Aventurine stones, an antique French iron door knocker and glass negatives circa 1906 on my office windowsill. Aventurines are said to be lucky talismans for travelers and who am I to argue?!
Terms of service: that annoying, but oh so important fine print that we agree to with all social media usage. Yet how many of us don't bother even reading the TOS? One of my partners-in-vigilance when it comes to copyright and other intellectual property rights is Alexandra of Alexandra Wrote. She contacted me last year when I wrote about copyright issues on Pinterest (whose staff addressed my concerns).* So I was delighted to see Alexandra's take on Vine, the new six-second blink-and-you'll-miss-it video service.
Alexandra points out that by agreeing to Vine's TOS, you're basically relinquishing all rights to your own videos. Read her excellent post here. And check out Alexandra's informative If Emily Posted series on intellectual property.
A king for the Netherlands
Here in the Netherlands, the media's buzzing with news that Queen Beatrix is abdicating the throne in favour of her son, Crown Prince Willem-Alexander. The prince officially will become king on Queen's Day, April 30th. Years ago when living in New York, I met the prince - who was then just 14 - at a summer house party in Connecticut. He was accompanying family friends, who owned property on New York's Madison Avenue. At the time, I never dreamed I'd be living in the Netherlands when Willem becomes king!
*That being said, I just found multiple instances of my photographs being pinned on Pinterest without permission. I have again contacted Pinterest asking for that my images - often uncredited - be removed.
How exciting to be anticipating a new King! And fun that long ago you met him. It's probably stretching the degrees of separation (my friend Jan and I say that perhaps the hard test of the degrees should be "would they take your call!") but still, pretty cool.
The TOS issue is an interesting one. Thanks for the reminder of vigilance.
Posted by: jeanie | 02 February 2013 at 17:16
I have wondered about pinterest and keep expecting to come across one of my photos one of these days, but so far haven't seen anything that I didn't already put out there.
How exciting to be in Netherlands during this time of change and to have met Willem.
Posted by: Marilyn | 31 January 2013 at 01:53
I'm so late to these social sharing networks. I like being the last one at the party- that way all the skeevy privacy issues have hopefully been worked out.
While I'm very sad that Queen Beatrix is abdicating, I'm really excited to see what Queen Maxima has in store for us. That's great that you met Willem when he was so young. You know just about everyone!
Posted by: Janine | 30 January 2013 at 14:55
Thank you so much for keeping this conversation going. I believe in the positives of social sharing. But it requires creators to function. Developers are excited about innovation. Lawyers draft legalese. Left from the equation is the talent. If creators aren't respected for their contributions, the cycle ends.
Posted by: Alexandra | 29 January 2013 at 21:43