Who Owns The Copyright

To determine who owns the copyright to any content conduct the quick copyright test below.

1. Did you originate the material for which you want to claim a copyright under copyright law?


2. Did you hire another person under a "work-for-hire" agreement to create material for you?


3. Did you create the material that is to be protected by copyright law from other materials with proper citations to the other published original works?

If you answered "yes" to the above questions, the chances are good that you own the copyright, but there are exceptions.

1. Originator. Under copyright law, you can claim a copyright so long as you originated the material. If you answered "yes" to the question, then you need only put that material into a fixed medium and stake your claim. Copyright law no longer requires an originator to publish the material; rather, a copyright is established upon creation in a fixed medium. Ideas, thoughts or even manuscripts that are idealized, but not put into a fixed medium cannot be copyright protected. A fixed medium includes any medium that can preserve the material such as a word document, a website, or on paper or in a paper tablet. If you were not the originator, then you cannot claim a copyright until and unless the copyright is transferred to you from its originator.


2. Work-for-hire. Under copyright law, you can hire another person to create material on your behalf so long as that was the intended agreement before the material was created. A work-for-hire agreement must be in writing, signed by both parties and explicitly state the event upon which the copyright is transferred (usually upon final payment). Under contract law, your agreement must be in writing if it valued at more than $1,000.00, cannot be completed within one year, or is between a non-business person and a business or legal entity, even if it is not a work-for-hire. Note that the mere provision of "notes" or an outline for the person creating the content under a work-for-hire agreement does NOT create a copyright for you in the final material created from your notes or outlines.


3. Works from other works. Anyone who copies material from a website and republishes the copied material or materials on their own website violates copyright law. See Digital Millenium Act of 1998, or Google on DMCA law. Copying content on the web parallels copying someone else's test in law school - it will get you taken out of the game. Copying another's content and making changes to it is plagarism. Basically, if you cannot create it anew, don't create it. In addition to "creating" a civil tort albiet copying or plagarizing content for which you might get sued, and violating federal law, copying content on the web creates duplicative content on two (or more) websites the results of which will be a duplicative content error that will result in one or both websites falling in the rankings for searches relative to the duplicated content. Duplicative content can also cause greater harm; for example, repeat offenders can be banned from search results. You should create rules for handling copyright infringments (some suggestions are provided below).

SPECIAL NOTATIONS:

The penalty for filing a false DMCA complaint is $100,000.

Search engines are not in the business of mediating between competitors, nor refereeing in spamming wars. If you file complaints with the search engines that are barely-true, false or part and parcel a spamming war with a competitor, the chances are very good that you won't like the outcome. Do not file a complaint with any search engine without having first contacted the owner of the website you claim is infringing upon your copyright with a request to take the duplicative content down. A complaint should only be filed with the search engines when you have exhausted the remedies below so as to avoid appearances of a spam war.

If your website content is duplicated, change the content immediately, and contact the webmaster of the site that is infringing upon your copyright to ask that the content be imemdiately removed (within 24 or 48 hours). Once it is removed, you can restore your original content. If the webmaster fails to remove it, issue a cease and desist demand to the owner and webmaster. If that still fails to get the duplicated content taken down, file a DMCA complaint. We strongly suggest hiring an experienced Intellectual Property Attorney.

Helpful links:
DMCA
Intellectual Property Attorneys
Copyright Litigation Attorneys
Trademark Litigation Attorneys
Patent Attorneys

Intellectual Property Attorneys

Intellectual property attorneys can provide critical legal services before a problem arises, as well as during litigating a claim to protect your copyright, trademark or patent. Some of the IP attorneys that we have worked with and recommend are listed below.

Myers, Boebel & MacLeod
Patent Litigation, Minneapolis MN, Nationwide

Whyte Hirschboeck Dudek S.C.
Madison & Milwaukee Wisconsin, Nationwide

Von Briesen & Roper
Madison, Milwaukee, Racine, Kenosha & Mequon Wisconsin - Nationwide

Michael Best & Friedrich LLP
Nationwide

Wilhelm Intellectual Property Firm

The Legend - Professor Hal Dorf

Tonight, several managers, leaders, coaches, parents and children gathered together to chat about the good old times. Those "good old times" encompassed building an association of students who created an international study abroad program, facilitating an international seminar bringing leaders from the world's market to a symposium of exchanges that fostered careers, lifelong relationships and learning. Those times brought cultural studies to elementary schools, and dance to an entire county. They fueled spirits in people who caused great feats to be accomplished in short periods of time.

