Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Making Money With Youtube

So, why did this particular ad hit a nerve with the online audience, and what was Target really going for?



I think that the internet DIY set reacted to making fun of a costume that fits their ethos perfectly. Last halloween, for example, one DIY dad became a YouTube hit when he posted an awesome homemade Iron Man costume he made for his kid. Is Target's message really that the kid would have been better off wearing a storebought version? If so, citizens of the internet (and makers in particular) are right to be a little ticked off.



As for the non-DIYers, I think that what made them upset was the way Target tried to manipulate kids by playing the dual role of the bully who makes fun of your costume and the cool parent who just wants to help you fit in, unlike your weird, lame, Iron-Man-suit-building mom.



That doesn't work, though, because the parents who will be paying for the costumes are the ones who teach their kids that bullying and peer pressure are wrong, and that creativity is good. The bigger, more popular kid who mocks your costume is the bad guy in every cartoon and after-school special. Why would any kid root for him? And why would parents root against their own nostalgia for (sometimes embarrassing) homemade Halloween outfits? (And if this ad was made to be seen by kids, it sure was shot poorly.)



That leads me to a distasteful theory about who Target was, well, targeting with this commercial. It's not aimed at internet geeks with the time, money and technical skills to make amazing Iron Man costumes for their kids. They aren't going to go to Target for a costume anyway. It's aimed at parents who don't have that time, money or expertise, and who don't want their kids to be singled out as weird or poor. Did Target pick a black family for the ad because they think African-American parents fit that profile? That would be the grossest type of marketing, but I think it's possible.



It doesn't matter if you can't make (or afford to make) your kid a costume, though: the ad still fails because the homemade costume it shows is cool. That mom did a great job with it, and clearly put in some time and effort, so there's nothing for her kid to be embarrassed about. If Target wanted to invoke shame and peer-pressure to make parents feel self-conscious about their income or costume-making skills, they should have at least shown a costume that was actually bad.


Comments


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  1. Yep! Twitter is gonna make a fortune off your drunken night at Chili's



     Posted by: ZuDfunck |
    October 18, 2010 1:45 PM




















  2. Let's see. . . you use a free service and then want them to promote your restricted material and give you the profits. . . hmmm... yeah, I would like that deal also.



    This really sounds like much to do about nothing. Let me see, I have a photo that I want to sell at some point but show it off on twitter. How can I do that without loss of my property? Well, maybe make a low res thumb of your image and upload that with slight modifications, like a watermark, then the original image is still yours to do with as you please, isn't it?



    I don't know but this sounds a bit ridiculous. How many problems would arise if such services allowed everyone to copyright everything they submit? Well, when you think of it it's really funny. . . people complain about every company suing every other company over patents and how those sofware patents shouldn't be allowed yada, yada, but WAIT!!! when it comes to my precious picture that I'm going to upload via a free service. . . I WANT IT PROTECTED!



    Posted by: gpeasy |
    October 18, 2010 1:55 PM




















  3. This article, and all of the other articles that this stemmed from, contains a fundamental misunderstanding about the definition of "Content" in the context of Twitter. Twitter's "Content" is the 140 characters and any metadata stored and served by Twitter. Anything that requires a URL to access (i.e. a link shared on Twitter) is not considered "Content" in the context of Twitter's ToS (from http://twitter.com/tos "any information, text, graphics, or other materials uploaded, downloaded or appearing on the Services (collectively referred to as 'Content')").



    This may become an issue if Twitter were to—say for example—buy TwitPic or create their own Photo Sharing tool. And yes, there is potential legal concern with the way that their Media Pane system works in the #newtwitter UI design, as it does state "appearing on" but for their license to apply to the content of their Media Pane, it would require that the license from the service allowing their content to be displayed to be sub-licensed. Prior to the Media Pane in #newtwitter, I would have said this is a complete non-issue. Now, it's just something to "watch" and, if you're really worried about it, don't use services that work in the Media Pane.



    tl;dr: This article is vastly misleading. "Content" is the text in a tweet and anything you upload directly to a Twitter website, not to a third-party service or your own servers.



    You should know better, RWW.



     Posted by: Michael Owens |
    October 18, 2010 1:57 PM




















  4. This is a significant development for professionals, and it's worth noting to the general public. I wonder how often the people at Twitter might acutally take advantage of this...? The web seems to get more "open" every day, something we all need to be aware of.



    Posted by: David Perdew |
    October 18, 2010 1:57 PM




















  5. This is about lawyers and their constant need to prove value to their clients (whom they charge absurd hourly rates to).



    A number of lawyers take this approach (non-exclusive license; right to reproduce, sub-license, etc.). Other, more reasonable lawyers take more of the BasecampHQ approach to managing data on behalf of someone (albeit, under paid accounts).



    If Twitter ever tried to resell a photo that was uploaded, they would (most likely) run afoul of a range of Copyright Laws while they try to uphold their T&C which are one-sided and were never reviewed by their User's attorney's in a fair and reasonable negotiation. Additionally, if a Minor uploads photos, without parental consent, good luck appropriating those under their T&C.



    If Twitter had strong management, who had more experience, they'd fire the lawyer who wrote the T&C and say, "thanks, bye." Then, go find an attorney who's more forward thinking.



    Posted by: Bob |
    October 18, 2010 2:04 PM




















  6. I agree with @MichaelOwens on this, mostly a non-issue. From the TOS,



    "...information, text, graphics, or other materials uploaded, downloaded or appearing on the Services (collectively referred to as “Content”)."



    So it looks like photos you upload to Twitter (your profile pic and background image) can be used by them, but your linked photos are not uploaded to Twitter so they don't count as "Content" in the TOS.



    The only gray area I see is photos appearing in the media pane, since the definition of content includes "appearing on the Services," so avoid using twitpic and the like and there is no issue.



    tl;dr +1 to @michaelowens' point



    Posted by: aaron.pk |
    October 18, 2010 2:27 PM




















  7. So, if my photo is hosted at my paid Flickr account and it's labeled "All Rights Reserved" but I send a link to my photo to Twitter... who owns it now?



    Posted by: Erin |
    October 18, 2010 2:32 PM




















  8. Seriously? This is a surprise to anyone? People share pictures on Twitter (and third party pic services) because they want the world to see it and SHARE it. Professional photos aren't posting their masterpieces on TwitPic.



    Posted by: Russ Hill |
    October 18, 2010 2:39 PM




















  9. Michael Owens said much what I came to say so I won't repeat him.



    Based on the false logic of this article, you are implying that if I share a link to a NY Times article, Twitter can use the content from that article to their hearts content. Obviously false.



    Anyone can put anything they want into a TOS but that doesn't mean its legal.



    Posted by: Jmartens |
    October 18, 2010 2:43 PM




















  10. I am not an expert on this topic, but I believe companies (like Twitter) need to have clauses like this in the TOS to protect themselves from copyright violations. They need the freedom to copy, modify, and reproduce contributed content as well as the right to move it around in on their servers. Technically wouldn't Twitter be violating copyright if the original author didn't approve of how their content was being used, displayed, or modified by Twitter? I was given this notion from different company's rep that deals with online content distribution. Although, the way companies word their TOS make many people worry about losing control of there IP.





    Posted by: bobsbag |
    October 18, 2010 3:32 PM




















  11. I don't believe this is as casual as some of the comments indicate; nor, is the Post so off-track.



    Twitter are acquiring both photo and video developers to bring this all in-house.



    To @bobsbag's point -- yes, Twitter need some non-exclusive publication right, within the boundaries of their service (even extended to the future to some degree); or, even a self-extending license based on a User not deleting files. What Twitter do NOT require is an unrestricted License coupled with the ability to sell, transfer or in any manner profit from the direct licensing of content (they can sell ad space around it and use it for promotional purposes).



    Now, yes, anyone would be a fool to post anything on nearly any "free" service out there if they intend to use it commercially themselves. But, I'd look to Flickr's T&C for a better model than what Twitter provide. There are a slew of alternatives out there, only a high paid lawyer will tell you they "must have these draconian T&C."



