20 million people are using Linux Ubuntu and we think you should to! Read more to find out why ….

In a nutshell, why should I be bothered about it?

For years, Linux has been FREE and whilst this is great and delivers choice, it’s not the key here. It’s more about security and seemless computing in day to day business. It’s about turning on a computer and waiting seconds for it to load and be usable, not minutes. It’s about doing away with all the third party commercial software to keep you safe and relying on the operating system to be robust enough to secure your activities online. It’s about a buoyant and enthusiastic community of people working together to make an operating system for the people and one which makes both windows and mac stand up and pay attention.

Linux has always been great, but has always had that sort of techy barrier that stops it appealing to the masses. Well, not anymore. Linux Ubuntu has just gone mainstream and wow, it really is something to talk about and it really is something you should be considering as an alternative to both windows and mac osx!

Take a look at what it offers with this on-line Tour of Ubuntu

Secure

You can surf in safety with Ubuntu – confident that your files and data will stay protected. A built-in firewall and virus protection come as standard. And if a potential threat appears, we provide automatic updates which you can install in a single click. You get added security with AppArmor, which protects your important applications so attackers can’t access your system. And thanks to Firefox and gnome-keyring, Ubuntu helps you keep your private information private. So whether it’s accessing your bank account or sharing sensitive data with friends or colleagues, you’ll have peace of mind when you need it the most.

Fast

Ubuntu loads quickly on any computer, but it’s super-fast on newer machines. With no unnecessary programs and trial software slowing things down, booting up and opening a browser takes seconds. Unlike other operating systems that leave you staring at the screen, waiting to get online. And Ubuntu won’t grow sluggish over time. It’s fast. And it stays fast.

Compatible

Ubuntu works brilliantly with a range of devices. Simply plug in your MP3 player, camera or printer and you’ll be up and running straight away. No installation CDs. No fuss. And it’s compatible with Windows too! So you can open, edit and share Microsoft Office documents stress-free.

Download Ubuntu

You can download Ubuntu here right now and completely FREE

We want to advise our website customers that google places is a way to get your company listed within google search results, detailing your actual location in the map. It doesn’t cost anything to do it and it enables those searching for products or services in your local area, to locate your premises easily when searching. It’s a no brainer and with Google Places for Business – your customers will be able to locate you quicker than ever.

Make your business stand out from the crowd

Click here to get started and either login using an existing google account, or create one. Once inside, simply add your business address, contact details and opening hours and if you wish, add photos, videos and even offers to show potential customers why they should choose you. Highlight special promotions, post live updates and respond to reviews from your Places for Business account. It’s FREE!

Discover insights about your business

Learn more about your customers: What keywords they’re searching for and where they’re coming from. Armed with this knowledge, you can make better business decisions.

How much does it cost?

Nothing! Adding your listing to Google Places is FREE.

What if I don’t have a shop or office?

Every business listing must have a mailing address. If you work from home or you are a mobile business, you can specify a “service area” during the sign-up process and choose to hide your physical address.

Can I add multiple locations?

There should be only one listing per physical location. Even if you cover multiple towns, you should instead use the description of your business or categories to explain the different services for your business.

For additional information, please visit our Help Centre.

Search Engine Optimisation is the key to increasing website traffic. Yes, PPC (pay per click) is a more immediate method for generating traffic but it costs money and as soon as your budget runs out, the traffic stops. Optimising your website for the search engines is an effective way to generate more traffic by positioning your website url higher in the listings, which in turn will generate far more click throughs. We provide a certain range of SEO tools with each and every website that we build for clients, which allows the basics of seo optimisation to be adhered to. Here are some top tips for our clients to ensure they utilise in order to make their websites more effective within the search engines

1. Use keywords in the TITLE tag

Choosing a good page title is paramount for a good listing in the search engines. It must be clear and conside, spelt correctly and include your chosen keyword for which you require a good ranking. Do NOT cram keywords into the title and try and keep it to 6 words. Use the pipe command to seperate the words so for example, if you are selling Hotpoint wachine machines, try using a title like this: My Company Name | Hotpoint Washing Machines

2. Use robots.txt

This may seem foreign to come people but it’s an important little file which tells the search engine spiders which folders to follow and which ones not to. Speak to your web developer if unsure, but to check if you have one, simply go to your website address and put /robots.txt after it. If nothing displays, you don’t have one! If this is the case, get one!

