Don’t misuse a copyrighted work. Learn about the CREATIVE COMMONS!

We all make presentations or brochures, reports or other materials, and find ourselves in need of a certain type of image.  Often, we just can’t find it in Microsoft’s limited clip art.

That’s where the CREATIVE COMMONS comes in.  It was founded in 2001 to foster creativity and create a “body of work that is available to the public for free and legal sharing, use, repurposing, and remixing.”   There are images, sounds, videos and all sorts of other works in the Creative Commons. 

The Creative Commons contains works with a standardized Creative Commons license.  Creative Commons works are not in the public domain, and are not “no rights reserved.”  The copyright holder still retains some of his rights, but is giving you limited use rights that are defined by the Creative Commons license in a standard and easy to interpret graphical format.  Yea for easy!

There are several Creative Commons licenses.  Keep reading.  It really is quite simple. 

To search for works with a Creative Commons license, go to http://search.creativecommons.org/

Then, to see the types of things you are allowed to do with each image, you will see little symbols, which are translated as follows (see more at http://creativecommons.org/about/licenses/).  And if you are super-duper curious, there is a full legal license for each at that site that you can read.  Happy hunting.

And if you want to put a Creative Commons license on your own work, the logos for these are here: http://creativecommons.org/about/downloads/  Just be sure to use them correctly.

Friends want to do business with friends

David Bowman has a great blog post on this.

“Noted sales author Jeffrey Gitomer stated the value of friends like this.  ”All things being equal, people want to do business with their friends.”  ”All things being not so equal, people STILL want to do business with their friends.”  ”Connecting is all about your friendliness, your ability to engage, and your willingness to give value first.”  Note that the book that this was taken from, The Little Black Book of Connections,  is not even about social media, yet it is directly applicable.”

See the rest of the post at: http://www.davidebowman.com/friends.htm

EFWO Wish List – Do you have any of these items to get rid of?

In your spring cleaning, if you have any of the following, the Epilepsy Foundation of Western Ohio could really use them.  Or do you have time to volunteer?  Their phone number is 937-233-2500. 

Ohio Supreme Court’s website now has PODCASTS AND VIDEOS! of oral arguments (I knew you’d be excited!)

The Ohio Supreme Court redesigned its website and is now offering podcasts  and videos of its oral arguments.  Hooray!

From the announcement yesterday:

“With the launch of a redesigned Web site this month (supremecourt.ohio.gov), the Supreme Court of Ohio made digital audio recording of its oral arguments available free as podcasts through the popular iTunes audio and music portal. This was in addition to the video archive of oral arguments that has been available on the Supreme Court’s Web site since 2004. Live streaming of Supreme Court oral arguments is offered on the Web site when court is in session, and the feed is also broadcast on cable television statewide.”

To check it out, click here: http://www.supremecourtofohio.gov/videostream/default.asp

Free 2009 Community Business Law Forum

In this uncertain economy, it is more important than ever to know how to deal with the legal issues that surround you. Your clients or customers may be threatening or filing bankruptcy, you may be contemplating a new advertising campaign, or you may be contemplating a lay off. What do you need to know? Let us help.

Free registration online at: http://www.daybar.org/html/events/community_business_forum_registration.html

Itinerary below.  Have general questions you would like answered?  Leave comments on my blog here.

The brochure is available on the Dayton Bar Association’s site at: http://www.daybar.org/pdfs/DBA_BLD_Community_Business_Law_Forum.pdf

8:00-8:30 – Continental Breakfast
8:30-9:00 – Bankruptcy: Ira Thomsen, Esq.
• How can I collect my accounts receivables when my clients are going bankrupt?
• What does bankruptcy mean for my business?
• How will the bankruptcies around me change how I do business?
9:00-9:30 –Internet and Intellectual Property, Katherine L. Early, Esq.
• What are the hidden dangers of advertising on the internet that I should know so I do it right and effectively?
• What types of intellectual property does my business have?
• What do my employees need to know about intellectual property so my business doesn’t lose money?
• How can I protect what intellectual property I have, but do it economically?
9:30-9:45 -Break
9:45 -10:15 –Human Resources/Labor and Employment: C. Mark Kingseed, Esq. and David Pierce, Esq.
• How will the economy affect the types of employment claims I will see?
• Why is management of workers compensation cases so important?
• What types of federal and state laws are seeing increased use and how are they changing under the new administration?
• What can I do now to protect myself and my business?
10:15-10:45 –Insurance: John Ferneding, C.I.C.
• What types of insurance are out there? (You might be surprised!)
• How do I make a claim, and what is the process?
• What do reservations of rights letters mean?
• How are insurance products affected by this market?
10:45-11:15 –Corporate Forms: Richard Boucher, Esq.
• Are you protected by the right form?
• What do you have to do to stay in compliance?
• What are the tax implications of each form?
• What are potential issues that arise with each form?
11:15-12:00 – Q&A

Ping.fm

Update all your social networks at once with ping.fm.

Inside Facebook – a site that tracks Facebook’s changing statistics

Inside Facebook is a site that tracks Facebook’s changing statistics.   “[The majority of US Facebook users are now over 25. There are now 6 million users 13-17, 19.5 million 18-25, 13.4 million 26-34, 9.7 million 35-44, 4.6 million 45-54, and 2.8 million over 55. In other words, there are more Facebook users 26-44 than 18-25 today.”

Wow.  The older generation is seeing the benefit of SNS for communication.

Legal Peeps – aka lawyers with too much time on their hands

The ABA peep contest – You gotta see this!

http://www.abajournal.com/weekly/top_3_peeps_in_law_entries/

Not so private MySpace…

Once again, a court rules that if you put it on the internet – even if you think it is private – it may not be!
http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2009/04/06/myspace-a-bulletin-board-not-private-room-says-california-court/

In Moreno et al. v. Hanford Sentinel, Inc., et al., F054138, slip op. (Cal. Ct. App. April 2, 2009), plaintiff published on her MySpace page information she later took down.  But in the meantime, someone published it in the newspaper.  She sued claiming she had a right of privacy.   The court rejected her argument that she expected only those she allowed to see her page to see the information.   The court held she had no right of privacy in the information.

As I’ve always said, be careful what you post!