Harry Chen Thinks Aloud

A Texas family recently sued Virgin Mobile phone company for using a Flickr photo of their teenage daughter Alison in a billboard ad. This photo was taken by Alison’s youth counselor Justin and posted onto Flickr under the Creative Commons (CC) license. Because CC permits for-profit commercial usage of this photo, Virgin Mobile took this photo and used it in one of its bus-stop billboard advertisement. Alison’s family sues Virgin Mobile claiming that Alison never agreed to the use of this photo for commercial advertisement.

This is an interesting legal case for social media on the Flickr web. When a photo is posted onto Flickr under the CC license, does it automatically give companies the full right to use to it? According to my research (here and here), the answer is no. Companies can only use a CC-licensed photo if the model in the photo has signed a release form. This rule applies in both the United States and Australia.

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Priceless.com, a site owned by MasterCard, features some of my Flickr photos taken at the Camden Lock Market in London. The originals can be found tagged camdenlockmarket. Other photos from the same trip are tagged london.

On September 18th, 2007, the New York Times will stop charging for access to parts of its Web site called TimesSelect and its archives from 1987 to present.

The move comes two years to the day after The Times began the subscription program, TimesSelect, which has charged $49.95 a year, or $7.95 a month, for online access to the work of its columnists and to the newspaper’s archives. TimesSelect has been free to print subscribers to The Times and to some students and educators.

In addition to opening the entire site to all readers, The Times will also make available its archives from 1987 to the present without charge, as well as those from 1851 to 1922, which are in the public domain. There will be charges for some material from the period 1923 to 1986, and some will be free.

Source: Times to Stop Charging for Parts of Its Web Site

The NYT is among a few old-school media companies that continue to operate profitability in the booming Internet age. Many others simply died because their paid-subscription business model failed to bring in profits. I think the NYT’s latest move is within expectation. In today’s world, news change in a lightening speed, people are often reluctant to pay for information if they can get it somewhere else for free.

Remember CNN was charging people for their online news videos. Soon after the rise of YouTube and other video sharing sites, in order to attract more viewers, CNN opens up its online video service free of charge. I think the NYT is in a similar shoe today. Yahoo! and Google continue to push for more news contents to be published on their own sites. The NYT needs to find ways to keep their readers.

The media war in the Internet age continues…

Spotted on digg.

GrandCentral is a new web-based service that helps people to manage their phone calls. Users get one phone number for life. This phone number can be linked to other phone numbers (e.g., work, home, cell and office).

GrandCentral offers several interesting services:

• Screen Callers: Knows who’s calling and screen unknown callers
• ListenIn: Hear why someone is calling before taking the call
• Call Record: Record calls on the fly and access recordings online
• Block Callers: Unwanted callers won’t be able to reach you anymore
• Notifications: Receive voicemail notifications via email or SMS

Check out GrandCentral demo video.

Over the weekend, I received an invitation to try out GrandCentral beta. So far I like it. The service is very easy to use. If you want to try out GrandCentral, I still have few invitations left. Send me an email, and I will put you on the list.