Which creative commons license would suit your site

You have a website and you're searching for the best licence under the creative commons banner. Which licence would suit your site? Read the about each and every licence, their conditions and some examples of websites/works which have already implemented creative commons. 

The creative commons have been discussed before, here you’ll find out of the licenses made available by the creative commons, which license would suit you best. 

The creative commons website has made it clear that there are no registration fees for protecting your work with a creative commons license. You just need to select which of the six license would suit you most and marking your works so that others know it is protected with a creative commons license.

The following are the main condition modules (or the conditions under which you’re allowing the user to use your work)

Attribution (BY)

The user will have to cite/attribute you (author/creator) in the works taken from you. Most suited for website/blog/vlog/music content with highly generous authors who do not mind their works to be used for commercial and derived purposes. It is also good for new and first time websites.

Example,

Read the cc Blog Post on the publishers

Repository for teachers on Syria, Read the CC Blog post on the website.

India based Pratham Publishers,  Read the CC Blog Post on the publishers

Attribution Share Alike (CC BY-SA)

The user will have to cite the original author and the same applies to any one who uses the derived work.  Most suited for video and blog content with authors who do not mind their works to be used for commercial purposes. However this type of license is most suited for video and music blogs.

Example,

Boundless Magazine Read the CC Blog Post on the Magazine

Attribution No Derivatives (CC BY-ND) 

The user will have to attribute the original author and should not change/modify the works. Most suited for Image creation websites. For example websites or blogs which are into image creation/touch-ups like photoshoped wallpapers, abstract arts, and photography websites.

Example,

Frost Wire File Sharing service, Read the CC Blog Post on the Service

President of Bulgaria's page, Read about it at the CC Blog

Attribution Non-Commercial (CC BY-NC)

The user will have to attribute the original author and can use it freely without using it for commercial purposes. The author must remember that for such a license the derivative works is not subjected to the same license, i.e. the same license does not apply to the works used from you. Most suited for video blogs or video content creation websites like tutorials, personal videos (wouldn't recommend).

Example,

The Paly voice Read about it at CC Blog post

Stanford Digital Repository, 47 thesis available under the licence.

Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike (CC BY-NC-SA)

The user will have to attribute the original author and cannot use it for commercial purposes. Also the same license applies to any derived work at any level. Most suited for written content from blogs with somewhat reticent authors. 

Example,

We the media from ORielly , 

Video Documentary “An Island” , 

The very popular Khan Academy

Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives (CC BY-NC-ND)

The licensee/user will have to attribute the original author, without modifying or using it for commercial purposes and the same license is applicable to any work derived. Video blogs or VLogs always use this licence. Most suited for image websites which morph and create images, patterns etc. The author can finally relax that even copies of copies of his work cannot be morphed or edited. 

Example,

The story of stuff 

New York State Sentate 

Photosynth Online Application, Read about it at CC Blog

Monk Turner’s Album 'Love Story'

Share Alike (SA) 

Here, derivatives of the work is allowed but the same license will have to be applied to the derivatives, i.e. The derivatives of their work will be allowed under the parent license.

Most recommended for photo blogs.

Non-Commercial (NC)

The works under this license cannot be used for commercial purposes

Most recommended for music or video blogs

No Derivative Works (ND)

Here, the user can use the works as it is and should not edit/derive from the original works

Most recommended for music or video blogs

Additional (CC0)

The license renders the work with a No Rights Reserved, it has been found that such a license is less ambiguous and can achieve the desired effect on a global scale, rather than limited to some jurisdictions.

Examples to be added for each type of licenses

Note. Just like any official document, there are amendments  CC licenses after amendment has an upgrade in its version. As per 2013-14 the version for all licenses available is version 3.0. If you have a licence of a lower version, then you can apply for an upgrade. One thing though, you cannot downgrade your licence, i.e. going back to a lower licence version. If your website is a global website with global needs, you would need un-ported licences. CC offers the same six different licenses based on the international treaties  also on copyright.

Feel free to comment if you find any other examples of websites implementing cc licences for their content.

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Things you should Know before Applying a CC License to your Blog

The article explains what should you know about creative commons and about its features before adding it to your blog. People do have many questions, like what is this thing called Creative Commons and what does it mean? 

Firstly, Creative Commons is an organization that helps users shares their work with others. The complete procedure is legal and freely available. In a nutshell; if you get a creative commons license to your work, you are supposedly giving away your work freely to anybody (have a look at some who have already done it or search for some cc works on the website) who needs it.

