exploit is working, iSpazio thinks that this words means theoretically that the new jailbreak is untethered (we hope so).

RELATED ARTICLES:

1. No GreenPois0n this week - I am SHAttered
2. Apple TV 2G - Jailbreak and SHAttered
3. Get Ready for GreenPois0n Download!
4. Life WIthout an iPhone 4 iOS 4.1 Jailbreak
5. GreenPois0n - Jailbreak iPhone 4 iOS 4.1 and iOS 4.2
6. UPDATED (Oct. 18, 2010): RC4 version for MAC and Windows GreenPois0n ready for download!

Is online a ‘frivolous’ medium for advertising?

Ok. I know it is a very uncomfortable question, especially in emerging markets where Internet advertising is just about finding its place, and is also one of the fastest growing - in terms of advertising revenue growth. It becomes all the more uncomfortable when you are talking about it online :)

Some weeks back, I overheard someone say that compared to other traditional mediums of advertising Online Advertising as a medium need not to be considered seriously (at-least for now). India, for example, still is a market driven by TVC and Print ads.

True? True, but partially

True, because most of the online advertising is limited to online banners (a replication of the mainline creative/message) with a campaign website that is informative in nature. True, because in most ad agencies, the creative think about the message in terms of TVC, Print, Radio, etc…. and then decide to do something ‘cool’ in the online space. “Let’s have something cool on Facebook” is the latest mantra. True again, because agencies/clients use the Internet for uploading and publishing a so called humorous animated movie, a.k.a ‘Viral Movie’ and hope that it is seen by ‘n’ number of people. Sometimes, it just feels like - “if it is online, it needs to be humorous”. I never could understand, why is that clients and agencies are willing to ‘create’ and ‘seed’ a viral movie on the Internet, but usually shy away from promoting the same as a TVC? Is it, that a creative that is only good for the Internet is not good for mainline advertising??

The above ‘truths’ are here to stay for sometime but there are changes happening (and happening real fast)

If I were to analyze these 3 mediums of advertising (Print, TVC, and Online), this is what I see –
- The Constants
- The Channels
- The Creative
- The Consumer
- The Confusion
- The Change
- The Challenge

The Constants:
Whatever be the format of advertisement, the truth is that it is part of the same campaign there are some things which would be constants – the campaign objective, the value proposition, the message, the visuals, etc

The Channels:

Each of the channels has a perception built around it. This perception has a rub-off on the advertisements that it carries.
Print: Most print publications are perceived as – Serious, trustworthy, reliable (esp. Newspaper and most magazines). Thus an advertisement present in such an environment would have some rub-off on to it from the context of the medium itself
Television: Most TV Channels are perceived as a window to the world – real and imaginary. TV Channels are entertainment, information and come with some amount of reliability – A perception built by the channels over the years of broadcasting (BBC, STAR, etc). While the environment at which the TVC plays do not have much impact on the TVC itself since the brand story is capsulated by the entirety of the commercial itself
Internet: Compared to the above two mediums of advertising, Internet is still in its infancy. Internet for a long time was under the control of the academicians, students, and some Government organizations. It is only in the last 2 decades that the people at large had access to Internet through www. While the other traditional forms of media were developed with a business model in mind, Internet was developed more by trial and error. All the major development of Internet – be it web-based email, search engines, SNS sites like Facebook all were developed and popularized by the techno-savvy individuals rather than business entrepreneurs. Also since it was developed by the youth, it was predominantly for the youth destinations that came to populate the www. This early perception of the Net being youth-centric destination, and with no proper business model stuck with the marketers and public…and it stayed on

The Creative

Print: The format is primarily – Static Image, with text.
Television: Moving images, graphics, audio – ability to tell the brand story in the closest format of storytelling – Tone, Emotions, scenarios, plot, characters, etc.
Internet: It encompasses the above formats of Image/Text and also Moving Images, graphics, audio etc…. but it also has another two crucial components that makes it different – Interactivity and Technology. While these are the USP’s of Internet, the creative people who make the ads fail to capitalize on it..since never in the history of advertising did any company needed to think about their message being ‘interactive’ (on a real-time basis) nor the technology having a direct impact on the advertisement/communication itself. Compared to other traditional mediums of advertising Internet is still in its infancy.

