Quote for the Month

"A hunch is creativity trying to tell you something." - Frank Capra.

1. Introduction - What's New
2. Gurus - Go Home
3. Featured Article - The 10 Most Common Myths About Copyright
4. Need A "Worm" Killer?
5. Free eBooks to Download

1. Introduction

Welcome to the September edition of e-Work-Zone's e-Work-News.

Time to get ready for Christmas :-). Seriously, if you run a website, it is time to start getting ready. But, I still think Walmart is nuts putting out the Xmas decorations already.

2. Gurus - Go Home

by Kathy Laskowski 9/15/2003 Here is a quote from an 'ad disguised as a newsletter' I got earlier today - pushing the latest and greatest membership site: "Because for the first time ever, the 'average guy' gets to rub shoulders with the cream of Internet Marketers, and to substantially profit from the experience. And I mean substantially!" Based on the 'hubbub' on the A. Blake board this past weekend, I think I'll pass on that 'cream' thing -- Joe Kumar was on his way to the 'top', and look at what a jerk he turned out to be. And, while I'm on my soapbox, maybe an 'age test' is in order. Anyone who is less than 21 and considers themselves a 'guru' has a lot to learn. It is impossible to be a 'guru' at that age, no matter how intelligent, terrific, successful, etc. YOU think you are. I have a son who just turned 18 - I know. Ok, I'm stepping off the soapbox now. If anyone missed the weekend 'festivities', here is the nutshell version: Joe Kumar got mad at Carlos Garcia because Carlos wouldn't give Joe a higher commission than the 'regular' affiliate for his new 'Wealthy Secrets' newsletter ( I guess Joe thought because he was such hot stuff he deserved 'star' treatment). So, in keeping with his age (read childish), Joe sent an email to his 'list' bashing Carlos and his program, making what turned out to be unfounded accusations (read lies) - and told his list all to 'unsubscribe' to Wealthy Secrets, and asked them to forward his email asking for unsubscriptions to their lists. Attempted viral blackballing - I wonder if that is illegal? It sure is despicable. Anyway, Carlos responded with a screenshot video documenting what really happened, and the A. Blake board was just buzzing with back and forth between C and J, with numerous others piping in with their opinions on who was right who was wrong and what was going on. Not the best weekend in Net marketing history -- but it should teach us all a lesson. 1) If you're a kid, you are a kid, not a Guru -- don't expect mature behavior just because the kid got 'rich' unexpectedly. 2) Not everyone who says they are a guru really is -- in fact if they say it, they probably aren't. So be careful who you believe. 3) Don't jump to conclusions -- lots of 'gurus' who had backed Joe's book assumed he was being truthful and rushed to his defense without having any idea about the facts. If you jump to conclusions, you ass u me way to much. About the author: Kathy Laskowski is the owner of several web properties, and the creator of php scripts, PC software, and Klips. Click here to see what she's cooked up lately. Or, to read more of her opinions, vist Me-Blog-Zone. ................ To see what started the ruckus, click here.

If you are reading this, you got here either by:
clicking the link in the email notice, or you got the notice on your desktop via your e-Zine Box klip, -- either way, this is the new delivery system. If you still need to get e-Zine Box, click on this little icon: It will take you to a page that describes the application I'm using for non-email notification. It's called e-Zine Box, and it's built on top of KlipFolio, so if you have already discovered KlipFolio (a nifty little app), all you have to do is get the e-Zine Box klip. If not, KlipFolio's a tiny download and a one click install.

If you like this new system, and you are ready to give up on email notifications altogether (e-Zine Box will be the means of delivery for e-Work-News for you from now on), just click the link here:
I'm Using e-Zine Box, No More HTML email for me. So far, one brave soul is ready to give up email addiction.

Remember, don't use the unsubscribe link at the bottom of the newsletter -- or you will be unsubscribed completely.

If you really want to continue to get the HTML version in your inbox, just click here and let me know -- I will keep an HTML-delivery list for those want it.

So far, not one request for HTML to the inbox. I'm interested in how you all feel about this new system, what could make it better, etc., so please send me feedback.

Now on to...

Question of the Month

What - no question...

Come on guys, send them in.

Since you don't have questions for me, I've got one for you...

What is the biggest problem you face working from home?
>> motivation (click here to pick)
>> time (click here to pick)
>> interruptions (click here to pick)
>> stopping (click here to pick)
>> other (click here to pick)
if you pick other, please tell me what it is.

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If you have a question, click here and ask it. It just might appear in a future issue - right here in this spot.

