crowdSPRING

Prior to crowdSPRING, I was a lawyer for 13 years - focusing on complex commercial and intellectual property litigation. This is the first in what will be a regular feature in our blog discussing important legal issues that impact every small business.

What is Copyright?

Copyright is a form of legal protection provided to those who create original works. Under the 1976 Copyright Act (United States), the copyright owner has the exclusive right to reproduce, adapt, distribute, publicly perform and publicly display the work. Any or all of these rights can be licensed, sold or donated to another party. One does not need to register a work with the U.S. Copyright Office for it to be automatically protected by copyright law (registration does have benefits - but we won’t be covering those in this article).

Copyright laws around the world can differ in significant ways. Most countries are signatories to various International treaties and agreements governing copyright protection (such as the Berne Copyright Convention). Under the Berne Copyright Convention, if your work is protected by copyright in your own country, then your work is protected by copyright in every other country that signed the Berne Copyright Convention.

What does Copyright protect?

Copyright protects works such as poetry, movies, writing, music, video games, videos, plays, paintings, sheet music, recorded music performances, novels, software code, sculptures, photographs, choreography, and architectural designs.

To be protected by copyright, a work must be “fixed in a tangible medium of expression.” This means that the work must exist in physical form for at least some period of time. A tangible medium includes paper (even a napkin will do!) and digital forms of storage. Additionally, the work must be original. It doesn’t matter if the work is similar to existing works, and copyright law is blind to whether the work is good or bad - so long as the work is original, it is protected by copyright. Finally, a work must be the result of at least some creative effort by the author.

Copyright doesn’t protect an idea, system or process (you would need to obtain patent protection for those). So, for example, if your small business is creating software programs, you would generally be unable to protect under copyright law the algorithms, methods, systems, ideas or functions of software (your code, however, is protected – nobody can sell or distribute your code without your permission).

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Vasili Economopoulos & Associates, PC

I recently sat down with a young, Chicago lawyer who has been practicing commercial and residential real estate law for a few years now and realized his dire need for business cards.  I asked if he tried any other routes to get his cards done before crowdSPRING and got his crowdSPRING experience story to share with all of you.

As a practice of only a few guys, I couldn’t afford to hire a full-time designer, so my first step was asking a tech-savvy friend to help develop business cards.  Using Adobe Illustrator, I reviewed the five options I was given and liked them, but none of them really grabbed me.  I didn’t want them to be the normal, boring attorney business cards, but I didn’t want to be too flashy either.  As my friend felt my indecisiveness in picking one of the five options, we started doing a search for business card design online and stumbled upon crowdSPRING. After looking over the site, I thought it was a great option and moved forward with my project (this will be a link to it).  With 63 entries to choose from, I found the perfect look and am now ready to lay down the law in Chicago.

We also asked Mr. Economopoulos a couple questions on advice he had for other small business owners:

1. What is your small business bible?  As in, what is a must-read every day for all small business owners and employees?

I need to get better about reading the paper everyday and think that’s a pivotal source of information, but lately I’ve been focusing on law books – mostly real estate law books.  It’s definitely important to constantly read up on the industry you’re in.

2. If your best friend told you they wanted to start a business and asked for your best piece of advice, what would it be?

It is a rewarding and challenging experience.  Be prepared for the unexpected but do not be afraid to move forward with your plan to start off on your own.  I am happy with my decision to start my own and would make [the same decision] again.

You might recall that Neflix recently awarded a $1 million prize to a group that improved Netflix’s movie recommendation system by 10%.

Thanks to eesdesigner, one of the designers on crowdSPRING, I learned today about an interesting crowdsourcing competition recently announced by the U.S. Department of Energy - an award of up to $10 million to the first person or group who can create a new energy efficient version of the most popular type of lightbulb used in the U.S. - the 60-watt bulb.

It’s good to see our government leverage crowdsourcing - particularly to solve some very challenging technology problems.

If you want to read more about this competition, I recommend you read: Build a Better Bulb for a $10 Million Prize.

Every day on the crowdSPRING Twitter account and on my own Twitter account, I post links to posts or videos I enjoyed reading or viewing. These posts and videos are about design, startups, entrepreneurship, small business, leadership, social media, marketing, and more! Here are some of the links that I’ve liked and shared this past week!

