Free Clipart, Photo Websites & Copyright Issues
Photo courtesy of morgueFile.com
Teachers and writers are always on the hunt for appropriate images to enhance their instruction or articles. Clearly, the Internet has simplified this process tremendously, but at the same time the legal issues surrounding copyright and fair use have become more complicated.
Yvon Prehn over at Effective Church Communications provides a free webinar on sites that provide free clipart and stock photography. She also highlights issues surrounding copyright and provides some good links to help you use many of the resources on the Internet and still stay within the law.
Watch the free webinar and make sure to download the companion handouts with links to all of the sites Yvon references during her presentation. The webinar is less than 30 minutes long and worth your time.
NOTE: the image above is a free photo compliments of morgueFile.com. I learned about morgueFile.com while participating in Yvon’s webinar.
Protecting Your Own Material
Perhaps you are on the other side of the issue, and you are concerned about protecting your own material on the web. As Yvon points out during her webinar, you do not need to do anything to copyright your intellectual property. Simply creating it and printing it or posting it on the Internet will qualify it as copyright protected.
Still, holding the copyright to your latest masterpiece and protecting your intellectual property online are two different matters. Michael Hyatt provides eight ways you can protect your copyrighted material in today’s copy & paste world. These include:
- Understand copyright law
- Publish an official copyright notice
- Create an explicit permission policy
- Give the benefit of the doubt
- Request that they remove your post
- Demand that they take down your content
- Notify the infringer’s hosting service
- Hire an attorney and take action
What sources to you use for clipart and images (free or paid)?
E-mail Etiquette
Roger C. Parker is one of those prolific writers and commentators that I have grown to appreciate tremendously. I first met Roger through a webinar hosted by Mindjet. Roger appears to be a multi-talented individual, but I have come to know Roger within the arena of helping authors get published and in helping non-design people like myself look good in print. I have been a subscriber to his “Published and Profitable” web site since last fall.
While the focus of Roger’s writing and communications is not necessarily on productivity or technology, these topics bleed through in all that he presents. Many of his ideas are turn-key, simple thoughts that can be implemented immediately into your current workflow.
A Little Background
First, I need to provide a little background. Recently, I shared in a conversation with my wife one of the side lessons I have learned this semester in my class on Distance Education, which is part of my master’s degree through the University of Northern Iowa.
By it’s very nature, Distance Education relies heavily on text-based communication. This includes discussion forums, online chats, and e-mail. As I’ve watched and observed my professor, Dr. Ana Donaldson, facilitate this course, I have grown to appreciate how skilled she is at online communication. No e-mail or discussion posting, no matter how trivial, goes without a response.
As I’ve reflected on this, I have observed how many professional people, many of whom I would rate as excellent communicators offline, are simply atrocious when it comes to e-mail communication. Not only do they write poorly when they communicate via e-mail, but most importantly, they completely ignore many of the e-mail communications sent to them!
This, in my judgment, is simply unprofessional and does much to damage the overall credibility of an otherwise skilled professional.
E-mail is clearly an important—if not vital--communication tool in the 21st century. Still many of the people in middle- and upper-management today are baby boomers who started their careers without e-mail. It is an acquired skill, not something native to their generation. Those who want to be viewed as skilled communicators both offline and online need to learn some basic “E-mail Etiquette.”
A Simple Lesson in E-mail Etiquette
Now, to Roger’s comment:
Because e-mail has been a major part of our lives for several years, there's a temptation to take it for granted.
In particular, there's a temptation to assume that every e-mail we send will reach the intended recipient and--most important--be noticed.
Unfortunately, that's not true in 100% of the cases. Some e-mails get lost in transit, others get lost in the recipient's increasingly filled in-boxes.
That's why I paid attention when Jeffrey Fox, last week's Published & Profitable expert interview guest, described he immediately sends a "Got it!" reply/confirmation every time he receives a personal e-mail. It takes just a second to Reply, yet his confirmation projects an image of professionalism. Most important, his colleagues know that, if they don't receive a confirmation, something has gone wrong, and they follow-up by phone.
Strong brands and reputations are often built on simple, easy-to-follow, routines that show you care.
I couldn’t agree more! Nothing is more frustrating than to send an e-mail, whether it’s a simple “FYI,” action item, or request, etc., and have the e-mail simply disappear into cyberspace. Nothing. Nada. Did they get it? Do they agree or disagree? Should I move forward? Do I need to follow-up with a telephone call? In many cases a simple “Got it!” answers these questions.
So, take one small step forward in making a giant contribution to your professional image; don’t let a bunch of unanswered e-mails collect in your inbox.
Do you agree? No long answer is needed…a simple “Got it!” will do. :)
Blogging - Starting Again!
Starting to blog on a regular basis has been on my "To Do" list for a long time. In fact, my first attempt at blogging started during the summer of 2004. Presidential politics were on my mind, and I can remember blogging about the race between George W. Bush and John Kerry.
While I consider myself a writer, finding my "blogging voice" has been difficult. Journaling is very natural, but there is a perfectionist bug in my system that prohibits me from diving in to blogging with the same passion I have for blogging. So, dear readers, please endure me for a few entries as I get started. At the same time, I hope my early trials prove to be an encouragement to other would be bloggers who can't seem to find their voice. Here's to perseverance.