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Our featured article this month is on a subject that's an important topic - copyright - especially if your home business involves a website.

As always, I hope you enjoy reading this month's e-Work-News.

Advertisement

Myth #1: "The work I want to use doesn't have a copyright notice on it, so it's not copyrighted. I'm free to use it."

This was true in the past, but today almost all major nations follow the Berne copyright convention. For example, in the USA, almost everything created privately after April 1, 1989 is copyrighted and protected whether it has a notice or not.

It is true that a notice strengthens the protection, by warning people, and by allowing one to get more and different damages, but it is not necessary. If it looks copyrighted, you should assume it is.

Myth #2: "I don't need a license because I'm using only a small amount of the copyrighted work."

It is true that small amounts of copying are not copyright infringement. Unfortunately, it is rarely possible to tell where de minimis copying ends and copyright infringement begins.

Copying a small amount of a copyrighted work is infringement if what is copied is a qualitatively substantial portion of the copied work.

In one case, a magazine article that used 300 words from a 200,000-word autobiography written by President Gerald Ford was found to infringe the copyright on the autobiography. Even though the copied material was only a small part of the autobiography, the copied portions were among the most powerful passages in the autobiography.

Copying any part of a copyrighted work is risky. You may get away with copying a small amount but you run the risk of having to defend your use in expensive litigation. If you are copying, it is better to get permission or a license (unless fair use applies). You cannot escape liability for infringement by showing how much of the protected work you did not take.

Site Pick of the Month

If you want to add an audio message to your site, but don't want to pay a monthly fee to do it -- I found the quick and easy solution -- Sonic Memo -- to see an example of Sonic Memo in action, click here.

4. Need A "Worm" Killer?

By Jim Edwards The horror started last Thursday. In the space of 2 minutes I received over 300 email messages, each carrying an attachment of about 100 kilobytes. In less than 30 minutes my email server started to jam under the weight of thousands of the messages. As fast as I could hit the "delete" button it seemed twice as many viruses hit my in-box. It felt like trying to bail water from the Titanic with a tiny shot glass! I had just come face to face with the email worm known as "SoBig." For several reasons this worm hit the web harder than almost any similar virus before it. SoBig spreads itself by infecting a computer through an email attachment, hijacking the newly infected computer's address book, and then emailing itself to those addresses to continue the cycle. That's a pretty typical virus scenario. But a few things made this worm a lot worse than others, not the least of which was "email spoofing." "Email spoofing" entails a technique by which the worm randomly selects an email address and then (falsely) makes it look like the newly infected email messages originated from that address. This causes major havoc when people start playing the blame game of "you sent me a virus" and try to have innocent people's Internet connections shut down (while the infected computers just keep on mailing). Also, the worm uses its own smtp server to send mail from infected machines, which makes it even harder to stop. The result of all this madness? Web servers slowed to a crawl; email in-boxes clogged with thousands of attachments; email servers strained to the breaking point; people like me sweating bullets! So what can you, as an Internet user, do to protect yourself against viruses in general, but also against this worm in particular? First, update your anti-virus software to include the latest virus protection. (Don't get me started on people who operate a computer without up-to-date virus protection.) Run a complete scan of your system. Next, consider using a program that allows you to check your email *before* it gets downloaded to your computer. I personally use "Mail Washer" (www.mailwasher.net), a PC program that allows you to see your email, filter it, and delete it without downloading it to your computer. Get yourself a "Worm Killer!" Even with the Mail Washer program, I found myself swamped with messages containing the SoBig worm that I still needed to delete. I needed something to "kill the worm" automatically before I ever saw the infected messages in Mail Washer. I found a simple, easy-to-use PC program called "A+ Email Spam Filter" from http://www.cmbsoftware.com For $19 it will filter your mail before you even download it to your computer. All you do is just load in the subject lines for messages you know carry a virus (such as "Re: Wicked Screensaver" or "Re: That Movie") and the program automatically deletes the email message from the server before you ever see them. You can then start watching the email you get and looking at subject lines with obvious spam words for various types of medicine, interesting pictures, etc. You then add those words to your A+ filter and you'll never receive or even look at emails containing those words in the subject line. Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and is the author of several best-selling ebooks, including Turn Words Into Traffic.

Myth #3: "Since I'm planning to give credit to all authors whose works I copy, I don't need to get licenses."

Giving credit to the author does not insulate you from a claim of copyright infringement. You still need to get the author’s permission to use his work whether or not you give credit.

Myth #4: "My posting was just fair use!"

