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We thought we'd heard analog (NTSC) television's last gasp in February, 2009, when essentially all full power TV stations in the US were to cease sending signals they way they have since before Uncle Miltie and Howdy Doody. Then Congress stepped in with a couple puffs of legislative CPR (bailing out the unready, unaware, or clueless, as usual) and put off the inevitable for 60% of these stations until the end of the day, tomorrow, June 12, 2009. Starting June 13, full power TV stations in the USA will only send programming using the ATSC digital format.
If you aren't aware of this transition you're either busy reading (what? and miss "I'm a Celebrity, Get Me out of Here"?) or you're not paying attention. This new method of sending programming digitally means stations can send multiple programs at once (more revenue for the same transmitting cost, and more efficient use of limited radio spectrum) and it means that the quality of the signals will be essentially perfect. I watched the Inaugural Parade on KGTV-DT in January and it looked better than a DVD. The downside is that older TVs can't see this datastream without a converter which is either your cable or satellite connection or is a box you can get with a subisidy from The Government.
The Channel Dance
Part of the shakeup is a musical-channels game that's been going on for awhile. As of Saturday AM, many stations won't be where you expect them to be channel-wise. But, your new DTV-capable TV doesn't care and will handle the changes for you by scanning the TV spectrum and remembering what it sees. Even if you aleady have a DTV set (or a converter) with an off-air antenna you should RE-SCAN on Saturday so your TV learns about the last of the Channel Dance. This FCC-sponsored website has all the info.
A local professional organization has been following the process and says that one local station will continue emitting an analog signal until June 26. This so called "nightlight" service will be, simply, an alert to those who tune to it, reminding them of where everybody went and what to do about it.
Uncle Martin's Headgear is Back In Vogue
I have considered dropping my cable entirely. Mrs. Telecom and I generally only watch 3 channels - HGTV, The Food Channel, and The SciFi Channel. We might be able to get by with the local offair stations and save ourselves around $50 a month. If you elect (or are foced, due to lack of cable where you live) to just watch the local stations, you may need a decent antenna for your roof or attic. San Diego stations are located in two places - atop Mt San Miguel near Spring Valley, and atop Mt Soledad in La Jolla, which are 2 very different directions for most of us. If you are reasonably line-of-sight to both locations, you might get by with a set of rabbit-ears (yes, the things you threw away decades ago when cable came along). I got a nice, reasonably priced set at Radio Shack. If you find the signal isn't strong enough (you either get nothing on channels where you expect it or else you get something but it pixilates or freezes regularly (because DTV doesn't fade-to-snow like analog does) you may need to get a rotor, get two antennas, or aigh and pick one group of stations or the other. Two DTV receiving antennas that are highly recommended by Gary Stigall, Director of Engineering for XETV Fox6 and Editor of San Diego's SBE Chapter 36 Newsletter, are as follows:
History Being Made
When KGTV-TV Channel 10 turned off their analog transmitter for the last time in February, they had one of their very first engineers push the Plates Off button on the transmitter and they videotaped it for posterity. So what? Well, for us boomers at least, this is a technical milestone. We grew up in a world where digital-anything was SciFi while today it's expected. The first computer I ever programmed on was, literally, brought in on a forklift and we thought the IBM-370/155's 1.5 megabytes of (core) memory was simply wasteful. Now my cellphone (yes, it really is almost like a Federation Communicator, Spock) has more processing power. Even while computers grew up and The Internet went from Geek to boutique, TV remained analog. I remember when long distance phone calls started going digital in the early 1980's - the disappearance of the expected and accepted hiss from analog transmission was quite striking to me. I will not miss analog TV. Digital TV has so many more possibilities - have you seen KNSD-DT's 24/7 weather info on one of their secondary channels? - and it allows other spectrum to be reused for public service, wireless communications, Qualcomm's FloTV, etc., that it's about time. Still, this is just about the last of the old technology and so you might want to watch Channel 39, 51, or 15 when they pull the plug on Friday night - even take a picture or set the VCR for 11:57-ish PM - so you can tell generations to come how you watched the end of an era.
The numbers are final. San Diego county residents must reduce our water use by 8 percent to 10 percent, San Diego Water Department Deputy Director Michael Bresnahan announced at a pubic briefing last night.
So the city - like much of So Cal - will stay with its limited watering days plan, on the belief that restricting watering will do the trick. See www.sandiego.gov/water/conservation for the rules.