As I look back on those times, they are fondly recalled as some of the most courageous, adventurous and brain energizing days of my life, and there is one man that holds a shining light - my former professor, my former boss, my mentor and my friend, Professor Hal Dorf. And there is one woman whom all who have known Hal have come to love and adore, his bride, Miss Arlene. (She's been his "bride" for some 25 years plus =).

I'm sure I would not speak out of turn to say that every one of us holds the highest regard, greatest respect and a lifelong admiration for Hal, and for Arlene. We would say that we also hold the deepest debt of gratitude, but Hal would tell us that the glory belongs to us.

Hal and Arlene lead a life of example. Hal earned his undergraduate degree at NMU, and his masters at IMEDE (Lausaunne, Switzerland). He formed an alliance with Thunderbird College (Arizona) that led to an alliance between the NMU College of Business students and Thunderbird's Inernational Studies programs. He mentored students into coaches, and coaches into mentors. Together, Hal and Arlene have shown us deep devotion, what it means to stand beside your spouse, and that united - anything is possible. They have shown us that believing in the good in people will rise them to the call, that calling people to fulfill their dreams will benefit multitudes, and that life isn't about cramming people into little boxes on a hillside - it's about freeing people to their own excellence.

(I developed a process for projects in reflection of their lives, "Get by Giving" - which by the way is the way the Internet works best!)

Tonight, when I thanked him for touching my and my family's life through his wonderful teachings, he reminded me that it was not him who taught me, but rather me who taught him - he merely opened the door - we walked through. That's so typical of Hal - he always gives the glory to the man in the arena, the one sweating blood to make a dream come true. But we, all of "us" know that it was his belief in us that made things possible.

It is an honor to know him, and privilege to have walked with him. Thank you, Hal.

Spam For A Greater Good

If I had but one wish today, it would be to channel all of the negativity, hatred, anger, and TIME (oh the TIME) of all spammers into a greater good... with all that spam out there, it would benefit this planet immensely.

FindLaw Busted For Deceiving Clients

There is a wide divide between companies that "do websites" for profit and webmasters that embrace the concept of marketing lawyers online to bring together two vital ends: people who need legal help and people who offer it. There is also a wide divide between those who do whatever it takes to win (including breaking the cardinal rules) and those who embrace the psychological interactions online, the purpose of information, the value of intellectual needs and exchanges, and the goal of helping people. The former examples are what FindLaw has done; the latter is why I am a much former representative of FindLaw. Moving the soap box over....

If you haven't heard, FindLaw got busted by Google for breaking the cardinal rule: selling links.

The reason that the term "got busted" has been used to describe FindLaw's action is because it has forever and a day been against Google guidelines and rules for any website owner (or the company in charge of managing it - in this case, FindLaw) to sell links to other website owners. The primary objective of such links is to "pass link juice" from one website to another. "Link juice" is simply explained as passing the authority that one website has earned/gained in Google's eyes onto another website - much like you would refer a client to another lawyer along with your glowing remarks. The more authority you have in the legal community, the greater the weight of your referral. The same applies online.

Many BLOG's have posted the FindLaw bust, and shamed FindLaw for having sold links. I concur, it was a shameful act because FindLaw holds itself out as being an authority in the legal marketing industry; therefore, they knew or should have know that it was wrong, but they chose to do it anyway. What they did is "against the rules" and perhaps better known as "greed." The person responsible for that choice is their search engine marketing manager, but that responsibility must be shared by all of his managers - somebody has to have the courage to say "it is wrong" and "the buck stops here" in corporate America. The SEM manager knew both that it was wrong and that he could gain leverage in the search engine results by releasing small inventories of "link juice" and selling them at high dollars. One report by a former FindLaw manager said they pulled in nearly 1 billion from selling links. As a FindLaw competitor, I'm not in favor of them making money through massive projects such as those, but my views go to the ethical side of their choice.