The Consumer:
The truth is that as consumers we always have been exposed to unidirectional communication. Whether it be in our homes (Parents to Child), or at School (Teacher to student), or at work (Manager to employees) – the communication is mostly unidirectional. The advertising message format too has so far been unidirectional – Company to Consumer. And since the format of communication (unidirectional) was something we were familiar with, the advertising message as it is was accepted without much bother

The Confusion:
Technology for creators of advertisements had been mostly helping them create ads faster and better. Be it the Photoshop, Illustrator, 3D animation software, or the desktop editing tools or the high processor hardware all these helped the creative team to build ads in the format they are used to. But advertising on the Internet, had technology not as a facilitator of creating ads but an integral part of the creative itself. Suddenly the creative was not about what the story says, but what the story does.

The Change:
Change is something that everyone is uncomfortable with. We all like things to be predictable and hence stick to things that are tried and tested. The same is the case with marketers. Traditional advertising is something that the CMO’s are most comfortable with. They know what works and what doesn’t. So far, Internet advertising was always relegated to the newbie in the department. But the times are changing and the youth of yesterday who have been exposed to Internet from early years are now taking reins of marketing department. They have seen the medium grow and know the potential of this medium. While it would be a fallacy to say that they would replace traditional forms of advertising, digital advertising would soon be the centre of all advertising campaigns.

The Challenge:
The challenge for the creative team and ad agencies is how to think ‘Technology’ when creating ads. It is not about what Technology can do for them, but what they can do with Technology. Internet is about interactivity, and it is about how to create message that just does not say something, but also does something. This would mean that there should be members in the team who can bring the message ‘alive’ – in true sense.

Another challenge is something that time will solve. As more and more people start replacing the traditional forms of media consumption with Internet, the medium itself would start being perceived as an evolved medium. This is already happening with people using Google (or other Search Engines) as the primary source of information seeking. Also it was in news a few days back how the traditional source of English Language (Dictionary) is being replaced by the Wikipedia. Twitter, a micro-blogging platform, is giving the traditional news channels a run for their money by being a popular source for real-time news

I’m sure in the near future today’s CG (Creative Guru) would be replaced by tomorrow’s CG (Creative Geek) :)

Cheers

Santosh

Is online a ‘frivolous’ medium for advertising?

Ok. I know it is a very uncomfortable question, especially in emerging markets where Internet advertising is just about finding its place, and is also one of the fastest growing - in terms of advertising revenue growth. It becomes all the more uncomfortable when you are talking about it online :)

Some weeks back, I overheard someone say that compared to other traditional mediums of advertising Online Advertising as a medium need not to be considered seriously (at-least for now). India, for example, still is a market driven by TVC and Print ads.

True? True, but partially

True, because most of the online advertising is limited to online banners (a replication of the mainline creative/message) with a campaign website that is informative in nature. True, because in most ad agencies, the creative think about the message in terms of TVC, Print, Radio, etc…. and then decide to do something ‘cool’ in the online space. “Let’s have something cool on Facebook” is the latest mantra. True again, because agencies/clients use the Internet for uploading and publishing a so called humorous animated movie, a.k.a ‘Viral Movie’ and hope that it is seen by ‘n’ number of people. Sometimes, it just feels like - “if it is online, it needs to be humorous”. I never could understand, why is that clients and agencies are willing to ‘create’ and ‘seed’ a viral movie on the Internet, but usually shy away from promoting the same as a TVC? Is it, that a creative that is only good for the Internet is not good for mainline advertising??

The above ‘truths’ are here to stay for sometime but there are changes happening (and happening real fast)

If I were to analyze these 3 mediums of advertising (Print, TVC, and Online), this is what I see –
- The Constants
- The Channels
- The Creative
- The Consumer
- The Confusion
- The Change
- The Challenge

The Constants:
Whatever be the format of advertisement, the truth is that it is part of the same campaign there are some things which would be constants – the campaign objective, the value proposition, the message, the visuals, etc

The Channels:

Each of the channels has a perception built around it. This perception has a rub-off on the advertisements that it carries.
Print: Most print publications are perceived as – Serious, trustworthy, reliable (esp. Newspaper and most magazines). Thus an advertisement present in such an environment would have some rub-off on to it from the context of the medium itself
Television: Most TV Channels are perceived as a window to the world – real and imaginary. TV Channels are entertainment, information and come with some amount of reliability – A perception built by the channels over the years of broadcasting (BBC, STAR, etc). While the environment at which the TVC plays do not have much impact on the TVC itself since the brand story is capsulated by the entirety of the commercial itself
Internet: Compared to the above two mediums of advertising, Internet is still in its infancy. Internet for a long time was under the control of the academicians, students, and some Government organizations. It is only in the last 2 decades that the people at large had access to Internet through www. While the other traditional forms of media were developed with a business model in mind, Internet was developed more by trial and error. All the major development of Internet – be it web-based email, search engines, SNS sites like Facebook all were developed and popularized by the techno-savvy individuals rather than business entrepreneurs. Also since it was developed by the youth, it was predominantly for the youth destinations that came to populate the www. This early perception of the Net being youth-centric destination, and with no proper business model stuck with the marketers and public…and it stayed on