And it will look to your neighbors to start the enforcement.
No one has been able to point to any studies or past experience that suggests that restricting watering to three days a week will work. But there seems to be a lot of confidence that this irrational-looking plan will cut water use.
Last week, San Diego Water Department Resources Manager Luis Generoso said the idea behind the limited days and times is to get people to look at their irrigation timers.The default setting on many times is 10 minutes a day, seven days a week, and older timers revert to default after power outages. So people who haven't looked in a while are probably watering like crazy. And moving off daytime watering means far less evaporation - even during June gloom.
Customers can expect a flyer explaining the water rules in the next bill. And they'll see another flyer - a plane over the beach with ‘Save Water' banners during the July 4th weekend.
What the water department won't be doing is looking at water bills for increases in use - except for the top 1,000 water-using households, which can expect some contact from the Water Department. A typical single-family household uses 14 HCF each month.
The city has moved five people from other departments to enforce the new rules - that's five for 275,000 water customers - and set up a tip hotline for people to call in suspicious watering activity - presumably their neighbors, employees and drivers reporting roadside geysers.
But there are enough exceptions to make turning in neighbors dicey - if we're ready to turn in our neighbors at all.
Are we ready for that? Aren't these the same neighbors we hope will call the fire department if they see flames and the police department if they hear screams? The ones who tolerate our barking dogs, even walking them when we've got family emergencies; hire our teens for yard work and babysitting; pick up our mail when we travel?
No one told them not to lay sod for a new lawn this year. Or to skip the fruit trees - hey, and thanks for the apples and avocados, neighbor!
We aren't going to go over and talk to them about their watering habits either. Not unless we want to hear about the noise we make into the night, the ugliness of our own landscaping and the half-finished fence they see every day.
Of course, we can call in reports on the landlords on our block (apologies to the conserving landlords). One of the basic rules for landlords renting houses is to pay the water bill because it's often the only way to find out about leaks and it keeps the landscape from dying as tenants try to save money. Landlords often use landscapers, whose mow -blow-and-go routine can mean no one looks at the irrigation timer.
Making assumptions about what people around us are doing is tricky. Some of our neighbors are following the rules but things still look like violations, like the homes using drip irrigation or the very modern weather-sensing timers that are allowed to run longer than 10 minutes. Some of those folks are pretty concerned about being turned in - and they're going to public meetings to ask about getting in trouble after they've made special efforts and they're saving water.
And people who've been obvious in our conservation efforts are afraid that our neighbors will think we turned them in.
With all this minding our neighbors business, wouldn't it be better to move towards a more rational plan that assumes water shortages are a long-term problem?
A plan that actually looks at water use and gives people credits, unrestricted rebates and tools - like the currently offline landscape watering calculator - to calculate and change their own water use?
There has been a lot of discussion about the Credit CARD Act recently signed into law. The discussion revolves mostly around the consumer protections put into place by the legislation.
Some of the provisions being discussed include: the notification requirements established, the restrictions on credit to those under 21 years old, whether a cap should have been placed on interest limits, and how the credit card companies may strike back against the new regulations by restricting credit or limiting who is approved for credit, imposing new annual fees, and shortening or eliminating the grace period before interest accrues on a purchase.
Whether or not the credit card companies will take such actions remains to be seen, but missing from the discussion are the miscellaneous provisions which include: studies and reports, procedures to timely settle estates of card holders who pass away, a review of small business credit plans, a review of current financial and economic literacy, and FTC rulemaking on Mortgage Lending. These provisions will not have an immediate (if you can call next February immediate) impact like the other provisions, but as long as Congress continues to feel protecting consumers is important good regulations could result.
Studies and Reports
Studies will be conducted with the results reported to Congress in the next few years. One study with report on the relationship between fluency in the English language and financial literacy and to what extent, if any, those whose primary language is not English are impeded in conducting their financial affairs. Another study will report on the marketing of consumer products with credit offers focusing on who is targeted and the predatory nature of the offers. A third study will report on the cost effectiveness of making available emergency PIN technology at some ATMs to allow users when under duress to alert and summon local law enforcement to the ATM. Lastly, a study will report on interchange fees charged by credit card companies and their impact on the use of credit and its effect on consumers and merchants.
Review of Consumer Credit Plans and Regulations
The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System ("Board") must in two years review the effectiveness of this and other consumer credit regulations and the impact that the regulations have had on the companies, consumers, and the relationships between the two. The Board must report its determinations and any changes to regulation to Congress.
