Archive for the ‘Legal Issues’ Category

Do you run a membership site? Then you’ll want to take notice of this message…

IMPORTANT NOTICE: Mastercard and Visa are getting ready to cancel merchant accounts engaging in repeat billing or trial offers.

Marketing models that employ “Free-Trial”, “Deferred Billing” and/or “Shipping Only” tactics must be providing customers with a tangible good or contracted service in exchange for charging of credit cards.  Incentivized discount offers are acceptable when the cardholder is receiving something in exchange for payment, however they will cancel accounts engaging in hidden or delayed charges and ‘free’ offers that are not truly “free”.

For more detailed information, check out the post made here: CLICK HERE

I was reading a rant by another blogger who was annoyed by those who were copying his content into their websites without giving him the proper accreditation. He was looking for a solution to his problem, something different than Copyscape… and boy, did he find it!

There’s a great new FREE tool called Tynt Tracer (currently in expanded beta) that covertly tracks those who copy even just a little of your content… and adds YOUR link to the copied material!

Seriously… This Is The Coolest Thing!!

Check out this short demo video:

Let me know if you find this as awesome as I do!

A few days ago, Tony Blake and I were discussing a new product launch from Ian Del Carmen. He pointed out several disturbing things about this “opportunity”, and as a result of our conversation, he contacted our favourite, brilliant attorney Mike Young.

Mike Young is a no-nonsense expert in legal business matters, and he regularly “tells it like it is” as a valued expert moderator at ABlakeForum.com.

Mike knows his stuff… and he posted an extremely informative article on his blog.

Here’s a link:

Worldwide Internet Consulting: Franchise Scam

Do your subscribers a favour… let them know that it IS POSSIBLE to make a healthy income online without resorting to tactics like this.

Let me know what you think!

These plugins are great for helping you automate and monetize your blogs! As far as I know, all these plugins are compatible with the latest WordPress version. Please feel free to suggest other great plugins below.

If you find these useful, help spread the word and STUMBLE THIS POST!

Landing Sites – When visitors is referred to your site from a search engine, it shows them related posts to their search on your blog.
http://theundersigned.net/2006/06/landing-sites-11

Maintenance Mode Plugin – Adds a splash page to your blog that lets visitors know your blog is down for maintenance. Logged in administrators get full access to the blog including the front-end.
http://sw-guide.de/wordpress/plugins/maintenance-mode/

Theme Test Drive – allows you to safely test drive any theme on your blog as an administrator, while visitors continue to see the default one.
http://www.prelovac.com/vladimir/wordpress-plugins/theme-test-drive

Comment Relish – Sends a thank you e-mail to your first time commentators.
http://www.justinshattuck.com/2007/03/19/comment-relish-wordpress-plugin

Digital Fingerprint — useful for detecting content theft.
http://www.maxpower.ca/wordpress-plugin-digital-fingerprint-detecting-content-theft/2006/09/25/#intro

Subscribe To Comments – Allows readers to recieve notifications of new comments that are posted to an entry.
http://txfx.net/code/wordpress/subscribe-to-comments/

MyAvatars – shows MyBlogLog’s avatars in your comments
http://www.napolux.com/2006/12/14/myavatars-a-wordpress-plugin-for-mybloglog/

Brian’s Threaded Comments – adds a ‘Reply to this comment’ link to every comment. Makes it easy for people to reply to comments and discuss better.
http://meidell.dk/archives/2006/12/19/brians-threaded-comments-159/

Dofollow – lets you remove the nofollow attribute from your comments.
http://www.semiologic.com/software/wp-fixes/dofollow/

WP-Contact Form with Spam Protection – creates a contact form on your blog, through which your readers can contact you easily.
http://www.douglaskarr.com/projects/wp-contactform/

Google XML Sitemaps Generator – creates a sitemap of all articles on your WordPress blog. Helps Google and other search engines index every article you write.
http://www.arnebrachhold.de/projects/wordpress-plugins/google-xml-sitemaps-generator/

All in One SEO Pack – Optimizes your Wordpress blog for Search Engines (Search Engine Optimization).
http://wp.uberdose.com/2007/03/24/all-in-one-seo-pack/

Enforce www. Preference – will help preserve your permalinks by enforcing your no-www or yes-www preference and will strip off index.php from the ends of URIs.
http://txfx.net/code/wordpress/enforce-www-preference/

Quick META Keywords – will automatically add META Keywords tags to every single post based on categories under which the article is categorized.
http://www.quickonlinetips.com/archives/quick-meta-keywords-wordpress-plugin/

Related Posts – Returns a list of the related entries based on active/passive keyword matches. Increase pageviews by providing targeted related content.
http://wasabi.pbwiki.com/Related%20Entries

Lightbox JS Plugin – used to overlay images on the current page into neat Javascript-powered overlay popups.
http://www.4mj.it/lightbox-js-v20-wordpress/

WordPress Mobile Edition – shows an interface designed for a mobile device when visitors come to your site on a mobile device.
http://alexking.org/projects/wordpress/readme?project=wordpress-mobile-edition