    Posted by: bob r. |
    October 18, 2010 5:33 PM




















  12. Obviously false.



    Anyone can put anything they want into a TOS but that doesn't mean its lega



    Posted by: ogame |
    October 18, 2010 8:30 PM




















  13. Sorry but their is no way that this can be legit or enforced. adding a URL to a permalink that contains an embedded image and/or download links to higher quality versions of that image (or other media) does not give Twitter the rights defined in the ToS. Even if this were the legal intentions by Twitter's lawyers and business executives, I have to assume that this would not hold up in a court of law... that is if the terms are not properly modified before a case were to ever get that far.



    As for the issue of displaying media on the #NewTwitter Right Side Column used for presenting supplemental meta data, media and eventually ads..... This is not really an issue since only official content partners can use this real estate and those services ToS already apply. I have been waiting for over a month (contacted contentpartnerships@twitter.com) to learn more about the content embedding situation. I'd assume that their would be a whitelisting process and then twitter would utilize common tech to fetch and display media from approved domains (oembed, link rel & meta tags). Ideally, Twitter would also pull in License info when specified and content creators would use preview/watermarked versions of their media for display inside Twitter.com while reserving the high quality media as separate embeds/links on the URL/page.



     Posted by: sull |
    October 18, 2010 9:19 PM




















  14. The problem is people don't try to understand legalise, and try to understand the tech terms for the same. Now lets look at the part of the ToS he has quoted.



    use, copy(copy from photo sites to display them within twitter, pic may be copied to cache), reproduce(retweet), process, modify and adapt (reduce 2mb pic to may be 100kb before displaying it), publish (just in case someone decides to print a twitterfeed from a browser?), transmit (send across the internetz), display (duh!) and distribute such Content (retweet!)





    "You agree that this license includes the right for Twitter to make such Content available to other companies, organizations or individuals who partner with Twitter for the syndication, broadcast, distribution or publication of such Content on other media and services, subject to our terms and conditions for such Content use"

    You know, people use Twitter API and I think that's what they are talking about here. So please stop freaking out, really!

    If there's a newsworthy pic you have taken, the agencies will contact you and not twitter. Do they really think Twitter would employ somebody to handle silly requests from media like this? Really?



    Posted by: | Balu | |
    October 19, 2010 12:08 AM




















  15. Non-issue.



    This is a standard language to protect company from people who would upload stuff onto a content distribution service and then sue the same service for copyright infringement. Check Yahoo's, for example:



    "With respect to Content you submit or make available for inclusion on publicly accessible areas of Yahoo! Groups, the license to use, distribute, reproduce, modify, adapt, publicly perform and publicly display such Content on the Yahoo! Services solely for the purposes of providing and promoting the specific Yahoo! Group to which such Content was submitted or made available."



    Posted by: twitterer |
    October 19, 2010 12:30 AM




















  16. Well, Twitter can use the photos, and they can even sell them further. So if they appear on magazine covers, tough luck.



    However, for use in advertisements, pictures of people need a model release. So there are limits to what the images can be used for. But in general, yes. Twitter (and Facebook) can do pretty much what they want or dare with the content they are sent.



    Most of the legalese is there to make the actual service possible, but eg. Twitters ToS goes beyond that.



     Posted by: Tarmo Toikkanen |
    October 19, 2010 12:39 AM




















  17. This might be beneficial for twitter but I don't think that general public would like this. This seems disturbing to any pro photographers who tweet their photographs.



    Posted by: street bike accessories |
    October 19, 2010 2:18 AM




















  18. Seriously now, if you share your photos via Twitter or any other social media sites, you lose its rights exclusively and can be picked up by anyone and use it anywhere. If you have photos you don’t want to be used all over the internet, don’t share it or publish it anywhere. Once it is published, it’s gone unless you have stated on your own website against using the photos for other purposes other than yours.



    Posted by: Steve Jobs |
    October 19, 2010 9:18 AM




















  19. This is clearly a load of nonsense. Michael Owens above has debunked this misleading information nicely but I'll add some food for thought: if an article from the New York Times appears in the Twitter media pane can Twitter re-publish and sell that article? I think not. Nor do they "own" your photo. Photofocus did not "consult it's lawyers," Scott Bourne asked his buddy Larry to scan the TOS. Larry is obviously not an entertainment lawyer and knows little about content licensing. This scare mongering was well deconstructed by petapixel dot com yesterday, It's sad that this noise is still floating around and considered legitamate information.



     Posted by: Daniel K. Berman |
    October 19, 2010 9:39 AM




















  20. These are all great comments, and I'm glad to see people unpack this item -- though it's interesting to see where you all agree and disagree. The critiques of our coverage are compelling and much appreciated, though it's important to see that question mark in the title. I put it there for a reason.



    I don't think Twitter is "evil" nor do I think that the wildest interpretation of what can be enforced (or not) with the ToS changes are necessarily true. What is important is that a photo blog had consulted their lawyers about it. And lots of people (still) have questions about it. The coverage is the conversation, and we can all only weigh in until our questions are answered. PhotoFocus' means of getting these questions answered was to ask their counsel. And that's significant.



     Posted by: Violet Blue |
    October 19, 2010 4:10 PM




















  21. It we view this to the point of twitter then it's quite beneficial for them, they can do what they want with other photos but I don't think that public would like this.



    Posted by: flash banner |
    October 19, 2010 11:06 PM




















  22. My only worry is people read articles like this by looking at the headline and a few paragraphs only. The notion then starts rumours that twitter owns you and your data and your pictures/video and we will soon have a sequel to the movie social network.



    I see you suggest you don't think twitter is "evil" but I can guarantee you most eyeballs on this page will walk away thinking exactly that.



    A



    Posted by: ashul |
    October 20, 2010 2:56 AM




















  23. I agree with @MichaelOwens comments.

    Thanks for the article and interesting commnets.



    Posted by: Penny |
    October 20, 2010 11:50 AM




















  24. How is this news? I remember the TOS for facebook saying the exact same thing. Yes, I read the TOS.



    Posted by: Dan |
    October 21, 2010 10:32 AM




















  25. I should have looked at the author of the original post. Much ado about mostly nothing. Twitter may eventually start a hosting site for pics and will get rights to things posted there but, as others have noted, just because a ToS says something doesn't mean they can actually get away with it. And I don't think Twitter is evil (certainly not even close to the evil that is Facebook), if I did then I'd have stopped using it long ago.



     Posted by: Erik O |
    October 21, 2010 10:43 AM




















  26. Not sure what everyone is surprised about. Most major social networking or blogging platform gain a royalty free right to your photos if you post them. For example, Tumblr, Posterous, etc all gain a royalty free right to any photos you post. The lesson? Don't post photos on the internet unless you are okay with people or companies using them for free. I am surprised people get upset about this, it's 2010 and I thought we all knew this by now.



    Posted by: Mike |
    October 21, 2010 5:10 PM




















  27. I dont find this a big shocker - read the tos of most companies and you find this type of proviso. Usually its just ot cover themselves and to provide them with the final word if they wanted to push it - in reality, how many photos would this affect? On the bright side, I could use with some extra exposure so it could work out good for some photogs!

    Would it just be the rights to the low res, watermarked image?



    Posted by: Grant Stringer |
    October 22, 2010 1:44 AM




















  28. The moment you upload and shared your photos in twitter you have an idea already that it might be use by the third party and not only by you. It's obvious I guess not only in twitter but in other social sites that your photo for that matter when you made public any one can have access on it and can use it. The best way to alter that is not to share at all or try to upload something you know it's okay to let go. I don't give a time to see their provision because it's really obvious though.



    Posted by: daniellehudges |
    October 23, 2010 12:41 AM























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    So, why did this particular ad hit a nerve with the online audience, and what was Target really going for?



    I think that the internet DIY set reacted to making fun of a costume that fits their ethos perfectly. Last halloween, for example, one DIY dad became a YouTube hit when he posted an awesome homemade Iron Man costume he made for his kid. Is Target's message really that the kid would have been better off wearing a storebought version? If so, citizens of the internet (and makers in particular) are right to be a little ticked off.



