Bloggers, Is Your Content Safe Under The “Fair Use” Doctrine?

As blogging evolves, it is becoming increasingly important to recognize the legal limitations associated with building upon the works of others. Under 17 U.S.C. §504(c), damages for a single copyright infringement can range from anywhere between $750 to $30,000 per infringement. Paradoxically, some of bloggers' best content incorporates the authorized works of others. The safest course of action is to properly consider the four questions raised in the statute:

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10+ Tips to get the most out of an Ad Network or Rep

Some of the most liveliest discussions here in the past have occurred around topics related to advertising networks.  Most of us have been an associated with an ad network at some point in time, some of us still are, while others have moved on to an ad rep or direct sales.  When joining an ad [...]

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Tech Week in Review 11-6-09

Google Chrome Enables Bookmark Syncing If you use multiple computers, keeping your bookmarks in sync can be a pain. Now, Google Chrome adds the ability to sync your bookmarks between computers running Chrome by simply entering your Google Account information. The changes are instantaneous. The only catch is that you have to be running the latest beta [...]

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How to: Build Track-able Links for Google Analytics

Analyzing your websites traffic is a great way to determine how and where you should devote you efforts and resources to attract more traffic. Most analytics software provide the necessary tools to report this traffic information, but building a utm sourced link will help sort and organize your advertising campaigns. In this how to, I [...]

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Vegas Hotels Trade Rooms In Exchange for New Twitter Followers

The Rio and MGM Grand Hotels in Las Vegas are running new Twitter promotions, giving away hotel stays in exchange for tweets. Until Nov. 27, folks who tweet their sins along with the hashtag #mgmsin will be entered in a once-a-day random drawing for a night's stay at the MGM Grand Hotel & Casino on the strip. MGM's social media team is posting the names of the winners as soon as they are drawn, and they've extended the promotion to mgmgrandsins.com. There you can tweet directly from the page, see a list of winners, and vote on the most forgivable and unforgivable sins that have been posted so far. A few folks have already forfeited by not responding to claim their prize, so if you enter, be sure to check back regularly.

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Leapfish Brings Us the Living Web

Leapfish is an interesting search portal that creates it's results by pulling together information from the major search engines. It also includes results from the social web and embeds all types of media directly on the results page. As you type your search, the results are pulled together using their “proprietary hyper-threading technology” in conjunction with the API’s of each service. Basically, LeapFish is a meta search engine.

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Breaking: Essence Lays Off Digital Team

Via Journalsticks:  After relaunching their website last week, Essence magazine laid off its web team today citing budgetary reasons. “They told us it was downsizing,” says one Essence employee. “We’re very confused. We worked so hard for the relaunch.” Another insider tells J’sticks: “This is normal practice. Companies relaunch with new [site] schemes that allow them to [...]

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Creating a new generation of technology entrepreneurs Part 1: Changing the Value Proposition for Urban Youth

Being a pro athlete or an entertainer is great but the odds are extremely high for people to have careers in those fields. But that is who our youth see. And one of the largest problems is that our youth don’t see people they can identify with in technology entrepreneurial roles so they don’t believe it is in the realm of possibility for them. Yes, they love to use Facebook but they never think that they can create the next Facebook. So I ask the question what can we do to change their value proposition. Let’s talk about any ideas people have and start working to making this become reality for our youth.

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Sleek Audio SA1 Earbuds: Music to your Wallet

If you’re a music lover like me, then you know that sound quality is everything. You’re not really hearing the song unless you’re hearing all the highs, lows, and mids. You’re listening for those little nuances that separate a good song from a great one. However, with today’s music, much of it is so compressed [...]

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Black Media, Instead of Mimicking Blogs Why not just Acquire?

As of late we’ve seen so many traditional Black/Urban Media companies either redesign as blogs, create blog properties as part of their holdings, or transform their content channels into blogs.  In nearly every case that I’ve seen this happen not one company has been able to knock it out of the park.  In many cases [...]

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