Nautica Tackles Counterfeiters

NEW YORK - Timberland and Nautica filed a joint complaint in the Southern District of New York on Feb. 2, accusing Trendy USA Inc., a company operating in the heart of the city's Garment District, and its owner, Christine Yuen, of being "known counterfeiters.' Several members of Trendy's staff were also named as defendants, as well as a warehouse operation in Piscataway, N.J., where the counterfeit goods were allegedly stored. The complaint alleged violations on seven counts, including trademark and counterfeiting infringement and false designation of origin.-Women's Wear Daily

I think that it's a good thing that Timberland and Nautica are sueing Trendy USA Inc. Counterfeiter's have been steeling designers designs for years and it's about time that somebody started doing something about. Designers put so much time, money and effort into their work and it's not fair that these people think they can get away with stealing people's designs and selling them as their own. It's like cheating. It's not fair to the designers and people should have put a stop to it a long time ago.

-Gwen Rutkowski

Diane Von Furstenberg Sues Forever 21 Over Copyright

Diane Von Furstenberg takes her intellectual property very seriously. Her company has sued Forever 21 last week in Manhattan for copyright infringement. Her company alleges that Forever 21 produced dresses identical to her "Cerisier" and "Aubrey" dress designs and her "small dentelle" "mimosa" and "flower lace border" prints without authorization from DVF and have marketed, advertised, and distributed these dresses. It also said that the scale and color for each design was consciously infringed. Her dresses and prints that were copied were first shown by DVF in her spring 2006 fashion show in September 2005.

DVF asked the court to require Forever 21 to recall and remove from commercial distribution or display any items that infringe on its copyrights as well as any promotional materials related to those goods. The complaint also asked for unspecified financial damages. Von Furstenberg herself spoke recently with WWD about the implementation of a new program at DVF aimed at protecting the brand's intellectual property. The firm established a three-year strategy to address counterfeiting and intellectual property issues.

This is not the first time that Forever 21 has been sued for copyright infringement.

I think that Diane Von Furstenberg is one of the many designers stepping their game up to tackle counterfeiters. It's not fair to her and her company because she works so hard to design and copyright her prints and styles, and for a company to just make an almost identical imitation and mass produce it so easily is disrespectful to her. I'm glad that she takes her role as president of the CFDA very seriously and wants to crack down on counterfeiters of not only her brand, but every other major player in the fashion industry.



by Victoria Gutierrez
article from WWD
http://www.wwd.com/issue/article/114361

Wal-Mart Seeks Smiley Face Rights

BBC Business News

Over the past few years Wal-Mart has had its fair share of legal trouble. This time they find themselves in a dispute over the trademarking of the company's ubiquitous logo, the smiley face. Since 1996, Wal-Mart has used this image in the United States on their uniforms, commercials, and promotional signs. Until recently, Wal-Mart had never thought to try and trademark the smiley face because it had always been part of the public domain in the United States. Now however, Franklin Loufrani, alleged smiley face inventor, wants to trademark the logo in the United States and charge Wal-Mart for its use. Loufrani owns a London based company named SmileyWorld that owns the rights to the image in over 80 countries internationally. SmileyWorld and Wal-Mart are now battling it out before the US Patent and Trademark Office. Wal-Mart wishes it did not have to engage in this dispute but understands the logo's importance to its company. Wal-Mart spokesman John Simley said, "It is kind of ironic that this whole dispute is about a smiley face. But in the end it is what it is: it's a mark that we have a tremendous investment in and is very closely identified with our company." It is clear by Wal-Mart's actions, just how important a company's logo can be. It also goes to show just how careful one has to be in this age of consumerism to clearly mark what belongs to you, and what belongs to the public.