The Creative

Print: The format is primarily – Static Image, with text.
Television: Moving images, graphics, audio – ability to tell the brand story in the closest format of storytelling – Tone, Emotions, scenarios, plot, characters, etc.
Internet: It encompasses the above formats of Image/Text and also Moving Images, graphics, audio etc…. but it also has another two crucial components that makes it different – Interactivity and Technology. While these are the USP’s of Internet, the creative people who make the ads fail to capitalize on it..since never in the history of advertising did any company needed to think about their message being ‘interactive’ (on a real-time basis) nor the technology having a direct impact on the advertisement/communication itself. Compared to other traditional mediums of advertising Internet is still in its infancy.

The Consumer:
The truth is that as consumers we always have been exposed to unidirectional communication. Whether it be in our homes (Parents to Child), or at School (Teacher to student), or at work (Manager to employees) – the communication is mostly unidirectional. The advertising message format too has so far been unidirectional – Company to Consumer. And since the format of communication (unidirectional) was something we were familiar with, the advertising message as it is was accepted without much bother

The Confusion:
Technology for creators of advertisements had been mostly helping them create ads faster and better. Be it the Photoshop, Illustrator, 3D animation software, or the desktop editing tools or the high processor hardware all these helped the creative team to build ads in the format they are used to. But advertising on the Internet, had technology not as a facilitator of creating ads but an integral part of the creative itself. Suddenly the creative was not about what the story says, but what the story does.

The Change:
Change is something that everyone is uncomfortable with. We all like things to be predictable and hence stick to things that are tried and tested. The same is the case with marketers. Traditional advertising is something that the CMO’s are most comfortable with. They know what works and what doesn’t. So far, Internet advertising was always relegated to the newbie in the department. But the times are changing and the youth of yesterday who have been exposed to Internet from early years are now taking reins of marketing department. They have seen the medium grow and know the potential of this medium. While it would be a fallacy to say that they would replace traditional forms of advertising, digital advertising would soon be the centre of all advertising campaigns.

The Challenge:
The challenge for the creative team and ad agencies is how to think ‘Technology’ when creating ads. It is not about what Technology can do for them, but what they can do with Technology. Internet is about interactivity, and it is about how to create message that just does not say something, but also does something. This would mean that there should be members in the team who can bring the message ‘alive’ – in true sense.

Another challenge is something that time will solve. As more and more people start replacing the traditional forms of media consumption with Internet, the medium itself would start being perceived as an evolved medium. This is already happening with people using Google (or other Search Engines) as the primary source of information seeking. Also it was in news a few days back how the traditional source of English Language (Dictionary) is being replaced by the Wikipedia. Twitter, a micro-blogging platform, is giving the traditional news channels a run for their money by being a popular source for real-time news

I’m sure in the near future today’s CG (Creative Guru) would be replaced by tomorrow’s CG (Creative Geek) :)

Cheers

Santosh

Is online a ‘frivolous’ medium for advertising?

Ok. I know it is a very uncomfortable question, especially in emerging markets where Internet advertising is just about finding its place, and is also one of the fastest growing - in terms of advertising revenue growth. It becomes all the more uncomfortable when you are talking about it online :)

Some weeks back, I overheard someone say that compared to other traditional mediums of advertising Online Advertising as a medium need not to be considered seriously (at-least for now). India, for example, still is a market driven by TVC and Print ads.

True? True, but partially

True, because most of the online advertising is limited to online banners (a replication of the mainline creative/message) with a campaign website that is informative in nature. True, because in most ad agencies, the creative think about the message in terms of TVC, Print, Radio, etc…. and then decide to do something ‘cool’ in the online space. “Let’s have something cool on Facebook” is the latest mantra. True again, because agencies/clients use the Internet for uploading and publishing a so called humorous animated movie, a.k.a ‘Viral Movie’ and hope that it is seen by ‘n’ number of people. Sometimes, it just feels like - “if it is online, it needs to be humorous”. I never could understand, why is that clients and agencies are willing to ‘create’ and ‘seed’ a viral movie on the Internet, but usually shy away from promoting the same as a TVC? Is it, that a creative that is only good for the Internet is not good for mainline advertising??

