5/San Francisco: @d:tech, the Internet Marketing Conference & Expo. (800) 535-1812 or www.ad-tech.com….May 5/New York: Association of Music Producers’ (AMP) "The Event for Refugee Relief" at Webster Hall. Info, (212) 599-2456; www.ampnow.com….May 5: London: The 37th Annual British Design & Art Direction Awards. Info, 44 (171) 840-1111 or www.dandad.org….May 6/Miami: 6th Annual Anti Film Festival’s Animation Station. Contact Noreen Legault, (305) 674-9998….May 7/Chicago: Chicago ADDYs call for entries deadline for Chicago ADDYs/Chicago, (312) 321-9464….May 8-27/New York: Director/cameraman Cosimo Scianna’s "Textures," a collection of fine art photography at the Wickiser Gallery. Info, Roberta Lawrence, (212) 627-0297 or Irene Scianna, (212) 206-1818….May 17-18/New York: School of Visual Arts’ 10th annual Dusty Film Festival and Awards ceremony at the Actors Studio Free Space. Info, (212) 592-2011….May 11/New York: Freelance Producers Network meeting at ServiSound. Bill Sobel, (212) 921-0555…May 13-15/ New York: School of Visual Arts’ 1st annual New York Animation Festival at the Tishman Auditorium. Info, (212) 479-7742; www.members. tripod.com/ ~nyafest/home.html….May 15-16/Minneapolis: AICP Commercial Production training seminars. Contact Olga Iris, (212) 420-8900….May 17-21/New York: The 40th Clio Awards Festival. Info, (212) 683-4300….May 17, 19 and 21/Dallas: AICP Commercial Production training seminars. Contact Olga Iris, (212) 420-8900….June 8-9/New York: 8th Annual AICP Show & Lecture Series at MoMA. Jennifer Jacovsky and Ileana Montalvo, (212) 475-2600….June 9-12/San Francisco: PROMAX & BDA’s 1999 Conference & Exposition at the Moscone Convention Center. Info, call (310) 788-7600….
Google Opens Its Defense In Antitrust Case Alleging Monopoly Over Online Ad Technology
Google opened its defense against allegations that it holds an illegal monopoly on online advertising technology Friday with witness testimony saying the industry is vastly more complex and competitive than portrayed by the federal government.
"The industry has been exceptionally fluid over the last 18 years," said Scott Sheffer, a vice president for global partnerships at Google, the company's first witness at its antitrust trial in federal court in Alexandria.
The Justice Department and a coalition of states contend that Google built and maintained an illegal monopoly over the technology that facilitates the buying and selling of online ads seen by consumers.
Google counters that the government's case improperly focuses on a narrow type of online ads — essentially the rectangular ones that appear on the top and on the right-hand side of a webpage. In its opening statement, Google's lawyers said the Supreme Court has warned judges against taking action when dealing with rapidly emerging technology like what Sheffer described because of the risk of error or unintended consequences.
Google says defining the market so narrowly ignores the competition it faces from social media companies, Amazon, streaming TV providers and others who offer advertisers the means to reach online consumers.
Justice Department lawyers called witnesses to testify for two weeks before resting their case Friday afternoon, detailing the ways that automated ad exchanges conduct auctions in a matter of milliseconds to determine which ads are placed in front of which consumers and how much they cost.
The department contends the auctions are finessed in subtle ways that benefit Google to the exclusion of would-be competitors and in ways that prevent... Read More