Kickstarter exceeds £22.5m for UK funding in a year
One year after launching in the UK, crowd-funding website Kickstarter has received over £22.5m in UK-based pledges.
After starting up in the US in 2009, the website has gone on to help many entrepreneurs start successful projects launch devices.
The website allows users to pitch a creative project offering rewards in return for monetary funding from backers. The pitcher sets a funding goal for people to pledge money towards, if the goal is not met, they get nothing.
Kickstarter UK has seen £17.1m go to successful projects with 1,550 projects supported by 323,282 backers/ Kickstarter keeps 5% of the funds raised for successful projects.
The most popular category is film and video, taking 25% of pledges, followed by publishing and games, both at 13% and music and art at 11% and 9% respectively.
Zynga wins Scrabble trademark row
Zynga, the company behind popular social networking game Farmville, has won the right to retain the name of its game ‘Scramble with Friends’ following a law suit by Mattel, owner of the Scrabble boardgame.
Mattel had argued that Zynga’s use of the word ‘Scramble’ was too close to the word ‘Scrabble’. But a high court judge ruled that the mobile device game did not infringe Mattel’s Scrabble trademarks.
Mr Justice Peter Smith did however, declare that Zynga’s use of a curly letter M in the logo "given the impression that the word is Scrabble when one looks at it quickly and has the propensity to confuse."
Therefore, Zynga will have to change the game’s logo, but not the name of the game itself.
Websites defaced by Anonymous Philippines
Dozens of websites in Australia and the Philippines have been hacked as Anonymous Philippines group calls for support in an anti-corruption protest in congress this week.
The Philippine government website was among those hacked on Sunday as the group defaced sites with a message seeking support for the abolition of ‘pork barrel funds’ that money activists claim are for political patronage.
"We apologise for this inconvenience, but this is the easiest way we could convey our message to you, our dear brothers and sisters who are tired of this cruelty and this false democracy, tired of this government and the politicians who only think about themselves," read a message on the defaced websites.