3. Use ALT text for your images

Inserting an image into a webpage is a standard function and everyone does it, but not everyone adds in the ALT text which describes what that image is. It is worth naming your images well also e.g hotpoint_washingmachine.jpg and utilising the ALT text to describe it e.g <img src=”../pathtoimages/hotpoint_washingmachine.jpg” alt=”We sell hotpoint washing machines” />

4. Anchor Text of Links

The anchor text is the text inside your <a> tags that links to other pages. Wether they’re incoming or outgoing links, it’s important for the anchor text to contain helpful information about where the link is taking the user. This not only makes it more user friendly, but helps search engines rank your website links.

5. Internal Links and External Links

The links from your website to other peoples websites are valuable. It is equally important to get quality links pointing to you from other peoples websites. In some situations you can ask for a recipricol link, or post your website to a forum, directory or index. These might be free, swaps or paid for links, but it’s important to do it and vital that the website pointing to yours, is a popular one. The higher the page rank, the more benefit you will see.

6. Proper use of Heading Tags

Heading tags are H1, H2, H3 etc and are the headings for paragraphs within your content. You should only use one H1 tag for the main page heading and this should always include your keyword. Following on and throughout the page, you should use H2, H3 and H4, H5 & H6 where necessary.

• Only use one <h1> tag per page
• Use as many <h2> – <h6> tags as you like in your pages
• Always close tags properly e.g <h1>Title</h1>

7. Prioritise keywords within your first paragraph

Your first paragraph is the most important paragraph in your page. This is because it’s the first paragraph search engines scan and they assume that it’s somewhat of a summary of the page/article. That’s why it’s essential to have the most important keywords of your page in the first sentence or two.

8. Check and ensure your site is error free

You should check your HTML code and ensure it’s free of errors and optimised properly. You will see on the side of our website, the link to W3C validation which checks a sites code to ensure it’s error free. If it’s not, get it fixed so that it’s verified as this will have a bearing on how seo friendly your website is.

9. SEO Friendly URLs

The URL of a page should be descriptive so both the users and search engines have an idea what the page they’re being linked to consists of. SEO Friendly URLs also have the benefit of serving as their own anchor text when copy pasted to forums etc. due to URL having the keywords of the page in its URL. These type of URLs usually rank higher in search engines than pages with a URL like example.com/p=981489894.

10. Site Usability

If your website is cluttered with ads and has a terrible layout, accessibility, navigation and low quality of content, chances are that you’ll get less people linking back to your site than one that has better usability than yours, thus resulting in lower page ranking. If your website was designed in the 90s you seriously need consider hiring a web designer to redesign your website.

Final Note

There is a lot you can do yourself, but it comes down to the time you allocate and the simple fact is, the more time you spend on it, the better results you will see. We try to be as transparent as possible with our services and will tell you how to improve your website search engine rankings, but for those who don’t have the time, we can do it for you. Take a look at our professional search engine optimisation services here. We can make a big difference to the traffic which flows through our website.

1) Encrypt your login

Whenever you try to login to your website, your password is sent unencrypted. If you are on a public network, hacker can easily ‘sniff’ out your login credential using network sniffer. The best way is to encrypt your login with the Chap Secure Login plugin. This plugin adds a random hash to your password and authenticate your login with the CHAP protocol.

2) STOP! Brute force attacks

Hackers can easily crack your login password and credential using brute force attack. To prevent that from happening, you can install the login lockdown plugin. This plugin records the IP address and timestamp of every failed WordPress login attempt. Once a certain number of failed attempts are detected, it will disable the login function for all requests from that range.