~Hannah Dilworth

Men's Corner: Kiton Plans Revival of Fragrance Business

“Fragrance has long been known as an entry point to a luxury brand for consumers, but lately fashion firms have used scent to freshen up from an image standpoint.” Kiton will introduce a new men’s fragrance this March called Kiton Black. It is being licensed through the Estee Lauder Cosmetics. It is a “couture version” of the original Kiton fragrance, which was introduced in 1996. With so many new launches of fragrances this year, it doesn’t necessarily add new interest to the products, but more like confusion. But a revival of a classic is more notable. Kiton Black is a blend of fruits (Calabrian lemon, red berries), flowers (violet, cardamom, cedarwood), leather, amber, and vetiver. Along with Kiton and Lauder,the gragrance was created along with fragrance supplier Symrise.
The intention of the fragrance is for it to be exclusive. The previous perfume is carried in 120 stores including Barneys New York and Saks Fifth Avenue. With the new release, it is going to be sold at Kiton’s East 54th Street Location, and will be sold at several Blomingdale’s for a period of 90 days. The pricing will be $65 for a 75-ml eau de toilette and $85 for a 125-ml eau de toilette. A 125-ml aftershave will accompany the fragrance as well and will be $65. The estimate retail year-end sales is expected to be $500,000. There will also be a promotional/advertising strategy for Kiton Black, based on vials on cards and sets of the fragrance paired with cufflinks from the brand.

Kiton is legendary with its expensive fine tailored and made to measure suits. I think that a revival through fragrance can help them revive their company through the sales of the fragrance and also can boost the sales of their suits. I think it’s going to sell well because of its exclusivity.

-victoria gutierrez

A "Diddy" of a Lawsuit

Sean Combs has been known to change his name throughout the years, but finally his new alias "Diddy" has gotten him into a bit of trouble. A London based record company, who produces the music artist Richard "Diddy" Dearlove recently sued Sean Combs for using his name. With the growing popularity of websites such as Myspace and YouTube, both sites have become key marketing platforms for international artists. The record company has told Sean Combs to either stop using those sites or change his name.
A problem for Richard "Diddy" Dearlove has been when fans type in "Diddy" they come across Sean Combs, instead of Mr. Dearlove.

"It may be tough for him, but that is just unfortunate," said Purvis. "He has made his bed, he should lie in it." Its all in a name...

cnnmoney.com

Jade Furtado

Aguilera and P&G Sign Fragrance Deal

Procter & Gamble Prestige Products has recently created a long-term licensing deal to create Christina Aguilera fragrances. The company, which creates a number of well-known products, such as Tide, Pampers and Crest, saw Christina as the perfect choice. "We were looking for a brand to complement our portfolio," said Heike Hindenlang, global marketing director, prestige products at P&G. She also added that the company was looking to target a young, trendy consumer. They also liked that Christina had global appeal. "A lot of people are doing celebrity fragrances. It is one thing to do it if the person is just a celebrity and another if she inspires people and builds brand loyalty," continued a P&G spokeswoman. "P&G is absolutely not building a portfolio of celebrity brands. We are very much driven by what the consumer wants. We're not into churning and burning."

I feel that P & G's choice to have Christina Aguilera as the face of their new perfume was a poor one. I do not feel that a girl who is known for her "dirrty" image is a good role model to target to a young crowd. Also, I feel that Christina's popularity is on the downfall and therefore, the perfume won't have a huge following. I am however interested in seeing how Procter & Gamble will market this perfume.

Nicole Held

2/1/2007

Stella McCartney Deal Targets Australia

Today unveiled another great collaboration for Stella McCartney, she signed a deal with Target stores in Australia. These Tagert store are not at all associated withe the US stores. the 42 piece collection will be launched in selected Target Australia stores on March 12th. The Austraila relitors have different owner then the US stores and and was the Only Target store to have trademarked the Stella Items for the store. the prices will range from$30 to $155, this makes it more accessible designs for a lower buget income. This target deal is just one of the latest partnerships McCartney has formed to boost her brands profile and her company's bottom line. Other collaborations included the limited edition accessories collection with LeSportsac, and a line of fashion forward activewear for Adidas and a one-off clothing collection for H&M in november 2005. All of her collaborations had to endure trademarking and licensing as these companies were not Stella McCartneys companies. Stella McCartneys name will be licensed under Target, same with H&M and Adidas. this really gives a chance for people not in the fashion industry to get a glimpse into the designs of Stella McCartney.