The "fair use" exemption to copyright law was created to allow things such as commentary, parody, news reporting, research and education about copyrighted works without the permission of the author. Intent, and damage to the commercial value of the work are important considerations. Are you reproducing an article from the New York Times because you needed to in order to criticize the quality of the New York Times, or because you couldn't find time to write your own story, or didn't want your readers to have to pay to log onto the online services with the story or buy a copy of the paper? The former is probably fair use, the latter probably aren't.

Fair use is almost always a short excerpt and almost always attributed. (One should not use more of the work than is necessary to make the commentary.) It should not harm the commercial value of the work (which is another reason why reproduction of the entire work is generally forbidden.)

Fair use isn't an exact doctrine, either. The court decides if the right to comment overrides the copyright on an individual basis in each case. There have been cases that go beyond the bounds of what I say above, but in general they don't apply to the typical claim of fair use. It's a risky defense to attempt.

Myth #5: "I don't need a license because I'm going to alter the work I copy."

Generally, you cannot escape liability for copyright infringement by altering or modifying the work you copy. If you copy and modify protected elements of a copyrighted work, you will be infringing the copyright owner's modification right as well as the copying right.

Myth #6: “If I find something on the Net, it's okay to copy it and use it without getting permission.”

Just because someone publishes his or her work on the Internet doesn’t give you permission to copy it. The fact of the matter is that most works on the net are copyrighted and not public domain.

Myth #7: “It's okay to use copyrighted material in my Web site so long as no one has to pay to visit my Web site.”

Unless your use of the copyrighted work is fair use (for a definition of "fair use" see discussion later), you need a license to copy and use the work in your Website even if you won't be charging people to view your Website.

Myth #8: “It's okay to make other people's copyrighted material available on my Web server so long as I don't charge people anything to get the material.”

Copying and distributing copyrighted material without permission can be copyright infringement even if you don't charge for the copied material. Making material available for others to copy can be contributory infringement.

Myth #9: “I own the copyright to my web site even though I hired a web site designer to develop my web site.”

Not true unless you had a written contract. Under the copyright law, the creator of the original expression in a work is its author. The author is also the owner of copyright unless there is a written agreement by which the author assigns the copyright to another person or entity, such as the owner of a web site. Although the general rule is that the person who creates the work is its author, an exception to the rule is a work made for hire. A work for hire is:

A work prepared by an employee within the scope of his or her employment; or a work specially ordered or commissioned in certain specified circumstances. When a work qualifies as a work made for hire, the employer or commissioning party is considered to be the author.

If an employee whose job function included designing and developing the web site created your web site, then you own the copyright to your web site. However, most web sites are created by outside consultants who under copyright law will be the owner of the copyright to the web site unless the consultant provides the web design and development services under a written agreement in which the parties acknowledge that the work is a work for hire and the author assigns to the web site owner all copyrights arising from the consultant's services.

Myth #10: "If it's posted to Usenet it's in the public domain."

False. Nothing is in the public domain anymore unless the owner explicitly puts it in the public domain. Explicitly, as in you have a note from the author/owner saying, "I grant this to the public domain." Those exact words or words very much like them.

Some argue that posting to Usenet implicitly grants permission to everybody to copy the posting within fairly wide bounds, and others feel that Usenet is an automatic store and forward network where all the thousands of copies made are done at the command (rather than the consent) of the poster. This is a matter of some debate, but even if the former is true it simply would suggest posters are implicitly granting permissions "for the sort of copying one might expect when one posts to Usenet" and in no case is this a placement of material into the public domain. Furthermore it is very difficult for an implicit license to supersede an explicitly stated license that the copier was aware of.

Bruce Safran is an Internationally known Attorney, with over 30 years experience. He specializes in Internet and securities law, and has helped thousands of online businesses become FTC compliant. http://www.autoweblaw.com.

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Click The Pic To Get Yours





5. Free ebooks you can download


The Answer To Time, Money, Traffic

by Carlos Garcia. How to solve the 3 BIGGEST problems your online business will encounter. PDF format.
To download, Click Here.


30 Days To Success

by Stone Evans.

30 day action guide for an internet business in a box based on plug-in profit websites. EXE format.
Download 30 days to Success here.


9 Reasons To Add Games To Your Site
by Barbara Feldman.

Here's a free guide to help you decide if games are right for your site, and shows you how easy it is to add them. PDF format.
Download 9 Reasons To add Games by clicking here.


>> e-Book downloads courtesy of e-Book-Zone.com <<

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