3) Use a strong password

Make sure you use a strong password that is difficult for others to guess. Use a combination of digits, special characters and upper/lower case to form your password. You can also use the password checker on WordPress 2.5 and above to check the strength of your password.

4) Protect your wp-admin folder

Your wp-admin folder contains all the important information and it is the last place that you want to give access to others. Use AskApache Password Protect to password protect the directory and give access right only to authorized personnel.

5) Remove WordPress version info

A large number of WordPress theme include the WordPress version info in the meta tag. Hackers can easily get hold of this information and plan specific attack targeting the security vulnerability for that version.

To remove the WordPress version info, log in to your WordPress dashboard. Go to Design->Theme Editor. On the right, click on the Header file. On the left where you see a lot of codes, look for a line that looks like

<meta name=”generator” content=”WordPress <?php bloginfo(’version’); ?>” />

Delete it and press Update File.

Update: In WP2.6 and above, WordPress automatically includes the version in the Wp_head section. To fix this, you can simply install the WP-Security Scan plugin.

6) Hide your plugins folder

If you go to your http://yourwebsite.com/wp-content/plugins, you can see a list of plugins that you are using for your blog. You can easily hide this page by uploading an empty index.html to the plugin directory.

Open your text editor. Save the blank document as index.html.

Using a FTP program, upload the index.html to the /wp-content/plugins folder.

7) Change your login name

The default username is admin. You can make it more difficult for the hacker to crack your login credential by changing the login name.

In your WordPress dashboard, go to Users and set up a new user account. Give this new user administrator role. Log out and log in again with the new user account.

Go to Users again. This time, check the box beside admin and press Delete. When it asks for deletion confirmation, select the “Attribute all posts and links to:” and select your new username from the dropdown bar. This will transfer all the posts to your new user account. Press Confirm Deletion.

Upgrade to the latest version of WordPress and plugins

The latest version of WordPress always contains bugs fixes for any security vulnerabilities, therefore it is important to keep yourself updated at all times. If you have problems with the auto-update facility, don’t delay and upload it manually via FTP or contact us for advise/

9) Do a regular security scan

Install the wp-security-scan plugin and perform a regular scan of your blog setting for any security loopholes. This plugin can also help you to change your database prefix from wp_ to a custom prefix.

10) Backup your wordpress database

No matter how secure your site is, you still want to prepare for the worst. Install the wp-database-backup plugin and schedule it to backup your database daily.

11) Define user privilege

If there is more than one author for your blog, you can install the role-manager plugin to define the capabilities for each user group. This will give you, the blog owner, the ability to control what users can and cannot do in the blog.

The New Look for Gmail, Calendar, Docs, and Sites

The new look is optional now, but will soon become permanent for all Google Apps users. These are target release dates and subject to change (see the New Look site for details):

Steps to help you and your users transition to the new look:

Use the new look now

See the Google Apps New Look site. You’ll find steps to enable the new look as well as the latest release schedule. Communicate to your users and helpdesk staff On the New Look site, you’ll find email templates and customizable presentations to help communicate the changes. Tip: For Gmail, use the one-time switch in the control panel to opt-in all your users, and control the timing of when they see the new look.

Help your users get up to speedPoint your users to the Learning Center for guides, tips, and videos. Please plan to update any custom training material you’ve developed. Please see the New Look site for the latest schedule information. We hope you find the refreshed interfaces easier to use and navigate.

We are Google Authorized Resellers for Google Apps and provide installation, training, and support for all services contained in the Google Apps suite of services.

Top 5 Reasons to do this

• Access your e-mail, documents, calendar from any location and any computer or mobile device
• No need to buy ANY software or ever upgrade again as it’s all included in your £33 per year fee
• 25GB of storage (more if you need) to house your business e-mail and files in a business cloud
• No hardware to buy/upgrade/maintain and no 3rd party IT staff to keep it running
• No downtime when your computer crashes or gets infected with a virus. Just log in from another computer!

How can we help?

Simple, we will make some technical modifications to your domain names and systems to allow a direct flow through the business apps system. You don’t need to do a single thing, we will handle the entire process for you.