They broke Google's rules, that's a given, and it is up to Google to hold the line on their rule prohibiting the selling of links by properly punishing FindLaw and all websites that participated in the game, or forever appear the empty threat or institutional mongrel that they have forever denied. Of course, such punishment would have to be bestowed upon their many other URL's, such as the thomson.com marketing campaign they launched almost immediately upon "getting busted" for selling links for FindLaw.com.

But the most concerning wrong here is the deceit: FindLaw deceived the lawyers that entrusted FindLaw to market them online ethically. We are not talking about ethics in legal marketing here, folks, but rather webmaster ethics - the heart of any business intending to market online. FindLaw claims to be a webmaster to law firm sites; FindLaw is a member of the same organizations that I am a member - organizations that preach the good guidelines to follow; they knew that selling links was wrong, and yet they concealed the possible harm from their clients. Some FindLaw representatives have posted claims that they did not know. That would not surprise me - the representatives are not trained in search engine optimization; they are trained in selling; they aren't trained in search engine marketing; they are trained to regurgitate talking points to drive the sale to close. Now, there are many reps that truly care about their clients, but that care is constrained by the product offerings that FindLaw makes available to them. Even so, most reps likely don't understand the technical side of marketing online, so they likely are not to blame for having deceived the lawyers that took part in the selling links program. Conspiracy would likely be proven if the challenge were there, but in my humble opinion, that responsibility goes to the managers.

Other BLOG's have indicated that FindLaw didn't do anything wrong, stating that FindLaw charged for links on its high ranking pages much like any other directory. In part, FindLaw has always sought to leverage select clients with links; that was done long ago, and is apparent online. Google has already noted those links. The actual "sales of links" broke known Google rules because the links are wrong because of FindLaw's "other acts" and "object intent". Those other acts included positioning the high ranking web pages to leverage other websites and host links to those sites after the links were purchased. In other words, FindLaw did not link to authorities in the legal industry because of those attorneys' past trial record or years of experience, nor did they seek to help people find a key piece of information, but rather, they linked to those sites without the proper programming behind the link that would indicate to search engines that the link was not intended to pass link juice to that site. The object intent is evident - boost the page rank of the client site, albeit unethical ways. So, FindLaw's claim that they don't do whatever it takes to win is disproved; they do, even unethical acts proven when they "got busted".

And yet other BLOG's have depicted the outrage of webmasters in the legal community at Google for having done nothing to FindLaw, despite the long standing Google threat of doom to anyone who sells links to pass link juice. I believe that the webmasters of the world have covered this well, and I wholeheartedly agree that Google should hold FindLaw accountable for their intended objective. By doing so, Google would not penalize directories as a whole - directories are good, they help us find information - but rather penalize those whose object intent it is to do something that they know should not be done. If it were anyone else, perhaps even lawyers.com, the penalty would be 6 months in the brig (i.e. Google Sandbox). I can understand why webmasters are outraged.

Results (top rankings in Google) go to those who play by the rules and work for the placement - they get by giving valuable information to the users of the Internet.

Interestingly enough, another BLOG post I ran across indicated that FindLaw was switching websites periodically. It stated that FindLaw would post your website, and then swap it periodically with another nearly duplicate site. The purpose of the swapping was to trick search engines into believing that the site had new content. In other words, another means of deception.

I wouldn't recommend swapping up websites to try to trick Google into believing that you posted new content. I do recommend doing the work - i.e. write the content!

We always ask our clients to tell us if they are involved in any other online marketing for this very reason. We do not participate in nor want anything to do with paid linking programs. We also don't knowingly link with FindLaw websites because it has long been rumoured in the webmaster community that they practice less than ethical search engine marketing - I believe I first heard of FindLaw selling links some 12 months ago through a company in Florida that has since been sold.

So, what can you do as a law firm who has a contract with FindLaw? Ask for a report of all inbound links to your site, and then ask for a report on any of those links which would qualify as "paid links" or "unethical practices" under the "Google guidelines" - then ask to have those links removed. In any case, at least then you will have the foundation of material upon which you relied.