Another question which arises from the statement is why do I need a creative commons license? When I didn’t have a license, I couldn’t control who can copy my works. So even if I had a license, what difference will it make? The answer is very simple, the organization provides legal tools to the licencor (The person who is licensing his work) to control how his work is being used after it has been umm... copied.  From the website you can choose from a plethora of licenses and determine which license suits you best. You can even have a look at the policies to improve your understanding on the subject.

For example, you are a graphics developer and with your skills and knowledge, you have created amazing logos and wallpapers. Now you want your work to be available to other users on the web so that they could also use your work to beautify theirs. But (Oh! Here comes the catch), as a designer you need you work to flourish your own creation not someone else’s who edited your work into something else. So you use a creative commons license. This license will help you prevent your work to be modified by some punk who thinks he’s over smart. The license will create a legal obligation towards anyone who takes your work. This might mean, the licensee (the person taking your work) will have to cite the author or the source when he reuses your work or he will be prohibited to modify your work (like explained above) etc. So, with the help of this powerful yet free legal tool you can control what a person is able to do with your work.

Now here are consolidated facts about the creative commons (henceforth referred to as CC).

1. CC does not track your work. So if you have a graphics set, CC will not track and find out where is it being used right now.
2. CC is not against copyright. In fact it is pro-copyright.
3. CC is not a law firm and does not give advice (legal advice of course) on matters. It simply provides a free platform and legal documents for the use of common man.
4. Only the original creator of the work is authorized to license the work under CC.
5. A licencor has the permission to change the clauses in a CC license. However CC does not recommend any changes in the document as it leads to further complications.
6. CC licenses are built to be enforceable in court in nearly all jurisdictions. However the license has a severability clause where the provision is deemed unenforceable in certain situations.
7. Another very important characteristic about CC licenses is that it is un-revocable. You cannot stop someone to refrain from using your work after you have applied a cc license to the particular material. 

Note regarding the LAST POINT, Let us take an example of the Graphics developer. The developer has reached new heights of his career but is a little low on cash. So he thinks that he can make money by selling his creations to potential art lovers on the web. But he has already attached the previous art works to a cc license. Now even if he tries he will not be entitled to stop any user from using his previous works which they have obtained during the CC license period. This is another reason why you should be highly cautious while applying for a CC license. Never indulge in such proposals thinking it’s cool, think it through and understand why you need a CC license and then plunge. Still having some questions? look at the FAQs or add a comment below.

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Why not to submit your site to several websites?

When trying for higher listings, you resort to submitting your website to several other so called "Search Engine Directories" or "Blog Directories", The obvious reason behind this endeavor is to increase the links pointing towards your site, which makes it look cooler in the eyes of search engines. But wait, What's the catch? If you think it through, Some questions would pop-up in your mind. 'Why would a website, which has too many contacts and thus has the ability of submitting a blog/site to more than 1000 websites at a time, would even think of submitting your blog/website to them? Whats in it for them? Are you going to come back to the site? No (so no new visitors). Are you going to reffer the website to your friends? No (If you do, you're competitors' websites will also gain the same popularity, So no mouth spread marketing. So what are they doing here?'

It happened to one of my readers and he shared the story with me. "Frustrated with low visitors and constant nudges from his competitors, The person went online, in search of new ways to make his blog fly. He landed on a website which claimed submission to more than 1200 search engines. After being asked to enter email address and some information, he was asked to enter his blog's name and address. Until then every thing went smoothly. But the downhill came when he opened his mail box. It was flooded with emails and spams (A total of 58 new unwanted emails in just a day).

It is clear in the above case, that the website had links to several spam websites too and  along with authentic search engines of google, yahoo etc, spammers were also included in the list. Now do you understand, how would a website like this earn, The spammers would pay the list to include their names. Also the spammer would earn when he/she sells the list of email addresses and names to large corporations for spam promotional emails and email phishing. 

The figure depicts the share of search volume by search engines from Karmasnack (July 2012). As is clear from the figure, Google's share is highest about 88.8%, Followed by Microsoft's Bing, taking 4.2%. China's Baidu owing to much larger population and usage comes on number 3, followed by yahoo.

If you look closely, The websites boasting for  over 200 search engines, even if true (and I'm not saying it is.) would come under 0.5 %  of the total search volume.