Report to Congress on Reduction of Consumer Credit Card Limits
The Board in consultation with the other federal regulators of the financial industry must report on the extent to which creditors have reduced credit limits or raised interest rates on consumer credit cards based on the geographical location of the transaction or identity of the merchant, the type of transactions a consumer makes, and the identity of the mortgage creditor who holds a mortgage loan on the residence of the consumer. The report should determine the number of creditors engaging in the practices, the extent to which the practices impact minorities or low-income consumers, and other relevant information. The report should also include recommendations on any regulatory or statutory changes that are needed to restrict or prevent the practices.
Small Business Credit Plans and Recommendations
The Board is also required to conduct a review on the use of credit cards by small business and the credit card market for small businesses including the terms of the agreements, practices of the credit card issues, and the adequacy of protection against unfair or deceptive practices. A small business information security task force will also be formed to identify the information technology security needs of small businesses and the government and nongovernment organizations that serve those needs.
Financial and Economic Literacy
The Secretary of Education and the Director of the Office of Financial Education of the Department of the Treasury in coordination with the President's Advisory Council of Financial Literature shall evaluate and compile all existing federal financial and economic literacy education programs and develop a strategic plan to improve and expand financial and economic literacy education.
Though these provisions are more research and fact gathering and less direct action, the results and recommendations could have a much greater impact on the credit regulatory landscape then the other sections of the Act. If nothing else, they may generate a lot of important information about credit card companies practices that you the consumer should be aware of.
A new federal law provides a minimum 90 days' eviction notice to most tenants affected by residential foreclosures. This is 30 days more than the current California law which provides 60 days' notice.
This allows month-to-month tenants about three months to find a new place or work out a rental agreement with the new owner.
More information can be found at http://www.tenantstogether.org/article.php?id=723
Foreclosure consultants advertise they can Stop Foreclosure now! and We will save your home guaranteed! plus Free Consultation. These offers sound promising but most of them are scams where you are charged up-front fees, but they do nothing to help. They have you sign over your property to them and kick you out when it is convenient to them (they might charge you rent for awhile first), or they file bankruptcy in your name, which is one of the things you went to them to avoid.
So what can you do, how do you avoid these scammers? After all, they take out ads in the paper, have very professional-looking Websites, and claim affiliation with the government and the Making Homes Affordable initiative.
The first step is to say NO to fees. If someone wants to charge you money or have you sign legal documents that mention your property, walk away. The only organization whom you should deal with regarding your property is your lender.
You can get help for free! That's right I said FREE. You can receive free foreclosure avoidance counseling from a HUD-Approved Counseling Agency. The list of California agents is available on the HUD Website. Just type the address in your address bar or follow the link.
Second, foreclosure consultants have to start registering with the California Attorney General on July 1, 2009. You can contact the Attorney General's Office to find out if the consultant you want to work with is registered. You can also file a complaint with the Attorney General's office if you have been the victim of one of these frauds.
Third, if you have been deceived by one of these organizations there may be remedies available to you under California's Foreclosure Consultant Law. (CA Civ. Code 2945).
Most importantly though is getting the word out. Let us know if you have you interacted with any of these less-than- reputable organizations. Have you seen a Website for one one day only to have it disappear the next, and how have you handled the situation?
"Foreclosure" by Flickr user etgeek used under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommerical 2.0 license.
If you thought credit card companies were bad before, you ain't seen nothing compared to the abuses to come as a result of the new Credit Card Reform Act. According to industry representatives, the new regime will force credit card companies to come after prime borrowers, restrict access for the young and non-prime, do away with rewards programs, and up annual fees. In short, they're going have to raise hell until lawmakers repent.
Following the passage of the new legislation, commentators of all stripes weighed in on the topic. Consumer groups and some on the left praised the law as a definitive win in the on-going struggle between ‘Wall Street and main street'. The plastic card industry and some on the right decried the measure as ‘anti-competitive' and an affront to the concept of personal responsibility.
Although the competing parties agree on little, the commotion surrounding the new legislation suggests that one point is not a matter of contention: the consumer credit industry is about to undergo dramatic changes.
Unfortunately, this, the one point of agreement, is where the real debate should occur. I'm here to tell you that this is a bluff both legislators and individuals should call.