And how can you tell if your site is being swapped-up? Make changes to specific words, sentences or paragraphs, and then print it off. Follow up by checking those changes to see if they disappear. One attorney in Green Bay reported that he had made changes to his website, but then some months later, those changes were "un-made". That result may indicate that the site was swapped-up. You could also just ask FindLaw...

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dominator - Definition from the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary

dominator - Definition from the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary

Dominator defined by Merriam Webster

"dominator"
Etymology:
Latin dominatus, past participle of dominari, from dominus master; akin to Latin domus house — more at dome
Date:
1611
transitive verb1: rule, control 2: to exert the supreme determining or guiding influence on 3: to overlook from a superior elevation or command because of superior height or position 4 a: to be predominant in b: to have a commanding or preeminent place or position in intransitive verb1: to have or exert mastery, control, or preeminence2: to occupy a more elevated or superior position
— dom·i·na·tive \-ˌnā-tiv\ adjective

D O M I N A T O R

D O M I N A T O R - Tried, proven, true...

Dominator (roller coaster)

Dominator (roller coaster) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - Dominators at the King's Dominion

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kings_Dominion

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:PKDEntrance.jpg

More Dominators

DR Systems - Dominators in the medical field.

Dominators

Dominator Wax - Japan's premium wax

Birdsall Law Offices, S.C. - Lawyer Website Goes Live

Birdsall Law Offices, S.C. is a criminal defense law firm located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with a law office in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Their new site, www.birdsall-law.com, went live today! Congratulations!

Just a few words about the Birdsall Law firm.

Both of the criminal defense lawyers represent people on any criminal charge.

Attorney John Birdsall defends people against every type of criminal charge, including the serious stuff like sexual assault, drug possession & selling, and porn, and violent crimes such as battery and murder.

Attorney Thedore J. Perlick-Molinari, better known as "TJ", focuses on drunk driving offenses. He just won a hearing for a refusal charge. And he also defends people against other crimes, such as battery, theft.

Who Created The Net?

Did Al Gore Develop The Internet?

Al Gore was instrumental in backing legislation that permitted commercial communications to flow over the government sponsored backbones in the United States. Al Gore envisioned the vital impact that the commercial sector could realize through Internet communications. If he had not backed and pushed through the legislation that allowed the NSF to grow, it is possible that the Internet would have been detained many years and many current electronic communications and commerce exchanges would not exist. It was through Gore's legislation that the commercial sector in the United States grew on the Internet.

From that legislation, Pack and Radio, Pack and Satellite, and ARPANET were developed to further develop and test each of the radio transmissions, mobile-type transmissions and wire transmissions respectively. In 1979, the first tests were conducted successfully (at 100 kilobits per second =). VoIP was tested at that time over a 50 kilobits communication stream through what could be described as compressed methods. The three bands were combined in 1977.

In part, those tests, the original foundation of the net, and the net today carry a common thread that is often called Net Neutrality - freedom of use, speech, commerce and interactivity.

^.com^

Helpful links:
ICANN
IPv4
IPv6

CS3 Sharing Violation

Have you received a "sharing violation" with CS3?

If so, here are a couple of things to check out.

First, CS3 provides automatic synchronization, so check first to see if you are synchronizing on the fly, and if so, disable synchronization until you correct the sharing violation issue. It may not be the cause, but it can be problematic. Also check your server setup; if you are running a testing server, then your current site or page may be trying to access the test server, and a failure will create a sharing violation. If that doesn't work, go next.

Next, you might try minimizing your screens to look for an alert. In every occurrence of a sharing violation that I have seen, the culprit was the temporary file, which is created because of leftover's in memory (on scratch) when you move from one file to another. Cancel the action. Test. If that doesn't work, go next.

Next, go into site management, and reveal all hidden files. Then look for a TMP file. These are the result of the above paragraph. They are duplicate files created when the first item occurs or when you have multiple sites open (there may be other situations that cause the temporary files to be created, but these two are predominate). Delete the temporary files. Test. If that doesn't work, go next.

Next, clear cache. If that doesn't work, reboot. CS3 creates its own conflicts...

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Who Is On The Net?