Now, most professionals know such trap and they do not indulge in such practices. But, there are some, who are relentlessness and keep visiting such places and submit to the sites, They are least bothered by the spam and to be safe, they use disposable email addresses, Their practices are unencumbered and are powered by hope of more visitors. Such people are "despowner" i.e. Desperate Web Owners, who are unsuspecting people, not from the web sphere like Lawyers, Doctors etc who mean well but fall into such traps. Take simple advice, Do not fall in the trap. Use your logic and apply other methods to optimize your website. 

Some of them are : 

1. Use simple but effective SEO Techniques (understand, how rankings work).

2. Intelligent use of Keywords

3. Reduce loading Time of your website

4. Communicate with your readers

5. Improve feed Visibility.

6. Popularise your website through social networks like facebook.

7. Get your website checked for errors.

This was all about,

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Blogger's Content Policy in a nutshell

Here is a condensed list on blogger's latest content policy.

While blogging some thing must always have bugged you, 'Am I doing it right?"

So, Here is a complete set of blogger content policies and 10 rules you, as a blogger should not break. However, one thing must be borne in mind, that the policies are subject to change and might include exceptions too. I you still have some doubts, you are free to visit the official website containing detailed explanation.

1. Though Adult content are allowed but the owners must categorize them as 'mature content'.

2. Child safety, examples, child pornography or pedophilia

3. Hate speech or something that promotes hate or violence based on race, ethnicity, religion, disability etc.

4. Crude or rash content - shocking or graphic

5. Violence. e.g. death threats

6. Copyright.e.g. blog containing links sending users to illegal download websites.

7. Impersonation of someone

8. Illegal activities or promotion of illegal activities

9. Spam blogs

10. Malware and viruses

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Get your computer scanned for facebook related viruses

Certain times when web developers get desperate to inform people about their facebook pages or try to popularize them on dark platforms, they (even the professionals) may fall for the traps laid down by misdoers in the form of malwares and viruses. 

Now what should you do, if you notice some suspicious activity going on in your facebook account. Though the what to do part is explained by facebook in a very generic form, Also the general rules for safe browsing on facebook is very well elaborated on its help page. However, this post will specialise and tell you what should you do when you've been hit by a facebook malware.

 On tenth of July 2012, facebook, after listening to various problems from its users, Started an online app to scan your computer for facebook related viruses, As the involvement of third party apps and websites have increased on facebook, The attack of malwares and viruses through this popular social networking website has increased ever since. Now, There are many solutions to the problem. But the most trustworthy is the security scan from facebook.

Usually, facebook picks up suspicious activity on your account and tells you beforehand thus preventing unrepairable damage. 

But if you find out the problem before facebook, here's what you do.

The common methods of getting a malware on your computer, is either when you're trying to watch a "shocking or breathtaking video" from a friend's status update or by visiting a website or a facebook page said to be giving away special features on Facebook (web owners usually fall for this trap).

If you need an example, recently a website came to popularity when it claimed to remove the facebook timeline feature or in its own words, "undo facebook's stupid timeline" deperated users tried the website and ended up harbouring a malware on their system.

Malwares can be very well avoided using simple techniques like seeing the website's certification or by accessing a general report on the website, Since these methods are scarce on facebook, as all pages are under same domain, including apps.

Facebook provides its users the benefit of doubt by equipping them with strong anti-malware programs like McAfee, Just as Facebook director of communications Barry Schnitt said."If we get people's machines this protection, it is better for them, for Facebook and the internet as a whole,"

After starting the scan, your account will be blocked and will only be restored if the scan and repair procedure is completed.

 The webpage will allow you to download the latest scan and repair kit of McAfee Antivirus. All you need to do is allow it to download and then double click on it. Please remember, the software will not show its status on your desktop as a window, but as a tab in your browser. The following images are taken from inside the browser.

  

Once downloaded and double clicked, you will be presented with a status bar which fills in pretty slow,

 Rest assured it will take maximum an hour of your precious time.

Once the scan has been performed and no malwares found, your blocked account will be restored by facebook.

 

Finally it also offers the Facebook users a free six-month subscription to McAfee’s security software and discounts on continued subscriptions.

This was all about

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What is website certification ?

What is certification of websites? How do you reckon, if a website is not the sole product of a shady hacker smiling slyly at the visitors of his website? What is an SSL certificate? Such are the questions posed by tech savvy teens and online shoppers. 

This article is for all those people who have directly or indirectly shared their personal and financial information on the web network.

