Jerry Metellus in the classroom....

In the Fundamentals of Advertising class, we welcomed Jerry Metellus to give a presentation and show his work.

He is a former entertainer (model, dancer, actor) who traded the limelight to setting up lights and shines it on others. He prefers to work with people but will also shoot food and architecture. “I can handle, but they're not the best humorous communicators...”

From his MySpace website: My motto is “DO IT SERIOUSLY, DON'T TAKE IT SERIOUSLY!!! Easy going. Open minded. Beyond Patient. Energetic. Love: Life, People, Laughter, Open minds, Creative Spirits, Caring Souls, Warm Hearts, Talented people of all kinds.”

In this sample image, he shot it without any special effects. These are principle dancers with the Nevada Ballet... with their son, who is not actually in the company. Click on that image to go to his website.

The Web's New Gold Mine: Your Secrets

The Web's New Gold Mine: Your Secrets
A Journal investigation finds that one of the fastest-growing businesses on the Internet is the business of spying on consumers

• The Journal examined the 50 most popular U.S. websites, which account for about 40% of the Web pages viewed by Americans. (The Journal also tested its own site, WSJ.com.) It then analyzed the tracking files and programs these sites downloaded onto a test computer.
• As a group, the top 50 sites placed 3,180 tracking files in total on the Journal's test computer. Nearly a third of these were innocuous, deployed to remember the password to a favorite site or tally most-popular articles.
• But over two-thirds—2,224—were installed by 131 companies, many of which are in the business of tracking Web users to create rich databases of consumer profiles that can be sold.
• The top venue for such technology, the Journal found, was IAC/InterActive Corp.'s Dictionary.com. A visit to the online dictionary site resulted in 234 files or programs being downloaded onto the Journal's test computer, 223 of which were from companies that track Web users.
• The information that companies gather is anonymous, in the sense that Internet users are identified by a number assigned to their computer, not by a specific person's name. The company, for instance, says it doesn't know the name of users such as Ms. Jones—only their behavior and attributes, identified by code number.
  

And the industry says the data are used harmlessly.

What do you think?

COPYRIGHT LAW: Legal attack dogs!

Legal attack dog sicked on websites accused of violating R-J copyrights



Websites and blogs that post Las Vegas Review-Journal content, however innocent their intent, can expect to be sued without warning

In the Las Vegas Sun Newspaper on August 5, 2010, an article by Steve Green details the Las Vegas Review Journal’s attempt to control their original content. A brief synopsis follows. Click on the headline to go to the original article.

“Righthaven’s procedure has been to “troll” to find an infringement of an R-J
copyright to a specific story. It then buys the copyright for that story from
the R-J’s owner, Stephens Media LLC, and afterward sues the infringer…

In online forums and news stories, Righthaven has been widely pounded on
for suing mom-and-pop-type bloggers, nonprofit groups and special-interest
websites that can’t afford to fight back in court — and for hitting copyright
infringers with suits rather than asking that they take down the stories and
replace them with links to the originals…

None of the contested Righthaven cases has advanced to the point where a trial has been scheduled. Judges as of Friday had not yet ruled on the motions for dismissal or the other legal arguments by defendants…”