By: Dana Vladimir

Saks Tailors Retro Logo to Its Strategy

Washington Post
January 26, 2007
by Ylan Q. Mui



Roxanne Roik





Saks Fifth Avenue is known as one of the finest luxury department stores. However, in recent years business has declined due to a conflict in its retail image. Saks had always catered to older wealthy women with traditional tastes, but competition from stores such as Neiman Marcus seems to have contributed to "an identity crisis", according to chief executive Steve Sadove, for Saks' own image. The store has tried to appeal to a younger market by introducing trendier merchandise, conflicting with the particular tastes of the store's traditionalist clientele. In an attempt to salvage the image that made Saks a success, it has licensed a new logo, a square logo with a "retro" feel. The sleeker symbol has "Saks Fifth Avenue" written in cursive in a black square, an attempt to create a distinguishable signature symbol for the store. The article discussed Saks' attempts to restore its image and attract their desired demographic of wealthy 35-55 year old women, their "classic customer". The company is even launching a private-label Saks Fifth Avenue Collection, with "Signature, Classic, and Sport" lines and restoring the petites section. All of these attempts to restore Saks Fifth Avenue to its glory days of catering to a high end clientele in my opinion, may very well work. The article cited that sales did indeed increase for the company as a result. I think this licensing revival is an excellent strategic move for the company because it will enable Saks to redefine itself to customers and bring back those "classic" customers it may have been losing. Licensing a brand with a successful logo is essential for bringing in good business, because a logo is the most recognizable representation of a company and the most influential component in advertising for a company. A new logo will indicate to consumers that Saks has changed and perhaps overcome its "identity crisis", sparking the interest of potential new clients as well as possibly renewing the interest of previous clients. Therefore, I think licensing a new brand logo is an excellent move for Saks!

Paying YouTube content creators easier said than done

NYTIMES.COM
January 31, 2007
Greg Sandoval, for News.com
Unlike many who post widely watched content on YouTube, Stephen Voltz and Fritz Grobe were angered by their video's popularity on the site.

Fans had posted the clip, "The Diet Coke & Mentos Experiment," at YouTube without permission. Voltz and Grobe were flattered, but the "Mentos" video earned $30,000 at Revver.com, another video-sharing site that pays content creators, and the pair believed they could have doubled that total had the clip not been made available for free on YouTube.
In the future, a budding video auteur trying to turn a buck may not have to worry about YouTube siphoning traffic. YouTube Chief Executive Chad Hurley told an audience at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last weekend that the video-sharing site plans to compensate video creators.
The No. 1 question industry insiders are asking is whether someone can profit from posting clips from episodes of Friends or Lost or other material that doesn't belong to them.
That's a crucial difference between YouTube and most of the sites that already share revenue, said Oliver Luckett, one of Revver's cofounders. Metacafe and Revver screen clips before they go online so they aren't paying for pirated material. The screening process should guarantee that ads will appear alongside clips that are appropriate to an advertiser's message.

"Clearly, YouTube, which tells users they don't want copyright-protected material illegally posted on the site, doesn't want to end up paying people for posting what someone else owns. But with such a big audience, experts say, YouTube will need to install a system that accurately tracks and handles payments to a massive list of posters. The company says that more than 60,000 clips are uploaded to the site each day. And that it is only fair for the creators to get some money for helping them make YouTube so popular."

