PROTECT-IP is a bill that has been introduced in the Senate and the House and is moving quickly through Congress. It gives the government and corporations the ability to censor the net, in the name of protecting “creativity”. The law would let the government or corporations censor entire sites– they just have to convince a judge that the site is “dedicated to copyright infringement.”

The government has already wrongly shut down sites without any recourse to the site owner. Under this bill, sharing a video with anything copyrighted in it, or what sites like Youtube and Twitter do, would be considered illegal behavior according to this bill.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, this bill would cost us $47 million tax dollars a year — that’s for a fix that won’t work, disrupts the internet, stifles innovation, shuts out diverse voices, and censors the internet. This bill is bad for creativity and does not protect your rights.

via – fightforthefuture.org/pipa | American Censorship

The short of it:

The revised Guides also add new examples to illustrate the long standing principle that “material connections” (sometimes payments or free products) between advertisers and endorsers – connections that consumers would not expect – must be disclosed. These examples address what constitutes an endorsement when the message is conveyed by bloggers or other “word-of-mouth” marketers. The revised Guides specify that while decisions will be reached on a case-by-case basis, the post of a blogger who receives cash or in-kind payment to review a product is considered an endorsement. Thus, bloggers who make an endorsement must disclose the material connections they share with the seller of the product or service. Likewise, if a company refers in an advertisement to the findings of a research organization that conducted research sponsored by the company, the advertisement must disclose the connection between the advertiser and the research organization. And a paid endorsement – like any other advertisement – is deceptive if it makes false or misleading claims.

The long of it:

FTC Publishes Final Guides Governing Endorsements, Testimonials

Changes Affect Testimonial Advertisements, Bloggers, Celebrity Endorsements

The Federal Trade Commission today announced that it has approved final revisions to the guidance it gives to advertisers on how to keep their endorsement and testimonial ads in line with the FTC Act.

The notice incorporates several changes to the FTC’s Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising, which address endorsements by consumers, experts, organizations, and celebrities, as well as the disclosure of important connections between advertisers and endorsers. The Guides were last updated in 1980.

Under the revised Guides, advertisements that feature a consumer and convey his or her experience with a product or service as typical when that is not the case will be required to clearly disclose the results that consumers can generally expect. In contrast to the 1980 version of the Guides – which allowed advertisers to describe unusual results in a testimonial as long as they included a disclaimer such as “results not typical” – the revised Guides no longer contain this safe harbor.

The revised Guides also add new examples to illustrate the long standing principle that “material connections” (sometimes payments or free products) between advertisers and endorsers – connections that consumers would not expect – must be disclosed. These examples address what constitutes an endorsement when the message is conveyed by bloggers or other “word-of-mouth” marketers. The revised Guides specify that while decisions will be reached on a case-by-case basis, the post of a blogger who receives cash or in-kind payment to review a product is considered an endorsement. Thus, bloggers who make an endorsement must disclose the material connections they share with the seller of the product or service. Likewise, if a company refers in an advertisement to the findings of a research organization that conducted research sponsored by the company, the advertisement must disclose the connection between the advertiser and the research organization. And a paid endorsement – like any other advertisement – is deceptive if it makes false or misleading claims.

Celebrity endorsers also are addressed in the revised Guides. While the 1980 Guides did not explicitly state that endorsers as well as advertisers could be liable under the FTC Act for statements they make in an endorsement, the revised Guides reflect Commission case law and clearly state that both advertisers and endorsers may be liable for false or unsubstantiated claims made in an endorsement – or for failure to disclose material connections between the advertiser and endorsers. The revised Guides also make it clear that celebrities have a duty to disclose their relationships with advertisers when making endorsements outside the context of traditional ads, such as on talk shows or in social media.

The Guides are administrative interpretations of the law intended to help advertisers comply with the Federal Trade Commission Act; they are not binding law themselves. In any law enforcement action challenging the allegedly deceptive use of testimonials or endorsements, the Commission would have the burden of proving that the challenged conduct violates the FTC Act.

The Commission vote approving issuance of the Federal Register notice detailing the changes was 4-0. The notice will be published in the Federal Register shortly, and is available now on the FTC’s Web site as a link to this press release. Copies also are available from the FTC’s Consumer Response Center, Room 130, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC 20580.

The Federal Trade Commission works for consumers to prevent fraudulent, deceptive, and unfair business practices and to provide information to help spot, stop, and avoid them. To file a complaint in English or Spanish, visit the FTC’s online Complaint Assistant or call 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357). The FTC enters complaints into Consumer Sentinel, a secure, online database available to more than 1,700 civil and criminal law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and abroad. The FTC’s Web site provides free information on a variety of consumer topics.

MEDIA CONTACT:

Betsy Lordan
Office of Public Affairs
202-326-3707

ORIGINAL ARTICLE appears on the FTC website.

This WordPress error seem to appear after you transfer your entire WordPress site to another hosting or server. When uploading an image, you will most likely get this error message:

“Unable to create directory /home/blah/wp-content/uploads/2009/07. Is its parent directory writable by the server?”

Things to check for the fix:

1. In your Cpanel, where your WordPress site folder resides: Make sure you have in fact a folder called Uploads in your wp-content files and created the sub folders 2009 (year) and 07 (for the month).