It does not matter if it is about your home or work. Nor does it matter if you are talking about paying your bills online or shopping online or even on social networks. Everything revolves around the internet.

With so much emphasis on online monetary transaction one has to be doubly sure where his or her money goes through. For an example, Your Brother is in dire need of money. You give away a bundle of 1K to his friend who has promised to give it over to your brother. But before you hand over your hard earned money to a total stranger (to you) you will first check with your brother to see if he is thoroughly reliable and honest, You will accede to the transaction if and only if you find that he meets your expectations. Same is required from aware netizens from all parts of the world. With cyber crime on the roll and with weapons of mass destruction like phishing and hacking, you cannot be sure of your privacy until you have basic knowledge of the security systems of the cyber world.

 

We hear many times, through news, social media etc, about how people had their account hacked and had to suffer huge repercussions. Why did it happen? Sometimes when people login through facebook to comment on a website or when sharing through a social networking site and allowing its app to continue, these are times when some hacker taps the information just because the connection isn’t secure and anyone can tap in the information provided by you.

 When we talk about certification, there are two approaches possible. One is a certification is that, which ensures, the website you are entering is hacker free and they contain several security protocols to ward off occasional hacker activities on their website. The organizations which issue such certificates, have their own set of rules and regulations, A set which must be followed by the website to ensure certification and hence security.

 Once a website, has been issued a certificate, you can see it at the left of the address bar, rest assured your personal data will never be shared, even the files stored on the website can be downloaded to your computer without the risk of any virus or a malware spreading to your computer. Certification provided will definitely help in building trust amongst your customers, also, they would be confident in visiting your site and thus second time visitor traffic will increase.

 

The other type of certification is provided to people, which is beyond the scope of this discussion. The next article will revolve about the web certificates, used in practical world, i.e. SSL certificates.

This was all about,

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Determine if your mail is authentic or not

When working on a blog and marketing it, Many a times you have to give an email address to avail some benefits. Now mostly you can be assured, that your email will not come out in public. But, this might not be true for every website. Because huge number of online players are willing to give you anything to get a list of few names with their email addresses interested in a particular topic.

So you may find your inbox filled with huge number of spam mails. Just because you gave your email to a website and for your generosity, the website in turn sold your email to spammers. Google's and yahoo's fine spam filtering skills might help a lot by transfering spam to your spam box. But, that is valid upto a point. Spammers have devised new an improved techniques for phishing and fraud using spam mails as a medium.
What should you do in order to determine which mail is valid and authentic. Here are some simple steps to do so.

For an example,
I recieved an email, a while ago, about facebook. Now gmail was very smart to understand the move and mark it as a spam. Here is the mail.

The mail looks a lot like Facebook alert email, but for preliminary examinations, just look at the sender's address. There is no Facebook domain (First Red Flag). Next see the message text, "You may be asked to enter the confirmation code ...." Facebook alerts do not use the same language,(If you remember) So this was (Second Red Flag). Now just hover you mouse over the link, do not click it but just move it over the link. If you're using Chrome or firefox, you can easily see the actual link it is pointed to, no the link displayed,( A nice trick by the poor scammer), This will be (the Third Red Flag). If the mail satisfies all the requirements but you still have doubts, just follow the steps given below.

STEP I : First select the mail, you've had your doubts on. Open the doubted mail

STEP II : Click on the downward arrow button given at the top right hand corner of your mail box.

 

STEP III : After clicking on 'Show Original' button in the options given above, You will be greeted by the following screen with the complete transaction details.

STEP IV : Find out the IP address of the sender and copy it.

Now go to SendScore

STEP V : And paste the ip address in the space provided. Now click on 'Go' and the website will analyze and give you a report almost instantly in addition to an idea about the authenticity of the website.

 However you can be sure of a website if it has been certified, by leading experts.

After seeing the report, now you can be sure, what should be done with the email.

 

This post gave you an insight on ways to

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An Alternative to Captcha

The world is moving on, and so are technologies, The technology used to separate humans from computers on websites is becoming obsolete. 

Captcha Stands for Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart. In Short, they tell the web developer that the request made on his website is by a human or a robot or a program. 

The word has originated from 'capture'. Today developers have encountered another captcha roadblock in addition to the discomfort they cause on their sites forcing people to recognise hazy characters. According to New York Times, Spammers pay about something close to $1 for each 1,000 solved CAPTCHAs to companies employing human solvers in developing nations.