Popularity Contest – keeps a count of your post, category and archive views, comments, trackbacks, etc. and uses them to determine which of your posts are most popular.
http://alexking.org/projects/wordpress/readme?project=popularity-contest

Clean Archives – designed to display your archive listings in a clean and uniform fashion. It lists the Month / Year, the day of the month the article was published, the title of the article, and the number of comments that have been made on each article.
http://sporadicnonsense.com/index.php/2005/04/28/clean-archives-plug-in/

KB Advanced RSS Widget - a wordpress widget that gives you complete control over how RSS feeds are parsed for your sidebar.
http://adambrown.info/b/widgets/category/kb-advanced-rss/

Adhesive – lets you make the posts “sticky”, such that the posts will remain at the top of the page.
http://wp-plugins.net/plugin/Adhesive/#plugin_63

Permalinks Migration Plugin – safely change your permalink structure without breaking the old links to your website or affecting your search engine rankings.
http://www.deanlee.cn/wordpress/permalinks-migration-plugin/

Share This – lets your visitors to add your post to various social bookmarking sites, or send a link via e-mail to a friend.
http://sharethis.com/publisher?type=wpplugin

Digg this – detects incoming links from Digg.com to your wordpress post and automatically display a link back to the digg post, for people to digg your story.
http://www.aviransplace.com/index.php/digg-this-wordpress-plugin/http://www.aviransplace.com/index.php/digg-this-wordpress-plugin/

WP-Notable – displays a series of icons below each post allowing your readers to easily submit you to many different social bookmarking and networking sites.
http://www.calevans.com/view.php/page/notable

WP-Email – Allows people to recommend/send your WordPress blog’s post/page to a friend.
http://www.lesterchan.net/wordpress/readme/wp-email.html

WP-PostRatings – Adds an AJAX rating system for your WordPress blog’s post/page.
http://www.lesterchan.net/wordpress/readme/wp-postratings.html

EasyTube – allows you to easily embed YouTube and Google Videos using one simple tag.
http://www.ejump.co.uk/wordpress/easytube-plugin-for-wordpress/

Twitter Updater – automatically sends a Twitter status update to your Twitter account when you create, publish, or edit your WordPress post.
http://blog.victoriac.net/blog/twitter-updater

WordPress Database Backup – On-demand backup of your WordPress database. Back up your blog today.
http://www.ilfilosofo.com/blog/wp-db-backup

WP-Supercache – A modification of WP-Cache that produces static html files.
http://ocaoimh.ie/wp-super-cache/

Batch Categories – Easily manage the mass categorization of posts that match various criteria. Power edit your categories.
http://robm.me.uk/projects/plugins/wordpress/batch-categories/

PodPress – adds lots of features designed to make WordPress the ideal platform for hosting a podcast.
http://www.mightyseek.com/podpress/

TinyMCE Advanced – adds 16 plugins to TinyMCE, the WordPress wysiwyg editor. Adds over 40 new buttons to the toolbar, which is now two rows plus one hidden row.
http://www.laptoptips.ca/projects/tinymce-advanced/

Exec-PHP – allows php tags inside the content or excerpt of your posts and pages to be executed just as in usual PHP files.
http://bluesome.net/post/2005/08/18/50/

Photo Dropper – lets you add free photos (Flickr/Creative Commons) to your blog posts without leaving Wordpress.
http://www.photodropper.com/

Wordpress Reporter – allows you to easily view your Google Analytics and Feedburner reports in your WordPress administration area.
http://tantannoodles.com/toolkit/wordpress-reports/

WordPress.com Stats – Tracks views, post/page views, referrers, and clicks. Requires a WordPress.com API key.
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/stats/

Ad Rotator – Rotates Ads randomly from a specified text file.
http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/wordpress-plugin-adrotator-rotate-your-ads-including-adsense-dynamically/2/

AdSense-Deluxe – is a WordPress plugin offering advanced options for managing the automatic insertion of Google AdSense or Yahoo Publisher Network (YPN) ads to your WordPress posts.
http://www.acmetech.com/blog/adsense-deluxe/

Buy Me a Beer – allows your readers to donate money to you via PayPal on pretext of buying a beer.
http://www.blogclout.com/blog/goodies/buy-me-a-beer-paypal-donation-plugin/

Wordpress BankRoll – offers to help you cut out the middleman by allowing advertisers to buy reviews directly on your blog.
http://www.wpbankroll.com/

Global Translator - Translate your blog into multiple languages in a search engine friendly way.
http://www.nothing2hide.net/blog/wp-plugins/wordpress-global-translator-plugin/

Feedburner Feedsmith – Forwards all feed traffic to Feedburner while creating a randomized feed for Feedburner to pull from.
http://www.feedburner.com/fb/a/help/wordpress_quickstart/

Simple Feed Copyright – adds a simple copyright notice to full text wordpress feeds.
http://www.quickonlinetips.com/archives/simple-feed-copyright-wordpress-plugin/

RSS Signature – allow the addition of a custom tagline, signature or copyright message to the wordpress generated rss feeds.
http://www.smackfoo.com/plugins/sig2feed/

Democracy – adds AJAX polling functionality to your WordPress blog.
http://blog.jalenack.com/archives/democracy/

No Self Ping – keeps your site from pinging itself.
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/no-self-ping/

Draft Notifier – sends a notification email to your blog’s admin address when a post is written by a Contributor or when such a post is edited.
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/draft-notifier/

Cap Comments – turns off comments when a post achieves a pre-set comment count.
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/cap-comments

If there’s anything I really appreciate it’s someone who says what he thinks – no holds barred. I really enjoy fresh perspectives that are driven by the sincere wish to educate, and better still, when their opinion coincides with my own.