    As for the non-DIYers, I think that what made them upset was the way Target tried to manipulate kids by playing the dual role of the bully who makes fun of your costume and the cool parent who just wants to help you fit in, unlike your weird, lame, Iron-Man-suit-building mom.



    That doesn't work, though, because the parents who will be paying for the costumes are the ones who teach their kids that bullying and peer pressure are wrong, and that creativity is good. The bigger, more popular kid who mocks your costume is the bad guy in every cartoon and after-school special. Why would any kid root for him? And why would parents root against their own nostalgia for (sometimes embarrassing) homemade Halloween outfits? (And if this ad was made to be seen by kids, it sure was shot poorly.)



    That leads me to a distasteful theory about who Target was, well, targeting with this commercial. It's not aimed at internet geeks with the time, money and technical skills to make amazing Iron Man costumes for their kids. They aren't going to go to Target for a costume anyway. It's aimed at parents who don't have that time, money or expertise, and who don't want their kids to be singled out as weird or poor. Did Target pick a black family for the ad because they think African-American parents fit that profile? That would be the grossest type of marketing, but I think it's possible.



    It doesn't matter if you can't make (or afford to make) your kid a costume, though: the ad still fails because the homemade costume it shows is cool. That mom did a great job with it, and clearly put in some time and effort, so there's nothing for her kid to be embarrassed about. If Target wanted to invoke shame and peer-pressure to make parents feel self-conscious about their income or costume-making skills, they should have at least shown a costume that was actually bad.


    Comments


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    1. Yep! Twitter is gonna make a fortune off your drunken night at Chili's



       Posted by: ZuDfunck |
      October 18, 2010 1:45 PM




















    2. Let's see. . . you use a free service and then want them to promote your restricted material and give you the profits. . . hmmm... yeah, I would like that deal also.



      This really sounds like much to do about nothing. Let me see, I have a photo that I want to sell at some point but show it off on twitter. How can I do that without loss of my property? Well, maybe make a low res thumb of your image and upload that with slight modifications, like a watermark, then the original image is still yours to do with as you please, isn't it?



      I don't know but this sounds a bit ridiculous. How many problems would arise if such services allowed everyone to copyright everything they submit? Well, when you think of it it's really funny. . . people complain about every company suing every other company over patents and how those sofware patents shouldn't be allowed yada, yada, but WAIT!!! when it comes to my precious picture that I'm going to upload via a free service. . . I WANT IT PROTECTED!



      Posted by: gpeasy |
      October 18, 2010 1:55 PM




















    3. This article, and all of the other articles that this stemmed from, contains a fundamental misunderstanding about the definition of "Content" in the context of Twitter. Twitter's "Content" is the 140 characters and any metadata stored and served by Twitter. Anything that requires a URL to access (i.e. a link shared on Twitter) is not considered "Content" in the context of Twitter's ToS (from http://twitter.com/tos "any information, text, graphics, or other materials uploaded, downloaded or appearing on the Services (collectively referred to as 'Content')").



      This may become an issue if Twitter were to—say for example—buy TwitPic or create their own Photo Sharing tool. And yes, there is potential legal concern with the way that their Media Pane system works in the #newtwitter UI design, as it does state "appearing on" but for their license to apply to the content of their Media Pane, it would require that the license from the service allowing their content to be displayed to be sub-licensed. Prior to the Media Pane in #newtwitter, I would have said this is a complete non-issue. Now, it's just something to "watch" and, if you're really worried about it, don't use services that work in the Media Pane.



      tl;dr: This article is vastly misleading. "Content" is the text in a tweet and anything you upload directly to a Twitter website, not to a third-party service or your own servers.



      You should know better, RWW.



       Posted by: Michael Owens |
      October 18, 2010 1:57 PM




















    4. This is a significant development for professionals, and it's worth noting to the general public. I wonder how often the people at Twitter might acutally take advantage of this...? The web seems to get more "open" every day, something we all need to be aware of.



      Posted by: David Perdew |
      October 18, 2010 1:57 PM




















    5. This is about lawyers and their constant need to prove value to their clients (whom they charge absurd hourly rates to).



      A number of lawyers take this approach (non-exclusive license; right to reproduce, sub-license, etc.). Other, more reasonable lawyers take more of the BasecampHQ approach to managing data on behalf of someone (albeit, under paid accounts).



      If Twitter ever tried to resell a photo that was uploaded, they would (most likely) run afoul of a range of Copyright Laws while they try to uphold their T&C which are one-sided and were never reviewed by their User's attorney's in a fair and reasonable negotiation. Additionally, if a Minor uploads photos, without parental consent, good luck appropriating those under their T&C.



      If Twitter had strong management, who had more experience, they'd fire the lawyer who wrote the T&C and say, "thanks, bye." Then, go find an attorney who's more forward thinking.



      Posted by: Bob |
      October 18, 2010 2:04 PM




















    6. I agree with @MichaelOwens on this, mostly a non-issue. From the TOS,



      "...information, text, graphics, or other materials uploaded, downloaded or appearing on the Services (collectively referred to as “Content”)."



      So it looks like photos you upload to Twitter (your profile pic and background image) can be used by them, but your linked photos are not uploaded to Twitter so they don't count as "Content" in the TOS.



      The only gray area I see is photos appearing in the media pane, since the definition of content includes "appearing on the Services," so avoid using twitpic and the like and there is no issue.



      tl;dr +1 to @michaelowens' point



      Posted by: aaron.pk |
      October 18, 2010 2:27 PM




















    7. So, if my photo is hosted at my paid Flickr account and it's labeled "All Rights Reserved" but I send a link to my photo to Twitter... who owns it now?



      Posted by: Erin |
      October 18, 2010 2:32 PM




















    8. Seriously? This is a surprise to anyone? People share pictures on Twitter (and third party pic services) because they want the world to see it and SHARE it. Professional photos aren't posting their masterpieces on TwitPic.



      Posted by: Russ Hill |
      October 18, 2010 2:39 PM




















    9. Michael Owens said much what I came to say so I won't repeat him.



      Based on the false logic of this article, you are implying that if I share a link to a NY Times article, Twitter can use the content from that article to their hearts content. Obviously false.



      Anyone can put anything they want into a TOS but that doesn't mean its legal.



      Posted by: Jmartens |
      October 18, 2010 2:43 PM




















    10. I am not an expert on this topic, but I believe companies (like Twitter) need to have clauses like this in the TOS to protect themselves from copyright violations. They need the freedom to copy, modify, and reproduce contributed content as well as the right to move it around in on their servers. Technically wouldn't Twitter be violating copyright if the original author didn't approve of how their content was being used, displayed, or modified by Twitter? I was given this notion from different company's rep that deals with online content distribution. Although, the way companies word their TOS make many people worry about losing control of there IP.





      Posted by: bobsbag |
      October 18, 2010 3:32 PM




















    11. I don't believe this is as casual as some of the comments indicate; nor, is the Post so off-track.



      Twitter are acquiring both photo and video developers to bring this all in-house.



      To @bobsbag's point -- yes, Twitter need some non-exclusive publication right, within the boundaries of their service (even extended to the future to some degree); or, even a self-extending license based on a User not deleting files. What Twitter do NOT require is an unrestricted License coupled with the ability to sell, transfer or in any manner profit from the direct licensing of content (they can sell ad space around it and use it for promotional purposes).



      Now, yes, anyone would be a fool to post anything on nearly any "free" service out there if they intend to use it commercially themselves. But, I'd look to Flickr's T&C for a better model than what Twitter provide. There are a slew of alternatives out there, only a high paid lawyer will tell you they "must have these draconian T&C."



      Posted by: bob r. |
      October 18, 2010 5:33 PM




















    12. Obviously false.



      Anyone can put anything they want into a TOS but that doesn't mean its lega



      Posted by: ogame |
      October 18, 2010 8:30 PM




















    13. Sorry but their is no way that this can be legit or enforced. adding a URL to a permalink that contains an embedded image and/or download links to higher quality versions of that image (or other media) does not give Twitter the rights defined in the ToS. Even if this were the legal intentions by Twitter's lawyers and business executives, I have to assume that this would not hold up in a court of law... that is if the terms are not properly modified before a case were to ever get that far.



