Beware of Copyrighted Images Used Without Permission

Now here's a subject near and dear to my heart...copyright infringement.  On two separate occasions I've had articles I have written show up in college textbooks without my permission.  Both times I threatened to sue and then settled.  I think what upset me was that I was in the textbooks with some very well known authors, such as Maya Angelou, William Raspberry, even John F. Kennedy.  You can bet they or their estates were asked for permission and they were paid for their work.  There is so much free or fair use material out there, no one needs to violate copyright.  Excellent read and excellent points!  Bunnie

Beware of Copyrighted Images Used Without Permission
by Dan Ehrmann, President, ClubExpress

For most non-profit clubs and associations, funds are always tight. Expenses are carefully managed to stay within budget and you are always working to attract new members, maintain renewals, find donations and solicit sponsorships. So a sudden expense out-of-the-blue can really create problems. Here is an elementary mistake that you should watch out for.


ClubExpress is an Internet platform to help smaller non-profit clubs and associations run their operations, including website, membership database, finances, events, etc. Hundreds of clubs and associations use our platform. A few weeks ago, out of the blue, we received a demand letter from a photo licensing company, requesting a license fee of thousands of dollars for use of a photo on a ClubExpress website. The story of this letter is an important lesson for every non-profit organization because of the potential risk that you might be asked to pay large licensing fees.

Using Google Image Search or similar services, it's easy to find photos on the Internet featuring almost any subject of interest. Once you find a photo, it's trivial to download it to your local hard disk, then upload it to your organization’s website.

Don't. Ever. Do. This.

Photos are copyrighted works, owned by the photographer and sometimes a photo licensing company. These firms (for example, Getty Images), build libraries of millions of photos which they then license out to magazines, advertisers, web designers and others for use in commercial works. License fees can run into the thousands of dollars depending on the resolution desired and on the intended purpose.

Many of these photos appear legitimately on websites because the website owner has licensed the photo and paid the appropriate fee.

The image file (usually a JPG or PNG) is especially encoded by the photo licensing company. They also have bots which cruise websites automatically, looking for image files. When one is found, they download it and look for the encoding. If it's one that they license, they then check to see if you own a license and if you don't, the demand letter is generated. People, companies and organizations that use such photos without a license represent a significant source of revenue for these companies and they will go after you aggressively. And the law is entirely on their side.

ClubExpress is protected under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act because we are considered to be an "Online Service Provider". We are not liable for violations done by our customers on their websites, even though these sites are hosted on our platform. But if an organization’s website manager or officer does this, the organization may be liable for licensing fees for photos which are being used without permission or payment of a license fee.

As administrators, please take a few moments to review all the photos uploaded to your websites, to ensure that you have permission from the photographer or the appropriate licenses to use these photos. Be sure to check every part of your website, including page headers, content boxes and custom pages. You only need to worry about the public side of your site since bots have no way to view members-only content that requires a login. But you should check the whole site.

Photos taken by members and uploaded themselves should not be a problem. When they upload the image, they are giving the club permission to use it for non-commercial purposes. The problem instead is photos that someone has downloaded from another website in order to use on your website. And if the list of website managers changes regularly, be especially cautious of work done on the website by prior admins who may no longer be involved.

Respecting copyrights is not only the law; it's also the right thing to do.

_________________________________________________________

Dan Ehrmann is the founder and President of ClubExpress, an Internet platform to help clubs and associations run heir complete front-office and back-office. He can be reached at dan@clubexpress.com.

Website Best Practices for Nonprofits

It's always good to go back over the basics when it comes to website design and functionality.  Antoine Dubeauclard points out some basics we all should be thinking about.  I particularly like the idea of thinking about functionality.  Can I get the information I need easily and quickly?  How many times have I been to websites that "bury" content and then become frustrated trying to find what I want.  Also, if I want to donate money to your organization, will you make it easy for me?  Bunnie

Website Best Practices for Nonprofits
By Antoine Dubeauclard, President of Media Genesis

Keeping pertinent and updated resources readily available to people is what many nonprofit organization hope to achieve with their website, yet many still fall short.

Using Focus: Hope as an example, I would like to point out some best practices for nonprofit websites.

Focus: Hope is a Detroit civil and human rights organization that has constantly worked to bridge the racial divide in southeast Michigan. In March, the organization not only celebrated their 42nd anniversary, but also the launch of their new website. Below I have highlighted some features and functionality of Focus: Hope’s website that are key for any nonprofit.