2. Check that it is writable by making the permissions 777 or 775.

3. In your WordPress Dashboard, scroll down until you see “Miscellaneous” under Settings. Click that and check that the line: Store uploads in this folder has this entry: wp-content/uploads Please note there is a difference between wp-content/uploads and /wp-content/uploads.

It is a simple fix. there is no need to touch your index.php or other php config in your WordPress. Let us know how it works for you guys!

Every few months, WordPress users get a message on their dashboard reminding that it’s time for that upgrade again. This year alone, we would have upgraded 9 times including the upcoming Version 2.9 in December. From:

The upgrades are necessary because they are usually bug fixes of security vulnerabilities found on the previous upgrades. By not upgrading, we are opening up our blogs to hackers. Such was our case some months back.

Here’s what you must do and remember before upgrading to any version of WordPress:

1. BACK UP. BACK UP. BACK UP.
We all know what that means, yet we still fail to do it sometimes.

2. DEACTIVATE ALL PLUG-INS (except the maintenance mode announcement plugin if you have it)
Most people would go straight to STEP 3. If you are using over 5 plugins (we are using 20!), you need to deactivate those plugins first. OTHERWISE, you will receive a FATAL ERROR note like this:

Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 33554432 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 2355240 bytes) in /home/blogstha/public_html/blogthatfollow /wp-includes/http.php on line 1331

3. Choose the “UPGRADE AUTOMATICALLY” button in the dashboard.

Since a few changes ago, WordPress can now be upgraded automatically right in the Dashboard area. AS long as you have backed up your files, this is the most convenient and fastest way of doing the upgrade.

4. Change the MEMORY LIMIT

Once the installation of the newer version is in place, all the wp- files that run our WordPress goes back to its default settings. As for the memory limit- it’s only 32M. They should just increase it automatically to at least 64M but they have not done it yet.

By going to your CPanel, /public_html/blog. Look for wp-setting.php, click edit. Find the lines:

if ( !defined(‘WP_MEMORY_LIMIT’) )
define(‘WP_MEMORY_LIMIT’, ’32M’);

and change the 32M to 64M or 128M if you want up to 256M. Don’t do anything else, just that number. SAVE and you should never see another memory limit fatal error again.

5. ACTIVATE ALL PLUGINS.

Re-activate all plugins used and don’t forget to turn off the maintenance mode. Check your site. Should be up and running great!

Breathe. Smile and enjoy your site!

There are certain tips to maximize internet marketing with twitter. The profile name must be altered in such a way that it represents the person and the brand of his company. Having a unique name is best. It is best to keep in touch with people who are associated with one’s niche. Posting spam is of no use in twitter. Frequent posting and replying other’s posts brings better response. Business is not to be pushed. The best idea is to add values so that it helps others. One’s following must grow at a consistent rate. These are the steps to accomplish success with internet marketing and if you stay active, your business also will be vibrant.

Twitter is a phenomenal opportunity allowing building online presence for free. But, some of the common mistakes that are observed can be certainly avoided. First, being oversalesy. This refers to the mistake that nothing should be overdone as there is always a place and time to promote any social media platform. In certain cases, the twitter stream is filled with details about their links, products and many more information. People do not appreciate to read a big billboard. It is recommended to post novel ideas, good links and resources. You can post promotional tweets as well to 20 or 25%. Overdoing can result in less traffic. Ensure that the sociable tweets have promotional stuff tucked at rare ends.

Twitter tips also include another very common mistake of just building and waiting for traffic. You can see good traffic, provided you post some valuable tweets. You cannot simply wait for big followings as this may lead to extensive period of waiting. Instead use the search option and look by keyword geographically if it is essential for your business. The search function pops up so that it is used more. Thirdly, avoid becoming a Twit addict as well as spending much time on it. Sitting and conversing throughout day and night will show no success. Instead, employ tools such as Tweetlater to schedule your tweets at intervals in a day. This is essential to respond various people at different times so that they notice the value of participating.

Initially internet gained its popularity through the information it provides and also through E-mails (electronic mails). E-mails act as a way to communicate with people. One must have an email ID to text an email. It is a message that has to be typed and must be sent to someone who has an ID. Reply option can be found in the same page as the receiver reads his mail. Emails can be sent only to people whom we choose. It cannot be sent to the public as the ones we are sending to, must have an Id that we know.

Twitter is a social network that is growing in millions day by day. Though it is new to internet and has not had a long way, it is preferred by many people. Tweets are what the user’s type in order to be sent to others. In these tweets only 140 characters can be typed by a user. It is more or less like sending SMS through the internet. Short messages can be sent and easy replies can be got in no time. Internet charges will be too less whereas tweets through mobile SMS would cost high. The main difference between twitters and emails is that, information through twitters can be shared with everyone, even with the public whereas information through e mail can be shared only with the ones we know.

Some people argue that emails are better as private messages can be sent but in tweeters too private messages can be sent. The receiver can be chosen by the user. And the one receiving messages can also choose his sender. It’s not a must for him to read all the messages. Groups can be formed as to who are closer, friends, relatives etc. Emails are for one to one or one too many, twitters is for many too many. Anyone can send information provided by one too many others. Twitters are more like chat rooms and are not formal. Immediate replies from different people can be got.

However, most people prefer emails to twitter though it has a rapid growth. Content in email can be more. It’s more like writing personal letters through post. Emails are more confidential and the person who sends it is sending specially for the person who receives it. In twitters, the choice is made by the people as to read it or not. It is not a special message only for a particular person.