Rick Butts just posted a video about the “Worst Internet Marketing Advice He’s Ever Heard”, and it’s right on the money, in my opinion.

Rick’s recent blog post “Unsubscribe From Whomever Emailed You Stompernet” back in mid-May was a great discussion-starter. It’s entirely useless to be subscribed to endless lists that regurgitate cut-and-paste emails for every promotion under the sun.

These types of emails tell me two things:

1. The person who wrote (cut-and-pasted) the product owner’s supplied email has not bothered to review the product/service themselves; if they had, they would have supplied me with their own personal assessment.
2. The person who sent this email couldn’t even be bothered to spend a few moments to personalize it, which generally means to me that they are not interested in educating or providing products targeted to their list – they are simply looking for a quick buck.

While it’s not a bad idea to subscribe to a list if you think you may get value from it, don’t be afraid you’ll “miss something” by unsubscribing if they are simply spewing duplicate emails that clog up your inbox.

The advice that Rick made his rant video about – subscribing to every list you can find – is a ridiculous waste of your time. Find and follow those who share your values, provide excellent content/advice, and most importantly, fit with the goals you’ve set out for your business.

Everyone has been bombarded with the latest offering from Mike Filsaime, The 7 Figure Secrets release today. As always, everyone and their dog is promoting it…

My issue is with the forced continuity.

Recently, “hidden” forced continuity offers have been a huge sore spot in the internet marketing community and have put all continuity programs under a very harsh spotlight. You can read up on some of the laws and controversy that has been discussed here: “Continuity Programs…” and here: “Illegal Forced Continuity Programs”.

While Mike’s forced continuity isn’t “hidden”, it’s certainly not right there, smacking you in the face. And truly… is it even necessary?

If I had gotten this sales page minus the forced continuity, and the content in the newsletter was worthy, I would buy it!! Straight up marketing would have done the job! There is NO reason that he had to resort to this type of tactic that right now is perceived as sneaky and underhanded.

If you plan to take advantage of his offer, just be completely aware that there IS forced continuity… and worse, if you want to cancel, you can’t just unsubscribe – you actually have to make a long distance phonecall (depending where you are) in order to cancel.

I see zero benefit to making it difficult to unsubscribe. It will only make people VERY cautious when dealing with you in future.

I’d love to hear your thoughts!

******************UPDATE********************

Apparently I must not be the only one voicing an opinion… the order page NOW says that unsubscribing is possible via the helpdesk…

Every day I get requests from people who want quotes on different projects, and I end up going through the same process over and over…

First I get an email asking about rates. I reply with a request for details so that I can provide a quote. They reply with their requirements, and I respond with a quote, time frame for completion and payment information. If they decide to go ahead, there’s usually a few details to clear up, too.

This process of information gathering sometimes takes several days… so I decided to streamline the process!

I just finished putting the final touches on my new site, Graphics With Impact – Graphics Designed Especially For Internet Marketers. I decided to make it as easy as possible to get the information you need, without wading through sales copy, and with the prices right up front.

Of course, the packages available are not all that I can do… I simply put the most asked-for packages together to make it easy to decide. If there’s something special you need, I’ve included a form to fill out your requirements for a custom project.

Go take a look for yourself! I’d love to get your feedback!

Graphics With Impact – Graphics Designed Especially For Internet Marketers

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Last fall, I was approached to join a partnership making up a group of four. We all paid money to fund the hosting, products, outsourced programming, etc. and we all had full access to the products and customer base. Each of us brought a skill set to the mix as well.

I was the fourth, and was brought in just a few weeks before launch. When I paid and gained access to everything, the first thing I noticed was the site construction and functionality – it was a train wreck. They had attempted to mash about 10 types of scripts together, forcing customers to subscribe several times throughout the site… what a mess! And the graphics…(shudder).

So, being helpful, I offered to fix these issues… I offered to use my Butterfly Marketing script as the framework, and then totally re-vamped the graphics. They were AWESOME, by the way.

And these weren’t even the skills I was brought in for!! (I was officially supposed to be the person looking after the customers AFTER the launch)

Everyone LOVED all the changes because now everything worked right (go figure – Yay Butterfly Marketing!!) but there were still aspects to complete. I even had to entirely re-write the ebook that was kicking off the site, as the grammar and spelling were atrocious.

So I did. Changed those graphics, too.

And the graphics on the JV blog. Pretty much everything.

THEN I tried to log into the admin area, and found I didn’t have the proper permissions.

HUH?

I posted to our “Super JV” private blog to ask the password, and never got a reply. Several times.

Next thing I hear is launch is TWO DAYS AWAY! And I knew there were so many things that still needed fixing, important things that would kill the site if we went live without them, so I said so in our private blog. I said we should wait until it was all functioning, and another of the partners agreed. The self-appointed “Project Manager” was silent.