Research of Lingerie Industry Web Design: Trends and 33 Sexy Examples - http://bit.ly/4oMTIc

How To Identify and Deal With Different Types Of Clients - http://bit.ly/3GBfIx

460 Free High Quality Icons For Web Designers - http://bit.ly/4HTSJ

30 logos that use whitespace well - http://om.ly/MjDD

7 Key Principles That Make A Web Design Look Good - http://bit.ly/3PK3pH

The Ultimate Round-Up Of T-Shirt Design Tutorials - http://bit.ly/2kAPRJ

62 Intelligent And Integrated Logos For Typography Lovers - http://bit.ly/26deXO

How to Create Remarkable 3D Text in Photoshop - http://bit.ly/1R4TlZ

Showcase of Web Design in Russia - http://bit.ly/LxQvU

A Study About User’s Perception Of 40 Screen Typefaces - http://bit.ly/3Ko94m

20 Handy Photoshop Tips For a Faster Workflow- http://bit.ly/3a8WN0

50 Stunning Examples Of Reflective Photography - http://bit.ly/18JR02

The Clients Guide To Web Design - http://bit.ly/UQqt1

20 Beautiful Free Serif Fonts - http://bit.ly/aTnd0

50 of the Best Ever MooTools Plugins and Tutorials - http://bit.ly/26XmTz

50 Photoshopped Advertising Designs - The Wonders and Blunders!! - http://bit.ly/1CmPru

25 Inspiring Examples of Music photography - http://bit.ly/1XQ6Ut

Maurice Sendak on what being an illustrator means - http://bit.ly/1gWH3a

15+ Stunning Fresh Photographic Effects from DevianArt - http://bit.ly/2dSICz

27 Excellent 3D Effect Photoshop Tutorials - http://bit.ly/32QQuZ

Listening Habits of Highly Effective Web Designers - http://is.gd/4qQPv

27 Refreshing Advertising Design Ideas From deviantART: Design Inpiration - http://bit.ly/3w8LU6

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Whenever we are asked what types of projects people can post on crowdSPRING, we typically answer with a snarky “uh, there’s like a hundred different things!?!”

That is, until someone recently said “oh yeah, like what?”

Dumbfounded at this unvarnished display of brazen audacity, we set out to show them. So, we settled in with a case of beer, a sheet of paper and a pen. We were pretty sure there were 100 when we went to bed but, when we woke up, it appears that there was a mistake (or a few too many beers). We’re still asking for a recount but it could take a while. In the mean time, help us spread the word.

We’re giving away three (3!) prizes of $100 each to anyone who helps us spread the word about all the great stuff you can do on crowdSPRING. Oh, and we promise it’ll be $100 - not $99. Maybe…

Here’s all you need to do:

1. Post a short article in your blog or on your website (it doesn’t need to be long - a few sentences will do) with a link to this page: 99 Designs You Can Crowdsource on crowdSPRING (hyperlink below):

http://www.crowdspring.com/99designs-you-can-crowdsource-on-crowdspring

2. Send an email to: spreadthelove@crowdspring.com with a link to your post.

That’s it! And if you’re feeling particularly generous, please hit the DIGG and/or TWEET buttons on that page to spread the love even more.

We’ll end this contest in 14 days (on November 5), pick three winners from everyone who’s posted to a blog and sent us the link, and contact them to arrange for payment of $100 each.

Over the past several weeks, my middle-aged mom (don’t tell her I said that, she still considers herself VERY young) has been talking to me about Twitter, Facebook and blogs.  I kind of laughed it off for awhile until one day she forwarded me a link - and to my surprise is was HER OWN BLOG!  As you can see, it’s funny, clever and well-written.  How did this happen?  How does she even know what blogspot is?  I had no idea she even knew how to turn a computer on.  I was floored!  My mom has her own blog and I don’t?  When and, more importantly, how did she become so tech savvy?

As I go to these social networking seminars and meetings, I’m seeing more and more women and men of my mother’s age attending, soaking in information and even beginning to lead these discussions.  I realized I have been stereotyping the social media arena.  I’ve always looked at that area as the land of the millennials where 140 characters is king and if you don’t put an @ in front of everything you say and update your status every hour you’re so extinct in the communications world.  I thought if I ever hired a community manager/social media guru, it would be some kid right out of college.  Was I wrong?  Are these 50 and 60 somethings giving the Gossip Girl generation a run for their money?  And are they even a better bet because not only are they up to speed on social media, but most of them also have many years of business experience.

What do you think?  Are you a baby boomer who’s kicking butt on Twitter?  Are you a 20-something that’s annoyed with mom commenting on your photos on Facebook?  Are you seeing more and more generations across the board hopping online and participating in social media efforts for their business?  Stay tuned for the blogging mama drama…

There are three things that keep me up at night:

1. Did Juliet really reset the island?
2. What ever happened to Clusters cereal?
3. How should I align things within my web forms?

While not overshadowing options 1 and 2, the form alignment thing is a decision that probably effects a lot more people than the awesome Clusters squirrel commercials. Most websites I’ve ever designed have some kind of form on them, so this is something that constantly comes up.

My options on form design are basically,

• Line everything up on the left:
  
  The issue I have with this is that your form just kinda blends in with the page. A less obvious sense of hierarchy.

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One of the biggest challenges for small businesses who want to market using social media is capacity. crowdSPRING is a small business - there are only 10 people on our team - so we understand this challenge well.

