YouTube Suspends Lady Gaga

The most popular woman on YouTube found herself in a little trouble recently. According to Gil Kaufman of MTV News (2011), Lady Gaga had her account suspended on July 14^th for “violating YouTube’s Copyright Policy” (¶2).

It all began when Lady Gaga’s official YouTube account posted a video of a performance where the pop star performed with Japanese boy band SMAP on Fuji TV’s “SMAP x SMAP.” The video shows the band dancing with Lady Gaga’s dancers during a performance of “Born This Way”. The problem? Lady Gaga’s team did not secure the digital rights to post the performance. Consequently, YouTube received a takedown notice from Media Interactive Inc. (¶3-4).

The problem Lady Gaga’s team faced is a problem many YouTube users have encountered—you cannot use audio and video that you don’t have appropriate licenses and/or permission to use. If you were working on a special project and you would like to include an artist’s music there are ways to get the needed licenses. First, research what type of license your project requires, then check out the websites for ASCAP and BMI for information on what steps to take and the financial obligation.

The MTV News story about Lady Gaga’s YouTube suspension discusses a very minor consequence of posting content without proper permission. In many cases, a situation like this would result in more than a cease and desist—possibly a lawsuit claiming copyright infringement or intellectual property violations.

The Queen of YouTube has been compared to icons, such as Madonna—and with the sold-out shows, interesting fashion, and provocative lyrics—its no surprise as to why. Lady Gaga has racked up more than a billion YouTube views, so chances are this suspension was more of an annoyance to her fans than Lady Gaga herself; however, for the average YouTube user, it is important to understand and obey copyright policies or you might be standing on the edge of glory a lawsuit.

Photo Courtesy of: Paul Flynn (Flickr)

Source:

Kaufman, G (2011). “Lady Gaga’s YouTube account suspended.” MTV News. Retrieved on July 21, 2011, from http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/ 1667242/lady-gaga-youtube-suspended.jhtml. 

Google+: Google's Social Media Platform

Do you think that any company could produce a social media platform that could go toe-to-toe with Facebook? Well, if any company can accomplish such a goal—it’s Google. In article by Julie Na, of ABC News, she discusses additional details about the speculated components of the platform.

The news of Google’s plans to produce a social media platform that would combine Google’s already successful products with added privacy was released this week. Google+ is said to be Google’s most ambitious effort to make a footprint in the social media world.

Charlene Li, owner of Altimeter Group, said this new platform would not be an attempt to compete with Facebook: “Key thing here is that going against Facebook directly is suicidal (Na 2011)”. Currently, Facebook commands 700 billion minutes of users’ time per month.

Google+ will give users the ability to categorize their contact list, so they can choose whom to share certain information. A selling point for Google+ is said to be the added privacy and structure. According to Li, Google+ will be comforting to parents who have concerns about their child being online. She continued to say that maintaining privacy in communication is very important. This statement could be a response to the constant warnings Facebook users’ receive about posting material that will tarnish their reputation or hinder their ability to get a job.

Google+ has some promising ideas and features; however, regardless of their published comments about not directly competing with Facebook, there is certainly an intention or desire to take a metaphorical stab in the social networking empire. If they want to beat Facebook, they need to introduce this site like Facebook. Google needs to release Google+ geographically little by little—similarly to Facebook releasing school by school.

Google+ is still in the works and available only by invitation. What are you thoughts on this new project? Does Facebook have any reason to feel threatened?

Source 

Na, J (2011). Google takes on Facebook with Google-Plus. ABC News. Retrieved on June 30, 2011 from ABC News

Where Did "Friday" Go? Rebecca Black Removes Hit Song From YouTube

“Today is Friday, Friday, Friday.” Most people know exactly the song I’m quoting. Rebecca Black became famous from her one hit wonder, “Friday” (and yes, I’m speculating on the “one hit” part). Katy Perry and countless YouTube users have covered her song, but it seems her original song won’t be playing legally on YouTube anymore. According to an article by Garrett Downing (2011) of kypost.com, the video was requiring a payment of $2.99 to view and has now been taken off of YouTube all together.

Downing sourced TMZ.com: “Ark Music [who claims to have written the song] operated the YouTube account, and put the video behind paywall, and Black responded by having the video removed” (¶6). Black’s “Friday” had received over 160 million views prior to the video’s removal.

I haven’t been able to find an official word from Black’s reps; however, this seems to foreshadow a lawsuit where copyright and intellectual property infringement will be argued.

Rebecca Black had received a lot of extreme comments that clearly transcended into the bullying category—which, though inexcusable, is to be expected when a young person is made a star over night from a practical joke with music. That said, she created a unique song and video and commanded attention. She had kids and adults a like singing the lyrics as they left school and work. In my time analyzing social media platforms, I can’t remember a time when someone received that much attention—what appeared to be, overnight.

Rebecca Black is the perfect example of how social media websites give anyone, and I mean anyone, the potential to be famous. At 160 million views, that calculates to $160K in Ms. Black’s pocket—earning $10K for every million views received. Whether Black has the rights to the song or not, I’m sure between appearances or endorsements she will have some extravagant Fridays. 

