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AMD Papers Over Free Wi-Fi Network Builders
Glenn Fleishman writes "It's been widely reported in the last week that AMD, Intel's processor competitor, was launching a free hotspot network. It's come out, in reporting we just posted at Wi-Fi Networking News, that AMD has built this network by calling existing free hotspots and asking if they'd put stickers in their window. This might be fine: stickers and the label "AMD HotSpot" in exchange for promotion. However, in Austin several local wireless activists say that AMD has put their hotspot decals up in stores without the stores' permission, including at locations operated and supported by Austin Wireless City and Austin Unleashed. Guerrilla marketing gone overzealous? Or an attempt to seize the credit without paying for it?"
Better than seeing Intel(r) Inside on every business.
One of the biggest problems with "guerrilla marketing" organizations is that they're basically made up of college students working in sitations where it's hard to veryify what they actually did. I remember in 1999 walking accross the Syracuse University campus seeing several .com's URLs written on the sidewalks on the Quad. That's a no-no according to the University rules, but the .com's blamed students who had been told to put the chalk writing in high-traffic public sidewalk locations, not on private property. Students were just too dense to understand that the Quad belongs to the University, not the government, but the company wasn't helping them any by pointing that out.