Is to make it personal, but be nice about it. It’s awesome when companies behave like real people, and this message is a good example of how to do it. It might make a few people think twice about taking your product without paying and earn you a new fan or two – I grabbed this from the front page of reddit, which tells you this example has at the very least generated a nice piece of PR for USB Overdrive X. If you sue your fans into the ground they will turn on you, and they will win, or worse, they will walk away. But if you treat them like adults, you never know, they might surprise you.

My friend and sometimes co-conspirator John Carluccio makes incredible pieces of film (that is, when he’s not busy inventing turntablist transcription method) and his latest short Cease and Desist is relevant to anybody who enjoyed reading Pirate’s, especially if you like sneakers.

From the blog of the film:

“Branding, addiction, sneaker culture and legal infringement are explored when artist/designer Ari Saal Forman mash-ups the lively Newport cigarette brand into a cool “Nike-like” sneaker. Shot at the height of the sneaker movement in 2006 and in present day, the short film reveals how trends quickly turn and how these urban expressionists compete even harder to stand out. Sneaker collectors soon face their own (cigarette like) addictions and Ari gets a legal gag for his clever design.

“The “alive with pleasure” moment that “legally never happened” is presented with before and after accounts.”

Make it a priority.

It was cool to be nominated ‘Best Pirate of 2008‘ by BusinessWeek. And I didn’t even have to steal an oil tanker. Check out the full best and worst of 2008 list here.

Sol Sender led of the creative development of the Obama ’08 campaign logo. Some of the designs they didn’t choose are very interesting – but I think they made the right choice.

70′s FEVER from Frederic Lumiere on Vimeo.

Been working on a very cool 70′s project recently, missed this first time round but it’s repeating on the History Channel this weekend… Thanks Mark!

You probably already saw it somewhere, but I must have watched this 100 times at least. It gets better every time.

From TorrentFreak:

“The Motion Picture Association, U.K. Film Council, UK Intellectual Property Office, Federation Against Copyright Theft, London Councils, Trading Standards and the Police are teaming up to eliminate DVD piracy in London before the 2012 Olympics.

“Intellectual Property Minister David Lammy endorsed the launch of the ambitious ‘Fake Free London’ project, noting that the police will be required to enforce already-existing laws: “Legislation alone will not combat counterfeiting and piracy. Good law is great but enforced law is better.”

Only if those laws are enforceable. Media piracy is a great British tradition, as I’ve said before. There are countless reasons why this should be an impossible task, but I actually think this goal is not just achievable, but inevitable. Not because of any anti-piracy measures, but because no one will want DVDs by 2012.