I myself am a member of Facebook. Like most of us I saw them as a gentle giant earning good money by allowing us to make new friends and business associates from the comfort of our homes. Not so true.

I’m no web Guru, but I try to keep all my photos scattered throughout the web small enough that they’re useless if stolen. I try to take precautions, but there are so many pages of TOS’s (terms of service) on the many sites I navigate, I admit, I don’t usually read them at gathering places such as FB.

I will be more studious in the future. I never suspected what I was agreeing to by uploading a sampling of my works for friends and associates to view. Do you?

Member, Carolyn D’Alessandro, sent me this link. Call me naive, but I didn’t know what rights Facebook claims until I read this post at The Consumerist.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Facebook's New Terms Of Service: "We Can Do Anything We Want With Your Content. Forever."  
By Chris Walters Feb 15 2009
The Consumerist

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now, anything you upload to Facebook can be used by Facebook in any way they deem fit, forever, no matter what you do later.* Want to close your account? Good for you, but Facebook still has the right to do whatever it wants with your old content. They can even sublicense it if they want….more Facebook Do What They Want

Even if you signed up at Facebook before the new TOS was in effect, beware the phrase, “these terms are subject to change at any time without notification” or any similar wording.

I take responsibility for not reading the TOS before signing up. My bad. And I immediately deleted my photos from Facebook, but in reality this is virtually useless (irony intended). Once uploaded they can be forever in cache. Still, I know now not to upload to Facebook any photos for which I wish to retain copyright, no matter the size, no matter the watermark.

Read Read Facebook’s Terms of Service

Follow the Follies

Facebook Reassures Users in Wake of Service Terms Change
February 16, 2009
BreitBart.com

Facebook on Monday said it is not usurping users’ content despite changing service terms to claim “perpetual worldwide license” to anything posted at the social-networking website....more Facebook Reassures

Facebook’s Terms of Use: From Bad to Beyond Worse
by Jim Goldstein
February 17, 2009

The latest buzz across the web in the past couple of days has been the increased awareness to the outrageous modifications to the Terms of Use (ToU) at Facebook and the impact to Creatives, particularly photographers….more Bad to Worse

Facebook’s Terms of Use Update
by Jim Goldstein
February 18, 2009

For those that took an interest in my earlier post regarding Facebook’s revised Terms of Use “Facebook’s Terms of Use: From Bad to Beyond Worse“, news is just now coming out that Facebook has reverted to an older version of their Terms of Use dated September 23, 2008. Another notable development....more TOS Update

FaceBook Responds to Uprising With Terms Update
& Invitation to Participate in New FB Bill of Rights
Update on Terms
by Mark Zuckerberg

A couple of weeks ago, we revised our terms of use hoping to clarify some parts for our users. Over the past couple of days, we received a lot of questions and comments about the changes and what they mean for people and their information. Based on this feedback, we have decided to return to our previous terms of use while we resolve the issues that people have raised.

Many of us at Facebook spent most of today discussing how best to move forward. One approach would have been to quickly amend the new terms with new language to clarify our positions further. Another approach was simply to revert to our old terms while we begin working on our next version. As we thought through this, we reached out to respected organizations to get their input....more Facebook Blog Responds

        

Write to Publish

Blog by Robin Sullivan, Fairfax, VA                          

Highly recommended.

 

Artists notoriously ignore business and marketing arenas. As Ms. Sullivan says, “I've learned a lot about promotion and business: the two things writers feel the least comfortable with, and yet very important aspects of their writing careers.

 

I discovered this new blog (about two months old) through Goodreads.com, and it’s filled with such insight into the back end of the art world that I would venture to suggest, “you must subscribe.”

 

Ms. Sullivan’s Write to Publish blog is directed toward writers, but as a photographer who publishes and markets my work, I find her information very helpful. Most photographers seeking to earn money at their craft must learn marketing skills. We usually end up e-publishing some of our work/knowledge, creating tutorials, etc. All these media have to be promoted.

 

The two fields intersect at many points. Robin starts us off with the basics, and like an online university, builds the depth of her posts until we emerge educated on the issue. Robin’s background prepared her well.

 

Vermont Creative Software - a leader in GUI tools used by programmers to create applications in the 1980's.

Spectrum Design - an advertising agency specializing in marketing communication materials (websites, brochures, direct mail pieces) for high technology companies.

Ridan Publishing - a small press always looking for high quality writers.