Updated and well organized content

First, it’s important to deliver relevant content to the several and varied, audiences of non-profits. You want to give people a reason to come back. If your website has stale information and doesn’t engage the users – guess what – they won’t be returning. Creating a vibrate, easily updatable and engaging website was in the plan from the start – everything from the structure to design to functionality. Media Genesis built Focus: Hope’s site to have a custom content management system (CMS), so anyone within the organization can update the information. Now, content, videos, news and pictures can all be easily updated as often as needed– giving users something new to come back to. Having an organization of content is also very vital. Focus: Hope may have a lot of content, yet it is labeled and structured in a way that people don’t have to hunt for the information they are looking for.

Donations

A strong donation system is essential to keep any nonprofit up and running. Keeping this in mind, donors should not be left out when it comes to picking out your top audiences for your website. Remember, as a rule, don’t make people search. If you are actively seeking donations, make it easy for people. On Focus: Hope’s website a “Make a Donation” button is prominent on every page. We also customized their third party donation system so donors no longer have to leave the site to make a donation. This is key as it allows visitors to the site to make a donation, yet still browse and engage with the site content afterwards without ever leaving.

Social Media

Using social networks such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter are great ways to share videos, start a discussion about an interesting fact, or spread the word about an event. It also portrays more transparency and lets people observe a more human aspect of the organization. Focus: Hope has links to their different social networks on every page, making it easy for users to peruse.

Correctly identifying your audiences, assessing the needs of your organization and finding ways to engage users should all be best practices when it comes to planning and developing any nonprofit website.

Contact Antoine Dubeauclard at Media Genesis

Nerdy Meets Needy

Happy New Year to all! Here's hoping you were able to have time with family and friends and are now refreshed to take on the challenges of a new year. Before the holidays, I made a brief mention of the Nerdery Overnight Website Challenge. The folks at Sierra Bravo are tops on my list for their creativity, their good humor and their service to nonprofits. Mark Malmberg, Communication Manager, explains the challenge and what it brings to nonprofits in Minnesota. And, I've already heard that there are others out there doing similar work. As I get that information I will share it, meanwhile, enjoy this article and the useful links. Bunnie

Nerdy Meets Needy

by Mark Malmberg, Communication Manager

Nerdery Interactive Labs, a division of Sierra Bravo Corporation

Have there been tougher times for nonprofits? The services these organizations provide are arguably in greater need than ever, yet many are struggling just to make ends meet – and too few can afford to invest in websites capable of building online community.

In the first two years of The Nerdery Overnight Website Challenge, volunteer web pros have donated more than half-a-million dollars worth of professional services to 23 Minnesota nonprofits. Here at Nerdery Interactive Labs, a division of Sierra Bravo, we consider this a good start for our annual 24-hour nerdathon, but we also know that there are plenty more good nonprofits with not-so-good websites.

Nonprofits in Minnesota have until January 8 to register for the next Nerdery Overnight Website Challenge, which returns to the Twin Cities for the third time March 20-21 (one nonprofit is already in, with a Golden Ticket). Volunteer interactive pros come not only from our staff at The Nerdery, but from ad agencies we partner with, as well as freelancers, friends, and peers from the Minneapolis-St. Paul interactive community at large. Looking for ways to use their time and talent to give back, these passionate teams of volunteers band together and compete for little more than bragging rights.

In our day jobs here at The Nerdery – when we’re not just giving it away in the wee hours – we spend our normal waking hours serving as the web development partners (OK, nerds) of more than a hundred ad, design and marketing agencies nationwide.

It takes more than a bunch of well-meaning insomniacs to pull off an event like ours, and we’re blessed with sponsors who are incredibly committed to doing what they can to help. Nonprofits this year will receive complimentary education in design and web applications, business analysis or project management from event sponsor New Horizons of Minnesota, which will become Benchmark Learning on January 1. They also get one-year complimentary web-hosting subscription on event sponsor VISI’s ReliaCloud service. In-kind sponsors include Arthouse, Chipotle, Peace Coffee, Pizza Luce’ and Red Bull.

We’ve heard from others around the country who’ve asked our advice on how to go about gathering a small army of web nerds to help nonprofits in their community. This makes our day. Finding worthy and needy nonprofits is the easy part. Finding enough nerds to make a difference is the greater pre-Challenge challenge – and one not as easily resolved overnight. But whether or not anyone else carries this forward elsewhere, let us make our intentions clear:

We’re coming.

Here are a few stories about the nerdy helping the needy:

http://blog.nerdery.com/2009/04/yea-corps-gets-pie-in-the-sky-from-overnight-website-challenge/

http://blog.nerdery.com/2009/04/students-today-leaders-forever-like-jet-fuel-at-overnight-website-challenge/

http://blog.nerdery.com/2009/07/district-202-renewed/

http://blog.nerdery.com/2009/05/overnight-website-challenge-gives-people-faith-hope-that-theres-still-good-in-society/

http://blog.nerdery.com/2009/03/webchallenge-pictures-posts-and-videos-roundup/