Source

Downing, G. (2011). Rebecca Black's 'Friday' video removed from YouTube. kypost.com. Retrieved on June 23, 2011, from click here.

Using Social Media to Get Hired

Many of us associate social media with Facebook or Twitter; some of us connect social media with promoting our business; and then a few of us think about social media promoting ourselves—i.e. YouTube fame. For a moment, consider a more important way social media could help; something that, until we hit the lottery, we all still need: a job.

Mashable contributor, Dan Schawbel (2011), published an article discussing five innovative ways social media can be used to get a job. Schawbel begins by revealing shocking information: 1 in 3 jobseekers have been out of work for more than a year and, after 5 months, the average jobseeker loses hope (¶2).

Here is an analysis of a few of Schawbel’s suggestions for using social media to land a job:

Instead of using job boards to blindly submit a resume, Schawbel suggests using your social networking connections to locate the right places to apply (¶5). The important part here is to keep the job seeking professional. No one needs to know how long you have been out of work or how desperate you are to find a new company. Keep in mind that a company is benefitting from finding an applicant through an existing employee’s professional network; after all, continuous posts on Craigslist are not the best for business—the same as for your chances on getting a call back from a legitimate company through applying for a job via Craigslist.

Schawbel also discusses turning your resume into a more multimedia presentation—seeing as, according to a Office Team survey, 36% of business predict eventually social media profiles will replace resumes all together (¶13). This concerns me, and should concern you—mainly because, you do not want to hurt your chances with a company because you approach your application with too much innovation. Applicants need to make sure they know the hiring criteria of the company before assuming that a slideshow or multimedia webpage is acceptable.

Regardless of your take on social media regarding job seeking, I encourage you to read Schawbel’s article in it’s entirety because he brings up some interesting ideas, which you can do by clicking here. Best of luck in your job search. 


Source


Schawbel, D (2011). 5 clever ways to get a job using social media. Mashable. Retrieved on June 21, 2011, from http://mashable.com/2011/06/19/get-job-using-social-media. 

Industry Liabilities

The evolving world of technology has given birth to a generation of entrepreneurs—and after all, why wouldn’t it? The internet provides the ability to create e-commerce companies and social media websites allow for these companies to be promoted at little cost. When a new business concept is created it is understandable and expected to protect that new idea. For this post, I will deviate a bit from strategic marketing and focus on recent court cases that relate to copyright infringement and breach of contracts.

Penguin Group Inc. v. American Buddha

On March 25^th 2011, the U.S Appellate Court reviewed a case between Penguin Group Inc., a publishing company based in New York City, and American Buddha, a not-for-profit organization based in Arizona. Penguin Group Inc. claims that American Buddha committed copyright infringement by uploading four of the publishing company’s books on to the American Buddha website. The district court dismissed the complaint at the request of American Buddha for “lack of personal jurisdiction” (Penguin Group Inc. vs. American Buddha, 3).

Penguin Group Inc. appealed the decision, so the appellate court could decide if publishing the material on the internet, which allows content to be accessible by individuals within the state of New York, would prove that injury could have been sustained within the jurisdiction. Furthermore, Penguin Group Inc. argued that publishing copyrighted literature prevents authors from publishing work—for fear that they won’t be compensated, which would result in further injury.

In the end, the appellate court sided with Penguin Group Inc. by saying that, though the internet complicates the ability to determine where injury is sustained, American Buddha did commit copyright infringement.

In my opinion, the publishing of copyrighted material on the internet allows for anyone to view the content and should be viewed as copyright infringement—regardless of the state where the content was originally uploaded.

Case retrieved from: http://www.nycourts.gov/ctapps/Decisions/2011/Mar11/7opn11.pdf

Zyla v. Wadsworth Division of the Thomson Corporation

In 2001, Tufts University’s visiting professor Gail Zyla sued the Thomson Corporation, a textbook publishing company, for the unauthorized use of her work for the fourth edition of a nutrition textbook. After discord with the textbook’s co-author, Zyla withdrew as a contributor to the book—requesting that none of her work be included in the textbook. The withdrawal as a co-author reduced her royalties from 40% to 12.5%. The textbook did contain all of Zyla’s contributions; however, her royalties remained at 12.5%.

Zyla argued “copyright infringement; violation of Lanham Act; breach of contract; and intentional interference with advantageous relations” (Zyla vs. Wadsworth, ¶4). The lawsuit resulted in a judgment for the defendant, Thomson Corp., on all complaints.

If Zyla had agreed to a new contract that stipulated her work would not be included in the new textbook and reduced royalties, than I believe she should have received a judgment in her favor for at least breach of contract; however, my opinion differs from the ultimate decision after discovery.

Case retrieved from: http://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-1st-circuit/1253412.html

Chodos v. West Publishing Company Inc.

In December 2001, Rafael Chodos sued West Publishing Company for breach of contract after the publishing company rejected the manuscript that he was contracted to write because, after the manuscript’s completion, the publishing company decided that projected sales did not justify publishing the manuscript.

