Don’t Get Sued: A Guide for Content Creators

If rule number one for content creators is to make amazing content, then rule number two is don’t get sued!  Josh Sussman, counsel for CollegeHumor, Koethi Zan, counsel for MTV and Luke Paglia, counsel for American-Eagle marketing all spoke about legal issues the content creators need to understand.

The panelists were quick to point out that this was not an advice session and that a little bit of law knowledge is a dangerous thing!  They spent their time discussing aspects of the law, how it effects their clients and possible pitfalls for content creators.  Their first recommendation was to find your own counsel!! There are lawyers who do pro-bono work and there is a great website to find those lawyers.

While that may be the best ”advice” of the panel, they did discuss Fair Use and Copyright law.  Fair Use is a difficult beast to corral.   If you don’t know the Fair Use doctrine, this will help!  There are questions a content creator can ask to determine if they are within the parameters of Fair Use: How much of the original are you copying?  Are you supplanting the market?  Is the use transformative? 

However, the Fair Use doctrine is incredibly vague.  The quote that was thrown out by the panel was that “Fair Use is nothing but the right to hire an attorney!” When Fair Use cases go to litigation, the court rulings are always different and it is all based on individual interpretations of the law.  One of the panelists said that the only way one would know if they interpreted the law correctly, is if they actually go to court AND win. 

Besides the great discussion about the Fair Use doctrine, the panelists discussed using release forms.  Their biggest point was that a producer should never lie to make someone sign a release form.  Lying creates a claim of fraudulent inducement.  Nine times out of 10, a producer does not need to lie to get people on television.  People want to be on television!  They also stressed to not be shy about asking for a release.  A release can potentially save a ton of money, headaches and stress further into the process.

Overall, I thought this panel was fantastic.  As a content creator, I learned much more about the law and about the vagueness of the law.  I also learned too much about Jersey Shore.  Trust me, you don’t even want to know! 

Wired Introduces Interactive Magazine on Multiple Devices

Scott Dadich of Wired and Jeremy Clark of Adobe led a discussion entitled After Magazines: WIRED’s Digital Rebirth.  Experience has shown that web is good for some things and print for others.  It is Wired’s intent to combine the two.  In the near future many magazines will be downloadable to a user’s portable device.  The panel discussed Wired and its plans for integration into anything from tablets and laptops to iPhones and the Nexus One.

Adobe Air, the program that runs TweetDeck and many other emerging apps, is the platform that the digital magazine will operate in.  Dadich and Clark introduce the magazine on a tablet built by Dell.  The two emphasize that design is one of the major factors to consider when developing content for consumer devices; content articles vs. content graphics and the way the two coincide in different devices.  A better design translates into an easier reading experience and that in turn creates deeper engagement and a connection to the consumer.  Wired has been working diligently on eliminating eye fatigue by considering the font and creating new fonts specifically for the interactive magazine.  The magazine also boasts built in audio, video and active images along with different formats for vertical and horizontal viewing.  Wired’s new interactive platform will link content that relates to one another with a clear and consistent UI termed revolution through evolution.

Chris Valentine on Microsoft BizSpark Accelerator at SXSW

Chris Valentine, the momentum behind Microsoft BizSpark Accelerator at SXSW, recently blessed me with a precious ten minutes of his time to shed some light on one of this year’s newest and most exciting events at SXSWi. For the uninformed (that being most of us as this is the debut year for this event), Accelerator is an event designed to be a platform for early stage interactive services, ideas, or technologies.

In Valentine’s own words, “What was happening is we had a lot of responses in the past with regards to ‘Hey we have this new product or services and we want to be involved with SXSW but we don’t really know the best way of doing that,’ and that’s the reason Accelerator was created.”

He elaborates, “It’s your chance to see where technology’s going to be over the next three to five years. We’re dealing with a lot of innovative ideas and when you see them it’s just like ‘Oh why didn’t I think of that?’”.

How about an example from last year, Chris?

“In an example within last year, even though Accelerator was not here, the company that would have fit within the formatting…would have been Twitter. Last year Twitter really exploded and SXSW really had a huge part of that.”

Valentine explained that what started as a “low key” event really blew up in scope.

“The reality is that we expected 50 companies to apply. We were going to keep it really low key. Expectations were very low. We were going to allow it grow very slowly and very organically… what has happened was we had 250 companies apply,” said Valentine. “Our expectations have continued to exceed what we had thought what they would be. Which is a great thing and then it also causes problems itself cause we don’t know what to expect.”

Of those original ~250 applicants, Valentine and a team of judges whittled the list down to 20 finalists in Online Music-Related Technologies, Online Video-Related Technologies, Social Networking Applications and Innovative Web Technologies.

“Twenty were chosen out of the 200 plus applicants,” Valentine said. “We basically had a judging session where we broke out every company, looked at the different companies, looked at the different products and services they were offering and chose them based on innovation, based on relevancy and based on scalability.”

Before the selection process even began, Valentine and the Accelerator team recruited the Advisory Board to help get the ball rolling.

He explained that the Advisory Board is made up of “industry experts who could share their knowledge and wisdom to help us with this event, which is a new format for Southby, and they helped us in the sense of creating awareness of who are the new companies out there that we wanted to approach or they wanted to approach on our behalf to say ‘hey you need to submit an application to this event, I think it would be a good thing for you guys to do.’”

At this point in the SXSWi timeline Valentine and his team are busy dotting all their ‘I’s and crossing all their ‘T’s.

“Most of the things I’m dealing with are all of the little details,” he said. “In the sense of making sure we are able to implement what we are committed to. This is a first year event, so what details could we be missing that we haven’t thought about or that might catch us off guard.”

The Accelerator has the potential to be a very popular and influential event. In essence, it puts a microscope up to the heart of SXSWi, future innovation and technology trends, and, as the name implies, fast-forwards the progress and awareness of these new services and technologies. Or we can view it like what Ed McMahon’s Star Search was to blossoming jugglers and interpretive dancers, Accelerator is to innovative web developers and technology entrepreneurs.

“There’s a huge amount of hype around accelerator right now,” he said. “From what I’m gathering from different people we’re talking to in regards to the press and the media, they’re very excited about this event. This is the event that they want to attend. It’s got a really really really great buzz that’s happening right now. It’s taken a whole life of its own.”

Check out the Microsoft BizSpark Accelerator at SXSW on the sixth floor of the Downtown Austin Hilton 10:00 am to 5:30 pm on Monday, March 16.