Once we have performed the necessary work and set you up, your domain name will be transformed into a direct route to the cloud. NOTE: This will NOT effect your website with us in any way whatseover.

You will benefit from the following (using yourdomain as example)

• mail.yourdomain.com
• docs.yourdomain.com
• calendar.yourdomain.com
• video.yourdomain.com

As shown in the video above, you will have access to your e-mail from any location.

E-Mail wherever you go

Once we have migrated you into the business apps system, you will be able to sync ALL of your computers, laptops and phones with the e-mail system.

50 times more storage than the industry average

Each user gets 25 GB for email storage, so they can keep important messages and find them instantly with built-in Google search.

Gmail is designed so employees can spend less time managing their inboxes, and more time being productive. Time-saving features like message threading, message labels, fast message search and powerful spam filtering help employees work efficiently with high volumes of email.

Mobile email, calendar and IM access

With several options for accessing their information while on the go, employees can be productive with Google Apps even when they’re not at their desks.

At no extra charge, Google Apps supports over-the-air mobile access on BlackBerry devices, the iPhone, Windows Mobile, Android and many less powerful phones.

99.9% uptime reliability guarantee with synchronous replication

We guarantee that Google Apps will be available at least 99.9% of the time, so your employees are more productive and so you can worry less about system downtime.**

Information security and compliance

When you trust your company’s information to Google, you can be confident that your critical information is safe and secure.

Google’s information security team, including some of the world’s foremost experts in information, application and network security, are focused on keeping your information safe. Google and many other customers trust this system with highly sensitive corporate data.

Businesses get these customizable security features with Google Apps:

• Custom spam and inbound mail filtering tools, powered by Postini, to complement powerful spam filters that automatically work with no up-front configuration.
• Custom outbound mail filtering tools to prevent sensitive information from being distributed, powered by Postini.
• Custom information sharing rules to determine how broadly employees are allowed to share with Google Docs, Google Calendar and Google Sites.
• Custom password length requirements and visual strength indicators to help employees pick secure passwords.
• Enforced SSL connections with Google Apps to ensure secure HTTPS access.
• Optional email archiving, up to 10 years of retention.

Costs

We charge a set-up fee from £99 + vat which handles the entire migration process. We will help you migrate your e-mail onto the business apps system and either configure a sync tool between your existing e-mail client and the cloud, or show you the benefits of using Chrome brower based e-mail client.

As approved reseller of business apps, we supply a premium business apps annual license for £33 per year + vat. This is a per user cost and includes all facilities shown on this page.

Huge Cost Saving compared to Microsoft Exchange

You have no hardware costs or expensive set-up IT administration costs and huge licensing costs per user for small business server, as everything is taken care for you for a single annual cost of £33 per user.

If you imagine a small company with 10 users wanting an exchange server put into place. The cost would be around £5,000 + vat to set-up with ongoing annual costs far in excess of the £333 +

• UK Copyright Law Link
• Stock Photo Rights

Here are some of the basics you need to know. We’ve sectioned up the subject areas into bite size pieces – each one will only take you a few moments to read through. And, of course, you can also watch our video ‘Image rights explained visually’ for a round up of all the main issues.

Use these links to jump straight to a section that interests you:

(you can also download this information – FAQ.pdf 280510)

• Different types of imagery
• Copyright
• Legal Protection
• Free images and Creative Commons
• Infrequent and personal use
• Questions to ask your supplier

Different types of imagery

Q: Is this site primarily about images that are used for commercial purposes?

A: Yes, stockphotorights.com is primarily focused on stock images that are licensed for commercial use.

Q: What are the different types of stock images?

A: Stock images break down into two main types, royalty-free and rights-managed.

For royalty-free images, you get nearly unlimited use. You can use the image in virtually any application, for as long as you like, in as many different projects as you like, as long as you comply with the terms of the license agreement. The image is available to use from when you purchase a license. Following payment of the license fee, no additional royalty payments are owed.