Despite many attempts to contact her from both myself and the other partner – no response. The other partner felt strongly enough to simply pull out, but me? My name was ALL OVER that site… on every graphic, PLUS the fact that the BM script was licensed under my name.

As time grew nearer to her launch without partner approval, I started to panic. Then I realized – I can stop it!! At least until I get her to answer me!! All I needed was my access restored so I could FIX the problems that would hurt my reputation by being associated with this… I had put so much work into it that I really wanted to make sure it would be successful.

So I went into the BM folder and took out a critical folder… just “removed” it until she responded. Then I went to our private blog and posted that I had disabled the site temporarily until I got a response, that she should take into consideration those of us who have worked so hard.

As a response, she changed ALL the access to the site so I was completely blocked, then enlisted ANOTHER Butterfly Marketing script owner to provide the missing folder (GOD, how I would love to know who that person is!!) and went ahead with the launch!!

Now, the launch was premature and as a result it was “lukewarm” at best… but still blocked, I told her to return my “fees” since she removed my access, to remove all of my graphics (unless she planned to pay for them) and to remove the Butterfly Marketing script while she was at it because it was under my license.

She replied that she didn’t have to take down the script because she was now licensed under a new Butterfly Marketing owner (hijacker) and she would not return my money or access because she didn’t want me to sabotage the site.

HUH?

I can’t remove the license in my Butterfly Marketing panel in case I am penalized by the terms since I don’t know if it’s a lie that it has been re-licensed. She refused to divulge the name of the new Butterfly Marketing script owner (hijacker).

Also, she has continued using all the graphics (yes, with my name splashed all over them!!) and as a result, I have been sent scathing remarks about “my site” and it’s membership… it has hurt my business to be associated with this project. She has also refused to return my fees, or pay for the graphics.

The site launched, went through it’s first 5 week run, and closed. NOW it is getting ready again to open for “Version 2″ and it has all my graphics still in place!!

As I am the one who created these graphics, and it’s obvious by the attempts to modify them (WITHOUT having the source PSD files) have only served to show this person is trying to steal the work.

I am sending the owner and their host a DMCA TAKE DOWN NOTICE (basically telling them to remove the site until the offending materials are removed). I am posting here and on my other sites about this issue so that others will be aware. I am sending a complaint to their payment processors as well, as they are selling the book with my unauthorized graphics.

I posted the issue on the Butterfly Marketing private forum in an attempt to find the hijacker, and I also posted the problem on the Warrior Forum (the absolute BEST Internet Marketing Forum in the world!!!) and asked for suggestions about dealing with this issue. You can view the thread here:

http://www.warriorforum.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=143369

THESE PEOPLE ROCK!!

A prominent member of the Warriorr forum posted on HIS sites as well… here are the links to check out:

http://stevenwagenheim.blogspot.com/

http://homebizhelpcenter.blogspot.com/

http://www.wagtunes.cashhosters2.com/biz/weekly_picks.html

As of this moment, I am waiting for results from the registrars, hosts and the site owners, and I will keep you updated on my progress.

The site in question is masterresellrightsblowout.com – I didn’t give you a hyperlink, simply because I don’t want to subject you to these unethical people AND I don’t want to give them a single “hit” to exploit in promotional materials (citing Alexa ratings for instance).

The following Terms And Conditions apply to any and all websites owned and operated by Lisa Preston.

This site is maintained as a service to my customers. By using this site, you agree to comply with and be bound by the following terms and conditions of use. Please review these terms and conditions carefully. If you do not agree to these terms and conditions, you should not use this site.

1. Agreement. This Agreement (the “Agreement”) specifies the Terms and Conditions for access to and use of websites run by Lisa Preston (hereafter referred to as the “Site”) and describe the terms and conditions applicable to your access of and use of any website owned and operated by Lisa Preston that links to this page. This Agreement may be modified at any time by Lisa Preston upon posting of the modified agreement. Any such modifications shall be effective immediately. You can view the most recent version of these terms at any time at http://www.lisapreston.info. Each use by you shall constitute and be deemed your unconditional acceptance of this Agreement.

2. Intellectual Property Ownership.

(a) My Content. All content included on this site is and shall continue to be the property of Lisa Preston or its content suppliers and is protected under applicable copyright, patent, trademark, and other proprietary rights. Any copying, redistribution, use or publication by you of any such content or any part of the Site is prohibited without express permission by Lisa Preston. Under no circumstances will you acquire any ownership rights or other interest in any content by or through your use of this site. Canadian Impact Business Solutions is the trademark of Lisa Preston. Other product and company names mentioned on this Site may be trademarks of Lisa Preston or their respective owners.

(b) User Supplied Content. By accessing forums, bulletin boards, chat rooms, or any other user interactive area of my site, and placing any information in any of those areas, you hereby grant me a perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free license in and to such materials, including but not limited to the right to post, publish, transmit, distribute, create derivative works based upon, create translations of, modify, amend, enhance, change, display and publicly perform such materials in any form or media, whether now known or later discovered. You also grant to others who access the forum, bulletin board, chat room or any other user interactive area of my site a perpetual, non-revocable, royalty-free license to view, download, store and reproduce your postings but such license is limited to the personal use and enjoyment of such other party.