The World Is Online


Asia - about 460 million (12%) of the population and growing quickly.
Europe - About 338 million (42%) of the population.
North America - about 235 million (71%) of the population.
Latin America - about 116 million (21%).
Middle East - about 34 million (17%).
Oceania - 19 million (55%)
Africa - 44 million (5%)

Total - about 1.25 million (19%) of the world is online.

Source - Google, 2007.

As we bid 2007 good-bye and bring in 2008, the numbers above are noteworthy. Regardless of your location, the Internet either is or will play a major role in your marketing scheme. For law firms in the United States, it is an integral part of marketing plans and strategies. Whether you rely on PEW Standard statistics or those above, over 70% of the U.S.A. is online.

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BLOGS - Their Effectiveness & Potential For Malpractice

According to an article in Wisconsin Lawyer by Thomas J. Watson (Wisconsin Lawyers Mutual Insurance Co., Madison) in an interview with Tracey Wood, (Van Wagner & Wood) Attorney at Law and BLOGGER (Wisconsin Criminal Laws & Wisconsin Drunk Driving Laws) and Dan Pinnington (Lawyers' Professional Indemnity Co. in Toronto), BLOGS provide effective marketing communications, but they also are a potential for malpractice. That article is summarized below.

BLOGS

• 10 million + Americans have a BLOG
• Readership up by 50% in past 10 years
• Informs current clients, attracts potential clients, markets legal services
• Gen X'ers [people aged 28-42] and Millennials [people aged 27 or younger] judge attorneys by their web presence
• Madison lawyer Tracey Wood has a blog, and she agrees with Pinnington. "Our blogs have helped us establish more of a presence on the Internet. People do not look for attorneys in the yellow pages anymore - they find them through referrals and Internet searches."
• Attorney Wood receives referrals from her website and BLOG regularly
• Spend the time to post to it regularly
• BLOG establishes expertise in a particular area of law if that lawyer puts up content that is current, informative, and insightful

RISKS

The article provides the following categorization of BLOGS: information or advisory formats, and makes the following assessments.

• Advisory BLOGS give legal advice and risk establishing an attorney-client relationship; conversely, informational BLOGS add a voice to online information devoid of legal advice
• Law firms should avoid advisory BLOGS
• Law firms should avoid BLOGGING in any environment that seeks to establish itself as an authority
• "Many blogs have the comment feature turned off to avoid spam comments or other inappropriate replies being posted." Wood says, "In our blogs, we try to give a general overview of a certain area of law, or alert readers to interesting issues in our field."
• Disclaimers are a must - include both notice that no attorney-client relationship is established and no legal advice is being or is intended to be given

WALKING & CROSSING THE MALPRACTICE LINE

The article provides:

• Canadian insurance underwriter, Pinnington says, "I think it could be argued that referring a client to information posted on your blog post could be construed as providing `advice' from the blog." (See last note below).
• Do not dispense legal advice.
• Do not create any lawyer-client relationships.
• Do not breach any current client confidences.
• Do not make a false or misleading communication about your services.
• Treat your blog like any other form of communication to clients or potential clients.
• Assume your blog is a form of advertising or marketing, and follow the Wisconsin Supreme Court rules governing lawyer advertising and marketing.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTARY

