On Wednesday Spanish authorities announced the arrest of three alleged ringleaders behind the Mariposa botnet. Mariposa is possibly the largest botnet yet discovered and consisted of an estimated 12.7 million computers.

It has become crystal clear over the last week that Google rushed the introduction of Google Buzz, did little or no external user-testing, and as a result is scrambling to mitigate a massive PR failure.

Let’s face it. 2009 is a year that many of us are pleased to put behind us. We want to look to the future. 2010 beckons. New mobile phones and tablet computers are appearing every week. We are seeing crazy-fast take-up of social media like Twitter, YouTube and Facebook. Add those developments to a rebounding economy and it all indicates an infl ection point: one of those moments in history when everything comes together to enable massive change and opportunity.

With a name like “negative option billing” it should come as no surprise that this practice has received a lot of negative attention lately from the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”), various state attorneys general and other regulatory bodies. Despite this trend, marketers and consumers alike have found this billing method to be a convenient and useful payment option over the years.

New media such as blogs and social networks have opened vast territory for information dissemination, networking and connectivity. Due to their low costs, every “netizen” with an opinion can set up a Web-based soapbox from which to broadcast to the world. As a result, like-minded communities of writers and followers have sprung up around any number of topics large and small: from politics to film, video games to parenting tips.

Cost-per-action networks are all the rage today. But what will it take for a network to win with 400-plus competitors? And how does a network keep ahead of the curve (and the FTC) while building its publisher and advertiser base and fending off tracking and fraud issues?

These are the tough questions that CPA networks face.

As you may know by now, the Performance Marketing Alliance filed an "amicus" motion in September to help challenge New York's nexus tax law as a friend of the court. Our intent is to support Amazon's and Overstock's lawsuits which seek to strike down a tax law passed last year that discriminates against affiliate marketers and has had a devastating effect on the livelihoods of thousands of Americans.

If you’re a performance marketer, you’ve probably heard of the “nexus” tax laws that are being proposed in several states (also known as the Amazon tax). And you may be wondering if you should be concerned.

As I’m learning, if something has to do with laws, taxes and politicians, you should be very concerned. Mostly this is because issues are subject to inaccuracies, complications and whims of those involved. And that has caused a lot of confusion over this issue.

Buying domain names of real live people can be manna to the unscrupulous.

Anne Fognano is not a newbie in the online marketing world. She has run a successful affiliate business since 1997. She's the force behind CleverMoms.com and has registered a raft of variations on the "clever moms" domain name to safeguard her valuable brand. But she never bought the domain for her own name – AnneFognano.com. When someone else did, all hell broke loose.

Recently, I posed my question to a diverse audience: "At your company, who is in charge of social media marketing? Raise your hand if it's the marketing group." A few hands went up. "The public relations team?" A few hands again. "Market research?" Once again, only a smattering of hands was raised. "So I guess most of you aren't using social media at all?" I suggested. "Must be your lawyers are in charge." That struck a chord. Laughter all round.