Jerry Seinfeld Said to Feature in Vista Vista Ad Campaign

According to the Wall Street Journal, Microsoft's ad campaign will feature a number of key celebrities that will pitch Vista, including the popular comedian, Jerry Seinfeld, and Bill Gates. Microsoft has yet to compete with the negative ad campaign that Apple has use, with the notorious exception of "The Wow Starts Now" campaign that was launched around the time of Vista's release.

Other personalities, including Will Ferrell and Chris Rock, have been considered, but nothing has been confirmed officially. However, the advertising agency, Porter + Bogusky, is known for their successful Burger King ads.

As we have mentioned earlier, the campaign is apart of a $300 million budget Microsoft has injected that will hopefully dispel the negative presumptions customers have against Vista. Brad Brooks, Microsoft's vice President of consumer marketing, mentioned Apple by name as a "noisy competitor" in the market.

"If a book about failures doesn't sell, is it a success?" Perhaps not, but Microsoft hopes that a new $300 million ad campaign about the flailing Windows Vista will somehow turn it into a success with the help of comedian Jerry Seinfeld. The campaign will be one of the largest in Microsoft's history, and is expected to begin on September 4.

Source: Ars Technica

Judge Rules Fair Use Be Considered Before Takedown Notice

On Wednesday, a federal judge ruled that copyright owners must consider fair use before sending take down notices to online video sites, such as YouTube. Fair use, which is determined by how much of the copyright owner's work is used in the video, whether the video is used for commercial purposes, and whether the video is a parody.

In Stephanie Lenz v. Universal Music Corp. and Universal Music Publishing Group, Univeral argued that ascertaining whether or not fair use has not been violated would take too much too much time and prevent copyright holders from "respond[ing] rapidly to potential infringements." They also stated that the question of fair use is too much to consider in a case, and the question of fair use is too unpredictable to conclude.

The judge granted Lenz the opportunity to counter-sue for attorneys' fees after Universal submitted a motion to dismiss the case. While the judge remains skeptical that Universal acted in "bad faith" when they submitted the takedown request, EFF attorney Corynne McSherry promises to "overcome his doubts."

In the nation's first such ruling, a federal judge on Wednesday said copyright owners must consider "fair use" of their works before sending takedown notices to online video-sharing sites.

Source: Wired Blog

August 21st Tech Roundup

• Gigabyte GA-EP45T Extreme - Hardware Canucks

• XFX GTX 280 - XSReviews

• OCZ Flex II DDR2 PC2-9200 - Neoseeker -
• QNAP TS-109 II Pro Turbo NAS - DragonSteelMods

• Wolfking Trooper MVP Mouse - Bjorn3D

• Noctua NH-C12P CPU Cooler - BurnOutPC

• Lian-Li V1100 - Motherboards
• Thermaltake Armor+ MX - Bigbruin

• Thermaltake VI-ON HDD Enclosure Giveaway - ThinkComputers
• Eee PC 1000 40G - The Tech Report
• Monster Beats Headphones - Digital Trends