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(c) EARNINGS DISCLAIMERS. The information presented in this Website is intended to be for your educational and entertainment purposes only.

I am not presenting you with a business opportunity.

I am not presenting you with a distributorship.

I am not making any claims as to income you may earn.

I am not presenting you with an opportunity to get rich.

Before embarking on any endeavor, please use caution and seek the advice your own personal professional advisors, such as your attorney and your accountant.

Where income figures are mentioned (if any), those income figures are anecdotal information passed on to me concerning the results achieved by the individual sharing the information. I have performed no independent verification of the statements made by those individuals. Please do not assume that you will make those same income figures.

Please do not construe any statement in this website as a claim or representation of average earnings. There are NO average earnings. Testimonials and statements of individuals are not to be construed as claims or representations of average earnings. I cannot, do not, and will not make any claims as to earnings, average, or otherwise.

Success in any endeavor is based on many factors individual to you. I do not know your educational background, your skills, your prior experience, or the time you can and will devote to the endeavor.

Please perform your own due diligence before embarking on any course of action. Follow the advice of your personal qualified advisors.

There are risks in any endeavor that are not suitable for everyone. If you use capital, only “risk” capital should be used.

There is no guarantee that you will earn any money using any of the ideas presented in my materials. Examples in my materials are not to be interpreted as a promise or guarantee of earnings.  Many factors will be important in determining your actual results and no guarantees are made that you will achieve results similar to my or anybody else’s. No guarantee is made that you will achieve any result at all from the ideas in my material.

You agree that I will not share in your success, nor will I be responsible for your failure or for your actions (or inaction) in any endeavor you may undertake.

Please understand that past performance cannot be an indication of possible future results.

Materials in my product and my website may contain information that includes or is based upon forward-looking statements within the meaning of the securities litigation reform act of 1995. Forward-looking statements give my expectations or forecasts of future events. You can identify these statements by the fact that they do not relate strictly to historical or current facts. They use words such as “anticipate,” “estimate,” “expect,” “project,” “intend,” “plan,” “believe,” and other words and terms of similar meaning in connection with a description of potential earnings or financial performance. Any and all forward looking statements in my materials are intended to express my opinion of earnings potential. They are opinions only, and should not be relied upon as fact.

4. Terms Relating to User Supplied Site Content.

(a) Participate at Your Own Risk. You enter and participate in my forums, bulletin boards, chat rooms, or any other user interactive area of my sites, and gain access to the materials contained thereon at your own risk.

(b) No Monitoring. I do not monitor or screen communications on forums, bulletin boards, chat rooms, or any other user interactive area of my site and am not responsible for any material that any of my forum, bulletin board, chat room, or any other user interactive area of my site participant posts and I do not assume the responsibility to do so. In the event that I am notified by any party that any communications contained in my forum, bulletin board, chat room, or any other user interactive area of my site is contrary to these terms, I may, but am not obligated to, investigate the situation and determine in my own discretion, whether to remove such communication from my forum, bulletin board, chat room, or any other user interactive area of my site.  I have no liability or responsibility to investigate or remove any content from my forum, bulletin board, chat room, or any other user interactive area of my sites based upon a complaint or otherwise.

(c) Your Reliance at Your Risk. I do not make any representations or warranties as to the truth or accuracy of any statement made or materials posted on or through my forums, bulletin boards, chat rooms, or any other user interactive area of my site.  You agree and acknowledge that you assume the risk of any actions you take in reliance upon the information that may be contained in my forums, bulletin boards, chat rooms, or any other user interactive area of my site.

(d) No Endorsement. I do not endorse or lend any credence for any statements that are made by any participant in my forums, bulletin boards, chat rooms, or any other user interactive area of my site. Any opinions or views expressed by my forums, bulletin boards, chat rooms, or any other user interactive area of my site participants are their own.  I do not endorse or support or otherwise give any credence or reason for reliance on any such statements or opinions.

(e) You are Responsible. You are fully responsible for your own statements and materials that you post in my forums, bulletin boards, chat rooms, or any other user interactive area of my site and any consequences, whether or not foreseen, to any party who may rely upon these statements.  You agree that you will not take any action directed towards attempting to hold me responsible for any such materials or statements.

(f) Removal of Material. As a participant in my forums, bulletin boards, chat rooms, or any other user interactive area of my site, you agree that I may remove any materials from my forums, bulletin boards, chat rooms, or any other user interactive area of my site for any reason, in my sole discretion, or for no reason at all.  This includes material which is disruptive, abusive, offensive, illegal, vulgar, pornographic, or any other material.  You hold me harmless from and against any damage you or others may suffer as a result of my removal of any content from my forums, bulletin boards, chat rooms, or any other user interactive area of my site or from the discontinuance of my forums, bulletin boards, chat rooms, or any other user interactive area of my site at any time.

