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WebProNews spoke with Jeremy Schoemaker, AKA Shoemoney, at the Affiliate Summit in Miami. He shared tips about when to start considering monetization for a site, and also spam prevention methods. Watch our exclusive coverage from the Affiliate Summit in Miami for all the details.
 Bill Bruno on Leveraging Web Analytics
At the Affiliate Summit in Miami, Bill Bruno, Principal of Stratigent, LLC, spoke with WebProNews about his session...
 Mark Papia, FOX Interactive Media
In this exclusive interview, Papia talks about the future of MySpace
and the competition it faces with other social networking sites...
 Google's Rob Kniaz on the Affiliate Summit
Google hoped to gain feedback from its users and they did. He ar how Google will use this feedback, plus how new affiliates...
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Thursday, July 12, 2007 |
The Walt Disney Company will make its popular Toontown MMORPG ad-supported later this year, and will offer movie downloads in conjunction with Microsoft.
Editor's Note: Disney has taken a more confident step into the Internet economy, as they enable digital delivery of movies and TV, while giving up the steady revenue of Toontown for the promise of advertising riches. How do Disney's plans affect your perception of the House of Mouse? Let us know in the comments section.
As someone who has made several trips to Disney's theme parks, I'm one of many people who can attest to the company's dedication to prying money from people's wallets while entertaining them. Disney doesn't do anything if they don't see a clear path to a payday.
The latest announcement of Disney teaming with Microsoft to offer movie rentals on demand isn't too surprising. Disney has been standing cheerfully with Apple's Steve Jobs both before and after buying his Pixar movie studios, and Disney content abounds on iTunes, so they aren't strangers to the downloadable concept.
 Disney's new deal places an on-demand option on the Xbox Live Marketplace for Xbox 360 gamers. Disney movies and ABC television choices, in standard and high-definition formats, have become available. Microsoft and Disney disclosed this at the E3 Media & Business Summit.
This makes the Xbox 360 a little more family-friendly, as the gaming console has never been known as being oriented toward the younger market. The option to bring in a Disney movie on the Xbox 360 might make it more acceptable to parents who would probably not choose to buy one otherwise.
It is an important partnership due to Disney's famed control over its content, especially the animated features. Disney isn't going to risk losing money on them no matter how long ago the movies were released.
That brings us to Toontown, Disney's multiplayer online game with some 17.5 million characters running around its colorful streets (many people create more than one toon, and can have up to six per account). Mediaweek disclosed Disney would shift the game from a subscription model to ad-supported sometime this fall.
Some players have been trying out the ad-supported version in beta since May. Disney charges a $9.95 per month subscription, with people willingly paying for it.
At first glance it's tempting to compare the shift to AOL's change from subscription to advertising as a revenue model. AOL had been hemorrhaging subscribers and needed to make a dramatic change. Disney isn't under that same pressure.
The financial outlook for Toontown under an ad model must be really impressive. Saying that Disney doesn't like to give things away is like suggesting your fingertips may redden slightly upon touching the surface of the Sun.
| Article by David Utter , a WebProNews editor and writer covering business and technology. |
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Brett Batters Vexatious Balls, Video Not On YouTube
 By Jason Lee Miller
Staff Writer | WebProNews
A trademark infringement court case involving court-labeled "vexatious litigant" Leo Stoller against baseball great George Brett took a humorous twist when the judge linked to a copyright infringing video on YouTube in his written opinion.
Stoller likes to sue people for trademark infringement whether or not he has a good reason. He calls himself "an intellectual property entrepreneur," but the court system has other, not so flattering, names for him.
His most famous case involves Google, where he claimed the right to the company's name since its entrance into the dictionary as a verb, and was using the trademark for plastic exercise balls he most likely won't be able to produce as evidence.
That may not make sense to you and it most likely won't make sense to the courts either, but that's par for the course considering Stoller is barred from litigating in northern Illinois.
On Monday, a judge had some colorful words for Stoller after finding in favor of Brett Brothers Sports International, Inc. and their right to the trademark STEALTH for use on baseball products.
"Were there a Hall of Fame for hyperactive trademark litigators" the US Court of Appeals said, "Stoller would be in it."
In this case, writes Judge David H. Coar, Stoller "filed an infringement lawsuit without evidence of any sales of baseballs or baseball bats to support its claim to rights in the 'Stealth' mark for such products. [His company] ignored requests to produce documents to support its claim, forcing the defendants' lawyers to go to court to compel action.
Continue Reading
Article by Jason Lee Miller, a WebProNews editor and writer covering business and technology. |
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CSS Positioning on the Page
I am designing a new website with a tableless css/xml design and it is
approx 760px wide and sits in the middle of the page. there is a header
row, then 2 columns - the left for main content and the right a slim
column for links etc.
In IE as you flick through the main nav the site looks perfect and stays still, but in firefox on pages where the main content is the same length as or shorter than the right hand column, the pages jump to the left slightly.
My boss always uses microsoft as an example of a great IT site and I was almost pleased to see that if you go to Microsoft.com and flick through thre right hand menu of 'all microsoft sites' on FF it does exactly the same so I am not on my own in this problem!
does anybody know a fix for this?
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Inc. 2549 Richmond Rd. Lexington KY, 40509