• Wisconsin websites and BLOGS fall under the rules of advertising (Wisconsin Supreme Court Rules 20:7.1, 7.2, 7.3, and 7.4)
• Seek out information regarding client communications on the web in the state of Wisconsin
• If you market into another state, the general rule of thumb is that the ethics rules of that state apply to you whether you are licensed in that state (NY specifically states same)
• Webmasters should not include states in any of the meta data or content (unless unavoidable) that would indicate a desire to market into a state in which the firm does not do business - natural exceptions to the rule would be those associated with a lawyer's credentials such as law schools, prior employment, and prior practices
• Google Webmaster Tools provides a means by which webmasters can localize a website for search purposes
• Pinnington's comments regarding directing people to information on the Internet (where he states that same could be construed as giving advice from that source [if a lawyer directs a potential or current client to their website or BLOG]) may need some clarification. In almost all situations, the lawyers' website or BLOG information is derived from some other source (for example, the Wisconsin Justice Department, CCAP, or a county court clerk's website). A lawyer's website often serves as a convenient repository of link to frequently referenced facts, links to other websites (such as is often found on a resources or law library page), or the attorney's credentials. In those instances, it would be easier and natural for a lawyer to refer a client to their website, and directly to that information ("just click on 'whatever'"). As well, attorneys often publish printed newsletters, and place those on their sites, subsequently referring a client to that article. We believe that Mr. Pinnington meant to refer to the types of articles that claim to be an authority on a subject and seek to dispense legal advice therefrom, or to articles posted by a channel that means to establish itself as an authority in some regard; with that, we concur. Therefore, if the channel in which you BLOG is a recognized authority or referenced by other online mediums as such, then you may be walking that thin line.... or crossing it. We note that Attorney Tracey Wood's BLOGS are posted on her website, which establishes itself as a piece of advertising, and on BLOGGER, which does not establish itself as authoritative on any matter... looks safe to us.

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Tort Alert - Keep Those Websites Updated

Law Firms Have Been Sued For Failing To Update Websites!

According to Larry Bodine, a well known law marketing expert, in May 2006, a Berlin, Connecticut law firm sued his previous employer, a New Haven, Connecticut law firm for failure to update a website that listed a previous employee as one of the members of the firm. The employee, Robert Murphy, had begun his own law firm. However, his previous employer failed to remove his listing as an attorney with the firm. Murphy claimed damages and won.

The same premise could apply to any website that is relied upon for information about a professional, a company, or a service. If you manage any type of professional organization, or any organization that holds itself out to be an expert in any area, then you run the risk of being sued by an employee that leaves your employment especially if that employee goes into competition with you or in a competing line of work.

Law firms be aware - if one of your associates or partners leaves your employment, you should immediately update your website accordingly.

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Net Neutrality

Net Neutrality - The Basis of The Internet

Net Nuetrality is a much larger pandora's box than simple control over commerce because it is the basis on which communications are and can continue to be transferred. The Internet transfers information without interpretation - i.e. neutral. A set of rules established in the 70's still exists today and because of its founding fathers' visions (Al wasn't part of those talks), it is built for substantial growth. Those rules allow for communications to be picked up from one location and transferred across communication mediums (wires, radio, sattellite, etc.) to another location. During its travels, the information is wrapped up in a blanket to prevent it from being interpreted; those blanket-wrapped communication bundles are called packets. The packets are dropped off at their destination, and interpreted by a tool - this process is referred to as client side activity because you (the client) have a tool that acts to interpret the information that was sent to you.

Internet transfers work similar to your snail mail. Your mail deliver person picks up your mail from the PO, reads the address, and delivers it to your door in sunshine, sleet or rain. Provided the mail person is not removed from his or her intended route, the mail goes through; a deviation in the routing can cause a delay in delivery or loss of mail.

Simularly, that is precisely how the net handles your communications, and despite any hiccups, Internet communications are delivered to their Internet address.

An ISP - Internet Service Provider - facilitatea that process by managing servers connected to the Internet. The Internet has two main backbones in the United States - one in the west and the other in the east, just like the electrical system in the US, and in fact reliant on it. Many web servers are connected directly to the Internet on the main backbone, while others are connected to another server that is connected to the Internet directly. Previously, whether a server was on the main backbone or on a connector mattered in regards to the ability of that server to provide bandwidth to its users. Today, those discrepancies are far less meaningful in the United States; rather, the differences are more obvious to country location than city location, or to the method of connection by the end client (you, the web surfer) and whether you use dial-up or broadband than they are to whether you are directly on the main backbone or off of it by one or three connections because the throughput has so dramatically improved. The ISP's recieve packets of information, read the address, and deliver it to your address.

If ISP's develop software to interpret the packets, then the process becomes dependant on the recieving software's ability to read the packet that was sent, as well as the sending software's ability to send a packet that can be read. If those types of restrictions exist, then communication outside of the ISP is limited or revoked.