By: Christina Hilken

Levi's Turns To Suing Rivals

The New York Times
By:Michael Barbaro and Julie Creswell
January 29, 2007

As all of us know Levi’s introduced the first pair of jeans almost 133 years ago and since then they have emerged as the most infamous apparel company for trademark infringement lawsuits. Levi’s claims that their competitors have stole their trademark, the back-pocket intersecting arc stitching and the red cloth label on the right pocket. They have filed nearly 100 lawsuits since 2001 to companies like Von Dutch Originals, Guess, Zegna, Esprit, Lucky Brand, Zumiez, and Rock & Republic just to name a few. The competitors feel that these accusations are the cry of a company that has missed many promising opportunities in the denim industry. But at the same time all the companies that have been sued by Levi’s have made some type settlement to destroy, or never to produce jeans that copy their trademark. Levi’s states that they are just trying to preserve their intellectual property by protecting its most valuable asset; their signature trademark. Levi’s hires denim detectives (40 worldwide) to look at boutiques and department stores to check for jeans that violate their patent.
Many companies have fought to protect their design trademark like Lacoste; with it’s alligator, Polo Ralph Lauren; with it’s polo player, and Nike; with it’s swoosh.

...Wendy Carrasco...

Timex Secures Lincense With Fashion Icon Valentino

Timex Group will create, produce and distribute a luxury watch collection under the Valentino brand name, following a new agreement between the two companies. The companies expect annual retail turnover for the collection to exceed $77.6 million.

Fashion icon Valentino will participate in the design of the timepieces, and both his company and Timex Group will work on development initiatives in global luxury markets.

"The expertise and the strong results achieved by Timex Group in high-quality watchmaking will enable Valentino to reach a leadership segment in a growing segment of the luxury market,” Valentino Chief Executive Officer Stefano Sassi said in a statement. “The strong attention to style and quality of the product, together with an innovative plan developed with the partner, reassert the ambitions of growth of our brand.”

I think its good that a well known company like Timex is designing watches for Valentino. There are to many companies who license out their names to other companies who produce products thats arent that high in quality. I think the watches will be a huge sucess.

Rubie's Costumes Signs a Deal with Bratz in Time for Next Halloween

By: Laura O'Donnell

Rubie’s Costumes is a Halloween costume company that is licensed with many brands including Barbie, Disney, Curious George, Superman, Tom and Jerry, and many more. Recently, they have acquired the rights to MGA Entertainment’s Bratz Doll line which is a growing brand for the tween market. This new deal consists of Rubie’s designing Bratz costumes and accessories that will be available in October 2007; just in time for the Halloween season. Some of the Bratz accessories available for tweens this Halloween will be wigs, jewelry, and make-up kits.

According to the article, Howard Beige (Vice President of Sales for Rubie’s) is “thrilled that MGA Entertainment has given [him] the opportunity to be the licensee of Bratz.” I can see how he would be considering Bratz are one of the most popular toys right now for young girls. Sales at Rubie’s will most likely increase greatly because of this agreement.

Riding hip jeans into new luxury markets

“You might think that for a young brand, netting $100 million in sales of $100-plus jeans is a sure sign of success. And indeed, labels such as True Religion, Rock & Republic, Citizens of Humanity, and 7 for All Mankind have graced the pages of fashion bibles like Vogue and Elle, and are sold in high-end stores from Saks to Barneys New York. But for this new generation of fashion startups, "premium"—or $100-plus—jeans are just the springboard for launching up market lifestyle brands. Many are entering 2007 by offering expanded lines of clothes, accessories, outerwear, eyewear—even a hotel—that they hope will boost customer loyalty and fully establish them as multicategory brands. The key for Paper Denim + Cloth and the more expensive premium-denim labels alike as they expand will be to keep their brands consistent and distinctive. As they translate their casual-chic brand identities into numerous new products and begin to compete with more established lifestyle brands such as Polo Ralph Lauren, these premium-denim companies face a design and marketing challenge that will require more than just fancy stitching on back pockets.”

