Welcome to Flamencophile!

It's a bit messy, but you can come in and look around... Just watch out for the wet cyber-paint and the can of programming nails on the floor. This site is currently undergoing active development and testing. Feel free to poke around. A lot of the rooms don't have furniture yet and the ones that do are subject to a few quirks, but you can get a feel for the place and where I'm headed with it.

Ariel

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Getting the Legal Stuff Out of the Way

Submitted by Ariel on Tue, 09/18/2007 - 05:46.

Privacy Policy and Terms of Use Being Prepared
I've spent a large portion of the day squaring away the privacy policy and terms of use for Flamencophile. Not the kind of thing I enjoy doing very much, but I needed to get that out of the way. It's almost ready to post. I plan to let it sit overnight and then after a final review and edit, it'll go live.

Copyright Issues
In the process of research, I came upon some issues that I will post in the forum over the next day or so for members to discuss. Chief among these is copyright. I'll also be getting the site purpose and philosophy posted quite soon, which will make the intent and mission of Flamencophile much clearer. For now, suffice to say, the last thing I want to do is complicate an already thorny issue.

Content Guidelines
While there will be content guidelines that will need to be followed sitewide, Flamencophile will take no ownership of any individual's content, unlike some community sites. Likewise, each flamencophile that uses the site needs to be sure that they are the copyright holder, or have permission to use the material that they post. The terms of use will clarify all the ins and outs of that. First and foremost, I want Flamencophile to be a useful and fun resource for anyone who loves the art of flamenco. We'll work the rest out as we go along...

Protecting Creator's Rights
Digital copyright has been on my mind a lot lately from another experience as well. I have been dealing with content scrapers on my personal blog, and as the Flamencophile community grows and develops I'm sure that will become an issue here, as well.

I am looking into ways to "digitally fingerprint" our blog feeds and other ways to protect each person's intellectual and artistic property rights while still keeping the spirit of openness and sharing alive. A collaborative learning project - such as I hope to see develop here - really only thrives when people trust and respect one another.

Giving Notice
At this point, I plan to place a standard copyright notice on the site, even though under the Berne agreement that is not technically necessary. It is a mere formality which is unneeded amongst the honest, and one which the dishonest choose to ignore anyway.

The Creative Commons Option
As I do more research on internet trends, usage, and electronic media copyright issues, I am personally leaning towards using a Creative Commons license, specifically the "Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported" version. This license allows sharing and use across the internet of materials as long as there is an attribution and a link given. Individual copyright is not violated, as it is a specific grant of certain rights while still retaining ownership and limiting other rights and usage.

Call for Comments and Expertise
There's still a lot more to learn in this area and I'd welcome comments and opinions. If any of you have expertise in this area that you would like to share, please contact me about an interview or writing a column.

Ariel

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