With rights-managed images, your right to use the image is typically restricted, with limitations placed on things such as duration of use, geographic region, industry, etc., as established by your license agreement.

Q: Can I use royalty-free images for free?

A: No. Royalty-free means that once a license fee is paid, the images may be used many times without paying additional fees, but the initial license is necessary to protect yourself and your clients. When you license a royalty-free image, you can use it in nearly any application, for as long as you like, according to your license agreement (although some kinds of uses do require an extended license). The cost is often based on file size, the number of permitted users as well as other factors.

Copyright

Q: What is copyright?

A: Copyright is a form of protection provided by the law to the authors of “original works of authorship.” By virtue of the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, works are protected in all 160 countries that are party to the Convention, as well as various other laws such as the US copyright act.

Q: Does this apply to all images?

A: Yes, this applies to all images. From the time it is created, a photo or other image is automatically protected by copyright.

Q: What is copyright infringement?

A: Infringement can include a violation of the rights of the creator or rights holder. Examples of imagery infringement may include:

• Use of whole or part of an image without permission

• Use beyond the scope of a license or permission

• Adapting an image without permission (art rendering)

• Asking another photographer to identically recreate the image

Q: Who’s responsible when infringement occurs?

A: Responsible parties may include:

• The party that infringed (the photographer or the person that stole the image in the first place), even if unintentionally

• Employees or others who participated in the original infringement

• Anyone who published the infringing image, whether they had knowledge or not

• Anyone who authorized or encouraged infringement

Q: Why should I worry about copyright infringement?

A: Infringement of copyright may result in monetary damages, lawsuits, costly legal fees and under some rare circumstances, criminal charges.

Q: Surely no-one will be able to find one image in the whole of the internet?

A: New technology now enables copyright owners to identify unlicensed imagery and act to protect their rights. Imagery is ‘fingerprinted’ so that it can be tracked and found in use, even if it has been modified, recreated or if only part of the image has been used. The image is then flagged up to the copyright owner so that they can check if the correct license is held.

Q: I’m using an image I found through a Google Image search. If it’s on the internet, doesn’t that mean it’s free?

A: No. Just because an image is on the internet, it doesn’t mean the image is free to use. You may still need the correct license to use it. There is a difference between an image being online and an image being “in the public domain” (the term given to content that is not owned or controlled by anyone).

Q: Someone else created my website. Am I liable if the images are not licensed correctly?

A: If a third-party designer, employee, contractor or intern designed and developed your company’s website, you are responsible for ensuring they have licensed the images for your use. If no valid licenses exist the liability of any infringement may fall on the company (the end client) who used the image.

Q: If someone else built my website, how will I know when the licenses will expire?

A: Don’t assume your designer or image provider will contact you about an expiring license. Where the license to the image expires (which is generally not the case with royalty-free images), the imagery provider may send a renewal notice to the purchaser of the license, so your designer may receive this notice if they licensed it on your behalf.

It is best to get invoice numbers or sales order numbers for the images on the website and contact your imagery provider to confirm if the license is connected to your website. It’s also wise to keep all your licenses organized so that you know the scope and expiration dates of each license.

Q: I’m just a blogger and my site is non-commercial. Can I use images for free?

A: In most cases, no. Unless your use is specifically permitted by copyright law, all the images on your website must be properly licensed, regardless of the nature of your site. You can, however, license very inexpensive images from many imagery providers that are perfect for web use and will be properly licensed.

Q: How can I be sure I’ve taken the appropriate steps in licensing an image?

A: There are various places that you can go for information; hopefully this website will give you a basic understanding of the potential risks you need to bear in mind. You should consult with your legal counsel if you have specific questions. Please also see our resources section for more information and also take a look at our ‘what you need to do’ section.

Legal Protection

Q: I paid for my image; does that mean I can’t be sued?

A: Not necessarily. Even if you license an image from a reputable supplier, copyright disputes (as well as various other disputes) can still occur.

Q: So how can I make sure that I am covered against these potential legal disputes?

