New Ruling Is a Stark Reminder That Your Image Isn’t Yours | WIRED

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CINDY LEE GARCIA said she’d been had. The actress claimed that she thought she was acting in an action-adventure thriller called Desert Warrior, but her performance was co-opted into five seconds of Innocence of Muslims, a 14-minute trailer mocking the Islamic prophet Mohammed that sparked an anti-American backlash in the Middle East and led to death threats for the actors involved. The inflammatory clip was first uploaded to Google-owned YouTube in June 2012, and a few months later Garcia sued Google demanding that what she called the “hateful anti-Islamic production” be taken down.

Garcia first filed a suit in Los Angeles Superior Court, but a judge refused to have it removed, even as she claimed she was receiving death threats. She then filed a suit in federal court, yielding the same response. After all, video creators own the rights to their creations, not actors. Last year, however, a three-judge panel on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals shocked First Amendment and copyright attorneys around the country when it found in Garcia’s favor, determining that her performance was “independently copyrightable.” Google removed the video.

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Netflix To Roll Out A New, More Immersive Web Interface Starting In June | TechCrunch

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Netflix confirms today that it will roll out a new user interface on the web to all users worldwide beginning next month. A number of Netflix customers are already seeing the updated look-and-feel, however, according to various reports. The interface, which was previously demonstrated at CES and Mobile World Congress, brings the design of Netflix’s website more in line with what users today see on mobile phones, tablets, on gaming consoles and on other streaming media players, like Roku.

The most notable aspect to the new design is that it eliminates the slower, scrolling carousels for content discovery in favor of an updated look with larger thumbnails in each section which can be clicked on in order to expand a detail screen showing additional information about the title in question.

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Mini Is the New Supersized | Adweek

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mini-foods-hed-2015Food and beverage giants are shrinking their offerings. Why? Consumers view sugar and fat to be the new tobacco, according to new research by Havas Worldwide, which found that in the last year 42 percent of consumers have reduced their sugar intake while 38 percent of consumers have decreased fat consumption. “Smaller sizes have always been appealing for products perceived as indulgent,” explained Tim Maleeny, Havas’ chief strategy officer, managing partner. “Somehow the smaller serving offsets a sense of guilt.” For brands, going small may be key to their business, noted Allen Adamson, North American chairman at brand consulting firm Landor Associates. “The alternative—if they don’t do this—is consumers will drop them off the shopping list, and that’s deadly for a brand,” he said.

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  Why Don’t People Buy From Me? | Getentrepreneurial.com

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The Biggest Marketing Challenge WE All Face

The biggest challenge we’re dealing with today is change. Things are changing so fast. As a result of this rapid pace of change people do not know who to trust!

There are six questions your prospects want answered before they will buy from you. These questions are designed to allow you to think like your buyer and speak with them so they know you are the right and safe choice.

Why the Six Questions are Important

When I started my business back in 2001, I lacked trust. What I really mean is that I did not know who could help me get clear on my ideal client. Every time I ask someone they said things I did not understand. I was confused and a confused mind does not take action. This is what we’re dealing with.

Stick with me as I talk about things you may not have thought about before. Keep an open mind because, to grow your business, you need to find someone you can trust.

Remember we stated earlier that “trust” is the biggest marketing issue we need to address. This is what marketing is about – helping our prospects to trust us so we can start the sales process.

Let’s jump right in.

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Mastering the Fine Art of Managing People | Inc.com

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downloadEric Ryan vividly recalls the origin of his rigorous hiring philosophy. It was 2005, and his sustainable cleaning-products business, Method, was growing fast. “I heard someone say, ‘We just need a warm body,'” recalls Ryan. “It scared the crap out of me.”

Mediocre hires are like empty calories: They make you bigger but less healthy. At Method, which has 158 employees, and at his new vitamin and nutrition business, Olly, which has 12, Ryan approaches each hire as though the company’s future depended on getting it right. Landing a job at Method is hard. Ryan estimates that the process takes twice as long as at many other companies. “We maintain a very high standard, and if it takes a while to find the perfect person, that’s OK,” says Ryan.

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Is It Time For Companies To Pay For Not Paying Enough? The “Walmart Tax” Gains Momentum | Co.Exist

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downloadMaking minimum wage dooms you to a life of hardship and toil. We in the U.S. have accepted or ignored this situation for a long time, while companies make billions of dollars by paying their workers less than enough to survive. But a national discussion about income inequality and the wave of worker protests for livable wages has brought attention to the issue. And now some policymakers want to add to the debate by focusing not just on the poor living conditions that result from low wages, but on the billions of dollars that the low-wage service economy costs every single taxpayer, as we pay for things like food stamps and health care for workers whose companies don’t pay them enough to live on.

Every year, U.S. taxpayers pay $153 billion in public assistance to working families, according to a recent study conducted by the University of California’s Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education. This is more than the annual budgets of the U.S. Department of Education and Health and Human Services combined.

Paying low-wage employees more by raising the minimum wage—$15 an hour is what “livable” wage advocates are fighting for—is likely the most direct solution. But barring this, a few Connecticut lawmakers want to be the first in the nation to end what they see as essentially a massive payout to the Walmarts and McDonald’s of their state.

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These High-School Students Found a Way to Make Any Headphones Wireless | Entrepreneur

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Wireless headphones have been around for awhile, but a device that can make any old set of headphones wireless is about to hit the market.

Launching their Kickstarter campaign today, the team behind the Spiro X1 wants to give you a no-strings-attached listening experience. The Spiro X1 (or “X1” for short) is a circular device that plugs into headphones using the connection typically taken by a wire. A user would simply disconnect their wires from the headphone jack and plug in the X1 in its place. Once connected, bluetooth technology allows users to listen to music and answer calls through their headphones with no physical wire.

In addition to making headphones wireless, customers can use the product to answer calls and play or pause songs using the X1’s center button, as well as adjust the volume via the side buttons. Also notable are the X1’s proprietary circuit board and near-weightlessness (it weighs less than a quarter of a pound, measuring an estimated 38 millimeters in diameter and approximately 12 millimeters thick).

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Until We Meet Again – Final Part | Peter Mehit

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imagesEver drive to a mall and park your car and then after you finish shopping, you come back and you can’t find it?  This gets worse if you own say a white Honda Accord, or a brown Camry. You look and look and look. And after all that searching and frustration, where do you find it? Exactly where you left it.

But parking lots can be a good thing too, especially if you can use them to park items that are going to crash your agenda. Here’s how it works:

You’re having your weekly status meeting. It used to cost $322. But because you started keeping time you were able to get the meeting to run and hour and ten minutes (about $250). Then we were able to save about $40 a meeting more by having people show for their part of the meeting and leave when they were done. We’re down to $210 per meeting (saving $112). How can you get that last ten minutes back?

Continue reading “Until We Meet Again – Final Part | Peter Mehit” →