by Desislava Stankova | Apr 21, 2015 | Blogging, Contracting, E-Commerce, Intellectual Property, Liability and the Internet, News and Events
It has not been long since you started your blog, but it turns out to be so valued by your readers that they gracefully start using significant parts of your content on their own blogs, corporate websites and other materials. As flattering as it is, the appreciation of your work, you probably prefer to be asked for permission by others who enjoy using your work, and certainly the law gives you that right. Here are several useful strategies to protect your intellectual property online. Protect Now or Cry Later It is always better to act before your intellectual property is infringed, so that once it happens, you are better prepared to fight back and your protection is stronger than your infringer is prepared. Keep in mind that in case of a copyright dispute, you will need to be able to demonstrate that you are the author of the disputed content (or it was created for you) and the date when you created and published it. Secure Your Contracts If possible, sign written contracts with anyone who helps you create and maintain your blog – e.g. web designers, image and article contributors, marketing experts who help you make it popular, everyone. This way you will have written evidence about your rights to use whatever is posted on your blog. Special attention should be paid to ensure you have the rights to your own website if you pay someone else to develop it. To read the full article, check Chicoverdose where it was originally...
by Desislava Stankova | Apr 14, 2015 | Blogging, E-Commerce, Intellectual Property, Liability and the Internet, News and Events
Congratulations – you have a blog now and you are ready to start writing, creating, sharing and networking! Yet, all the fun may be intertwined with the risk of legal liability – think take down letters, complaints and infringement claims. Not a funny side of blogging, I know. Let’s look at blogging from several legal perspectives: Part One will focus on what bloggers should do or avoid doing in order to stay away from legal liability when using materials created by others; Part Two will explore the various ways to protect your creative works and rights when blogging; And in Part Three, we will go into further aspects a blogger may encounter legal liability or just mere communication problems, e.g. defamation, illegal processing of personal data, using third party blog tools, etc. Copyright means “I can copy it”, right? Actually, copyright means that once you are the original author or copyright holder of a creative work that is fixed in a tangible medium (e.g. paper, online, etc.), you have the exclusive right to use it (sell, make copies, publish, etc.), and to prevent others from using it without your permission. Plus, in most cases, you can demand payment for use. Unlike trademarks and patents, copyright is granted the moment the work is created and fixed. For example, if the blogger only thought about the blog post in their mind, this obviously would not be enough for copyright protection, but once the article is written in a computer file or posted online, as long as it is original and creative, it becomes a work protected by copyright, without the need...
by Rangel Hristov | Apr 8, 2015 | Accounting and Taxation, E-Commerce, News and Events
In case your company has converted a huge amount of EU-people to paying customers for your IT and online products and services, we truthfully wish you to retain them and continue growing. Yet, you should consider that commencing January 01, 2015 a new European VAT regulation is effective for all companies providing so called “electronically supplied services” to citizens or residents of the EU member states, regretfully regardless of the number of customers. List of Applicable Services To all of you who will ask what stays behind “electronically supplied services” and whether my company is a qualified provider: if you find your company’s business in the list of services below, start getting seriously interested: Website hosting and webpage hosting; Automated, online and distance maintenance of programmes; Remote system administration; Online data warehousing where specific data is stored and retained automatically; Online supply of on-demand disc space; Accessing or downloading software (including procurement/accountancy programmes and anti-virus software) plus updates; Software to block banner adverts showing otherwise known as Bannerblockers; Download drivers, such as software that interfaces computers with peripheral equipment (such as printers); Online automated installation of filters on websites; Online automated installation of firewalls; Accessing or downloading desktop themes; Accessing or downloading photographic or pictorial images or screensavers; Digitized content of books and other electronic publications; Subscription to online newspapers and journals; Weblogs and website statistics; Online news, traffic information and weather reports; Online information generated automatically by software from specific data input by the customer, such as legal and financial data (in particular such data as continually updated stock market data in real time); The provision of advertising...