Chodos had signed a “standard Author Agreement” to write a law-related manuscript. After years of composing the work, the manuscript was considered of high quality, but, because of marketing and projected sales, it was rejected. Chodos sued for damages, stating that there was a breach of contract; however, the judge decided that the publishing company was within their right to reject the manuscript.

I can understand the devastation Chodos experienced after spending years satisfying his contractual obligations only for it to result in rejection and no potential of collecting royalties. Since the publisher considered the work high quality, the Author Agreement should have ensured some monetary compensation for Chodos’ time and effort. 

Case retrieved from: http://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-9th-circuit/1375991.html

In conclusion, it’s astonishing to see the outcome of lawsuits that seem valid. In most of the cases I reviewed, the courts sided with the large corporations—even when contracts were breached. Regardless, FindLaw.com proved to be a great resource for examining relevant cases in a variety of industries.

Sources

Chodos v. West Publishing Company Inc (2001). FindLaw.com. Retrieved on May 3, 2011, from http://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-9th-circuit/1375991.html

Penguin Group Inc. v. American Buddha (2011). FindLaw.com. Retrieved on May 3, 2011, from http://www.nycourts.gov/ctapps/Decisions/2011/Mar11/7opn11.pdf

Zyla v. Wadsworth Division, Thomson Corp (2001). FindLaw.com. Retrieved on May 3, 2011, from http://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-1st-circuit/1253412.html

Creativity is Required

Most of us would agree that creativity is a valuable component to someone working in product management/ development or marketing. The ability to develop ideas that have a uniqueness would likely give an edge over competitors; however, according to Jay Nadgeman (2011) of Investment News, creativity is no longer a merely desired characteristic, but a requirement. Creativity allows for you to standout, whether you’re a business owner, marketing consultant, or product manager.

In Nadgeman’s article, he discusses the benefits of “interactive marketing.” Interactive marketing is described as the facilitation of dialogue between a business adviser and his client or prospective client. For example, Nadgeman recounts a story he heard about a business adviser throwing a party for clients that retire. The adviser would allow the client to pick the date and invite twelve friends. The party guests were thoroughly impressed by an adviser making such a kind gesture and desired an adviser who provides the same consideration. The unique idea would yield, on average, one new client per party (¶13-15).

Nadgeman continues by saying: “The key to developing a successful interactive experience is to use creative approaches, and focus on marketing to an individual rather than to the marketplace.” (¶18) I strongly agree with this statement. There is a significant amount of emphasis put on learning about your target market and developing plans to reach your demographic—which are obviously important; however, it is important to not slack on building relationships and creating communication with your client. The man referenced in the above story found success because his creative approach differentiated himself from every other marketing specialist and business consultant.

In conclusion, it is crucial to develop unique ideas and be persistent in developing them; allow your ideas to make you visible in the marketplace. I was only able to include a selection of the thought-provoking insights provided by Jay Nadgeman’s Investment News article. I encourage everybody to read his article in its entirety.

To view Jay Nadgeman’s article, click here.

Source

Nadgeman, J (2011). “For advisers, being creative is essential, not an option.” Investment News. Retrieved on April 12, 2011, from http://www.investmentnews.com/article/20110410/REG/304109986

Making Your Life Easier... One Application at a Time

At this point, the benefits of social media for businesses have been established. Social networking websites—like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and LinkedIn—allow businesses to advertise their products/services and update clients, or potential clients, on any developments within the company. It is not uncommon for a large organization to have a social-media-marketing department within their offices to maintain a presence on these popular platforms; however, that usually isn’t the case for smaller businesses. So that begs the question, how much time should a company spend status updating and tweeting? After all, effective social-media-marketing requires a substantial amount of time. Through my RSS feed, I came across an article by Matt Ferner (2011) from Practical Ecommerce regarding new applications that allow a company to consolidate their various social networking profiles into one interface.

Ferner recommends smaller companies consider purchasing applications like TweetDeck, Seesmic, and Yoono. These programs allow a company [or individual] to status update simultaneously—effectively cutting the time spent on social networking websites. For example, with the free application Ping.fm, I would be able to update my Facebook status, tweet, and schedule in advance my next update all at the same time (¶11-¶15). Many of these applications are available both on your computer and mobile device. There are more advanced programs—like CoTweet Enterprise and SpredFast—that are available at a charge; however these applications support an unlimited number of profiles and have features that allow you to search Twitter and Facebook for discussion about your brand (¶5-¶7).

In ending, if your company is building a presence via social networking platforms, you may want to consider one of the above-mentioned applications to save time and minimize frustration. My personal recommendation is TweetDeck—it is free, user friendly, and has basically the same features as the expensive programs. That said, I encourage you to read Ferner’s article in full to determine what features you would require in  “social-media-management software” for it to be beneficial to you or you company (¶2).

To read Ferner’s article “15 services to manage your social media activity” please click here.

Source

Ferner, M (2011). “15 services to manage you social media activity.” Practical Ecommerce. Retrieved on April 1, 2011, from http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/2688-15-Services-to-Manage-Your-Social-Media-Activity