      As for the issue of displaying media on the #NewTwitter Right Side Column used for presenting supplemental meta data, media and eventually ads..... This is not really an issue since only official content partners can use this real estate and those services ToS already apply. I have been waiting for over a month (contacted contentpartnerships@twitter.com) to learn more about the content embedding situation. I'd assume that their would be a whitelisting process and then twitter would utilize common tech to fetch and display media from approved domains (oembed, link rel & meta tags). Ideally, Twitter would also pull in License info when specified and content creators would use preview/watermarked versions of their media for display inside Twitter.com while reserving the high quality media as separate embeds/links on the URL/page.



       Posted by: sull |
      October 18, 2010 9:19 PM




















    14. The problem is people don't try to understand legalise, and try to understand the tech terms for the same. Now lets look at the part of the ToS he has quoted.



      use, copy(copy from photo sites to display them within twitter, pic may be copied to cache), reproduce(retweet), process, modify and adapt (reduce 2mb pic to may be 100kb before displaying it), publish (just in case someone decides to print a twitterfeed from a browser?), transmit (send across the internetz), display (duh!) and distribute such Content (retweet!)





      "You agree that this license includes the right for Twitter to make such Content available to other companies, organizations or individuals who partner with Twitter for the syndication, broadcast, distribution or publication of such Content on other media and services, subject to our terms and conditions for such Content use"

      You know, people use Twitter API and I think that's what they are talking about here. So please stop freaking out, really!

      If there's a newsworthy pic you have taken, the agencies will contact you and not twitter. Do they really think Twitter would employ somebody to handle silly requests from media like this? Really?



      Posted by: | Balu | |
      October 19, 2010 12:08 AM




















    15. Non-issue.



      This is a standard language to protect company from people who would upload stuff onto a content distribution service and then sue the same service for copyright infringement. Check Yahoo's, for example:



      "With respect to Content you submit or make available for inclusion on publicly accessible areas of Yahoo! Groups, the license to use, distribute, reproduce, modify, adapt, publicly perform and publicly display such Content on the Yahoo! Services solely for the purposes of providing and promoting the specific Yahoo! Group to which such Content was submitted or made available."



      Posted by: twitterer |
      October 19, 2010 12:30 AM




















    16. Well, Twitter can use the photos, and they can even sell them further. So if they appear on magazine covers, tough luck.



      However, for use in advertisements, pictures of people need a model release. So there are limits to what the images can be used for. But in general, yes. Twitter (and Facebook) can do pretty much what they want or dare with the content they are sent.



      Most of the legalese is there to make the actual service possible, but eg. Twitters ToS goes beyond that.



       Posted by: Tarmo Toikkanen |
      October 19, 2010 12:39 AM




















    17. This might be beneficial for twitter but I don't think that general public would like this. This seems disturbing to any pro photographers who tweet their photographs.



      Posted by: street bike accessories |
      October 19, 2010 2:18 AM




















    18. Seriously now, if you share your photos via Twitter or any other social media sites, you lose its rights exclusively and can be picked up by anyone and use it anywhere. If you have photos you don’t want to be used all over the internet, don’t share it or publish it anywhere. Once it is published, it’s gone unless you have stated on your own website against using the photos for other purposes other than yours.



      Posted by: Steve Jobs |
      October 19, 2010 9:18 AM




















    19. This is clearly a load of nonsense. Michael Owens above has debunked this misleading information nicely but I'll add some food for thought: if an article from the New York Times appears in the Twitter media pane can Twitter re-publish and sell that article? I think not. Nor do they "own" your photo. Photofocus did not "consult it's lawyers," Scott Bourne asked his buddy Larry to scan the TOS. Larry is obviously not an entertainment lawyer and knows little about content licensing. This scare mongering was well deconstructed by petapixel dot com yesterday, It's sad that this noise is still floating around and considered legitamate information.



       Posted by: Daniel K. Berman |
      October 19, 2010 9:39 AM




















    20. These are all great comments, and I'm glad to see people unpack this item -- though it's interesting to see where you all agree and disagree. The critiques of our coverage are compelling and much appreciated, though it's important to see that question mark in the title. I put it there for a reason.



      I don't think Twitter is "evil" nor do I think that the wildest interpretation of what can be enforced (or not) with the ToS changes are necessarily true. What is important is that a photo blog had consulted their lawyers about it. And lots of people (still) have questions about it. The coverage is the conversation, and we can all only weigh in until our questions are answered. PhotoFocus' means of getting these questions answered was to ask their counsel. And that's significant.



       Posted by: Violet Blue |
      October 19, 2010 4:10 PM




















    21. It we view this to the point of twitter then it's quite beneficial for them, they can do what they want with other photos but I don't think that public would like this.



      Posted by: flash banner |
      October 19, 2010 11:06 PM




















    22. My only worry is people read articles like this by looking at the headline and a few paragraphs only. The notion then starts rumours that twitter owns you and your data and your pictures/video and we will soon have a sequel to the movie social network.



      I see you suggest you don't think twitter is "evil" but I can guarantee you most eyeballs on this page will walk away thinking exactly that.



      A



      Posted by: ashul |
      October 20, 2010 2:56 AM




















    23. I agree with @MichaelOwens comments.

      Thanks for the article and interesting commnets.



      Posted by: Penny |
      October 20, 2010 11:50 AM




















    24. How is this news? I remember the TOS for facebook saying the exact same thing. Yes, I read the TOS.



      Posted by: Dan |
      October 21, 2010 10:32 AM




















    25. I should have looked at the author of the original post. Much ado about mostly nothing. Twitter may eventually start a hosting site for pics and will get rights to things posted there but, as others have noted, just because a ToS says something doesn't mean they can actually get away with it. And I don't think Twitter is evil (certainly not even close to the evil that is Facebook), if I did then I'd have stopped using it long ago.



       Posted by: Erik O |
      October 21, 2010 10:43 AM




















    26. Not sure what everyone is surprised about. Most major social networking or blogging platform gain a royalty free right to your photos if you post them. For example, Tumblr, Posterous, etc all gain a royalty free right to any photos you post. The lesson? Don't post photos on the internet unless you are okay with people or companies using them for free. I am surprised people get upset about this, it's 2010 and I thought we all knew this by now.



      Posted by: Mike |
      October 21, 2010 5:10 PM




















    27. I dont find this a big shocker - read the tos of most companies and you find this type of proviso. Usually its just ot cover themselves and to provide them with the final word if they wanted to push it - in reality, how many photos would this affect? On the bright side, I could use with some extra exposure so it could work out good for some photogs!

      Would it just be the rights to the low res, watermarked image?



      Posted by: Grant Stringer |
      October 22, 2010 1:44 AM




















    28. The moment you upload and shared your photos in twitter you have an idea already that it might be use by the third party and not only by you. It's obvious I guess not only in twitter but in other social sites that your photo for that matter when you made public any one can have access on it and can use it. The best way to alter that is not to share at all or try to upload something you know it's okay to let go. I don't give a time to see their provision because it's really obvious though.



      Posted by: daniellehudges |
      October 23, 2010 12:41 AM























    29. bench craft company complaints

      Exclusive: Yahoo Courts Former <b>News</b> Corp. Digital Exec Ross <b>...</b>

      He's baaaaaack. Former Fox Interactive Media President Ross Levinsohn, that is, who is the top candidate to replace Hilary Schneider as Yahoo's US head, according to several sources close to the situation.

      Shepard Smith Inks New Fox <b>News</b> Deal – Deadline.com

      EXCLUSIVE: Fox News Channel's signature news anchor Shepard Smith has signed a new multi-year deal to continue as the channel's lead news anchor as well as anchor of FOX Report and Studio B. Smith's most recent pact with Fox News inked ...

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      Exclusive: Yahoo Courts Former <b>News</b> Corp. Digital Exec Ross <b>...</b>

      He's baaaaaack. Former Fox Interactive Media President Ross Levinsohn, that is, who is the top candidate to replace Hilary Schneider as Yahoo's US head, according to several sources close to the situation.