A: You should always consult with legal counsel for the greatest certainty. The best way is to source your image from a supplier that offers legal protection with its images. The first lines of protection are in the form of model and property releases if the image includes people, or items that are not public property. Some image providers offer additional legal protection either for free or with an additional fee attached that is basically an extension of the warranty. This provides additional peace of mind so that if a dispute arises, for example around the copyright, you should in most cases be covered.

When you license an image that comes with legal protection it offers you an umbrella of some protection around that image. For instance, if someone who claims to own the copyright of an image issues a claim against you for copyright infringement, the supplier who licensed the image to you in the first place can step in, fight the legal battle and cover the legal costs (assuming that the user is otherwise in compliance with the applicable license agreement).

Suppliers that provide legal protection in the form of model and property releases, as well as extended protection, may also have inspection processes in place for the images that they offer.

Q: Are there any other words or phrases that mean the same thing as ‘legal protection?’

A: Yes, ‘indemnification’ is commonly understood as a legal concept that means essentially the same thing as legal protection – this is how it may be described in your license agreement. Certain image providers may also have different names for the legal protection that they offer, for example some agencies call it a legal guarantee.

Q: What does indemnification mean in legal terms?

A: The legal concept of indemnification (more commonly referred to as legal protection) is generally understood to mean that one party agrees to bear the liability and assume the costs relating to certain legal claims. In license agreements that include indemnification, the supplier of the imagery often assumes liability for certain kinds of claims and costs, depending on the type of image.

Q: So how does legal protection work in practice?

A: If a customer receives a claim, they notify the supplier, who will pick up handling the claim from then on (provided it is a claim that they cover as part of the legal protection agreement). The specifics of what and how this will be done may vary depending on the supplier but are often detailed in the legal protection agreement.

Q: Which suppliers of imagery offer legal protection?

A: Various companies offer varying degrees of legal protection.

It is best to check the license agreement thoroughly before you agree to buy, and to go with a supplier that offers legal protection in situations where you require more peace of mind.

Q: What sort of disputes might arise after I have legally licensed an image?

A: Disputes can still arise even after you have legally licensed an image from a reputable supplier. One potential source of dispute is from individuals depicted in the image. All models have rights of publicity and privacy.

The rights of publicity protect them against the commercial use of their name, voice, likeness, or persona without their permission. The right of privacy protects against the disclosure of private facts and false portrayal of someone in an offensive manner. Models depicted in stock images should be asked to sign a model release which provides permission for their image to be used commercially. Reputable suppliers of imagery should have model releases in place for applicable stock images, protecting both the supplier and its customers against claims of invasion of privacy or publicity. There are instances though, when someone will claim they are the person depicted in the image and that they did not sign a model release. This means that whoever used the images may be liable for the legal costs of defending against the claim, unless the image is covered by legal protection.

Q: Do all types of images come with a model release?

A: No. It is always best to check and the supplier should indicate on its website, or in the license agreement, whether a model release is available for each image.

Q: What if I want to use an unreleased image for a commercial purpose?

A: Some stock agencies have rights and clearance services that can sometimes arrange special permission for certain uses, but these are typically done on a case by case basis.

Q: Are model and property releases required for editorial use of images?

A: Generally speaking, model and property releases are required for commercial use of images (e.g. any advertising, promotional or marketing use) but not for editorial use (e.g. use in a news report).

Q: What about trademarked items in the image? Can I be sued by the owners of the trademarks?

A: Yes, in the same way you need a model release to cover people depicted in an image, you may also need a property release to cover trademarks in an image. A trademark can be a word, a symbol, or a shape, that is used as a product or service brand to distinguish one’s goods or services from the goods and services of others. So for example, there could be an image of a model carrying a bike which has a trademark appearing on it, and a property release may need to be in place for that trademark.

Similar to model releases, reputable suppliers should have property releases in place for their applicable images when necessary. There are cases where a property release is not necessary. For authentic clips of a street scene, it may not be practical or required to get a property release from each storefront or billboard depicted. It is always best to check if the image has a property release in place and whether this affects the legal protection provided with that image.

