You might have noticed that my face is appearing in more of the cover images for my blog site posts and in more of the cover images for my videos. The reason is that in my on-going fight versus websites that republish my material without consent it is much easier for me to show evidence of ownership and originality when my face is in the cover image. Filing DMCA takedown notifications is lengthy and even when filed properly some hosting companies still require even more proof of original work and ownership. Being able to say, “hey, thats my picture of myself using my favorite flannel shirt” is a lot easier and faster than writing a description of the creativity of my blog site post.

You might have observed that my face is appearing in more of the cover images for my article and in more of the cover images for my videos. There is a factor for that and its not that Ive discovered a brand-new vanity in my mid-40s. The factor is that in my on-going battle versus sites that republish my material without approval it is much easier for me to prove evidence of ownership and originality when my face remains in the cover image. If youre interested in the explanation of that, keep reading..

I like to share the title or a little summary of your article with my staff, is that all right?
Yes, as long as youre not republishing the entire thing and or passing it off as your own. If you want somebody to read the entire article, provide the link to it..

Can I forward your newsletter to my associates?
Yes, naturally. Hit the forward button in your inbox and share it as I composed it (over-use of hyphens and parentheses is among the trademarks of my blog posts so do not be tempted to edit those out)..

I embedded your YouTube video into my class/ school site, is that all right?.
Yes, thats completely great as long as youre using the embed or link provided by YouTube and not downloading the video then republishing it (check out YouTubes TOS for more information)..

If Youre in a Similar Situation, resources.
If you have a website or blog that is also frequently scraped, here are some resources that might be handy to you..

Help Understanding Copyright, Creative Commons, and Fair Use.

I get a lot of follow-up questions Whenever I release something about copyright. These are a few of the often asked questions..

Many of the websites that are taking my work these days are doing so through automated means. Its reasonably easy to write a script that scrapes all of the material from an RSS feed and imports it into a various website. Truncating or stopping my RSS feed stops some of the burglars, however the majority of have moved onto using scripts that scrape straight from the website instead of from the RSS feed. Thats a little harder to stop so my option is to submit DMCA takedown notifications with Google to get them to remove the angering material from their results pages. In addition, I then file DMCA takedown notices with the websites hosting services..
When filed correctly some hosting companies still need even more evidence of initial work and ownership, filing DMCA takedown notices is lengthy and even. Having the ability to say, “hey, thats my photo of myself wearing my favorite flannel t-shirt” is a lot much easier and faster than composing an explanation of the originality of my blog site post. Still, some dubious hosting companies (generally located beyond the United States) will not do a darn thing to honor my request. In those cases a minimum of theres a simple method for visitors of the offending site to understand that what theyre reading was drawn from FreeTech4Teachers.com.