Twitter is buzzing with the news that last night the Twitter accounts for Mad Men characters Don Draper (@don_draper) and Peggy Olson (@peggyolson) were taken down. At first the outrage was pointed towards the folks over at Twitter, with reports stating that it was because these accounts fall under their new spam restrictions - The accounts were not real people saying real things (yet all were promoting a similar product).

Twitter employees fired back that it wasn’t their initiative, but rather a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown notice issued by AMC. Apparently these twitter accounts were NOT all part of a marketing campaign for the show! I will say this, each of the accounts (there’s more than just Don and Peggy on Twitter) seems to have stuck to the character they were portraying. While AMC has the legal right to protect their brand, why ruin a good campaign? Especially one that is free?

Ben Kessler found the rest of the cast who had Twitter accounts and posted them on his blog. They are:

and

- Apparently a new Peggy Olson account has been created, this time with an underscore in her name. One of her first ‘tweets’ was in regards to the account suspension:

MG Siegler from VentureBeat was the first to report of the DMCA takedown:

Twitter has responded back to me on the issue. Apparently it wasn’t a spam issue at all, but rather a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) takedown notice that Twitter’s support team responded to, co-founder Biz Stone tells me. I guess AMC didn’t like others playing the roll of its Mad Men characters besides the actors who play them on TV.

I wonder if this was the inspiration for the influx of fake Mad Men accounts (taken from SomeEcards.com):

I don’t think this is the end of this story….

UPDATE! Mario Parisé from the StrategicText blog has come forward to reveal that he has been twittering under the Paul Kinsey (@paul_kinsey) account. It is still (as of 12:45pm EST) online. He’s got a great post about it over on his site. Go check it out.

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Here’s a quick round-up of some articles that I’ve found interesting over the weekend -

also on the same topic:

And while still in a “mashup” mood there’s this:

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Following Chris Anderson’s recent experiment with his latest book entitled “Free,” book publisher No Starch Press has released two of their most popular books by Wired news editor Leander Kahney - The Cult of Mac & The Cult of iPod - in full unaltered versions on the infamous p2p torrent site, www.ThePirateBay.org

Here are brief reviews of both books:
The Cult of Ipod - Leander Kahney:

Wired news editor Leander Kahney follows up his bestselling The Cult of Mac with The Cult of iPod, a comprehensive look at how Apple’s hit iPod is changing music, culture, and listening behavior. The Cult of iPod includes the exclusive back story of the iPod’s development; looks at the many ways iPod’s users pay homage to their devices; and investigates the quirkier aspects of iPod culture, such as iPod-jacking (strangers plugging into each other’s iPods to discover new music), as well as the growing legions of MP3Js (regular folks who use their iPods to become DJs).

The Cult of Mac - Leander Kahney:

No product on the planet enjoys the devotion of a Macintosh computer. Famously dedicated to their machines, many Mac fans eat, sleep and breathe Macintosh. In The Cult of Mac, Wired News managing editor Leander Kahney takes an in-depth look at Mac users and their unique, creative, and often very funny culture. From people who get Mac tattoos and haircuts, to those who furnish their apartments out of empty Mac boxes, the book details Mac fandom in all of its forms. This paperback edition includes an all-new chapter about the iPod, updates throughout, and new photos that reflect current Apple technology.

To Download Via BitTorrent or Direct Download:

Via torrent (you will need a BitTorrent client like µtorrent[pc] or Transmission[mac/linux] to download):

Via a direct, non-p2p, download link (no registration required) :

Taken from the No Starch blog, they describe their take on the decision:

At the same time, this has been a very empowering experience. Rather than agonize over the appearance of electronic versions of our titles on torrent sites (I have, and I’ve tried to stop them), I think it’s worth trying to use P2P to help us to increase the visibility of our titles in a crowded market. (I can’t stand those Windows help files anyway.)

We believe that when people read our books they’ll see how they good they are, and they’ll buy them. It happens to us all the time at almost every show that we go to. Many people buy literally armloads of our books. It’s kind of amazing, in a good way.

Instead of fighting something you have no control over, why not embrace it? Instead of trying to ignore what some consider a threat to their business they have used it to increase brand awareness. I thought this was a great example of a company adapting to real-life consumer trends, not to mention just one more example why 2008 will most likely be the “year of the free” with companies giving away their products/services in exchange for user evangelism.

Something else to note:
Since downloading the two eBooks, I have gone on Amazon.com and purchased both. To be honest, I already own The Cult of Mac and didn’t really think Cult of Ipod was worth the buy, but I wanted to support this experiment.

I did enjoy reading The Cult of Mac though (I and suggest you go out and either download or buy a copy yourself). It’s a great read on consumer evangelism vs. loyal customers. This copy will be going out to a random friend. The cool cover designs were produced by Derek Yee. For more of his stuff, go check-out his portfolio section.

Both torrents have been on the top 10 list for e-book downloads on ThePirateBay.org and the news story has received over 800+ diggs on social link-sharing site digg.com. [last checked 3/22]

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This move is definitely aimed at trying to boost AOL’s declining advertising revenue by plastering it across the popular social network. AOL Chief Executive Randy Falco was quoted as saying, “Bebo is the perfect complement to AOL’s personal communications network and puts us in a leading position in social media.” The network plus its usage of Yahoo & AOL instant messaging services will undoubtably broaden the reach of their ad sales.

Bebo announced earlier last year that it will adopt Google’s Open Social initiative, also hinting that the site would be compatible with all current Facebook applications. This places the site as a solid rival against Facebook and MySpace, which trumps the two in popularity outside of the US (as seen in the recently released map/chart below by le Monde).

[click on image to enlarge]

I guess the battle continues in the recent trend of large corporations buying out social-networks as a “quick-fix” to broaden their reach to the “community” markets…. I wonder who’s next?

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Originally from www.Brentter.com