Q: So, aside from trademarked items, do I need to be wary of any other items appearing in the image?

A: Yes. Artistic works, such as paintings and sculptures appearing in an image are protected by copyright laws. Also, copyright laws in some countries protect images of unique architectural works or buildings. In addition, some images of buildings are actually registered trademarks such as the Sydney Opera House.

A property release gives consent to use the image of a copyrighted artistic work and also protects against claims of infringement of copyright or trademark for buildings depicted in an image.

It is always best to check if a property release is in place. If a property release is not in place it could mean that legal protection is not offered on that particular image.

Q: Are there any reasons why legal protection might not be granted if a claim arises?

A: Usually certain conditions need to be met for the supplier to provide legal protection to a customer if a claim arises. These will be laid out in the terms and conditions of the supplier’s license agreement. For example, the customer may need to notify the supplier of the claim within a certain timeframe and customers must be in compliance with the terms of the license agreement for the legal protection to be offered.

Free images and Creative Commons

Q: Is it possible to get free images, legally?

A: Yes. There are sources of free, legal images.

Q: Does that mean these free images have no copyright?

A: No. Copyright is automatically granted to the creator of any image. That copyright holder must specifically declare the image as free to use.

Q: Is it possible to get legal protection from suppliers of free, legal images?

A: Not usually. Free images typically do not come with any form of legal protection. Most free images will not have model releases or property releases and if a claim arises, the customer will be responsible for that claim.

Q: Are there any downsides to using free images?

A: The quality of these images can be lower than paid-for images. The better quality free images can also be over-used, and their effectiveness may be diluted the more times you see an image appearing in different places. Suppliers of free images are also unlikely to have inspection processes in place, which in turn can increase the likelihood of a dispute arising.

Q: What is a Creative Commons license?

A: Creative Commons is a non-profit organization that has released several copyright-licenses known as Creative Commons licenses. These licenses allow creators of content (which includes imagery) to communicate which rights they reserve, and which rights they waive for the benefit of recipients or other creators. Restrictions include whether an image can be used for personal or commercial purposes, and whether or not the photographer requires attribution or credit.

Q: Do Creative Commons licenses cover you against all legal risk?

A: No. A Creative Commons license will still have certain restrictions on how the image can be used and does not automatically confirm that necessary model releases or property releases have been obtained so you could still be liable in the case of a dispute. The Creative Commons license does not include legal protection, so if a dispute arises about an individual, building, trademark or artistic work in that image, the customer may be liable for that claim.

Infrequent and personal use

Q: My boss has asked me to find some images for an internal presentation. Do I still need to pay for them?

A: Yes, in most circumstances. You will still need to pay for the image and license it for commercial use. There are various sources of free images and clip art that you can use, but these images must normally still be accompanied by a license or permission from the copyright holder.

Q: What’s the difference between “personal use” and “commercial use”?

A: Personal use may be commonly defined as use that is not for commercial gain. Examples of personal use (or non-commercial use) might include social newsletters or wedding announcements.

Commercial use may be commonly defined as use that is intended for commercial, promotional, endorsement, advertising or merchandising purposes. Examples of commercial use could include a branded company website, brochure, advert, presentation or product.

Q: Do you need a different kind of license for commercial and non-commercial use?

A: It depends on the imagery provider. Different types of licenses may be available for commercial and non-commercial use.

Q: Do I need to buy images for personal use, or can I use them for free?

A: You will need to acquire a license for personal use and for commercial use. There are various sources of free stock images and free clip art that you can use, but these free images must still be accompanied by a license unless the use is specifically permitted by copyright law.

Q: I’m a business owner, but I also have a personal blog, through which I get a number of referrals. Would this blog still constitute personal use?

A: As long as your blog is for personal use only and does not have any commercial purpose (i.e. ad revenue or promotion of commercial operations) it could be considered personal use, as the site is not designed for the purposes of monetary reward. Images used must still be properly licensed though.

Q: I set up a group on Facebook for my business, does this constitute personal use?