For this purpose a service known as 'Are you a Human' has launched a new and improved way of determining humans from machines using a very simple, non frustrating and invigorating technique present in our civilization ages ago, know as 'games'. The website adorns and provides small embedded games as an alternative to captcha images.

Also for those web savvy youths who would kill the website developer for putting in a captcha, the website areyouahuman.com has also provided a page just to vent out your feelings, at Rogues Gallery.

The website has posted a very compelling ,must read story about how it was born. A very well written and equally well organised blog is also present on the website.

The innovation dosen't end here, the geniuses at NLP Captcha has started combining advertising and captcha. This basically forces user to look at the captcha/advertisement and ponder upon it. thus leading to higher conversion rates. You can even spread helpful messages and educate the public.

This was your

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Find out if your website is blocked or not?

Many a times websites get blocked in one country or another, but when it does, you loose a major portion of your visitors. If you think that the newly created cyber laws may affect your website, its time to confirm your suspicion,

The following sites are instrumental in determining facts.
1. Just Ping 
2. Watch Mouse
3. Website Pulse

Just Ping

Just ping is just a subsidiary of Watch Mouse, The latter being more exact and detailed about the results about your website. However usually we prefer 'Just Ping' as you can get approximate results in a few minutes whereas with Watch Mouse you've got to wait a long time before you get to see the results.

WatchMouse

WatchMouse product tests the behaviour and availability of websites, services and applications utilizing an infrastructure that includes over 63 worldwide remote monitoring stations and a global network of checkpoints in 26 countries.

WatchMouse conducts checks from an external perspective to replicate real-time user experience and writes transaction monitoring scripts to identify a wide variety of possible issues, from slow page response times, to monitoring the behaviour of forms such as login pages and shopping carts.

Advanced remote monitoring helps eliminate website downtime and allows issues to be identified and resolved quickly before they result in lost revenues or customers. 

Check your website now and don't fret over results, as the world still has 6 Billion people, what difference does it make to miss a few millions. The joke's on them.

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Prevent yourself from automated lewd video postings on Facebook

Recently, Facebook users have encountered situations where, their friends receive certain lewd messages or an inappropriate video from them,which they did not send.

Certain users are also getting unaccounted wall posts in their pages, which is thought to be a form of hacking. Some of them even lost their pages as admins and lost their power to edit them.

One solution is to prevent indulging in apps or applications which might look suspicious or inappropriate.

Another and more effective solution is to turn on safe browsing on Facebook. This has to be done on user level only. Following are the steps to perform the task.

First go to account settings.

 

 Now click on security tab

 

Click on the edit link at the Safe Browsing option

 

Check the box and click on save changes

Now you will notice, you will surf the Facebook website in https (secure mode).

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Setting up of a website, Separate mail for your website interaction

If you aim at creating a website for the long run, then you'll definitely need an email account to go on.
Now personally I feel that, at this point of time, gmail is the best mail service I've ever got.

Usually I would encourage people to use it, as it would provide an  excellent platform to collect news about web development, subscription to websites and web blogs, etc.
But the main problem with that is, If you want some one visiting your website to be contacting you, then providing them with an email address as websitename@gmail.com would shatter your reputation. You cannot give your email Id as your personal email address would prove unprofessional.

So the choice comes to you, whether you buy a custom domain from some web service provider or pay google to give you a custom email Id with a custom email address.

But since we're not gonna discuss that, so we'll have to find out some way or the other such that you get a funky or a professional email address that is free.Now there are many different email service providers. You may get a detailed review on the topic from these links

http://free-email-services-review.toptenreviews.com/
http://email.about.com/od/awards/ss/The_Best_in_Email_2010_The_Reader_s_Choice_Awards.htm
http://www.consumersearch.com/webmail-reviews

The emails which would stand in the parameter of address and functionality can be ranked as etc.

Though in.com suited best in address and gmail suited best in functionality, you may also use a email forwarding service, Best one among many is Zoho.com
Other email service providers are
care to email, hotpop, Zapakmail, Myspacemail, facebookmail, fastmail, aimmail etc.



If you find some mail useful enough and want a break then you may also nominate the mail you've found good  at http://email.about.com/library/users-choice-awards/bl-readers-choice-awards-nominate-your-email-favorites.htm. Didn't find your perfect email? go to the part II of this series where more discussion will be done on emails.

Article Number UAN#002CMKT

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