      Shepard Smith Inks New Fox <b>News</b> Deal – Deadline.com

      EXCLUSIVE: Fox News Channel's signature news anchor Shepard Smith has signed a new multi-year deal to continue as the channel's lead news anchor as well as anchor of FOX Report and Studio B. Smith's most recent pact with Fox News inked ...

      Fantasy Football <b>News</b> Roundup, Week 8: Does Jon Kitna Have Value <b>...</b>

      Checking in on the fantasy news of the day for Week 8.


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      Exclusive: Yahoo Courts Former <b>News</b> Corp. Digital Exec Ross <b>...</b>

      He's baaaaaack. Former Fox Interactive Media President Ross Levinsohn, that is, who is the top candidate to replace Hilary Schneider as Yahoo's US head, according to several sources close to the situation.

      Shepard Smith Inks New Fox <b>News</b> Deal – Deadline.com

      EXCLUSIVE: Fox News Channel's signature news anchor Shepard Smith has signed a new multi-year deal to continue as the channel's lead news anchor as well as anchor of FOX Report and Studio B. Smith's most recent pact with Fox News inked ...

      Fantasy Football <b>News</b> Roundup, Week 8: Does Jon Kitna Have Value <b>...</b>

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Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Making Money Online Forum



Few people are more highly regarded in the blogging-for-business world than Darren Rowse of ProBlogger.net. He has essentially set the blueprint for how to turn a blog into a business, and is one of the go-to sources for tips on how to do as much. He had a chat with WebProNews at BlogWorld last week, after speaking in one of the more popular keynotes at the event. 



Rowse discussed with us how people can get started blogging, and eventually turn their blogs into moneymakers. "You need a blog to start with, then really my first priority would be getting some useful content on there - some content that's actually going to solve some problems for people," he said. "So if you're blog's a how-to type blog, you want to start thinking 'what's a beginner in this topic need to know?' and start writing that type of content that you can be referring back to later, so that when you start promoting it, you've got content there that they'll find, that is engaging for them. So that is probably the first step, and then, it's about putting yourself out there, and trying to find some readers."



Have you been able to turn your blog into a business? Let us know. 



If the how-to path is the one you're interested in traveling, I'd reccommend reading this article, discussing ways to create effective how-to articles, with tips provided by John Hewitt, who has written technical manuals for companies like IBM, Intuit, and Motorola. 



Either way, "First you want to know who you want to attract, because it's kind of easy to get noticed on the Internet, but if you do it in the wrong way, you could actually 1. take yourself further away from your goals, but 2. find the wrong readers," noted Rowse. "You could get..readers from a place like Digg or StumbleUpon...some of these social bookmarking sites, but they may not actually be the type of person that you want to journey with for the whole long term. So define who you want to reach, and ask the question, 'where can I find them online?'" 



"Answering that question, for me, on my photography site led me to Flickr. Flickr's a place where people have cameras, and not everyone takes great photos, so it was a place for me to develop a presence. For other blogs, it may lead you to Twitter or Facebook or another blog or a forum that is related to your particular niche."



Forums can actually be great for your brand (in some cases, maybe even more so than Facebook or Twitter). Forums are a good source of relevant discussion to your niche, provided you engage in the right places. They can help you establish yourself as an expert (not unlike Q&A sites), and they can be particularly good for building a search presence. Forum threads do really well in Google for certain queries, particularly when someone is looking for help with something. 



"I think a lot of bloggers treat their blog as a hobby, and I mean, that certainly is the way I started out," Rowse told us. "I didn't realize you could make money from blogging when I started. But my wife kind of gave me an ultimatum after a while. I'd began to dream about my blog becoming a business, and certainly was moving in that direction...one day, she kind of said, 'you need to do it'. Then she gave me six months to get it done."



"Once I had that ultimatum, and that deadline in mind, it just switched in my mind and started making me thinking of it as a business now, and really that was the turning point for me, because I began to think more strategically about who was reading my blog, what they needed, and products that I could launch to them," he continued. "But also, I got on the phone for the fist time and started ringing advertisers to create a direct relationship with them."



Rowse recently discussed using temporary blogs as stepping stones for your broader goals:





Roundups, IT, deals


Evernote Snags Sequoia, Kleiner Perkins Goes Social, Zuckerberg Speaks Out, & More Bay-Area BizTech News




Wade Roush 10/25/10

Companies building cloud-based services got lots of attention last week, as did those building social applications. And companies building cloud-based social applications? Watch out!


—Evernote, the Mountain View, CA-based online notekeeping service with nearly 5 million users, collected another $20 million in venture backing in a Series C round led by new investor Sequoia Capital. I interviewed CEO Phil Libin about the investment.


—I took a close look at Zoho, the Pleasanton, CA-based company offering small and medium-sized businesses free and low-cost alternatives to desktop productivity software such as Microsoft Office and even newer cloud-based services like Salesforce.com.


—While the Apple iPad may lack a camera, there’s no shortage of cool photo apps for the device, and I reviewed 10 of them in my regular Friday column.


—Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers announced the formation of the sFund, a $250 million fund that will be used to invest in startups building social Web applications. Facebook, Amazon, and Zynga each put some money into the kitty.


—I profiled AudioPress, a San Francisco startup that recently launched a versatile audio management app for the iPhone. The app lets users organize podcasts, streaming radio, and spoken-word articles into personalized playlists.


—San Francisco-based Siluria Technologies, which is developing a way to make natural gas into ethylene as a precursor for many types of plastics, raised $13.3 million in a Series A venture round, as Luke reported. Alloy Ventures, Arch Venture Partners, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Altitude Life Sciences Ventures, Lux Capital, and Presidio Ventures participated.


—I Went to Startup School, and All I Got Was This Lousy Video. Just kidding—I had a great time attending Y Combinator’s Startup School event at Stanford on October 16, and as a bonus I was able to make of video recording of a 30-minute interview between Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Y Combinator partner Jessica Livingston. Zuckerberg talked about what the makers of The Social Network got right, and what they weren’t so careful about.


—As a follow-up to my column two weeks ago comparing two leading run-tracking apps, Abvio’s Runmeter and FitnessKeeper’s RunKeeper, I staged a virtual “smackdown” between Abvio co-founder Steve Kusmer and FitnessKeeper founder Jason Jacobs.


—San Francisco’s Crosslink Capital participated in a $12.5 million Series B financing round for SiOnyx, a Beverly, MA-based company working on a method for making “black silicon,” a highly photosensitive form of silicon that could eventually be used in image sensors for camera phones, as Greg reported.


—In other tech deals news, Sharethrough raised $5 million, Causes raised $9 million, Revolution Analytics raised $8.6 million, and Kontiki raised $10.7 million.


—In Xconomy news, we announced our first-ever San Francisco event: a public forum with Michael Moritz of Sequoia Capital. Moritz is widely respected as one of the leading venture capitalists in Silicon Valley, and I’ll be interviewing him on stage at San Francisco’s Kicklabs on Tuesday November 30. You can register for the event now.



Wade Roush is Xconomy's chief correspondent and editor of Xconomy San Francisco. You can e-mail him at wroush@xconomy.com, call him at 415-796-3024, or follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/wroush. You can subscribe to his Google Group and you can follow all Xconomy San Francisco stories at twitter.com/xconomysf.




Shep Smith&#39;s Fox <b>News</b> Contract Renewed

Shep Smith isn't leaving Fox News anytime soon. The face of the network's news division has signed a three-year contract extension with Fox News, Deadline.com's Nellie Andreeva reported Tuesday morning.

Nevada Voters Complain Of Problems At Polls - Las Vegas <b>News</b> Story <b>...</b>

LAS VEGAS -- Some voters in Boulder City complained on Monday that their ballot had been cast before they went to the polls, raising questions about Clark County's electronic voting machines. Tuesday, October 26, 2010.