I think that there are positive outcomes and negative outcomes of high brand jeans like true Religion and 7 for all mankind to expand their clothing lines, by offering accessories, outerwear and eyewear. A positive outcome is that the brand will expand and become better known not just by their jeans but by the other products they are preparing to sell, and thus make more money.
I personally love 7 for all Mankind jeans; they fit well and are fashionable. By the company expanding their business, the thought and creativeness put into their jeans may not exist as it does today. Also, as they create new products, there brand name may go down as their products may not be as nice or have the same high quality as their jeans do. Usually when a brand starts licensing themselves, and puts their brand name on other things, it makes the brand less high quality, and could possibly ruin their reputation.
Companies like true religion and 7 for all man kind are great at what they do. They have great jeans and even though they are very expensive because of their quality and fashionable, people pay high prices for the jeans. Making jeans is what the brand is known for, so I think that they should stick with what they do well instead of spreading out and creating other items that is so, so. Being great at making one thing, is better than being just ok at making various things.

Jessica Kaplan

Yahoo Planning to create "Brand Universe"

"SUNNYVALE, Calif., Jan. 30 — Yahoo said Tuesday that it planned to build individual Web sites around 100 entertainment “brands” this year that would pull together content from Yahoo’s sprawling array of online properties. The effort, called Brand Universe, is intended to create online destinations that will draw large audiences around individual movies, television shows, bands, celebrities, games and other types of entertainment."

This is an interesting move for yahoo, they currently hold one of the largest interenet audiences and have recently revamped their staff and this initiative("Brand Universe") is currently on the agenda. Building websites for other companies(i.e. brands) will potentially give their existing websites a boost in media technology, and increase the overall audiences of both yahoo and the brand it is promoting. Yahoo plans on paying for this project through advertising and both Yahoo and partner companies will see large profits if this is a sucess; because this is a massive project with almost 100 willing participants. However this entire project is completely unlicensed. Yahoo will essentially pick the brands they like most and make the brand a new website. The chairman of the "Brand Universe" acknowledges the fact that there could be potential tensions with brands who want to make their own new websites. Nevertheless, he will not ask for any permission to create the websites, he will simply stop an operation if a brand owner does not want his services.

"Mr. Broady acknowledged that there could be tensions with some content owners who were trying to create online destinations of their own. The company said it did not plan to ask permission from the owners before creating the sites, but would not proceed if the owners objected. "

I believe this "Brand Universe" is a little out of the ordinary and is worth noting because very few industries(maybe none besides internet technology) would you find one corporation doing business with another corportation in which the task involves using the latter corporation's branding. This is truly a licensing anomaly and it will be very interesting to keep track of Yahoo's progessions or digressions on its "Brand Universe" project.
by Giovanni Silva

USA : Perry signs licensing agreement with Falic Fashion for fragrances

fibre2fashion.com

January 30, 2007

Perry Ellis Intl. Inc.

Perry Ellis International Inc announced that it has entered into a worldwide licensing agreement with Falic Fashion Group LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Duty Free Americas Inc, to manufacture and distribute perfumery, fragrances, lotions, toiletries and cosmetics under the Perry Ellis brand. As well, Perry Ellis International finalized an agreement to sell to Falic Fashion Group all inventory and other related assets of the fragrance business. Both agreements are effective immediately.

The Falic Fashion Group LLC, is a member of the Falic Group of companies, which are involved in the retail sale, manufacture and international distribution of luxury goods.Falic Fashion Group is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Duty Free Americas Inc, the largest duty free retail store operator in North America. In my opinion its good that Falic Fashion group gave the rights to Perry Ellis to sell their products, because now they can combine each others merchandise. They also now have a greater opurtunity to come up with brighter and better ideas. I feel that Perry Ellis will most likely maximize income with this key product category.

Angelica Swierad

Transforming Yoga Pants

"Yoga Company Gets Practical With New Line"
Published: WWD, January 19, 2007
By:Whitney Beckett

A young yoga instructor, Jyanna Nichols has recently started her own line of yoga gear, called YoginiStyle- based out of NC. She has noticed and experienced for herself the problem with yoga pants and how they will never stay up while doing positions such as the downward dog pose. After many frustrating classes of pulling up her pants so that her panties wouldn't show, she motivated to fix the problem, and finally started to sew thongs into her yoga pants so that they would stay together. As of right now, the patent for her product is pending. Since there is no other product of its kind. In November, her line started to sell to yoga boutiques and studios, and it really took off. With in the next few weeks, 4 other yoga websites picked up her line, while also selling through direct mail and on her personal website. She has extended her idea to 'hit every physical fitness activity a woman could do', while YoginiStlye's main goal remains to give women one less thing to worry about.

