http://www.newshare.com/wiki/api.php?action=feedcontributions&user=161.130.225.169&feedformat=atomIVP Wiki - User contributions [en]2024-03-28T11:26:55ZUser contributionsMediaWiki 1.31.1http://www.newshare.com/wiki/index.php?title=Ona09-legal&diff=2117Ona09-legal2009-10-07T21:45:41Z<p>161.130.225.169: New page: =Online News Association -- San Francisco Oct. 2, 2009= <i>Rough notes by [mailto:densmorew@rjionline.org Bill Densmore].</i> <big>THE LEGAL PANEL -- What can (or should) journalists lea...</p>
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<div>=Online News Association -- San Francisco Oct. 2, 2009=<br />
<br />
<i>Rough notes by [mailto:densmorew@rjionline.org Bill Densmore].</i><br />
<br />
<big>THE LEGAL PANEL -- What can (or should) journalists learn from recent legal kerfluffles, such as Facebook's recent terms of service changes? Exploring issues around online privacy and other pressing legal issue.</big> <br />
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==PANELISTS==<br />
*Jon Hart, partner, Dow Lohnes & ONA general council (moderator) <br />
*Andy Mar, attorney, legal and corporate affairs, Microsoft Corp./MSN<br />
*Fred von Lohmann, senior staff attorney, Electric Frontier Foundation <br />
*Nicole Wong, deputy general counsel, Google Inc. <br />
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John Hart -- It's no longer correct that you get in legal trouble if you edit comments on your website.<br />
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[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_230_of_the_Communications_Decency_Act Section 230 of the Communications Deceny Act controls.]<br />
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Andy Mar -- As long as the website is publishing the content, you can review it, and you are following certain guidlines, you can assert immunity from publishing third-party content, as opposed to something you have developed yourself. <br />
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Nicole Wong -- The CDA was part of protecting children from the web. Congress wanted sites to feel OK about editing out pornography, without then feeling that they "owned" the content. It was designed to protect Internet Service Providers. "Where we have now come to is we want people to be cleaning up their sites," she said. <br />
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Fred von Lohmann -- The price paid is the tenor of UTube comments. Without Section 230 "it would be incredibly dangerous" to allow public comments. So the user-generated aspect of the web is a direct result of Section 230. "If your in the position of putting words into peoples' mouths, may be Section 230 doesn't protect you," he said. Stay away from "developing the content yourself." <br />
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Even a lot of lawyers are amazed at the provisions of Section 230. <br />
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===Discussing international implications=== <br />
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AUDIENCE QUESTION: What are the global implications of this? <br />
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Nicole Wong -- This issue keeps her up at night. It's not clear whether the law in the United States or, say, Brazil, applies, if the complaining user is in Brazil. Google takes the position that U.S. law governs in all instances. <br />
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Von Lohmann -- "Once you go beyond defamation, there is really very little law at all." He discusses a lawsuit brought a French fashion-designer plaintiff about photos taken by an American blogger of a runway show and posted on a U.S. server. The French plaintiff sued, the blogger didn't show up, the French plaintiff then came to a New York court to enforce a French default judgement. "So you have this American blog that is facing a French judgement," says von Lohmann. New York court also said the blogger should have shown up in France to defend. <br />
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QUESTION: What about editing for dimensions? <br />
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Andy Marr: The same principles apply to non-text. If the information after editing changes the root meaning or context, that could be a problem. Accurate cropping of a picture is still fine. <br />
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"Your first line of defense against your own contributors is your terms of use," says Von Lohmann. "Certainly Facebook will never revise their Terms of Use again without at least the business office having something to do with it." <br />
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===Discussing Terms of Use === <br />
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"Google has kind of been best-of-breed in this," says Von Lohmann. <br />
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"What about a footer on the bottom of every web page?" asks John Hart. <br />
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Von Lohmann says that's probably not enough. <br />
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"Getting in front of your users without getting in the way of their experience is an incredible art form," says Wong. <br />
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===The right of publicity===<br />
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There's a discussion of the "right of publicity," the body of state and common law which prevents you from using the likeness of someone to promote a product without their permission. Journalistic use has always been carved out as OK. <br />
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Somebody tell this guy that "people should pay" is not a vision for a news company. http://jr.ly/w8ct InDenverTimes had the same "vision."<br />
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===Discussion of copyright===<br />
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DMCA -- Digital Millenium Copyright Act -- Creates safe harbors, which are discussed. SEction 512 of the copyright act, applies to online service providers. <br />
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Von Lohmann: "Basically what si says is you will not be held libel for ocpyright violations as long as you follow certain rules." It applies to four services: <br />
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Von Lohmann says: <br />
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*Straight Internet connectivity (ISP's got broadest) <br />
*Caching (temporary saving of a file for technical or bandwidth reasons) <br />
*Storing content on behalf of users. "That is exactly what YouTube does, that is exactly what Blogger does." <br />
*Information location tools -- "a long way of saying linking" -- Bing, Google, all provide links -- sometimes to infringing stuff. They have this safe harbor, however. <br />
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What are the rules: <br />
