The Death of Copyright by Guest Blogger Chris Clark

Today my readers I’d like to feature a guest post by a hobby games veteran. Chris Clark from Inner City Games Designs gives us his thoughts on copyright. His thoughts were spawned by a very intense discussion regarding the Google class action settlement with the Author’s Guild. If you’re not aware of the lawsuit and subsequent settlement, you’ll want to read The Author’s Guild Google Settlement Resources and how it might affect you.

I’m an industry dinosaur. Inner City Games Designs (ICGD) is approaching its 30th year in business (est.1982, first pubbed product actually in 1981 – it was a smaller, kinder industry then). I frankly have 107 published IPs that could be in serious jeopardy if the courts allow this to happen. I’m working on two books and four games for the next quarter as well.

I do a LOT of things to earn a living, and always have.

I can build a car from scratch.

I can build a house from scratch.

I can build furniture from scratch.

I was a restaurant chef for 7 years.

I was a logistics (import/export) guru for 16 years (although I am now sadly out of date).

WHY do I write stories and games to make my living? Because, if I do that job well, that particular body of work should outlive me. The effect that said work will have on its intended audience will extend beyond the brief span of years with which I have been gifted. In short… those ideas, those IPs, are my legacy (not Google’s legacy, not some programmer’s legacy).
Read More…

January 8, 2009
Permalink ∞

Have you Googled your Own Name Lately?

One of the things that I try to find for almost every review, blog post and article I write, is to find the elusive “source.” From artists to songwriters and musicians, I want to link to whomever it is I am referring to in the most authoritative way possible. By “authoritative,” I mean that I want your “official” site, not a fansite or a MySpace page if at all possible. You’d be surprised what Google turns up.

After two weeks of actively seeking out these resources more frequently than I have in the past, I can completely understand why Wikipedia reigns as “the” resource. From professionals that don’t even have their own website to my inability to find the person’s “contact” page, I’ve been more than a bit frustrated in my quest to promote other people’s work. It’s no wonder why fansites for celebrities big and small rank (and subsequently profit) so well for their names.
Read More…

October 28, 2008
Permalink ∞

Want to Change the World? Well, Maybe you Can!

Google is celebrating its 10th anniversary by sponsoring a contest, but not just any old contest. Dubbed “10th to the 100th,” Google will fund big ideas that will either help lots of people or change the world.

Change the World with Google

I have to say — I LOVE THIS IDEA on several, different levels. From a marketing perspective? It sends a message that says “Google is the good guy.” And I believe them. Google. The anti-corporation corporation.

Deadline for submissions is October 20th, 2008. If you don’t have an idea right away, don’t worry! Google has a list of questions and criteria to help get your creativity (and your ingenuity) going.

Submit Your Idea to Change the World to Google

Then, after you think up how you can help do something wonderful for the world — how about going out of your way to do something nice for an acquaintance or a total stranger? Per Google’s reasoning behind the project, “In other words, helping helps everybody, helper and helped alike.”

Have a fantastic day!

September 25, 2008
Permalink ∞

New Help Support Available for Google Analytics and Urchin Code Migration

In June, I had attended the training for Google Analytics through my previous employer. This two day training, hosted by ROI Revolution featured everything from how to set up Google Analytics to track pay-per-click (PPC) advertising to funnels and eCommerce data. I’ve been a big fan of watching the trends of web analytics for a while now, following web analytics gurus like Avinash Kaushik and Matt Bailey from SiteLogic when I can.

On Wednesday, Google announced that they are offering a more comprehensive way to get help customizing Google Analytics code. Decoding Google Analytics talks about how users want more “fine-grained control” over their analytics package, and points to this series of Google Analytics documents on Google Code to help GA users meet their needs.

Get Help on Migrating from urchin.js to the “New” Javascript-based GA Code

One of the needs Google is referring to is to help users migrate from the old Google Analytics code (urchin.js) to the new GA code (ga.js). While there is the possibility that some of your historic data may be lost during this process, keep in mind that there is also a difference in the way that the two codes function. Additionally, Google will not support the Urchin Code (also known as the legacy code) indefinitely, so it might be a good idea to set up a “sandbox” (i.e. another GA profile) and migrate your code into a test environment sooner rather than later.

In January, ROI Revolution asked, Should you join the Migration? The article cites that Google would only support the legacy GA code for approximately 12 to 18 months. In our June training, they had indicated in the training that Google would potentially phase out support for the urchin.js code as early as late fall.

If you’re a site or a blog that experiences more traffic during the holidays, you may want to consider double-checking your Google Analytics code and reading up on the Google Code documentation. Once seasonality comes into play, it can be increasingly difficult to troubleshoot nuances or trends in Google Analytics’ reporting, because there is an additional layer of traffic to sift through that isn’t there typically.

Without the ability for Google to support the urchin.js code, it’s still pretty unclear to me how that might affect legacy users who have years worth of data in their account. The idea, though, is pretty daunting nonetheless and I encourage you to post if you have insight to share.

Read the Google Analytics Tracking Code Migration Guide

I’d also like to point out that I highly recommend downloading the main reports on a monthly basis to a pdf format, even though you’re only able to download the first 500 rows of data. Since the backup for your Google Analytics package is off-site, you don’t have control over the “back end” of your data and you’re relying on Google for precision and data backups. Having a pdf download of month-to-month overviews can offer you a little sanity and a way to ensure that the data you’re using is relative and accurate in your reports.

September 12, 2008
Permalink ∞

How Search Engine Technology is Catching Plagiarists

Plagiarism, the very word strikes fear into the hearts of writers everywhere, forcing them to clutch their precious stories to their chests and never show them to a single, living soul. In ye olde days, there was no Google, no MSN, no Yahoo! There were simply two, little gems called “ethics” and “copyright.”

If you were lucky enough to drill down to the bottom of the ethics mine, you consciously knew that you’d be influenced by other writers–but you would expect Thor’s hammer to fall down on your head should you rip one of them off and sell a story using their words. Copyright, on the other hand, is that piece of fool’s gold that everyone buys but no one knows what to do with, because they forget that once you have it–you have to protect it or you lose it.

Enter the internet era with its torrent of words and images. Ever copy an image that you’ve searched for? Used it in a blog post? Did you check to see whether or not you legally could? What about an article? Have you ever used one or two sentences in an assignment because you were rushed and didn’t bother rewriting them?

Personally, I don’t believe that writers are malicious by nature, but I do think that we’ve forgotten to hunt for the copyright, to remember what rights it gives us, because there is so much material out there on the web. Well? I’m certainly not the first to worry about such a thing, nor will I be the last. Fortunately, people a heck of a lot smarter than me found a way to catch plagiarists using search engine technology.
Read More…

August 13, 2008
Permalink ∞
Next Posts




Looking for Monica’s books and games that are still in print? Visit Monica Valentinelli on Amazon’s Author Central or a bookstore near you.

Archives

Back to Top