(g) Right to Expel. I have the right to remove, expel, or disqualify any party from participation and access to my forums, bulletin boards, chat rooms, or any other user interactive area of my sites for any time and for any reason, or for no reason whatsoever, in my sole and absolute discretion.  This includes, but is not limited to any violation of this agreement, disruptive behavior, complaints from other parties, any allegedly illegal activity, or for any other reason or for no reason at all.

(h) Right to Terminate. I reserve the right to terminate my forums, bulletin boards, chat rooms, or any other user interactive area of my sites at any time and all users hold me harmless from and against any claims, damages, suits, threats, demands, liabilities, actions, causes of action, or injuries that may result therefrom, including but not limited to any consequential, incidental, and special damages of every nature and type.

(i) Prohibitions. You agree that you will not (1) use my forums, bulletin boards, chat rooms, or any other user interactive area of my sites for any illegal purpose, (2) place any material in my forums, bulletin boards, chat rooms, or any other user interactive area of my sites that violates the copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets, confidential information or other rights of any other party, (3) place any material in my forums, bulletin boards, chat rooms, or any other user interactive area of my sites that contains a false statement about any person, infringes upon the privacy rights of any other person, or threatens, harasses, abuses or embarrasses any other person, (4) place any obscene, pornographic, sexually explicit or violent materials, graphics, photographs, text or otherwise in my forums, bulletin boards, chat rooms, or any other user interactive area of my sites, (5) place any advertising, attempted business solicitation, marketing materials or sales promotional materials in my forums, bulletin boards, chat rooms, or any other user interactive area of my sites, (6) pretend to be another person that you are not, (7) place materials in my forums, bulletin boards, chat rooms, or any other user interactive area of my sitse that are disruptive or off-topic.

(j) Hold Harmless and Indemnify. You hold me harmless from, and indemnify me against, any and all claims for damages from third parties arising from your participation, use or conduct in my forums, bulletin boards, chat rooms, or any other user interactive area of my sites.

5. Miscellaneous.

(a) Prohibition Against Data Mining. You are prohibited from data mining, scraping, crawling, email harvesting or using any process or processes that send automated queries to any Lisa Preston owned and operated Web site. You may not use any Lisa Preston Web site to compile a collection of listings, including a competing listing product or service. You may not use the Site or any Materials for any unsolicited commercial e-mail.

(b) Intended Audience. This website is intended for adults only. This website is not intended for any children under the age of 18.

(c) Compliance with Laws. You agree to comply with all applicable laws regarding your use of the website. You further agreed that information provided by you is truthful and accurate to the best of your knowledge.

(d) Indemnification. You agree to indemnify, defend and hold Lisa Preston and my partners, employees, and affiliates, harmless from any liability, loss, claim and expense, including reasonable attorney’s fees, related to your violation of this Agreement or use of the Site.

(e) Privacy. Your visit to my site is also governed by my Privacy Policy. Please review my Privacy Policy at http://lisapreston.info. Lisa Preston reserves the right, and you authorize me, to use and assign all information regarding site uses by you and all information provided by you in any manner consistent with my Privacy Policy.

(f) DMCA Notice. If you believe your work has been copied in a way that constitutes copyright infringement, please provide a notice containing all of the following information:

(1) An electronic or physical signature of the person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright interest;

(2) A description of the copyrighted work that you claim has been infringed;

(3) A description of where the material that you claim is infringing is located on the Site;

(4) Your address, telephone number, and e-mail address;

(5) A statement by you that you have a good faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; and

(6) A statement by you, made under penalty of perjury, that the above information in your notice is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or authorized to act on the copyright owner’s behalf.

Notice of claims of copyright infringement on the Site can be made by clicking here.

(g) Applicable Law. You agree that the laws of the province of Ontario, Canada, without regard to conflicts of laws provisions will govern these Terms and Condition of Use and any dispute that may arise between you and Lisa Preston or its affiliates. Venue shall be in Canada.

(h) Arbitration. As part of the consideration that Lisa Preston requires for viewing, using or interacting with this website, you agree to the use of binding arbitration for any claim, dispute, or controversy of any kind (whether in contract, tort or otherwise) arising out of or relating to this website. Hearing will take place in the city or county of Lisa Preston. In no case shall you have the right to go to court or have a jury trial.  You will not have the right to engage in pre-trial discovery except as provided in the rules; you will not have the right to participate as a representative or member of any class of claimants pertaining to any claim subject to arbitration; the arbitrator’s decision will be final and binding with limited rights of appeal. The prevailing party shall be reimbursed by the other party for any and all costs associated with the dispute arbitration, including attorney fees, collection fees, investigation fees, and travel expenses.

(i) Severability. If any provision of this Agreement shall be adjudged by any court of competent jurisdiction to be unenforceable or invalid, that provision shall be limited or eliminated to the minimum extent necessary so that this Agreement will otherwise remain in full force and effect.

(j) Termination. Lisa Preston may terminate this Agreement at any time, with or without notice, for any reason.

(k) Contact Information.

Lisa Preston
ContactLisaPreston.com

The following Privacy Policy applies to any and all websites owned and operated by Lisa Preston.

1. My Commitment to Privacy. This notice describes my Privacy Policy. My Privacy Policy is designed to advise you about how I collect, use, and protect the Personally Identifiable Information you provide. By visiting this site, you are accepting the practices described in this Privacy Policy.