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*Follow notice and take down. If you get a notice you have to remove the links. <br />
*You must terminate repeat infringers.<br />
*You have to file a notice with the Copyright Office of your copyright agent. You just fill out a form and send an $80 check to the Copyright office. "I am always stunned and amazing at how many sites fail to do that." <br />
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The safe harbors are not mandatory, you don't automatically lose, but if you do you get this Safe Harbor, otherwise you are at your risk under normal application of copyright law. <br />
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===Fair Use===<br />
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The Fair Use exception is a general exception to copyright law. Courts ask how much did you use, was it transformative, commercial, non-commercial, was it creative (more protection) or purely factual (less protection) and "are you harming the market for the original work ... is your action a substition for the thing the original copyright owner is trying to sell." Says Von Lohmann: "It's a big mushy, pot of questions." <br />
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===Wrapup thoughts=== <br />
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Von Lohman doesn't think the current state of the law will change because of the players are terrified of reopening the issues at stake. He thinks the DMCA law is working reasonable well for the business although the users get somewhat the short stick.</div>161.130.225.169http://www.newshare.com/wiki/index.php?title=Ona09-business&diff=2116Ona09-business2009-10-07T21:44:14Z<p>161.130.225.169: New page: =From Journalist to Entrepreneur= <big>Partial unedited notes on a Saturday, Oct. 3 session at the Online News Association annual convention in San Francisco.</big> ===PANELISTS:=== *Mar...</p>
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<div>=From Journalist to Entrepreneur=<br />
<big>Partial unedited notes on a Saturday, Oct. 3 session at the Online News Association annual convention in San Francisco.</big><br />
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===PANELISTS:===<br />
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*Mark Briggs, CEO, Serra Media, moderator <br />
* Ann Grimes, acting director, graduate journalism program at Stanford University <br />
* Scott Lewis, CEO, voiceofsandiego.org <br />
* Om Malik, Founder/CEO, GigaOm <br />
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===Discussion notes by [http://www.newshare.typepad.com/about.html Bill Densmore]===<br />
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<hr><h4><br />
twitterstream for this breakout viewable at:<br>http://twitter.com/home#search?q=%23ONAbiz<br />
</h4><hr><br />
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Ann Grimes: What we're seeing with our 20-somethings is a lot of them want to do startups. "From where I sit today it seems like there is a tremendous amount of activity going on." <br />
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Scott Lewis, voice of San Diego: Start as a writer in 2005. And there was a crisis in leadership. He and a friend put together a proposal for the board of directors. He was co-editor. <br />
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"We kept hoping that a magic businessman would show up someday, but that magic person turned out to be little old me." He took over the job of CEO. Burden fell on him to try and diversify revenue and "reach that elusive goal of sustainability." <br />
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Goes to bed with the jobs of 13 people on his mind and wakes up with it on his mind, and sometimes doesn't sleep. <br />
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"I've had to learn how to fire people and cut costs ... and make tough decisions." <br />
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They are above budget, continuing to diversify their revenue streams and having an impact on San Diego. He is working to enable peole to have more and more impact, "it is as much of a thrill as anything I did journalistically." <br />
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Mark Briggs: Doing a startup is like having a baby. <br />
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Om Malik, founder/ceo, GigaOm. "GigaOm just started." He was frustrated with working at a monthly magazine. He had experience as a daily. In 2005 he left the monthly to do the 24/7 blog. Started June 2006. <br />
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there are 21 people, and a network of seven blogs now. STarted four and acquired three, had four conferences in 2009 will have six in 2010. <br />
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"It looks much easier from the outside than it really is."<br />
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"I think there is a myth about the startup entrepreneur, we have turned them into rock stars." "But when the rewards come in it is a fantastic feeling. It is a pretty proud moment. But as a startup, 99% of the time you're going to have bad days but there is one day that is awesome." <br />
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===Mark Briggs cites successful multi-stream journalism startups===<br />
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*ProPublica.org -- <br />
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*ArtsJournal.com -- Profitable for a long time, an original aggregator site. <br />
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*Xconomy -- San Diego, Seattle and Boston. Paying really well. <br />
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*Pegasus News -- sold twice. Continuing to grow, setting new records for traffic and revenue. <br />
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*Spot.us -- started spot us in the bay area and crowd funded journalism. Now branching out into los angeles. <br />
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*publish2 -- Scott karp started company which is in the same market as Serra Media. Journalists can provide technology to help journalists provide coverage and content. Others like CoverItLive and Caspia. <br />
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===Back to discussion===<br />
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QUESTION: How will this wave of entreneurialism affect the big media companies? <br />
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Anne Grimes: Some of these are being formed by people who have left legacy media.<br />
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MSM media advantages: Distribution, and advertising. <br />
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"I don't see any difference in my journalistic staff than any other staff" in the MSM. <br />