That is the basis of net neutrality - Net Neutrality seeks to keep all communications from one end to another end neutral so that all persons can access, send and receive communications without interpretation. The reason that so many ISP's are up in arms about Net Neutrality is because they either want to control communications so as to restrict what you can read, see, send and receive or they are at the other end of the argument and want no restrictions placed on any net communications. Restriction will undoubtedly limit communications. Any restriction would impact the way the net operates, and it is believed (and probably true) that the ISP's that want restrictions want to create a commerce stream of their own which excludes other ISP access.

Neutrally yours,
^.com^

Second Life? What Happened To The First One?

What is Second Life?

Second life is an experiment open to whomever wishes to partake. In essence, it allows people to go through the exercise of assessing and resolving a problem and forming solutions to test their outcomes. It is a form of social networking designed to look at financial problems, but has grown into many other fields including legal analysis, jury trial, jury selection, and a host of other adjudication processes.

http://secondlife.com/

If you have time, check it out and let us know what you think.

^.com^

Lawyers That BLOG in Wisconsin

Wisconsin Blogs by Wisconsin Attorneys

Wisconsin Criminal Laws - Comments about Wisconsin law by Attorney Chris Van Wagner, Van Wagner & Wood, Madison Wisconsin

Wisconsin Drunk Driving Laws - Comments about DUI defense and DUI laws in Wisconsin by Attorney Tracey Wood, Van Wagner & Wood, Madison Wisconsin

Presumption of Innocence - Freestyle, comments on Wisconsin laws by Attorney John Birdsall and Attorney T.J. Perlick-Molinari, Birdsall Law Offices, S.C., Milwaukee and Green Bay, Wisconsin

Deliberations - Jury selection and discussions about jury deliberations. Deliberations is written by Anne Reed, a trial lawyer and jury consultant in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

IP Blocks

What is an IP Block?

An IP is an Internet Protocol - and easiest to think of as a set of rules by which the Internet operates. The acronym IP is widely known among Internet mail and web hosts (usually just called "hosts"), and is usually associated with the "address". An IP address is an address on the Internet. Theoretically, it is said that every website has its own unique IP address. That isn't exactly accurate. What is accurate is that every IP address on the web is unique, but more than one website can share a single IP address (called virtual hosting, shared hosting, and just hosting).

Can a certain IP address be blocked on the net? Yes, any IP address can be blocked at the firewall of a server and thus prevented access by users attempting to see that website from the specific IP address.

Is blocking an IP foolproof? No. A user can simply go to another IP address and access the site if that IP address is not blocked.

Who blocks IP's? Typically, server administrators perform the actual block of an IP address by entering a block command into the server's net files that says, if IP X comes to visit, block him. However, you can also block IP addresses at the domain level by inserting coding in the web server files. If you insert the incorrect coding, you can block more than just one IP; in fact, you can block all visitors including search engines.

Why would a person want to block an IP address from their website? There are many reasons why people opt to block a particular IP address from access to their website. The most common is spam or virus attacks. Blocking an IP is rarely successful in those situations because of the nature of the attacks - the attacks are usually handled by a program (usually a script) and not a person, although a person wrote the program and executed it. A person who does that sort of thing is guilty of criminal harassment, and can be charged with a misdemeanor or a felony, depending on the nature of the harassment and the extent of damages.

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Viewpoints

All of the opinions expressed here are mere ramblings and instant thoughts in reaction to some other catalyst on the net or nothing at all... and only the opinion of the poster.

Pay Pal - Is it spam?

Is that message that you received from paypal.com actually a piece of spam?

Here is how to determine whether PayPal email's are spam:

First, Paypal messages ALWAYS include your name - the name you use in your PayPal account. Spam usually does not use your name.

Second, if it includes your name and you still question it, do not follow the links within the e-mail; rather, type them into the browser URL. Those links will ALWAYS begin with HTTPS:// because all PayPal website activity is handled on a secure layer - HTTPS.

To see a larger image, visit PayPal Verified.

The URL (address) begins with HTTPS, and the PayPal icon is displayed to the far left of the address.

Another method for determining if an email that says it is from PayPal is actually from PayPal is to read the headers of the email. If it is truly from PayPal, it will say that it is from PayPal.