2. What Information is Collected.

(a) Information You Provide to Me: I collect the Personally Identifiable Information you choose to enter on various pages of my site, or that you may choose to give me in some other way (such as by email, physical mail, or by telephone). For example, you will be asked to provide Personally Identifiable Information when you register for access to certain portions of my site, sign up for newsletters or mailings, or make a purchase.

The categories of Personally Identifiable Information we collect are your first and last name, e-mail address, physical address, and telephone number.

You can choose not to provide certain information, but you may not be able to take advantage of our services and features.

(b) Automatic Information: When you visit a website, you disclose certain information, such as your Internet Protocol (IP) address and the time of your visit. This site, like many other sites, records this basic information about visits to our site.

(c) “Cookies”: Cookies are pieces of information that are transferred to your computer from a web server.

I use cookies to store visitor preferences, record session information (such as items that you add to your shopping cart) record user-specific information on what pages users access or visit, alert visitors to new areas that I think might be of interest to them when they return to my site, record past activity at a site in order to provide better service when visitors return to my site, ensure that visitors are not repeatedly sent the same banner ads, and to customize Web page content based on visitors’ browser type or other information that the visitor sends.

Most browsers are set up to accept cookies, but you can change your settings to have your browser notify you when you receive a new cookie or you can change your settings to refuse to accept cookies.

3. How and When the Information is Used. The information I collect is used for administering our business activities as follows:

(a) to improve the content of my site;

(b) to customize the content and/or layout of site pages for each individual visitor;

(c) used to notify consumers about updates to my Web site;

(e) used by us to contact consumers for marketing purposes.

4. How I Protect Your Information. The privacy and protection of your information is important to me. I offer some of my services in connection with other web sites. The affiliated sites may have different privacy practices and I encourage you to read their privacy policies. Your access to some services and content is password protected. I advise that you do not disclose your password to anyone. In addition, I recommend you sign out of password-protected services at the end of your session. You should also be aware that if you voluntarily disclose Personally Identifiable Information on message boards or in chat areas, that information can be viewed publicly and can be collected and used by third parties without my knowledge and may result in unsolicited messages from other individuals or third parties. Such activities are beyond my control and this policy.

5. Who Has Access to the Information. Information about my users is important to me. Access to your information may be accessible to trusted third parties who provide technical support for the operation of my site. In addition, I may sell my business or buy, merge or partner with other companies or businesses. In such transactions, user information may be transferred along with other assets. I may also disclose your information in response to a court order and I may disclose your information when I believe I am required to do so by law. I may disclose your information in connection with the collection of amounts you may owe to me and to law enforcement authorities whenever I deem it appropriate or necessary. Please note I may not provide you with notice prior to disclosure.

6. Methods I Use to Protect Your Information. I use security software to protect the confidentiality of your personal information. In addition, my business practices are reviewed periodically for compliance with policies and procedures governing the security and confidentiality of my information. My business practices limit employee access to confidential information, and limit the use and disclosure of such information to authorized persons.

7. Children. This website does not provide services or sell products to children under the age of 18.  If I discover I have received any information from a child under the age of 18 in violation of this policy, I will delete that information immediately. If you believe I have received any information from or about anyone under the age of 18, please contact me at the address listed below.

8. How You Can Access Your Information. You can request access to all your personally identifiable information maintained by me by sending an e-mail to me at the address listed below. Upon request I offer you the ability to have inaccuracies corrected in your personally identifiable information. You can have this information corrected by sending me an e-mail at the address listed below.

9. Consent. By using my website, you consent to the collection and use of your personal information as described in this Privacy Policy.

10. Changes to Privacy Policy. If my Privacy Policy or procedures change, I will immediately post those changes to my website. Any such changes will be effective immediately upon being posted, unless otherwise stated in the change.

11. Effective Date. This Privacy Policy is effective as of  March 24, 2009.

12. Contact Information. You may contact me concerning this Privacy Policy at my Support Desk.

The following Earnings Disclaimer applies to any and all websites owned and operated by Lisa Preston.

The information presented in this Website is intended to be for your educational and entertainment purposes only.

I am not presenting you with a business opportunity.

I am not presenting you with a distributorship.

I am not making any claims as to income you may earn.

I am not presenting you with an opportunity to get rich.

Before embarking on any endeavour, please use caution and seek the advice your own personal professional advisors, such as your attorney and your accountant.

Where income figures are mentioned (if any), those income figures are anecdotal information passed on to me concerning the results achieved by the individual sharing the information. I have performed no independent verification of the statements made by those individuals. Please do not assume that you will make those same income figures.

Please do not construe any statement in this website as a claim or representation of average earnings. There are NO average earnings. Testimonials and statements of individuals are not to be construed as claims or representations of average earnings. I cannot, do not, and will not make any claims as to earnings, average, or otherwise.

Success in any endeavor is based on many factors individual to you. I do not know your educational background, your skills, your prior experience, or the time you can and will devote to the endeavor.

Please perform your own due diligence before embarking on any course of action. Follow the advice of your personal qualified advisors.