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Scott Lewis: "A type of cluster has come up in San Diego and I'm very proud of that. We have inspired people to think that they can do a site like this." <br />
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Re competitors: "I have to really think about who my competition is. They are only focused on advertising." <br />
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Big donors, small doners, grants and foundations, corporate sponsors and advertisers and trying to develop syndication. <br />
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"I'm pusuing an egamgenet wiht san diego. i want people to now that we are a servic eand we are there for them." <br />
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Newspapers: Editorial sides think as competition. "BUt as a business are we competitive with the union tribune? They are not trying to set up a sophisiticated member program, they don't do sponsors in the same way, they don't apply for grants." <br />
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"I also think the traditional papers are reacting very strangly." Emphasizing power and size. "I think we are going to see the trajectory of where we are going hurt that."<br />
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QUESTION: Would VC's fund a local news operation now? <br />
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Anne Grimes: There is a lot of activity in this space that is drawing a lot of headlines. Rcently in texas we have seen Austin Ventures step up to the plate to back the TExas Monthly there to the tune of $5 million. Now they hope to make that sustainable, they hope to get a return on investment, $5M isn't a lot." <br />
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In San Francisco, Warren Hellman has backed a new venture for bay area news. "Their hope is to turn it from a nonprofit into a moneymaking operation." <br />
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Om: "I can tell you they do want their money back." <br />
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"I basically have made my problems other people's problems in my business." <br />
<br />
Because you are on the web you have to treat and measure everything> <br />
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"What you are seeing is the breakdown of the channels of communciation, It's the atomization of news. "I live to sreve my readers -- we have to make that our mantra. If you are going to be a journalists, you always have to remember who you are serving." and everything has to be measured against your P&L. The VCs help you to do that. <br />
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Om's three revenue channels . . . they go back and forth seasonally between profitability and non-profitability. Three product lines are advertising -- mostly sponsorships -- very little CPM, a research business, a subscription business that is growing actively, and an events business. They are decreasing their reliance on advertising. <br />
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Scott Lewis: "He's focused on the mission. "In order to sustain it we need as many revenue sources as possible and the nonprofit model offers more revenue sources. We have to react to amarket, create a need and fill it and continue to provide a service. We feel there is a total market relationship it's just that the return on the relationship gets reinvested in the mission." <br />
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"When ChiTown went down a couple of weeks ago it raised a lot of questions ... I think if anything it shows how much is avaialble in the non-profit sphere." <br />
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"I think there's an interesting thing going on right now, everybody sees an opportunity, I don't think they see exactly how it plays out." <br />
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Scott Lewis: Focused on the mission. <br />
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Ann Grimes: "Fundamentally jouranlists are really risk averse." "The jouranlists say lets throw the spagetti agaisnt the wall. ... it just has to be good enough to get the first version out there and temperamentally people are very resistent to that." <br />
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Mark Briggs: Good point -- journalists are good at perspective and looking at why other people screwed up. "Now its journalists chance to step up." <br />
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AUDIENCE QUESTION: "How do the grownups among us .... " take the leap? <br />
<br />
Mark Briggs: First of all you have gotta convince your wife, and if she has a full time job that's a pretty good start. And you do a lot of things in advance. Before I left my job we had built a working prototype, we had taken it to a conference. We had a lot of proof that we were onto something good. <br />
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Om Malik: "Either do that, or just wait for the axe to fall." <br />
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QUESTION: To what extent is it important to speak the language of technolgy if you are a journalist. <br />
<br />
Om Makik: There are five technologists in their 21-person team. <br />
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QUESTION: Question from Kelsey Proud at the University of Missouri . . . Do you feel it is the journalism school's responsibility to teach and integrate entrepreneurial thinking into their curriculum ... or up to us ... to go out and get those skills on our own." <br />
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===Malik on entrepreneurship===<br />
<br />
Om Malik: "If you have to go to college to be an entrepreneur, than I think you are in the wrong space ... you drop out of college to be Bill Gates ... no college, no program can teach you to be an entrepreneur, you either want to be one or you can't be one. . . .If you are making yourself into that kind of person, I think you will be more invested if you do it self . . . there is no playbook there are no coaches . . . in the end you are the one who is in the spotlight . . . go work on a paper, even partitme if you have to do it for free, you will learn more."<br />
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Ann Grimes: Explains why Stanford started the entrepreneurship program. "There is no playbook, I agree with Om on that . . . and Stanford is not the only school moving into these uncharted waters. Obviously Missouri is doing some great stuff, Arizona, USC, Northestern, CUNY, and Berkeley. <br />
<br />
Barbara Martinez with GlobaPost.com ... previously she was with Politico.com ... "One thing I worry about is at this particular even thtere are so may great ideas that are small and may not get the chance to bubble up to the top." <br />
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Om Malik: "YOu just never know. This is the beauty of this environment right now. You just don't know who is going to be successful."</div>161.130.225.169