 

When her husband, Michael Sullivan began a six-book series, The Riyria Revelations, Aspirations Media Inc., she quickly obtained a wealth of hands-on experience about the business/promotion side of writing.

 

“It was my job to take his written word and get it out to people,” Ms. Sullivan explains.  “Along the way I've, made some mistakes (and learned from them) and met a lot of authors struggling with the same issues. My goal is to get things I've learned out of my head and into the hand of other writers so they can avoid mistakes.”

 

If you live in the Washington, DC area you’ll be happy to note Ms. Sullivan leads a 340 member group where she lectures regularly. “I never charge for these seminars, I think authors have too many people trying to steal their money to make their dreams come true. I just spent a lot of time doing research for my husband and don't want the knowledge to die with me - I'd rather share it with others.”

 

Subscription Note: Robin offers an RSS Feed subscription, but I always forget to check my feeds. I prefer having new posts arrive in my email. This isn’t offered by her blog. But if you want to subscribe via email, you can go to FeedBlitz http://www.feedblitz.com/. Scroll down along the left hand side and look for the "Subscribe to Anything" button. Enter this URL: http://www.write2publish.blogspot.com/  Hit subscribe, then enter your email address.

        

I'm being interviewed on Shirley W. Mitchell's live internet radio show, Aging Outside the Box™

Now it's out -- everyone knows I'm aged! Seriously, I'm honored to be Shirley's guest, and looking forward to chatting with her, and you -- they take callers. The show is aired in 139 countries with an estimated 4 million listeners. I hope you join us too. Shirley is the dynamic spokesperson of the Baby Boomers.

The network is ArtistFirst Radio, if you'd like to tune in at any time just for the great music.

Here is the information with all links they sent me to share:

Feb. 18, 2009... 6PM-CST... "Timing-The Logic Behind the Lens" with our "Guest", Peggy "Aggie" Villanueva, known as the "Grandma Moses of the American Southwest", a Photographic Artist, Author, Editor & Publisher and Owner of Aperture Aside Photographer's Web Hub on "Aging Outside the Box™" Radio Show with National Author/Writer/Syndicated Columnist/Speaker and Celebrity Radio Talk Show Host, Shirley W. Mitchell, on the ArtistFirst World Radio Network as they discuss "Timing-The Logic Behind the Lens" with... Chase the Wind & Rightfully Mine, How To Teach Yourself, Photography - God's Library, and Aperture Aside. Join us "LIVE on AIR" every Wednesday Night at 2PM-HIST, 3PM-AKST, 4PM-PST, 5PM-MST, 6PM-CST, 7PM-EST and 8PM-AST. Listen to the Live Show or Listen to the Archive !


Or, have a look at the Interview Brochure.

If you miss the live interview, just Listen to the Archive anytime after Feb 20, 2009.

        

In the process of researching something totally unrelated to this topic I stumbled upon wunderkind Peter Shankman’s site, Help a Reporter.com. Delighted with his foresight and grasp, I was sidetracked there until deciding to put the other research on hold.

 

Peter’s brainchild began as a Facebook group, but soon outgrew the site. The Help a Reporter list unites specialists of any area and the press. Businesses need PR and the press needs sources to write about. Shankman created a site where we sign up to receive daily emails filled with reporters looking for sources. The results: we gain as much “help” as the reporters.

 

I move simultaneously between the worlds of writing and photography, and Peter’s site is ideal for both. If you are looking for ways to promote your business you must sign up with this list.

Did I mention it’s FREE? But donations are welcome to various charities. And there is only one rule, in Peter's own words:

“This is really the only thing I ask: By joining this list, just promise me and yourself that you'll ask yourself before you send a response: Is this response really on target? Is this response really going to help the journalist, or is this just a BS way for me to get my client in front of the reporter? If you have to think for more than three seconds, chances are, you shouldn't send the response. In the end, we could probably all stand to do this a bit more, huh?"

For Getting Press if You Are a Source:

http://www.helpareporter.com/

 

For Writers Seeking Sources:

http://www.helpareporter.com/press/

 

Founder Peter Shankman

About Peter: http://shankman.com/

COE, Entrepreneur, Adventurist

        

 I have an answer now to the Fair Use dilemma for my book, thanks to one of the most knowledgeable and generous men I’ve met online. He summarized the reasoning behind the Fair Use clause in one paragraph, while all the pages I read and reread at all the .gov sites only added to my confusion. His one paragraph summarized the why of Fair Use for all future reference. NOW I get it.