The above ‘truths’ are here to stay for sometime but there are changes happening (and happening real fast)

If I were to analyze these 3 mediums of advertising (Print, TVC, and Online), this is what I see –
- The Constants
- The Channels
- The Creative
- The Consumer
- The Confusion
- The Change
- The Challenge

The Constants:
Whatever be the format of advertisement, the truth is that it is part of the same campaign there are some things which would be constants – the campaign objective, the value proposition, the message, the visuals, etc

The Channels:

Each of the channels has a perception built around it. This perception has a rub-off on the advertisements that it carries.
Print: Most print publications are perceived as – Serious, trustworthy, reliable (esp. Newspaper and most magazines). Thus an advertisement present in such an environment would have some rub-off on to it from the context of the medium itself
Television: Most TV Channels are perceived as a window to the world – real and imaginary. TV Channels are entertainment, information and come with some amount of reliability – A perception built by the channels over the years of broadcasting (BBC, STAR, etc). While the environment at which the TVC plays do not have much impact on the TVC itself since the brand story is capsulated by the entirety of the commercial itself
Internet: Compared to the above two mediums of advertising, Internet is still in its infancy. Internet for a long time was under the control of the academicians, students, and some Government organizations. It is only in the last 2 decades that the people at large had access to Internet through www. While the other traditional forms of media were developed with a business model in mind, Internet was developed more by trial and error. All the major development of Internet – be it web-based email, search engines, SNS sites like Facebook all were developed and popularized by the techno-savvy individuals rather than business entrepreneurs. Also since it was developed by the youth, it was predominantly for the youth destinations that came to populate the www. This early perception of the Net being youth-centric destination, and with no proper business model stuck with the marketers and public…and it stayed on

The Creative

Print: The format is primarily – Static Image, with text.
Television: Moving images, graphics, audio – ability to tell the brand story in the closest format of storytelling – Tone, Emotions, scenarios, plot, characters, etc.
Internet: It encompasses the above formats of Image/Text and also Moving Images, graphics, audio etc…. but it also has another two crucial components that makes it different – Interactivity and Technology. While these are the USP’s of Internet, the creative people who make the ads fail to capitalize on it..since never in the history of advertising did any company needed to think about their message being ‘interactive’ (on a real-time basis) nor the technology having a direct impact on the advertisement/communication itself. Compared to other traditional mediums of advertising Internet is still in its infancy.

The Consumer:
The truth is that as consumers we always have been exposed to unidirectional communication. Whether it be in our homes (Parents to Child), or at School (Teacher to student), or at work (Manager to employees) – the communication is mostly unidirectional. The advertising message format too has so far been unidirectional – Company to Consumer. And since the format of communication (unidirectional) was something we were familiar with, the advertising message as it is was accepted without much bother

The Confusion:
Technology for creators of advertisements had been mostly helping them create ads faster and better. Be it the Photoshop, Illustrator, 3D animation software, or the desktop editing tools or the high processor hardware all these helped the creative team to build ads in the format they are used to. But advertising on the Internet, had technology not as a facilitator of creating ads but an integral part of the creative itself. Suddenly the creative was not about what the story says, but what the story does.

The Change:
Change is something that everyone is uncomfortable with. We all like things to be predictable and hence stick to things that are tried and tested. The same is the case with marketers. Traditional advertising is something that the CMO’s are most comfortable with. They know what works and what doesn’t. So far, Internet advertising was always relegated to the newbie in the department. But the times are changing and the youth of yesterday who have been exposed to Internet from early years are now taking reins of marketing department. They have seen the medium grow and know the potential of this medium. While it would be a fallacy to say that they would replace traditional forms of advertising, digital advertising would soon be the centre of all advertising campaigns.

The Challenge:
The challenge for the creative team and ad agencies is how to think ‘Technology’ when creating ads. It is not about what Technology can do for them, but what they can do with Technology. Internet is about interactivity, and it is about how to create message that just does not say something, but also does something. This would mean that there should be members in the team who can bring the message ‘alive’ – in true sense.

Another challenge is something that time will solve. As more and more people start replacing the traditional forms of media consumption with Internet, the medium itself would start being perceived as an evolved medium. This is already happening with people using Google (or other Search Engines) as the primary source of information seeking. Also it was in news a few days back how the traditional source of English Language (Dictionary) is being replaced by the Wikipedia. Twitter, a micro-blogging platform, is giving the traditional news channels a run for their money by being a popular source for real-time news

I’m sure in the near future today’s CG (Creative Guru) would be replaced by tomorrow’s CG (Creative Geek) :)

Cheers

Santosh