JL Forums

Without reference to 1waylinks, this is something that has caused me to think. On my sites I try to cover this angle. I have videos and often pics. I tried audio.
I use video content from a licensed source but it can't easily be used on individual posts - but network site owners could - if they chose to install the scripts.
I buy in and licence some pics and allow users to post pics as long as they indemnify my by their agreement to ToS but across a blog network, how to do that?

Here's the thing.

When we write text it is pretty easy to understand the IP issues. If we write something we can be pretty sure that it will not infringe copyright just by taking very easy and basic precautions.
This absolutely NOT the case with video, audio or images - albeit that if we have the time audio is not too hard to manage if we record our own.

For my sites I buy in images from a very well respected source with guarantees that I am indemnified for the use on the site for which I purchase them. If I want to use them on other sites then the cost goes up several thousand percent. If I want to use Flickr or other sites that offer CC licensing it is almost impossible to be sure of the validity of the licence and there is no indemnity. As a publisher with many UGC based sites I will not take the risk of publishing user provided pics except in certain well defined situations. When syndicating I do not use pics because I can not guarantee that I can do so without indemnifying the site owner.

One way that some might suggest would be to incorporate Zemanta into the system but Zemanta make it crystal clear that they make no warranty about the IP rights for the suggestions they make so as a publisher that is not good enough - I'd not accept content with images from Zemanta unless I chose them myself and that due to time constraints would rule me out of the blog network post accepting niche - if I wanted it I could already do it, yes?

With video we can use YouTube embedding, I know of one network that allows users to do this. I can see some benefit here, not least because the control of the embed lies with YouTube and they can turn off the video at any time. Site owners take almost no risk in this case. However from what I have seen most syndicators do not bother using the tool they have had for several years.

So, how would you suggest that Jon were to implement video and images without a huge investment in time and money related to ensuring that IP issues are dealt with in a cast iron manner? I'd be interested to know because it would make my life as a publisher easier!

Images and video are not significant factors in whether or not Google deindexes, bans or slaps a site. The improvement in quality is for the purpose of ensuring the network remain vibrant and well indexed.

Yes, that I get - in this regard I suppose that a blog network situation is not the same as a one-off content driven site where one of the things we are trying to do is to increase visitor involvement.

I'm not saying I'm not open to the other media improvements, if there is a good way to do it that is supported by XMLRPC. I'm all ears.

And that's the problem isn't it. Pretty much anything you might want to do (or that some members might want is, in the end, down to the webmasters on the receiving blogs. If THEY want to add video or pics then they can and maybe some do. But for you guys to do it...
Not really on.

I'm saying that if a human being looks at the page and sees badly spun garbage that they are more likely to poke around the site to see if that's the norm. If it is, then deindexing isn't far behind.

But if someone reviews a post and sees a well written piece of quality content, then they have little reason to investigate the rest of the site, and the blog is much more likely to remain fully indexed with no penalty.