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IAC sold 17 apps to Bending Spoons. $100M deal, all 330 employees fired

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Re: IAC sold 17 apps to Bending Spoons. $100M deal, all 330 employees fired

#41

Post by samch »

tgsovlerkhgsel wrote: post #13

Why is an adware company allowed to advertise its app with the name of a government organization ("NOAA Weather Radar")? Since they can just sell the app, I assume it's not them writing it for the government on contract.

I don’t think it’s allowed without permission per: https://www.usa.gov/government-copyright

Specifically, “Endorsement, trademarks, and agency logos You cannot use government materials in a way that implies endorsement by a government agency, official, or employee. For example, using a photo in your advertisement of a government official wearing or using your product is not permitted. You also cannot use federal government trademarks or federal government agency logos without permission. For example, in general, you cannot use an agency logo or trademark on your social media page to suggest endorsement or sponsorship by the agency.”

NOAA does have a licensing program, but I somehow doubt that this app was part of that program. Assuming that’s true, then this is likely a case of poor enforcement.

Re: IAC sold 17 apps to Bending Spoons. $100M deal, all 330 employees fired

#43

Post by tonyedgecombe »

vineyardmike wrote: post #6

Obviously sucks to be one of those 330 employees, but I wonder if we really need all these junk apps that just harvest user data. Hopefully they can get work doing something fulfilling. Every time a data harvester moves operations to Europe for cheaper labor, it seems like a game of Russian roulette. When will the day come that the EU drives Bending Spoons out of existence? The US should adopt intent nationalistic la…

Companies like this aren’t on the EU’s radar. It’s the big tech monopolies that get the negative attention and big incumbent businesses that get positive attention.

Individual countries in the EU can make things more bureaucratic than they need to be for smaller businesses but that has little to do with the EU.

Re: IAC sold 17 apps to Bending Spoons. $100M deal, all 330 employees fired

#45

Post by wouldbecouldbe »

kramerger wrote: post #42

I feel if an app changes ownership, all users should automatically be notified by the app store.

I mean this is not just app related, companies can sell applications with it's user data regardless of the app store.

Re: IAC sold 17 apps to Bending Spoons. $100M deal, all 330 employees fired

#46

Post by dmurray »

samch wrote: post #41
tgsovlerkhgsel wrote: post #13

Why is an adware company allowed to advertise its app with the name of a government organization ("NOAA Weather Radar")? Since they can just sell the app, I assume it's not them writing it for the government on contract.

I don’t think it’s allowed without permission per: https://www.usa.gov/government-copyright Specifically, “Endorsement, trademarks, and agency logos You cannot use government materials in a way that implies endorsement by a government agency, official, or employee. For example, using a photo in your advertisement of a government official wearing or using your product is not permitted. You also cannot use federal gove…

Is that the law, or is that more the government saying, through its publicists, how it would like its image to be used?

Seems crazy that, say, an outdoor clothes retailer couldn't share a photo of a group trek where the park ranger was wearing its gear. Or that SpaceX couldn't publish a photo of NASA astronauts flying in its spacecraft - even with NASA's permission.

Re: IAC sold 17 apps to Bending Spoons. $100M deal, all 330 employees fired

#49

Post by radicalbyte »

sambalbadjak wrote: post #23
magicalhippo wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Speaking of, is there a good replacement for Meetup if you just want to organize some informal activities, like a user group or going biking?

In the Netherlands we use Erbij, ( https://erbij.app ), which is now going international. full disclosure, I'm one of the founders

No we don't.

We use datumprikker.nl, Facebook, WhatsApp and sometimes Signal or Meetup.com.

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