Think about it: the changes proposed by the credit card industry are a model for self-destruction. On the one hand, they say they are going to stop issuing cards to the poor and the young (and especially the poor and young). These are the people least likely to pay off the full balance in time, and thus, the people most likely to generate profit margins.
To make up the lost revenue, credit card lenders are also proposing to squeeze the prime borrowers who, in the words of one industry watcher quoted in the New York Times, have been "making out like bandits". Unfortunately, these are the very people that don't need credit cards. Start raising rates and charging annual fees and these people will be cutting plastic faster than an environmentalist at the six-pack ring factory. Rich people will go from three cards to one, or none, faster than you can say Djibouti.
Give it six months to a year, and we'll end up with a credit card market completely oversaturated by lenders. I don't think it will even get that far, but if it does, it won't stay like that for long. Eventually, the credit card lenders are going to have to make some money, even if it's in a less usurious fashion than before. To the extent competition exists at all anymore, one card will undercut the rest, and eventually everybody will have to follow suit. How do you think things like rewards programs developed in the first place?
In the end, we'll be back to where we started, albeit with slightly less sneaky tactics. So I guess the whole point of this blog was to say that all the fuss over the Credit Card Reform Act was about nothing. (Ironic? Yes.)
A gentleman who lives in Florida sent us an e-mail about a Web site he visited that is for an organization that has a name similar to ours. He wanted to know if it was ours.
What makes this interesting is that the Web site he is inquiring about for UCan Services has earned itself an F RATING from the Better Business Bureau (BBB).
Here's the BBB's explanation for its F rating:
"We strongly question the company’s reliability for reasons such as that they have failed to respond to complaints, their advertising is grossly misleading, they are not in compliance with the law’s licensing or registration requirements, their complaints contain especially serious allegations, or the company’s industry is known for its fraudulent business practices.
As described on the BBB's Web site: This company's business is offering a work at home opportunity collecting monies from local payphones and depositing them into a bank account, for an advance fee of $289.00.
So the lesson here is be careful when doing an Internet search as there are Web sites with similar names. It's like when you used to look up a name in the telephone book. Let's say you have a toothache and want to contact, a dentist. You would open the phone book to look for Dr. John Jones but there might be several listings--one for a dentist one for a doctor and one for a veterinarian by that name. You need to be careful which one you call to get the proper treatment.
If you are reading this post, you have already successfully reached the correct Web site for the Utility Consumers' Action Network (UCAN). Come visit us often at www.ucan.org as we are always updating the consumer information on our site and reporting the latest on issues such as Sunrise PowerLink, telephone scams, water and gasoline issues.
On Friday May 22, 2009 President Obama approved new credit card legislation which makes it tougher for credit card companies to raise fees and interest rates on consumers. The legislation seeks to address what many Democrats and consumer groups believe are abusive practices by credit card companies. "With this bill we are putting in place some common sense reforms designed to protect consumers," Obama said at a signing ceremony at the White House. "We're not going to be giving people a free pass and we expect consumers to live within their means and pay what they owe. But we also expect financial institutions to act with the same sense of responsibility that the American people aspire to in their own lives," he said. While many are calling the legislation a victory for the average consumer, others are worried that the new provisions will punish consumers with good credit who pay their bills on time. Banks and credit issuers argue the law will inevitably force them to drop at risk holders and raise interest rates overall.
Here are some of the key provisions of the bill provided by the Associated Press:
•Bans double-cycle billing, which is a method of calculating finance charges that takes into account the previous month's balance in addition to your current credit card balance.
•Prohibits retroactive rate increases unless the cardholder is at least 60 days behind in paying the bill. If a person does fall behind and the rate on past buys is increased, lenders must restore the lower rate after six months if the cardholder has paid monthly bills on time.
•Requires lenders to post their credit card agreements on the Internet.
•Requires that customers receive 45 days notice before rates are increased.
•Requires anyone under 21 to prove that they can repay the money before being given a card, or have a parent or guardian promise to pay off their debt if they default.
•Prohibits over-the-limit fees unless a cardholder elects to be allowed to go over a limit.
•Requires lenders to say how much time it would take and how much money in interest would be paid if only the minimum monthly payments are made.
•Requires that gift cards remain valid for five years.
*Additionally, an unrelated amendment allowing visitors to carry licensed guns in national parks and wildlife refugees was also included and approved. The provision permits guns if allowed under state law. There is essentially no relationship between the gun amendment and the credit card legislation.