There are risks in any endeavor that are not suitable for everyone. If you use capital, only “risk” capital should be used.

There is no guarantee that you will earn any money using any of the ideas presented in my materials. Examples in my materials are not to be interpreted as a promise or guarantee of earnings.  Many factors will be important in determining your actual results and no guarantees are made that you will achieve results similar to mine or anybody else’s. No guarantee is made that you will achieve any result at all from the ideas in my material.

You agree that I will not share in your success, nor will I be responsible for your failure or for your actions in any endeavor you may undertake.

Please understand that past performance cannot be an indication of possible future results.

Materials in my product and my website may contain information that includes or is based upon forward-looking statements within the meaning of the securities litigation reform act of 1995. Forward-looking statements give my expectations or forecasts of future events. You can identify these statements by the fact that they do not relate strictly to historical or current facts. They use words such as “anticipate,” “estimate,” “expect,” “project,” “intend,” “plan,” “believe,” and other words and terms of similar meaning in connection with a description of potential earnings or financial performance. Any and all forward looking statements in my materials are intended to express my opinion of earnings potential. They are opinions only and should not be relied upon as fact.

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There are dozens of myths about copyright issues on the internet and the necessity of getting permission or licensing. Here are a select few – don’t make the mistake of believing them!

Myth #1: “I’m free to use the work – it doesn’t have a copyright notice on it, so it’s not copyrighted.”

For works published on or after March 1, 1989, the use of a copyright notice is optional. The fact that a work doesn’t have a copyright notice doesn’t mean that the work is not protected by copyright.

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

It is true that “de minimis” copying (copying a small amount) is not considered copyright infringement, but it is rarely possible to tell where “de minimis” copying ends and copyright infringement begins. 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.

Myth #3: “Since I’m planning to give credit to all authors whose works I copy, I don’t need to get permission.”

If you give credit to a work’s author, you are not a plagiarist, but attribution is not a defense to copyright infringement.

Myth #4: “My website will be a wonderful compliment to the copyright owner’s work, so I’m sure the owner will not object to my use of it.”

Don’t assume that a copyright owner will be happy to have you use his or her work. Even if the owner is willing to let you use the work, the owner will probably want to charge you a license fee.

Myth #5: “I don’t need a license because I’m going to alter the work I copy.”

You can’t 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 copyright.

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

While you are free to copy public domain material that you find on the internet, you should not copy copyrighted material without getting permission from the copyright owner, whether you find it online or elsewhere (books, CDs, etc.).

Myth #7: “Anyone who puts material on a Web server wants people to use that material, so I can do anything I want with material that I get from a Web server.”

Individuals and organizations put material on a Web server to make it accessible by others. They do not give up their copyright rights by putting material on a Web server. Also, the person who posted the material may not own it!

Myth #8: “It’s okay to copy material from a personal website without getting permission.”

Much of the material on websites – both personal and commercial – is protected by copyright. If you want to use something from someone else’s site, get permission – unless permission to copy is granted in the text of the website’s Terms of Use.

Myth #9: “It’s okay to use copyrighted material on my website as long as no one has to pay to visit my website.”

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. (You may also need a public display license.)

Myth #10: “It’s okay to make other people’s copyrighted material available on my server as 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. In addition, making material available for others to copy can be contributory infringement.

When You Don’t Need Permission Or A License

You don’t need permission or licencing to use a copyrighted work in three circumstances:

1. If your use is “Fair Use”;
2. If the work you use is in the Public Domain;
3. If the material you use is factual or an idea.

Fair Use

You don’t need a license to use a copyrighted work if your use is “fair use”, but it is difficult to know whether a particular use of a work is fair or unfair. Determinations are made on a case-by-case basis by considering four factors:

Factor #1: Purpose and character of use. The courts are most likely to find fair use where the use is for non-commercial purposes, such as a review.
Factor #2: Nature of the copyrighted work. The courts are most likely to find fair use where the copied work is a factual work rather than a creative one.
Factor #3: Amount and substantiality of the portion used. The courts are most likely to find fair use where what is used is a tiny amount of the protected work. If what is used is small in amount but substantial in terms of importance, a finding of fair use is unlikely.
Factor #4: Effect on the potential market for or value of the protected work. The courts are most likely to find fair use where the new work is not a substitute for the copyrighted work.

Traditional “fair use” purposes include criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. You stand a better chance of falling within the bounds of fair use following these guidelines than you do if your work is sold to the public for entertainment purposes or for commercial gain.

Public Domain

You don’t need a license to use any public domain (works not protected by copyright) work. They may be used by anyone. No one can claim the exclusive rights of copyright for such works.

Works enter the public domain in several ways:

1. Because the term of the copyright expired;
2. Because the copyright owner failed to “renew” his copyright under the old Copyright Act of 1909;
3. Because the copyright owner failed to properly use copyright notice (of importance only for works created before March 1, 1989, at which time copyright notice became optional).

These myths and guidelines are just a few I’ve come across in recent months while investigating a copyright infringement case of my own. Stay tuned to this blog for the “Whole Story” on this ongoing nightmare!

Do you have additional “myths” that should be added to this list? Modifications to what has already been posted? I welcome your comments and opinions.