BREAKING <b>NEWS</b>: Drunk &amp; Naked Charlie Sheen Trashes Hotel Room <b>...</b>

Trouble seems to follow Charlie Sheen - whether it be in Los Angeles, Apsen, or now, to New York. Police were summoned to the posh Plaza hotel early Tuesday, where a drunken and naked Sheen had trashed his hotel room, RadarOnline.com ...


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Save London Bubble Theatre Company Campaign - Rotherhithe Community Safety Forum's Public Support (South London Press @ 8 January 2008) by Kam Hong Leung


Shep Smith&#39;s Fox <b>News</b> Contract Renewed

Shep Smith isn't leaving Fox News anytime soon. The face of the network's news division has signed a three-year contract extension with Fox News, Deadline.com's Nellie Andreeva reported Tuesday morning.

Nevada Voters Complain Of Problems At Polls - Las Vegas <b>News</b> Story <b>...</b>

LAS VEGAS -- Some voters in Boulder City complained on Monday that their ballot had been cast before they went to the polls, raising questions about Clark County's electronic voting machines. Tuesday, October 26, 2010.

BREAKING <b>NEWS</b>: Drunk &amp; Naked Charlie Sheen Trashes Hotel Room <b>...</b>

Trouble seems to follow Charlie Sheen - whether it be in Los Angeles, Apsen, or now, to New York. Police were summoned to the posh Plaza hotel early Tuesday, where a drunken and naked Sheen had trashed his hotel room, RadarOnline.com ...


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Few people are more highly regarded in the blogging-for-business world than Darren Rowse of ProBlogger.net. He has essentially set the blueprint for how to turn a blog into a business, and is one of the go-to sources for tips on how to do as much. He had a chat with WebProNews at BlogWorld last week, after speaking in one of the more popular keynotes at the event. 



Rowse discussed with us how people can get started blogging, and eventually turn their blogs into moneymakers. "You need a blog to start with, then really my first priority would be getting some useful content on there - some content that's actually going to solve some problems for people," he said. "So if you're blog's a how-to type blog, you want to start thinking 'what's a beginner in this topic need to know?' and start writing that type of content that you can be referring back to later, so that when you start promoting it, you've got content there that they'll find, that is engaging for them. So that is probably the first step, and then, it's about putting yourself out there, and trying to find some readers."



Have you been able to turn your blog into a business? Let us know. 



If the how-to path is the one you're interested in traveling, I'd reccommend reading this article, discussing ways to create effective how-to articles, with tips provided by John Hewitt, who has written technical manuals for companies like IBM, Intuit, and Motorola. 



Either way, "First you want to know who you want to attract, because it's kind of easy to get noticed on the Internet, but if you do it in the wrong way, you could actually 1. take yourself further away from your goals, but 2. find the wrong readers," noted Rowse. "You could get..readers from a place like Digg or StumbleUpon...some of these social bookmarking sites, but they may not actually be the type of person that you want to journey with for the whole long term. So define who you want to reach, and ask the question, 'where can I find them online?'" 



"Answering that question, for me, on my photography site led me to Flickr. Flickr's a place where people have cameras, and not everyone takes great photos, so it was a place for me to develop a presence. For other blogs, it may lead you to Twitter or Facebook or another blog or a forum that is related to your particular niche."



Forums can actually be great for your brand (in some cases, maybe even more so than Facebook or Twitter). Forums are a good source of relevant discussion to your niche, provided you engage in the right places. They can help you establish yourself as an expert (not unlike Q&A sites), and they can be particularly good for building a search presence. Forum threads do really well in Google for certain queries, particularly when someone is looking for help with something. 



"I think a lot of bloggers treat their blog as a hobby, and I mean, that certainly is the way I started out," Rowse told us. "I didn't realize you could make money from blogging when I started. But my wife kind of gave me an ultimatum after a while. I'd began to dream about my blog becoming a business, and certainly was moving in that direction...one day, she kind of said, 'you need to do it'. Then she gave me six months to get it done."



"Once I had that ultimatum, and that deadline in mind, it just switched in my mind and started making me thinking of it as a business now, and really that was the turning point for me, because I began to think more strategically about who was reading my blog, what they needed, and products that I could launch to them," he continued. "But also, I got on the phone for the fist time and started ringing advertisers to create a direct relationship with them."



Rowse recently discussed using temporary blogs as stepping stones for your broader goals:





Roundups, IT, deals


Evernote Snags Sequoia, Kleiner Perkins Goes Social, Zuckerberg Speaks Out, & More Bay-Area BizTech News




Wade Roush 10/25/10

Companies building cloud-based services got lots of attention last week, as did those building social applications. And companies building cloud-based social applications? Watch out!


—Evernote, the Mountain View, CA-based online notekeeping service with nearly 5 million users, collected another $20 million in venture backing in a Series C round led by new investor Sequoia Capital. I interviewed CEO Phil Libin about the investment.


—I took a close look at Zoho, the Pleasanton, CA-based company offering small and medium-sized businesses free and low-cost alternatives to desktop productivity software such as Microsoft Office and even newer cloud-based services like Salesforce.com.


—While the Apple iPad may lack a camera, there’s no shortage of cool photo apps for the device, and I reviewed 10 of them in my regular Friday column.


—Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers announced the formation of the sFund, a $250 million fund that will be used to invest in startups building social Web applications. Facebook, Amazon, and Zynga each put some money into the kitty.


—I profiled AudioPress, a San Francisco startup that recently launched a versatile audio management app for the iPhone. The app lets users organize podcasts, streaming radio, and spoken-word articles into personalized playlists.


—San Francisco-based Siluria Technologies, which is developing a way to make natural gas into ethylene as a precursor for many types of plastics, raised $13.3 million in a Series A venture round, as Luke reported. Alloy Ventures, Arch Venture Partners, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Altitude Life Sciences Ventures, Lux Capital, and Presidio Ventures participated.


—I Went to Startup School, and All I Got Was This Lousy Video. Just kidding—I had a great time attending Y Combinator’s Startup School event at Stanford on October 16, and as a bonus I was able to make of video recording of a 30-minute interview between Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Y Combinator partner Jessica Livingston. Zuckerberg talked about what the makers of The Social Network got right, and what they weren’t so careful about.


—As a follow-up to my column two weeks ago comparing two leading run-tracking apps, Abvio’s Runmeter and FitnessKeeper’s RunKeeper, I staged a virtual “smackdown” between Abvio co-founder Steve Kusmer and FitnessKeeper founder Jason Jacobs.


—San Francisco’s Crosslink Capital participated in a $12.5 million Series B financing round for SiOnyx, a Beverly, MA-based company working on a method for making “black silicon,” a highly photosensitive form of silicon that could eventually be used in image sensors for camera phones, as Greg reported.


—In other tech deals news, Sharethrough raised $5 million, Causes raised $9 million, Revolution Analytics raised $8.6 million, and Kontiki raised $10.7 million.


—In Xconomy news, we announced our first-ever San Francisco event: a public forum with Michael Moritz of Sequoia Capital. Moritz is widely respected as one of the leading venture capitalists in Silicon Valley, and I’ll be interviewing him on stage at San Francisco’s Kicklabs on Tuesday November 30. You can register for the event now.



Wade Roush is Xconomy's chief correspondent and editor of Xconomy San Francisco. You can e-mail him at wroush@xconomy.com, call him at 415-796-3024, or follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/wroush. You can subscribe to his Google Group and you can follow all Xconomy San Francisco stories at twitter.com/xconomysf.




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Shep Smith&#39;s Fox <b>News</b> Contract Renewed

Shep Smith isn't leaving Fox News anytime soon. The face of the network's news division has signed a three-year contract extension with Fox News, Deadline.com's Nellie Andreeva reported Tuesday morning.

Nevada Voters Complain Of Problems At Polls - Las Vegas <b>News</b> Story <b>...</b>

LAS VEGAS -- Some voters in Boulder City complained on Monday that their ballot had been cast before they went to the polls, raising questions about Clark County's electronic voting machines. Tuesday, October 26, 2010.