Some of these provisions were already put in place by the Federal Reserve last December, but they weren't scheduled to kick in until July 2010. Instead, the 45-day notice will now go into effect in mid-August of this year, with the rest of the changes being implemented next February.
John Mattes of San Diego 6 recently interviewed UCAN attorney Art Neill regarding new Credit Card Legislation.
It used to be “for a good time call 867-5309”. Now it's “for a good time text “DEBAUCHED” to 696969”. Did you ever wonder what those numbers are, who administers them, and how you can use them for business? I did. I think about these things all the time. I'm Dr. Telecom.
Every cell phone has the ability to send 160 character (max) SMS or “text” messages to other cell phones. The address used to route the message is simply the phone number. Since all phone numbers in North America are unique, so are all SMS addresses.
The addresses seen in the ads you see on the TV and other places, entreating you to text a keyword someplace for products, services, media, etc., are a different kind of address that is also routed among the cellular carriers. These are called Common Short Codes and are administered by the CSC Administration (CSCA), part of the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association (CTIA) http://www.usshortcodes.com/aboutCSCA.html
A business leases a CSC from the CSCA for between $500 and $1000 a month. Once set up, all US cellular carriers can route their subscribers' SMS texts to you or to an Application Provider with whom you've contracted to get the messages and do something with them.
The CSC gets the message to the business or their Application Provider. But the first word in the message sent, known as the KEYWORD, is what typically determines what will happen. If UCAN had the CSC of 11111, they could say “Text CONSUMER to 11111 to start getting our daily Consumer Alert message.” They could also say “Text SPL to 11111 to start getting Sunrise Powerline status alerts.” The address is the same but a computer program uses the first word as a trigger and responds differently depending on the trigger text received - it stores the email address in a database for that campaign, then replies in some way. UCAN could have hundreds of different campaigns, all from that one CSC account.
I'LL START TEXTING WHEN YOU PRY MY PHONE OUT OF MY COLD DEAD HANDS (or maybe not)
Texting seems to be somewhat generational, IMHO. Most Gen X'ers and younger use it while most of the mid-to-early boomers that I know do not. Personally, as you can probably tell from my blog posts, I tend to be verbose, so 160 characters is a limitation! But also, I prefer to both send and get regular email because I don't want to be interrupted during the day for things that aren't temporally significant. A phone call (or a text message) generally requires my direct involvement when it happens. I also reserve that attention I might give to text message for VERY important things - once and awhile I might text Mrs. Telecom if she's in class so she knows to check the message at an early convenience but it's not as intrusive in a classroom as a phone call and she doesn't use her phone for email, PERIOD. Emails are things I can go thru when I want to. That's me. I don't “text SPOCK to NCC1701 to get Star Trek trivia sent to your cell phone!” I'm unusual. But, you knew that.
If you're considering using text messages for marketing be sure you only send them to people who have initiated the process. Text messages cost money while emails, if you already have Internet access, are free. Be sure your system has a way to let people unsubscribe.
ALTERNATE APPROACH
Also, know that pretty much all cell phones can receive emails-as-texts. That is, you can send a regular SMTP email to a carrier-specific email address, e.g. 8885551212@carrier.com, and the recipient will get the email as a text message even if they don't have Internet access on their phone (truncated to 160 characters). So, you COULD do a text campaign from email, which would still cost the recipient whatever their plan's per-message cost is, but would cost you nothing. The only problem with this is that it's not SMS round-trip; that is, the consumer can't initiate this relationship by texting but must get to you via a web site or email or other method to get registered and to cancel later on. Verizon users can go here (this was really hard for me to find) to create a more intuitive “nickname” email address.
DO-IT-YOURSELF TEXT CAMPAIGNS
So what if you simply received the text messages for your campaign on your cell phone? This would work but you'd have to reply to each message manually - not very time-efficient. Well, there is a product that appears to automate this process. The one I know if is called SMSFinder by MultiTech. In this case your subsscribers text to an actual cell phone number because SMSFinder is actually a box with a GSM cell phone in it plus some additional brains. Subscribers might text “CONSUMER” to, say, 8885551212, the unit's cell phone number, in order to have the SMSFinder get the message then do something with it. The SMSFinder owner does not have to lease a CSC address to use this product. Of course, the unit's owner will have to pay their carrier for the text messages. For a small campaign, this might beat the $500 - $1000 a month for a CSC address.
