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If you think you have a free plane ride coming, better check again. Thanks to a computer glitch, several thousand American Airlines customers received emails over the weekend notifying them that they had won the grand prize of 25,000 frequent-flier miles in the contest sponsored by Kellogg’s cereals. The actual number of grand prizes that was supposed to be awarded is only 60, or one for every day of the contest, which runs through June 5. The cash value of 25,000 frequent-flier miles is estimated at $700. Kellogg Co. is sending email apologies to all those who were notified in error and awarding them 500 free miles as a consolation.
Lecturing file-swappers while they're in the act
If you’re swapping copyrighted music files online, the record industry wants you to know that Big Brother is watching. Beginning this week, thousands of users of Kazaa and Grokster, two popular file-sharing services, have received a message urging them to stop sharing copyrighted songs. "When you break the law, you risk legal penalties," reads the message in part. "There is a simple way to avoid that risk: DON'T STEAL MUSIC." An unidentified company employed by the Recording Industry Association of America sends the message to song-posters using the chat feature built into Kazaa and Grokster. The past week has already been a landmark one in the fight over file-swapping, with both sides winning victories in court. A federal judge refused to shut down Kazaa and Grokster, but another federal judge ordered Verizon to identify a broadband subscriber who is accused of sharing hundreds of copyrighted files.
McDonald's halts U.K. text-messaging promotion
Cellphone users in England will no longer be notified the moment McDonald's decides to offer a two-for-one special on Big Macs. The fast food chain has suspended a promotion in which consumers in the U.K. received text messages alerting them to special deals. McDonald's says it ended the promotion because of a need to reduce its overall European marketing budget, not because the campaign wasn't working. Other companies including Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Nike, Intel and Finlandia are experimenting with wireless marketing schemes, concentrating their efforts on Western Europe, where text messaging is hugely popular.
RealNetworks hits 1M subscriber milestone
It was a case of good news/bad news yesterday as RealNetworks Inc. announced quarterly results. The good news is the company has reached a key landmark, signing up 1 million subscribers for its digital entertainment service. The bad news is that revenue was down in the three months ending March 31, leading to a net loss of $2.8 million. CEO Rob Glaser says the losses had to do in part with increased hiring. Also on the digital entertainment front, CinemaNow has reached a deal with MGM Home Entertainment to distribute its films over the internet. Earlier, the company struck a similar agreement with Twentieth Century Fox Films.
April 30, 2003© 2003 Media Life
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