BREAKING <b>NEWS</b>: Drunk &amp; Naked Charlie Sheen Trashes Hotel Room <b>...</b>

Trouble seems to follow Charlie Sheen - whether it be in Los Angeles, Apsen, or now, to New York. Police were summoned to the posh Plaza hotel early Tuesday, where a drunken and naked Sheen had trashed his hotel room, RadarOnline.com ...


bench craft company complaints bench craft company complaints

Shep Smith&#39;s Fox <b>News</b> Contract Renewed

Shep Smith isn't leaving Fox News anytime soon. The face of the network's news division has signed a three-year contract extension with Fox News, Deadline.com's Nellie Andreeva reported Tuesday morning.

Nevada Voters Complain Of Problems At Polls - Las Vegas <b>News</b> Story <b>...</b>

LAS VEGAS -- Some voters in Boulder City complained on Monday that their ballot had been cast before they went to the polls, raising questions about Clark County's electronic voting machines. Tuesday, October 26, 2010.

BREAKING <b>NEWS</b>: Drunk &amp; Naked Charlie Sheen Trashes Hotel Room <b>...</b>

Trouble seems to follow Charlie Sheen - whether it be in Los Angeles, Apsen, or now, to New York. Police were summoned to the posh Plaza hotel early Tuesday, where a drunken and naked Sheen had trashed his hotel room, RadarOnline.com ...


bench craft company complaints bench craft company complaints

Shep Smith&#39;s Fox <b>News</b> Contract Renewed

Shep Smith isn't leaving Fox News anytime soon. The face of the network's news division has signed a three-year contract extension with Fox News, Deadline.com's Nellie Andreeva reported Tuesday morning.

Nevada Voters Complain Of Problems At Polls - Las Vegas <b>News</b> Story <b>...</b>

LAS VEGAS -- Some voters in Boulder City complained on Monday that their ballot had been cast before they went to the polls, raising questions about Clark County's electronic voting machines. Tuesday, October 26, 2010.

BREAKING <b>NEWS</b>: Drunk &amp; Naked Charlie Sheen Trashes Hotel Room <b>...</b>

Trouble seems to follow Charlie Sheen - whether it be in Los Angeles, Apsen, or now, to New York. Police were summoned to the posh Plaza hotel early Tuesday, where a drunken and naked Sheen had trashed his hotel room, RadarOnline.com ...


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Friday, October 22, 2010

Making Money Ebay


“It remains to be seen if it’s good in the long run but what’s exciting is Amazon has proven the ability to move product,” said Ben Gottlieb, president of mobile app maker Stand Alone Inc. “It all depends on the implementation. But if they live up to what they say, we can make more money.”


That’s a real issue. Gottlieb, who sells a crossword app, says he makes 20-30 times more selling his apps in the App Store compared to Android Market. It’s gotten a little better lately, but it’s still discouraging trying to sell in Android Market, which has more than 80,000 apps. Developers like Gottlieb say the store needs more recommendation and discovery tools, more categories, a better check-out system and more marketing muscle. These are all things that Amazon could immediately address.


Arron La, maker of the Advanced Task Manager app, said Amazon could help ignite sales by giving better recommendation tips and making checkouts easier for users. He said Google Checkout can be a nightmare at times, sometimes charging people multiple times for one app. A reliable and familiar system like Amazon’s could prompt people to open up their wallets, something they don’t do that much of in the Android Market. He also hopes that Amazon will do more to promote apps and advertise its app store, which Google has shied away from.


Google, for its part, is working on a number of changes, including a new web-based Android Market and a reported deal with PayPal  for payments. And it just expanded the number of countries that can buy paid apps.Even with those improvements, La feels better about Amazon because the company seems more committed to making money, something Google seems less interested in. Google claims it doesn’t make any money from Android Market.


“Once you have the right things in place and you get that ecosystem going, you can definitely make money out of it,” he said. “But that’s been what’s hurting Android Market. Everyone using Google devices, they want and expect everything for free. When Google released Android market, they had no paid apps in the beginning.”


To be sure, an Amazon Android store or a similar market from Verizon Wireless could be a headache for developers. Developers would have to get in the habit of submitting and updating apps in multiple markets. Users might get confused as to who to turn to for apps or support. Amazon will have the ability to turn down apps and has stated it won’t approve offensive or pornographic content. It could lead to some gripes from developers about rejected apps, similar to complaints about the App Store, and it’s unclear if it will be as easy as one click to buy an app and get it on an Android device.


If Amazon proves to be a real player in the app market, expect a lot of developers to look Amazon’s way. They’ll be happy to get something closer to an App Store experience for their apps. “Apple is about the making the whole experience pleasant while Google is just focused on getting the job done and it’s not always pretty,” Gottlieb said. “Amazon is somewhere in between and it’s definitely closer to Apple than Google.”


Related research from GigaOM Pro (subscription req’d):



  • Why Google Launched App Inventor

  • Is Amazon the New Self-Publish Kingpin?

  • Why Carriers Still Hold the Key to Handset Sales



Chicago-based Groupon is certainly one heck of a startup. Like Zynga it sort of came out of nowhere in 2009. Even last December I was sort of only vaguely aware of how fast it was growing.


But it was clear by early 2010 to the whole world that Groupon was on a tear. First a round valuing it at $250 million. Then just a couple of months later it raised new money at a $1.35 billion valuation.


And then in the last few weeks Yahoo offered something even higher for the company – between $1.7 billion on the low side and probably $4 billion on the high side. And Groupon passed.


Revenues are in the $50 million per month range, and the company has roughly 50% gross margins. By some measures, Groupon is the fastest growing company, ever.


Groupon is often said to be the next eBay at Silicon Valley insider dinners and events. But Groupon isn’t going to have the same success eBay has had.


At first blush it seems like a valid comparison. Groupon’s revenues and profits blow the early Ebay results out of the water. When eBay was three years old and going public in 1998 it had revenues of just $4.7 million. Groupon does that much in revenue every three days or so right now.


Today eBay has revenues of a little over $2 billion every three months and is worth around $30 billion. It’s not at all unreasonable to think that Groupon could eventually grow its revenues way beyond $2 billion/quarter – the local products and services category would easily bear that kind of fruit.


But there’s a couple of problems with Groupon. The first is how it scales – it needs a lot of sales people for each market it handles and already probably has more than 2,000 of them on payroll. But the real problem is the complete lack of a network effect to protect its business.


Ebay is expensive. And it has a horrible user interface. Buying stuff is a pain compared with sites like Amazon that have put real effort into making buying painless. It’s also expensive. Everyone would love a better eBay, but after ten years of people trying to kill it, it just keeps going.


Why? Because everyone’s already on eBay. And every new buyer or seller makes eBay more valuable than it was before. Anyone competing with them has to find a way to counter that, and it’s nearly impossible. Even free listings from big companies like Amazon and Yahoo flailed dramatically.


In other words, eBay would have to really work at it to destroy its core business. And since it dominates the market it can continue to charge exorbitant fees and not worry about the user experience.


Groupon has none of that. When Groupon gets a new user that’s great. But that user will quickly leave to Living Social or One Kings Lane or any of thousands of other competing sites for better deals. And when Groupon gets a new “seller,” there’s no reason why that seller won’t also go try out the competitors, too.


There’s just no network effect in Groupon’s business model. Which means competitors can flourish and margins will get crushed.


At TechCrunch Disrupt, Benchmark Capital’s Matt Cohler said he wasn’t sure if Groupon would succeed over the long term. I asked him if he wished he was an investor in Groupon:


That question keeps me up at night. the question for me is…if you look at it from a purely academic point of view, there are neither barriers to entry nor are there switching costs in that product. Typically when a product has those characteristics margins tend to collapse over time. In theory the only thing stopping that from happening is Groupon’s brand…It may turn out that daily deals are ad units, and lots of different products can apply that ad unit.


What can Groupon do to avoid having their margins crushed by competitors? Establish generous revenue sharing relationships with distribution partners, fast. And that appears to be exactly what they’re doing. In the next several weeks the company will likely announce partnerships with Yahoo and CitySearch, we’ve learned.


Oh, and one more partner, too. And that partner will be…eBay.