As you remember from last month, I reported on how Verizon and Sprint Wireless customers can improve (or even simply provide) coverage in their homes or businesses. Known generally as a femtocell* this micro-cell-tower is, in essence, a box you place anywhere there's Internet access. It connects Verizon's network to your cell phones locally, via the Internet. Here's a review of the product.
Michael's home's Verizon cellular coverage isn't ideal so we installed one of these units. It was easy. For me, particularly, since he sprung for the one-time $250 fee and I got to play with it.
You're on. How do you know? Because if you dial #48 you'll get a confirmation message. Also, when you make or take a call, if the extender is handling it, you'll hear quick confirmation tones. If you have problems here are some FAQs.
They say that you should place cell phones directly next to the unit for a few minutes so they can get to know each other. We did this with Michael's Samsung Omnia phone and did not do it with my Omnia and both worked.
The unit comes with a cable to allow you to extend the GPS antenna outdoors if necessary. As noted in Step 3 above, I thought we'd have to do this because I didn't get a blue GPS light. Be patient and give it some time before resorting to this.
Data Please?
It appears that the Network Extender will not transmit the faster EVDO (Rev0 and RevA) Internet data format. It appears that it will handle the slower 1X RTT speed data. While Michael's phone was tethered to his laptop, which was running a speed test from http://speedtest.net, I pulled the ethernet cable - the test continued, so the phone must have elected to use the EVDO signal from the cell tower which, though slower than it would be at a better location, was still faster than 1X RTT. Some people have bemoaned this lackof EVDO support. But most people, if they have Internet (as required for the Network Extender) will just use that while home and use the phone while mobile. Many modern Smartphones even have WiFi that you can use to keep it syncronised with your mail server while you're at home or elsewhere with poor cellular data rates.
Multiple Yakkers
The unit provides 4 wireless channels which support 3 concurrent calls (the 4th is reserved for 911 calls). That's fine unless your unit is at an office, or unless you're having a party, or unless you have a BIG family with a LOT of Verizon phones. The product allows you to designate up to 50 Verizon phone numbers as Priority Callers. Verizon customers can enter these numbers via their My Verizon profile on the Internet. Now, non-priority callers can still make a call. But if a priority caller tries to make a call when all 3 channels are busy, a non-priority caller will be bumped to accommodate them.
A Soft Handoff
I wanted to see if the unit would hand me off gracefully to a cell tower when I left its range. I confirmed that I was calling Mrs. Telecom via Michael's Network Extender, left the premises, and never knew I'd been thru a "soft handoff". According to the FAQs, this would not be true the other way - if the unit was in a place where there's NO, ZERO, ZIP, ZILCH, cell tower coverage, a call initiated where there WAS coverage would not get handed off as I approached the Network Extender and I'd eventually lose the call.
Michael is pleased with the improved call quality. He's still not "5 bars" at all places in his 3-level home but he's better off than he was.
-----
* A dear friend read my original post and asked "Why is it called a FEMTOcell?". It's kinda dumb really. People talk about mini-this and micro-that to indicate that a newer item is smaller than or is a subset of the original. In the Greek order-of-magnitude prefix system, the next smallest thing (1000th of micro) is "nano". NanoCells, used by Mark From Ork to say Goodbye or as mini cell systems in isolated locations, were already in existence. Then comes "pico". The term picocell was already used to define what's essentially just the radio part of a femtocell. The NEXT smallest prefix, femto (1000th of pico), was thus employed. Its actual value, 10-to-the-minus-15 of something, is irrelevant.
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UCAN.org is made available by the Utility Consumers' Action Network to assist you in becoming what you always knew you could be, a consumer ROCK STAR! We take no corporate money, and are beholden only to you, the consumer. As such, the site is here for educational, advocacy, and empowerment purposes, as well to to give you general information and a general understanding of the law. Just remember this site is NOT here to provide specific legal advice. By using this web site you of course understand that there is no attorney client relationship between you and the Web Site publisher, UCAN. The Web Site should not be used as a substitute for competent legal advice from a licensed professional attorney in your state.
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UCAN's affiliate New Media Rights is hosting a discussion forum on the future of media and journalism in San Diego. Join in on the discussion now!
How to protect your own blog or website from liability for user generated content
Is Youtube putting advertisements on user videos without permission?
Essential free and open software toolkit for consumers
How to find free music, images, and video you can use or remix in your own creative works
How to Listen to Music on the Internet for Free...Legally
How to make a Podcast... for free
Visit NewMediaRights.org
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