Happy Trails, Geoff.

I seriously doubt that any of you who read my blog do not read Geoff’s.  But in case you don’t, Kiwi Mediator and blogger extraordinaire Geoff Sharp is stepping down from his mediation blog, mediator blah…blah.

Geoff’s blog was one of the first I found as I was researching whether and how to dive into the mediation blogosphere.  I will definitely miss his informative, yet very entertaining, self-deprecating style.

Quite ironically, he was the first to try to talk me out of quitting blogging back in May.

Geoff’s posts will be missed and I wish him the best in whatever new challenges and family matters that are pulling him in different directions.

Some Good Natured Ribbing

Reading Overlawyered today, I chuckled at Walter’s description of this story over at LegalBlogWatch about lawyers being fooled by fake Twitters.  Then I read the story.

Turns out that one of the mediation blogging community’s very own, Vickie Pynchon was one of those fooled.  Really, Vickie?  The name Beatrice Bitcher didn’t sound just a little unusual to you? Her posts claiming to demand an associate act as her personal slave all weekend didn’t sound fishy? C’mon.

I guess you can count yourself in good company as Star Jones was sucked into a Twitter conversation with Bitcher’s fictional law partner Prickman.

And, if it makes you feel better, Vickie, falling for the Bitcher posts is not as bad as the law professors over at Volokh Conspiracy (among others) who fell for the fake Twitter account the guys at Popehat created, claiming to be the official North Korean news agency.

Win-Win Thinking on YouTube

Mediators often speak of the win-win: parties working together to make the pie larger or construct a settlement or agreement that allows both parties to benefit.  This is often a difficult concept for many people to work, especially in the world of intellectual property.  The IP rights holder wants desperately to control the dissemination of the property, be it a patent, a film or in the case of the current You Tube viral sensation, the Chris Brown song “Forever”.  They believe that they can only maximize profitability by limiting access or usage.

Upon learning that a YouTube video contains non-licensed music, most record labels will contact You Tube and demand that the offending video be removed for infringement.  Chris Brown’s label or his publisher could have easily done so with the wedding video making the rounds.

Instead, they recognized an opportunity when the saw it and included a Click-to-Buy link within the video encouraging users to buy the song on Amazon or iTunes.  As a result,

over a year after its release, Chris Brown’s “Forever” has again rocketed up the charts, reaching as high as #4 on the iTunes singles chart and #3 on Amazon’s best selling MP3 list.

That’s creative win-win thinking.