Fake Press Releases – Is CyberMonday the New April Fools?

Last Updated on March 8, 2024 7:29 pm by Jeffrey Powers

Hope you had a great Turkey Day. It’s been a wild week here at Geekazine. Catching up on lots of video and playing with a new phone. I show you the LG Optimus G – an Android phone on the Sprint Network. I also went to see Life of Pi in 3D. First 3D movie I’ve seen since Superman. I give my opinion of the movie.

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Geek Smack! episode 245 Tech News:

CyberMonday Crackdown
132 Domains were seized for selling fake items
Windows 8 in BIOS
No more product keys on software, it would just be imprinted on the BIOS
No More Intel Socket
Intel Socket might be going away. End of the desktop building going?
Hotel KeyCard Hack
High tech digital hacker used in stealing a laptop in TX
Netflix Open Source?
Netflix is opening up their API so cloud devices can add Netflix easily to their lineup.
Sprint LTE Rollout
Sprint will rollout to 11 smaller markets
Ford Fiesta Gets MyFord Touch
Ford is starting to standardize Microsoft SYNC in every car. Hopefully an after-market version will be next. 
Crapware Still on Windows8
OEM Windows8 will still contain that free trial of Office and other software
Kansas Google Fiber
Would you move to Kansas just to partake in the faster internet speeds? Will Big ISPs start to speed-match Google?
Harley Davidson Lightning
Apparently Harley Davidson had the rights to Lightning. They’re letting Apple have some.
Black Friday Shopping
1 billion dollars were spent from Black Friday.

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Geek Smack! Geek News:

Space: Go to Mars
Medical: Letherman Raptor
Weather: Personal Weather Station
Balloon Animals: Super Hero
LEGO: Hobbit Sets Available
Dr. Who: Tardis Mini Fridge

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Geek Smack: Google, Facebook Get Fake News. Is CyberMonday a day to “Prank” Someone?

Yesterday we found out that Google was acquiring a Wifi hotspot provider ICOA. Except this was not true. In the meantime, a release came out mentioning that Facebook has re-vamped their policies to make all images, sounds and more copyright free if posted.

Two totally unrelated instances climbed the news market like a SWAT team scales a wall. Once they were found to be false, we saw a barrage of “dumbass” messages throughout Facebook and Twitter – including an old Batman comic cell slapping Robin with different text in the speech bubble.

ICOA CEO George Strouthopoulos told TechCrunch – the ones who broke the fake story – that it was not true. BuzzFeed mentioned the poster of this fallacy was from Aruba. Whats worse is that ICOA is a publicly traded company. Therefore their stock had to be frozen while this issue blows over.

Back to Facebook – How many people posted the following on their pages:

In response to the new Facebook guidelines I hereby declare that my copyright is attached to all of my personal details, illustrations, comics, paintings, professional photos and videos, etc. (as a result of the Berner Convention). For commercial use of the above my written consent is needed at all times!

First of all, the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works is an international agreement governing copyright, which was first accepted in Berne, Switzerland, in 1886 (Hence the name). The US is part of that agreement.

Unfortunately, a small blurb on a social network is not going to stop someone from copying or re-sharing your images. If someone does re-share; is it worth the lawyer cost to go after them?

The two events really made it feel like someone was trying to PWN us. It started to feel like CyberMonday was another April Fools day. Do we really need that on a day where people are watching the internet closely for their favorite deals for Christmas?

Oh wait… Nevermind.

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Geek Smack! is a weekly video show and podcast that comes out every Tuesday evening. Your host: Jeffrey Powers – talks tech news, IT news and geek news for the week. Geek Smack! is ©2012 under a Creative Commons no-deriv license. Never take candy from strangers. If you would like more information about what is technology, recent news, Geekazine, and Jeffrey Powers, feel free to contact him. Jeffrey Powers does interviews, just ask!