Internet attorney blog discussing cyber law
Want to learn how to power up your blog? John Pozadzides is talking to us at WordCamp 2008 as I post this. Fortunately , you won’t have to wait to get my notes to decipher what he has to say. John has just posted to his blog the key content he’s discussing right now. You can find it at the following link.
If you’re serious about blogging, you’ll read John’s post and apply his recommendations.
There’s an organization called the U.S. Copyright Registry (USCR) that is sending out unsolicited commercial e-mails (spam) that looks like the messages come from the U.S. federal government. The e-mails contain repeated references to copyright law and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (which handles patents and trademarks but not copyrights). As a Web lawyer, this type of scam sickens me because of how many good people are duped by it.
It appears that USCR has harvested contact information for domain name registrants from the WHOIS registry. The information is plugged into the official-looking notice to add credibility to the sales pitch.
I have nothing against a company earning a buck or even clever copywriting. However, I do object to spam, particularly when it is designed to fool Internet business owners into thinking they should pay money to this company as part of complying with U.S. law as the company goes out of its way to make itself look like a government agency in its sales pitch.
Here’s a sample e-mail from USCR. Read it for yourself and warn others. If you’ve been deceived by them, have your Web lawyer handle it.
For information on how to protect your website’s content using U.S. copyright law, consult with your Internet lawyer to address specific legal issues. If you want to do-it-yourself, go to the U.S. Copyright Office’s website and learn more.
To your success!
-Mike the Web lawyer
After more than 15 years of providing an online marketing discussion forum, Internet marketer Tony Blake is launching a Web 2.0 version of his Entrepreneurial Success Forum packed with information that you can use to grow your Internet businesses. Tony’s site is one of the three that I check out on a regular basis because of the valuable content you can find from experienced online marketers.
Tony’s been around direct marketing since before Al Gore invented the Internet. If you want an example of some of his older work, check out this video.
This is NOT a sales pitch. Registration at the new site is free.
You’ll find how-to videos and a bunch of other stuff there worth viewing. Tony’s put together a great team of marketing experts covering virtually every topic you need information about when doing business online.
FYI – I’ll be the resident Internet law expert on Blake’s new forum. After you’ve registered, be sure to scroll down to the legal section and check it out. There’s links to some cool resources there plus an interesting discussion on how you can approach a cyber squatter and reduce the price for a domain name that you want.
Note that Tony is giving away more content than you’ll find in many fee-based membership sites. Take advantage of it and grow your business.
Just click this link check out the new site any time after 12 p.m. Pacific/3 p.m. Eastern today when it launches.