Update: Great email comment from Alex Rampell:


I actually think Groupon is a “winner take most” market and not winner take all. Amazon has a plurality yet a distinct minority of ecommerce share ($25B in 2009 revenue out of WW ecommerce rev of $600B) yet has a market cap of $74B, 2.5X that of eBay. No barriers to entry.


There are no barriers to entry for online commerce companies — yet Amazon keeps decimating the competition. There are, however, economies of scale. I think Groupon can be the Amazon of Online2Offline commerce, and there’s no reason they can’t get to $25B in annualized revenue like Amazon, but at a much higher margin.


Whether they’ll command the same kind of earnings multiple as Amazon is another story.



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“It remains to be seen if it’s good in the long run but what’s exciting is Amazon has proven the ability to move product,” said Ben Gottlieb, president of mobile app maker Stand Alone Inc. “It all depends on the implementation. But if they live up to what they say, we can make more money.”


That’s a real issue. Gottlieb, who sells a crossword app, says he makes 20-30 times more selling his apps in the App Store compared to Android Market. It’s gotten a little better lately, but it’s still discouraging trying to sell in Android Market, which has more than 80,000 apps. Developers like Gottlieb say the store needs more recommendation and discovery tools, more categories, a better check-out system and more marketing muscle. These are all things that Amazon could immediately address.


Arron La, maker of the Advanced Task Manager app, said Amazon could help ignite sales by giving better recommendation tips and making checkouts easier for users. He said Google Checkout can be a nightmare at times, sometimes charging people multiple times for one app. A reliable and familiar system like Amazon’s could prompt people to open up their wallets, something they don’t do that much of in the Android Market. He also hopes that Amazon will do more to promote apps and advertise its app store, which Google has shied away from.


Google, for its part, is working on a number of changes, including a new web-based Android Market and a reported deal with PayPal  for payments. And it just expanded the number of countries that can buy paid apps.Even with those improvements, La feels better about Amazon because the company seems more committed to making money, something Google seems less interested in. Google claims it doesn’t make any money from Android Market.


“Once you have the right things in place and you get that ecosystem going, you can definitely make money out of it,” he said. “But that’s been what’s hurting Android Market. Everyone using Google devices, they want and expect everything for free. When Google released Android market, they had no paid apps in the beginning.”


To be sure, an Amazon Android store or a similar market from Verizon Wireless could be a headache for developers. Developers would have to get in the habit of submitting and updating apps in multiple markets. Users might get confused as to who to turn to for apps or support. Amazon will have the ability to turn down apps and has stated it won’t approve offensive or pornographic content. It could lead to some gripes from developers about rejected apps, similar to complaints about the App Store, and it’s unclear if it will be as easy as one click to buy an app and get it on an Android device.


If Amazon proves to be a real player in the app market, expect a lot of developers to look Amazon’s way. They’ll be happy to get something closer to an App Store experience for their apps. “Apple is about the making the whole experience pleasant while Google is just focused on getting the job done and it’s not always pretty,” Gottlieb said. “Amazon is somewhere in between and it’s definitely closer to Apple than Google.”


Related research from GigaOM Pro (subscription req’d):



  • Why Google Launched App Inventor

  • Is Amazon the New Self-Publish Kingpin?

  • Why Carriers Still Hold the Key to Handset Sales



Chicago-based Groupon is certainly one heck of a startup. Like Zynga it sort of came out of nowhere in 2009. Even last December I was sort of only vaguely aware of how fast it was growing.


But it was clear by early 2010 to the whole world that Groupon was on a tear. First a round valuing it at $250 million. Then just a couple of months later it raised new money at a $1.35 billion valuation.


And then in the last few weeks Yahoo offered something even higher for the company – between $1.7 billion on the low side and probably $4 billion on the high side. And Groupon passed.


Revenues are in the $50 million per month range, and the company has roughly 50% gross margins. By some measures, Groupon is the fastest growing company, ever.


Groupon is often said to be the next eBay at Silicon Valley insider dinners and events. But Groupon isn’t going to have the same success eBay has had.


At first blush it seems like a valid comparison. Groupon’s revenues and profits blow the early Ebay results out of the water. When eBay was three years old and going public in 1998 it had revenues of just $4.7 million. Groupon does that much in revenue every three days or so right now.


Today eBay has revenues of a little over $2 billion every three months and is worth around $30 billion. It’s not at all unreasonable to think that Groupon could eventually grow its revenues way beyond $2 billion/quarter – the local products and services category would easily bear that kind of fruit.


But there’s a couple of problems with Groupon. The first is how it scales – it needs a lot of sales people for each market it handles and already probably has more than 2,000 of them on payroll. But the real problem is the complete lack of a network effect to protect its business.


Ebay is expensive. And it has a horrible user interface. Buying stuff is a pain compared with sites like Amazon that have put real effort into making buying painless. It’s also expensive. Everyone would love a better eBay, but after ten years of people trying to kill it, it just keeps going.


Why? Because everyone’s already on eBay. And every new buyer or seller makes eBay more valuable than it was before. Anyone competing with them has to find a way to counter that, and it’s nearly impossible. Even free listings from big companies like Amazon and Yahoo flailed dramatically.


In other words, eBay would have to really work at it to destroy its core business. And since it dominates the market it can continue to charge exorbitant fees and not worry about the user experience.


Groupon has none of that. When Groupon gets a new user that’s great. But that user will quickly leave to Living Social or One Kings Lane or any of thousands of other competing sites for better deals. And when Groupon gets a new “seller,” there’s no reason why that seller won’t also go try out the competitors, too.


There’s just no network effect in Groupon’s business model. Which means competitors can flourish and margins will get crushed.


At TechCrunch Disrupt, Benchmark Capital’s Matt Cohler said he wasn’t sure if Groupon would succeed over the long term. I asked him if he wished he was an investor in Groupon:


That question keeps me up at night. the question for me is…if you look at it from a purely academic point of view, there are neither barriers to entry nor are there switching costs in that product. Typically when a product has those characteristics margins tend to collapse over time. In theory the only thing stopping that from happening is Groupon’s brand…It may turn out that daily deals are ad units, and lots of different products can apply that ad unit.


What can Groupon do to avoid having their margins crushed by competitors? Establish generous revenue sharing relationships with distribution partners, fast. And that appears to be exactly what they’re doing. In the next several weeks the company will likely announce partnerships with Yahoo and CitySearch, we’ve learned.


Oh, and one more partner, too. And that partner will be…eBay.


Update: Great email comment from Alex Rampell:


I actually think Groupon is a “winner take most” market and not winner take all. Amazon has a plurality yet a distinct minority of ecommerce share ($25B in 2009 revenue out of WW ecommerce rev of $600B) yet has a market cap of $74B, 2.5X that of eBay. No barriers to entry.


There are no barriers to entry for online commerce companies — yet Amazon keeps decimating the competition. There are, however, economies of scale. I think Groupon can be the Amazon of Online2Offline commerce, and there’s no reason they can’t get to $25B in annualized revenue like Amazon, but at a much higher margin.


Whether they’ll command the same kind of earnings multiple as Amazon is another story.



Scripting <b>News</b>: Rule 1 of local blogs

Recent stories. Twitter links. My 40 most-recent Twitter links, ranked by number of clicks. My bike. People are always asking about my bike. A picture named bikesmall.jpg. Here's a picture. AFP news pic. Calendar ...

Fox <b>News</b> Gives Fired NPR Reporter Juan Williams Fat New Contract <b>...</b>

Williams, who has served as a part-time contributor on Fox News since 1997, got an expanded, multi-year deal from the cable channel Thursday. Terms were not disclosed, though a source close to the network said Williams is getting a pay ...

Fashion, sports and magic: Moscow expats talk <b>news</b> over booze - RT

New Moscow Mayor, Russian Fashion Week and the Spartak – Chelsea match were among the most heavily discussed news items this week among Moscow expats.


eric seiger eric seiger


Samuel Kirk &amp; Son Sterling Silver Revere Bowl NR yqz Sold on eBay by Million Dollar Power Seller Norb Novocin User Name estateauctionsinc by gettingsoldonebay