 

My acquaintance with DanHeller began when I was compiling my reprint-permissions request letters for the AA journal, Dan Heller’s included, when his Photo Business Blog arrived on the subject of the abuse of the Fair Use clause in our Copyright law.

 

I recommend you read the article, Heckler's Veto: Blog Style and subscribe to his insightful photography business blog.

 

When I emailed Dan asking permission to use lead sentences from his site and his book-thumbnail in the Aperture Aside Photograher’s Resource Journal he responded with a kind “yes” and explanation that I didn’t need permission for this as it is under the Fair Use clause. But he thanked me anyway for letting him know.

 

I sent Dan the pre-publication issue with his links and we corresponded a handful of times while he freely offered advice on my site, journal and even the problem I was having opening a Google Adsense account. Always with his delightful dry wit.

 

So valuable is Dan Heller’s response I am reprinting our correspondence in full so that you may also benefit.

 

Aggie to Dan Heller

 

You have been so helpful with your advice; may I intrude once more with a question?

 

You seem extremely familiar with the Fair Use Clause of our Copyright law. I've reread it dozens of times, and one time I think I can use my examples as Fair Use and the next reading I think it says I can't.

 

I need to quote one-sentence to one-paragraph from various works for my book teaching the craft of rewriting. This book will be self-published and offered for sale. These short examples I want to use would basically be showing the wrong way to write. I use mostly my own mistakes as examples, but that gets old fast.

 

I've emailed all the writers asking permission but none have answered. I can't blame them, though I am very delicate in the book and stress that all writers do it wrong, that's why the craft of the rewrite is so vital, and that perfection cannot be obtained in the written word, at least in the English language.

 

The examples I want to use are all from online article submission sites that stipulate that you may freely reprint the articles without permission, but only in full, and of course, I only want to use a few sentences.

 

My book is for educational use which is allowed under fair use, but it's also for profit, not in a school setting. The more I reread the fair use clause the more confused I get. Do you have any advice for me?

 

Please forgive me if I've overstepped my bounds with this request, and feel free to tell me to shove off! No matter, have the best day ever!

 

 

 

Dan to Aggie Villanueva

 

The reason you're confused about Fair Use is because it's not finite -- it's based on a concept: that you can cite other works in context of talking ABOUT them. If you talk about someone's photos, you can include the ENTIRE photo. If you want to talk about ALL of someone's photos, then you can include ALL their photos...provided that you talk about each and every one of them. You _can't_ talk about one photo, and include ten photos.

 

As you can see, you can't really put this in writing in finite, absolute numbers.

 

So, with regards to your desire to quote other peoples' writing--- you can quote any part of their works without permission, provided that what you're quoting is relevant to what you're talking about. In fact, you can quote an entire book, provided you talk about each and every paragraph, or "element" or "style", and so long as "all of it" is necessary in order to express the point.

 

If you're going to talk about "bad writing styles" you can copy text that illustrates the point "sufficiently."

 

BTW, you have purchased my books, right?

 

 

 

Aggie to Dan Heller

 

Gulp...no I haven't. And I'm blushing now. You have been so kind and generous. And I really respect your knowledge now that I know you. I'm not really a skeptic, but there are so many people claiming to be able to tell you "HOW" that I don't really buy how to books. But I'm on my way now to purchase your valuable books.

 

I'm not saying at all that I thought you were a scam, or that everyone is a scam. Please don't misunderstand. But money is so tight that it takes some research to know where to spend it. And the truth is I spend so much time researching to find valuable advice to offer in my journal and on my site, there's not much time left for me to study the things I want to study.

 

But again, no excuses. I'm on my way to your site. And again I can't thank you enough for solving my dilemma. May I post your answer to me in the Fair Use thread I started in my forum, with a link to your books, of course? Oh, wait I don't need permission because that's fair use!!!! You are super. Is there anything I can do for you in return? If there is just holler.

 

 

 

Dan to Aggie Villanueva

 

Quote Aggie: May I post your answer to me in the Fair Use thread I started in my forum, with a link to your books, of course? Oh, wait I don't need permission because that's fair use!!!!

 

yay! You're learning!

 

Quote Aggie: You are super. Is there anything I can do for you in return? If there is just holler.