You must decide whether social media makes sense for your small business. There is no universal answer. In this two part series (part 2 will be published in a few days), I’ll offer 10 small business social media marketing tips. For each tip, I’ll discuss the basic strategy - for those who simply want to get their toes wet, and also the advanced strategy - for those who want to spend a bit more time and go a bit deeper in their social media marketing efforts. Where possible, I’ll point you to other excellent resources to help you execute your strategy. The tips are all based on my own experience leveraging social media marketing for crowdSPRING. I recommend only tools I’ve personally used - and third party references I trust.

I suggest you begin by outlining clear goals for your social media marketing efforts and figure out how you’ll measure success. A good place to start is one of my posts from a few months ago - Can Social Media Help My Company?

1. Facebook. Facebook offers exceptional, low cost marketing opportunities for small business. You might be surprised to learn that Facebook has over 300 million users. And while that seems like an outrageous number, Facebook offers small businesses a powerful platform on which to build a presence. If you’re not already active on Facebook, what should you do today?

Basic Strategy: If you haven’t signed up for Facebook yet, you absolutely should do one thing today. Sign up and reserve a name so that nobody else takes your company’s name. Usernames must be unique, and while you might not be ready for Facebook today, you should at least reserve a name to give you the option later. You should do one other thing: search for your competitors and evaluate their Facebook presence. What types of pages have they built? How many fans or “friends” do they have? Spend 15 minutes (per competitor) looking at their posts, photos and/or videos to understand how they’re using Facebook.

Advanced Strategy: You may already have a personal Facebook account, but how do you extend that presence for your business? You have several options. You can register a Business Account - which is designed for a very simple presence on Facebook. There are many limitations on such accounts (read the FAQ here) and you’ll most likely prefer to have a Business Fan Page. A Business Fan Page lets you create a page where customers or fans of your business can register as a “fan”  - expanding the presence of your business (because your updates will also flow to their pages). For an excellent and more in-depth discussion about using Facebook for business, I recommend you read yesterday’s from Duct Tape Marketing - 3 Ways for Businesses to Take Full Advantage of Facebook. You might also want to consider running hyper-local ads on Facebook. For more about hyper local advertising on Facebook, see the second tip in my post from last month: 5 Things Your Small Business Should Do Today To Increase Profits.

2. Twitter. Twitter has grown tremendously over the past year. For some small businesses, it offers an incredible marketing platform. For others - it’s a waste of time. crowdSPRING was fortunate to be included in a recent BusinessWeek profile on 20 ways businessese use Twitter. That article might give you some ideas about how you can leverage Twitter for your business.

Basic Strategy: If you haven’t signed up on Twitter yet, you should sign up today and reserve an account in the name of your business. While you might ultimately tweet in your own name, you’ll want to have the option to tweet from a business account. More importantly, you don’t want your competitors to register your business. Twitter has put together a simple guide to help you understand what Twitter can do for business. Next, you should spend 15-30 minutes on Twitter’s homepage, doing basic searches to become familiar with the type of content available on Twitter. For example, if you are operating a small gift basket business, do some searches for various terms and phrases such as “gift basket”, “gifts”, “gift basket business”, etc. You should also search for the names of your competitors to see whether they’re on Twitter and if they are, how they’re using Twitter. And - don’t forget to search for your small business name - your customers may already be talking about you! Once you become comfortable with the content that’s already available and how your competitors are using Twitter, you can begin thinking about a strategy for how you’ll leverage Twitter for your business.

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You’re a creative professional and you’ve been doing this for years, right? You’ve got gigs and gigs of PSD’s and AI’s and thousands of lines of code on that G4 PowerBook you’ve been using since 2004, yet you’ve never even had the battery die. This thing’s rock solid, right?

But what if, in some Wednesday-morning “ZOMG Glee’s on tonight!!!11one” Twittering accident you drop your laptop and destroy the hard drive? Chances are, most of your work is sitting here on the same hard drive next to your BitTorrented MP3’s, photos of frat guys eating cream corn and your screenplay for that Family Guy Musical. And who can afford to lose all those pics all that work?

Backing up doesn’t have to be hard to do, and it could save you heartache and actual cash some day. Here are four ridiculously simple (and relatively cheap) ways to keep your stuff backed up and your mind sane in case the unthinkable happens*:

Time Machine - Free, Mac-only
Leopard and Snow Leopard have a backup program built into their operating systems, Time Machine. Simply put, you hook up your external drive (or point it to a network drive) and tell Time Machine to back up your stuff. Time Machine will back up your changed files every hour, in the background, automatically. It even keeps a history of your files so you can roll-back to previous states (what? That client changed their mind again?) or even un-delete a file. Time Machine’s UI makes getting your files back easy-peasy. Upside: it’s ridiculously easy to setup and run. Downsides: Not only is is Mac-only (obviously), but you’ll need a ridiculously huge external hard drive to keep your extended backups on.

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Is it just me, or are receipts getting out of hand?  I bought one item (one!) at the store the other day and the receipt is almost 3 FEET long.  No kidding.

I’d be curious to hear if this is just a US phenomenon or a worldwide epidemic…