Headers of an email are similar to a shipping log - they contain the address of original, the route the email traveled if it was sent to another location before arriving at your inbox, and the message's unique identification number. To read the headers of the e-mail, right click on the email (before you open it) and click on "options" or "properties". If it is from paypal, it will state an address, then @paypal.com.

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Vertical Integration - Vertically Integrated

What is vertical integration? And what does it mean to you?

An organization is said to be vertically integrated when it either owns or forms alliances with its "upstream" and "downstream" vendors and distributors, from point of origin to point of sale, and in some instances through the point of reselling. To become vertically integrated, a supplier, wholesaler, or distributor usually purchases one or more of its suppliers or one or more of its distributors. The more points of distribution or suppliers owned by a single entity or group of commonly held legal entities, the more vertically integrated the company is said to be.

Vertical integration is not a new concept, it has in fact been at the heart of marketing theory (and the American economy) for decades. I recall my grandmother telling me a story about vertical integration when she proclaimed Henry Ford a "brilliant man who funded his suppliers, built his distributors, and lobbied to replace horse trails with horseless wagon two-tracks".

Ten years ago, companies formed "strategic alliances", which were for all intents and purposes a more glorified name for a vertical integration through a selection process for preferred vendors, a "tying" of selected vendors, and pricing points for gross amounts of business allocated into those companies who were privileged to be a strategic partner.

No, vertical integration is not a new concept. Just last month, Google bought yet another company along its vertical path.

Vertical integration has its upside, as well as its downside. To its benefit, it provides the means by which a product begins as a tree in the forest and ends as the box end on a saltine cracker box having integrated along the way its many counter-partners not the least of which were the mills in Munising, Michigan, the press rollers in Green Bay, Wisconsin, the glue factory in Appleton, Wisconsin, and the printing press in Neenah, Wisconsin.

It is at the moment when one of those links is severed, when the product is imported rather than manufactured in the United States, or when the entire process is outsourced that the U.S. economy begins a fatal deterioration. Or perhaps that statement should be made in the past tense.

The manner in which the term "vertical integration" is used in politics today refers to a political movement of integration from the White House to the corner store. If it becomes anything near the powerhouse of homeland security and the right to ease drop with judicial review, then it likely will have the same benefits as the current or past political managers have seen/done.

However, if the term "vertical integration" is meant to infer growth in privatization in the United States, then perhaps it might be an answer to a problem that is yet - according to Greenspan - still unfolding.

Before you veto vertical integration, consider its roots, and what it meant to the U.S. a mere ten years ago. At that time, it meant the Kimberly-Clark's of the U.S. were forming alliances with providers in the U.S., not outside of the U.S. It meant GM engaging in labor talks without labor unions (forgive me Father - he was a Union Steward) for the purpose of forming alliances between the people "on the field" (i.e. blue collar workers) and the people in the boxes (i.e. the managers) without penalties. It meant streamlining production, cutting costs, reasonable profits, and a product produced by and for residents of the United States.

Before you veto integration along the vertical production of goods, look about your surroundings and count the number of manufacturers in the United States, ask what the gross domestic product ran over the past ten years - then compare it to that of Germany.

Vertical integration is not a four letter word. It is the means by which the United States may privatize its production. Why? You ask, do I use the term "privatize"? Because production in the United States is not privatized any longer; it is internationalized. Privatization means ownership by the inhabitants of the country, rather than its government. But what is difference between the means of production upon which a country thrives - and survives - being owned by an international - and non-US - company and it being controlled by a government that redistributes the wealth back to the multitudes? When production becomes internationalized, when imported goods exceed exported goods, when the economy goes global, so does poverty. And folks: poverty expands into wealth like heated molecules into frigid air.

Perhaps it is time for companies in the United States to form alliances and to build their nationalized strength - that is vertical integration at its best.

And what does vertical integration mean to you? After all, you cannot buy a court (or at least you shouldn't be doing that sort of stuff), and you cannot buy your advertising agent, but you can form alliances with those who "serve" you and with those you "serve" to better the process through which you achieve your firm's goals. As was true of strategic alliances ten years ago, it means being accountable to your upstream, as well as your downstream. It means taking responsibility for outcomes. Business is never "just business".

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3. Get a cold beer... you just got back 3 hours of your day.