I think that Yoginistyle has a great concept, and it has been proven that other women from all around the country think so, too. I love the fact that even while the patent for her product is still pending, the need of exercise gear that hides what needs to be hidden allows women to concentrate more on their fitness rather than being insecure about their underwear, or anything else popping out!

By: Krista Gennell

Badgley Mischka Gets Intimate

Badgley Mischka Gets Intimate
By Karyn Monget

The first collection of lingerie bearing the Badgley Mischka Couture name will be launched for holiday.The licensing deal with Ariela-Alpha International was coordinated by Badgley Mischka's parent, the Iconix Brand Group, which started a number of licenses for Badgley Mischka last year, including fragrance, handbags, eyewear and cold-weather accessories. Daywear and sleepwear will be added next year, as well as a secondary lingerie label, Badgley Mischka Platinum.The compact line of signature embroidered and beaded bras and coordinating undies will be a "natural progression for our couture clothes," said Mark Badgley. "One problem was, customers would say, ‘Oh, my gosh, what do we wear under these clothes?' It's always been a big part of what we do and we've always been trying to build in the proper corsetry in our evening gowns, but it never worked, so we are launching this [intimates] collection. Our customer always loves beautiful underpinnings."

I think this will be a good step to help Mischka expand her product line.

-Gwen Rutkowski

Calvin Klein Tees Off With Windsong

Calvin Klein Tees Off With Windsong
By Marc Karimzadeh

NEW YORK — Calvin Klein Inc. is stepping onto the fairway.CKI inked a licensing deal with Windsong Sport LLC, the division of the Windsong Allegiance Group, to launch the Calvin Klein Golf collection. Windsong will manufacture and distribute the line, which will be part of the company's better-priced white label assortment and include women's and men's golf apparel as well as accessories. Windsong Sport president Fran Matthews also will become president of the company's new Calvin Klein Golf division.Kevin Carrigan, creative director for ck Calvin Klein and the better-priced Calvin Klein white label, will work on the line, which takes its cues from the clean, modernist aesthetic of the brand, with a main focus on knits, including sweaters, pants, shorts and outerwear, as well as golf accessories and shoes.

I think this is a good step for Calvin Klein. It seems like Calvin Klein's image was slowly fading from what it was in the early 90s. I think this will help expand Calvin Klein's product line and build a new and better image for the company.

-Gwen Rutkowski

Calvin Klein Tees Off With Windsong

WWd.com
Published Friday, January 26, 2007

Calvin Klein “Tees off” with Windsong Sports LLC, to launch a Calvin Klein Golf collection. This line will include women’s and men’s golf apparel and accessories. This line will include sweaters, pants, knits, outerwear and shoes. The price points will range on a scale of $80.00 to $100.00 for a pair of pants and $100.00 to $225.00 for a sweater. The line will first be launched for the up coming holiday season and will be sold in specialty stores.
It always amazes me how brands such as Calvin Klein build an image and once they build their image they continue to grow and develop, with that continuing to develop new lines and products to better service its client. I feel a Calvin Klein client is a typical golfer, who would most defiantly purchase an outfit for the course from the new Golf collection. I am anxious to see what this line has to offer, as I am sure it is going to be a clean cut, modern looking line that all will enjoy wearing.