A: This could be considered commercial use, as the Facebook Group is designed for the purposes of promoting your business. Additionally, note that Facebook has a section on ’Protecting Other People’s Rights’ within its terms (www.facebook.com/terms.php?ref=pf) which provides some further guidance for users of its website.

Questions to ask your supplier

1. Do you have the permission to license the copyright?
2. Do you have model and property releases for all of your imagery?
3. Do you offer additional legal protection should a dispute arise?
4. Does your company have an inspection process for identifying potentially risky properties, trademarks etc? Can you please describe?

Controlling access to the internet is something all families should consider when young children are using the internet un-attended. It might seem trivial to you, but trust us, it’s not a trivial matter and there are many dangers out there which can be avoided by following these simple instructions.You do not need to be a IT technician to implement this and by spending 20 minutes reading this article and implementing our suggestions, you can secure your entire network and filter unwanted sites by URL or by Category and it won’t cost you a penny!

What is Open DNS?

OpenDNS is the leading provider of security and infrastructure services that make the Internet safer through integrated Web content filtering, anti-phishing and DNS. OpenDNS services enable consumers and network administrators to secure their networks from online threats, reduce costs and enforce Internet-use policies. OpenDNS is used today by millions of users and organizations around the world.

• Industry leading malware and botnet protection
• Award winning Web filtering
• Faster, reliable, more secure DNS
• Ultra-reliable, globally distributed cloud network
• Simple, Smart, Easy

What will it cost me?

A little bit of your time to set-up

What does it actually do?

What you are doing is changing two numbers in your router, which adjust the DNS servers you use to connect to the internet. By doing this, you will benefit from filtered internet access, not just on one computer but ANY computer which connects to your internet connection. You can log in and choose specific websites to block or blanket block a range of websites which are blacklisted or known dodgy sites. e.g If you want to stop your kids accessing youtube.com, simply go in and enter youtube.com into the blacklist. Bingo! Now, any computer on your connection will be unable to access youtube. You can even customise the block page e.g ‘This page is blocked, ask Dad to unblock it’ and even include your own logo or mugshot which will appear within the google search page and openDNS block pages. It’s cool, simple to use and best of all ‘effective in making your network safe’..

How do i get started?

Visit the website directly if you wish and see for yourself either click on the Home Solution or for business, you can optionally use the Small – Medium Business option, although for most small business, we recommend the basic free one as being fine.

Give me the lowdown, what do i need to do?

Ok, a brief overview is this. You need to adjust the router that you use to access the internet (box provided by ISP to share internet around your home/office). In this router, you need to log in to the admin and adjust the settings for the DNS Server IP Address. As standard, it’s probably blank or automatically assigned by your ISP. Basically, you change the DNS servers to be 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220. All this does is route all outbound traffic to the internet via openDNS which makes for a faster and more secure browsing experience. In addition, with a free account set-up with openDNS directly, you can log in and configure family filtering, virus protection and logging og site traffic in your network

Some retailers such as Amazon have created apps for the popular iPhone which increase it’s sales on-line by providing an easy one click shopping experience for it’s customers. Other high street franchises such as Pizza Express have launched apps which lets you locate your nearest restaurant and book a table, even pay for your food via paypal…

Mobiles have created an “always on society,” where people are online and accessible 24/7. Mobile platforms have become more than simple communications devices; they are lifestyle assistants that enable people to connect, interact, inform and influence. This we feel has contributed towards the downturn in high street sales as it is now so easy for people to check the price they are paying and make sure they are getting the best deal. We are seeing shoppers check prices on goods in shops to make sure it’s the best deal and if not, two clicks later their money goes to an online retailer for delivery two days later!

Because of this, they are also an incredibly valuable piece of the commerce puzzle — no other channel provides such a direct and persistent connection to customers, partners, prospects and suppliers.

We are actively working with the creation of not only iPhone applications but mobile commerce systems to enable on-line shopping via mobile browsers. If you are interested in having your website made mobile ready, call us on 0800 756 9975 for more details.