 

buying books from my site is all I ask.

 

 

 

 

Aggie to Dan Heller

 

The order just went through. Thankx again, Dan. You always make me chuckle. I look forward to that same sense of humor in your books. Have the best day ever.

        

I'm Honored to Announce

I am humbled that Dry Heat Photography Gallery asked to represent me in Corrales, NM.  An exclusive gallery, I am among about six artists chosen for representation.
 
I was equally honored to be asked to show in the invitation-only exhibit at

Art Gallery 66, Women and Their Works. Five of my pieces hang there from the artist's reception January 16, 2009, through the winter months.
 
Three of my artworks were accepted into the winter exhibit, Freeze Frame, also at

Art Gallery 66.
 

DiscoveredArtists.com accepted me for representation. They work rather like a personal agent.  There is a small yearly fee, and if they accept you, they run six campaigns per year presenting your work to over 40,000 potential buyers each campaign.
 
2009 has begun with a bang. I sincerely hope the year is treating you to a celebration of life.

Shown below are the pieces hanging in the Freeze Frame Exhibit, and Women & Their Works Exhibit:

Freeze Frame: And Through the Woods

Freeze Frame: Bejeweled B&W

Freeze Frame: Snowclouds B&W

Women & Their Works: Aspen Stand

Women & Their Works: Harvest Garnish

Women & Their Works: I Am All Colors

Women & Their Works: Teimpos Antes Sepia (Times Before)

Women & Their Works: Verdurous Harbor

        

Ray Strassburger shared a little of how he got into photo manipulation in my former newsletter NM Photo Club Newletter. He has a gift for simplifying the process that I'm honored to share with you. And now Ray has kindly offered one of his many tutorials. Enjoy the process!

Basic Blending of Two Images
by Ray Strassburger



Ray Strassburger's gift for amazing blending effects is extraordinary. Check out just a few of his sites and you'll understand what I mean.
BetterPhoto's Basic BetterPholio
Deviant Art
Red Rayven Media
Wizard FX
Santa Fe Ray MySpace

        

Dark Enchantment of the Lands
Black & White Study of Spirit's Handiwork



Available Now

        

I have two really awesome gadgets for you.

 

The BushHawk Shoulder Mount is a must have for wildlife and bird photographers as well as sports enthusiasts.

 

The BushHawk Shoulder Mount really helps to keep the camera steady as you are swiftly changing position to keep up with the action of your current subject in fast moving situations. It looks a bit like a rifle mount at first, but instead of a gun barrel there is a camera lens. It is comfortable to use and does an amazing job of holding the camera steady even when you are holding the camera for a long period of time.   

     

Another benefit to the BushHawk Shoulder Mount: it is half the weight of a tripod. My tripod weighs about 6 pounds, without the camera attached, and the BushHawk Shoulder Mount weights about half of that, at just three pounds. So for hiking and long treks this might be a better choice as it is lighter and more compact.

 

This is not something I own yet (unfortunately), but I have tried it and it is something I will be purchasing … hopefully before the November 8th field trip: The Festival of the Cranes at the Bosque Del Apache.  

 

Since I am talking about hiking and long treks another must-have gadget is a memory card downloader for photography enthusiasts who run out of memory card space on a photo shoot. Now this is way more compact and way more convenient than carrying your laptop with you, if you have one. I know I am always running out of memory card space no matter how many memory cards I bring with me, and I believe this is the answer, at least for me.

 

They are not cheap, but the 500 GB Hyperdrive Colorspace is one I will be purchasing eventually (meaning when I save enough money).

Batteries Hyperdrive Browser

The 500 GB Hyperdrive Colorspace is a color LCD that is equipped with a hard drive that allows you to not only backup but store and view photos/data from memory cards on the go, without the need for computers or external power, according to the website. It can download from eleven different memory cards and has a 3.2 inch High Resolution color LCD screen that displays JPEG & RAW photos. It aslo comes in smaller drives.

500 GB = $599, $1.19 per GB.

80 GB   = $339.00, $4.23 per GB.

120 GB = $379.00, $3.15 per GB.

160 GB = $399.00, $2.49 per GB.

250 GB = $499.00, $1.99 per GB.

320 GB = $539.00, $1.68 per GB.

500 GB = $599, $1.19 per GB.

 

While these gadgets are not cheap, they will come in very handy on those awesome photo shoots. Have fun and hope you get some great shots.