April Garbaccio

Carhartt Adds Women's Line To Assortment

WWD.com
Published Wednesday, January 24th, 2007

Carhartt work gear has just introduced a women's line of work clothing in addition to their men's work gear line. Carhartt is launching their women's line starting in May of 2007. As stated in the article more and more women today are blue collar workers. This leads to a great opportunity for Carhartt to go forward with their line and capture the interests of the blue collared working women. I think Carhartt is taking steps in the right direction by producing a full women's line complete with accessories, as well as marketing to the fastest growing segment. It is great that Carhartt is producing a women's line i feel they will be very successful targeting this segment of women. The Carhartt name is already a well known name in the workman's force that i feel they will not have any problems getting their women's line off the ground. When you produce and sell a quality product your name is known.


April Garbaccio

Diesel Wins Injunction in Copyright Case

WWD.COM
Jan. 11, 2007
By: JeaninePoggi

Diesel U.S.A. won a permanent injunction and final judgment on consent against Chic Lady Ltd. and its owner, Michael Kamali, for copyright infringement. According to court documents, Diesel filed a copyright infringement lawsuit in October 2005 against wholesale apparel and accessories retailer Chic Lady for allegedly using its stylized "D" trademark and the "Diesel-Only-The-Brave-Diesel" trademark on Chic Lady jeans. Under the terms of the judgment, Chic Lady is restrained from reproducing the jeans or any other merchandise with the Diesel trademarks.
I think that it's ridiculus that Diesel has to deal with something as pettie. They are such a large company that they have other problems they need to deal with, but at least they settled this situation. Hopefully it won't happen again.

Christina Hilken

Youtube's content deleted due to inproper citing

Recently as I browsed through youtube's video library in search of a particular sports clip, I came to find out that youtube has been deleting certain material due to improper citing. The video clip I was searching for could not be played because it did not give proper credit to ESPN. Three days later the video was completely erased and others just like it were also removed. Many believe this occurrence is only the begging of a total revamping of youtube's website content. I personally would agree with those who argue in favor of removing improperly citied information, because not only are people stealing information, but they are morphing these videos into their own work which is even worse than just blatantly stealing. by Giovanni Silva

Ruckus Is Free For All Students!

" Ruckus, the legal music downloading service, is now free for all college students nationwide. Every student on America’s college and university campuses now has free and legal access to the world’s first, advertising supported college-only, music download service, Ruckus, from Ruckus Network, Inc. The Ruckus service, previously available only at schools with contractual agreements with Ruckus, can now be accessed by any student with a valid .edu email account. With today’s announcement, Ruckus users everywhere now have easy and immediate access to the recently expanded library of more than 2.1 million high fidelity, virus-free music tracks from every major label, as well as an impressive and expansive list of independent labels. Ruckus eliminates copyright infringement through its licensing agreements with all of the major international record labels, as well as thousands of independent labels and artists."

I think that this is a great idea to allow students on college campuses to download music free off the internet. They would do it anyway illegally and I think that it’s great that Ruckus partnered up with colleges to make this possible for students. Even if you don’t go to a school that has a contractual agreement with Ruckus, you are still able to download songs with a valid .edu email address. This is especially good because we attend a college that not many people have heard about, and doesn’t have a huge population. If Ruckus only allowed students that go to schools with contractual agreements with ruckus, we wouldn’t be able to use it.This new policy is not only good for us students, but also, it gives new artists a chance to be heard, and become known across college campuses throughout the US, because of their recently expanded library of independent labels.

Jessica Kaplan
http://www.ruckusnetwork.com/pressrelease.php?id=62

Musical Energy Drinks

Rock Stars Sell Their Souls
ABC NEWS
Jan. 24th, 2007
By Susan Donaldson James

The boom in energy drinks has rose dramatically over the past few years. Recently one new company has promised to rid your brain of "purple haze." The new drink called "Liquid Experience" features Jimi Hendrix on the can. The musical artist who died from a drug overdose in the 70s was known as one of the greatest guitarist of all times.

The drink is due out in April by the New Zealand company, Beverage Concepts. Although it is said that some profits will go to charity, this is another example of how companies are using the star power of the elderly or dead for capitalizing.


Jade Furtado