Category: general-education

Copyright Symbols You Need to Know

When you are planning on using or creating content for the web, it is important that you have a basic understanding of copyright law. That doesn’t mean you have to take a legal course on the subject. You just have to be aware of the fundamentals that make it less likely that you get into trouble.

copyright

Here are a few things you need to know: the different between a copyright and Creative Commons and how to assert or recognize each.

Symbol # 1

copyright

Any time the © symbol is present, the content is owned and cannot be used for commercial or sharing purposes without proper permission and credit. If you fail to meet this criteria, the content counts as being plagiarized. This could lead to lawsuits, fines and other consequences, depending on the context in which it was used.

Symbol # 2

While a © stands for a copyright, there is also a ™ for trademark and ® for a registered trademark. They are made with ( c ), ( tm ) and ( r ) in Windows, minus the spaces.

Symbol # 3

Creative Commons has its own symbols. These include attribution, derivatives, share-alike and noncommercial or commercial use. Each one signifies that an image can be used if the specified requirements, set by the creator, are met. Content that is in the public domain does not require any special rules to be listed or followed for use. For attribution, you must provide a credit with the content and link or source. Derivative and share-alike both refer to the presentation of similar or edited content based on the original. Commercial or noncommercial will tell you whether you can use it for a profitable venture. The creator may also have some special requirements to meet, such as telling them you have used the image, and where.

Symbol # 4

copyright

Any creative work is automatically copyrighted in the United States under the amended Copyright Act of 1988, as long as the work is created after March 1, 1989. If the work was created prior to that date, the creator or owner must have applied for copyright protection under the new law. This is why so much content prior to that date is within the public domain, as the copyright originally in place expired or it was never placed according to the amended law.

Bonus:  One Tip

It is your responsibility as a creative owner of anything you create to place a copyright symbol upon the work when sharing it. This includes online, where it is easy to steal another’s work. Some websites made for sharing will automatically list it as copyrighted to you to protect themselves from liability. But you should always check, in case your work is plagiarized and you have to show the court that the user was aware of your ownership.

Conclusion

Copyright can be a complicated issue. But as long as you take steps to remember the basics you will be able to protect yourself from the most obvious risks, especially online, where it has become so easy to both have your work stolen and catch instances where it has occurred.

Guest Author is the SEO manager at PsPrint, an company specializing in online printing. PsPrint offers an array of free tools, for example it lets you make your own business cards online.

Image Credits: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

Useful links: graphic to web design, mobile users, link with love

Jump from graphic design to web design in 7 easy steps. So many of my continuing ed students are in this exact situation. If you’re a career changer, check this out.

Mobile Users Don’t Do That. Except when they do. Stephanie Rieger has some ideas about what to do for mobile.

LINKwithlove

With sites like Pinterest gaining popularity, intellectual property rights to images are a problem. (See The Problem with Pinterest.) I recommend you take a look at Link with Love to help educate yourself–and students if you have them–about intellectual property and copyright law.

Secure your Server-Side Scripting

Locks for Sale

There is no web server existing within our society that proves fail proof. Web servers are often targeted in organizations because of the sensitive information they contain. Securing a web server proves as momentous as securing web or website applications and the networks surrounding them. If you have a secure web application that is paired with an unsecured web server or if this is reciprocated, your business will remain a substantial risk.

Securing web servers can prove frustrating and tedious along with requiring expertise, but it is not an impossible task. Ensuring the company web servers are secured will save your company from various headaches and data breaches in the future. No matter the operating system you have or web server software you are using, an out of the box configuration is always unstable. Companies should implement necessary tasks to increase the security of their web servers.

The following is a list of steps that should be taken to protect business web servers:

1. Remote access

Server administrators should always log onto local web servers. If remote access is warranted, you must ensure that the remote connection is properly secured. This is achieved by tunneling and following encryption protocols. It never hurts to use security tokens and other sign-on equipment. Do not use public computers or networks when you are accessing business servers remotely. This means that when you are enjoying a cup of java in the cafÈ, do not try logging onto business servers.

2. Remove services that are unnecessary

Default configurations and operating system installations are never safe. In standard default installations, network services that will not be used in web server configurations are installed. Some great examples of this are printer server services, RAS and registry services. When your operating system has an abundance of services running on it, this leaves open more ports, thus leaving more ìbackdoorsî for hackers to take advantage of. Disable and turn off all unnecessary services and this will ensure the next time you boot up your server, they will not start automatically. This task will also provide that extra boost to your serverís performance with freeing up hardware resources.

3. Server-side scripting and web application content

Web applications and or website scripts and files should always be on separate partitions and not that of your operating system, system files or logs. Hackers can easily gain access to the web root directory and exploit vulnerabilities.

4. Separate testing/development and production environment

It proves faster and easier for developers to develop new versions of web applications on production servers. It also proves standard that testing and development of these applications are performed directly on the production servers. Because these types of web applications are in early development stages, they usually have different vulnerabilities, cannot handle exceptions properly and they lack input validation. These applications can easily be exploited and found by hackers with using ordinary, free tools found on the Internet.

To deal with this issue, developers have begun to develop internal applications that allow access to the databases, web servers and other resources. The applications typically do not have any restrictions because they are merely testing applications that normally are only accessed by developers. If testing and development is not performed on a production server, they can easily be found by hackers which can help them gain access to the production server.

Testing and development of web applications should be performed on remote servers from the Internet and should never connect to or use real life databases and information.

5. Installment of security patches

Just because your web server contains fully-patched software does not assure its security. Ensure that you pay close attention to updating the operating system, and software running on it. Any hacker will admit that one of the easiest ways to take advantage of operating systems is through unpatched software and servers.

6. Audit and monitor the server

Logs should always be stored in a segregated section in web servers. Network services logs, database server logs, operating system logs and website access logs should be monitored regularly. If you see suspicious activity occurring on the server, the action should immediately be investigated to see what exactly is going on.

7. Privileges and permissions

Network and file services play a vital part in the security of web servers. If a web server becomes compromised through network service software, hackers can use the account where the network service is running from to carry out their evil deeds. It proves necessary to assign privileges warranted for network services to run. It is necessary to backend databases and information.

8. Use scanners

Scanners prove to be practical tools that aid in automating and easing the process of web application and web server security. Scanners that include port scanners can enable port scans on the web server hosting web applications being scanned. Scanners will initiate various security checks in reviewing network services and open ports that are running on your web server.
Remove software extensions and unused modules

Default Apache installations contain various predefined modules that are enabled. Ensure that you turn off these modules to prevent attacks to these modules. This also applies to Internet Information Services (Microsoftís web server). By default, IIS is configured to serve various large application types such as ASP. NET, ASP and more. The application list extensions should only contain the extensions the web applications or website are using. Each application extension should be restricted to using HTTP verbs only, whenever possible.

User accounts

Any default user account creating when an operation system is installed should be immediately disabled afterwards. It proves necessary to examine the long list of softwareís that have been installed on the server. This software should be checked regularly and frequently. The admin account should be renamed and should not be used; the same applies to the root user on a Linux/ Unix install. Any admin accessing the server should have their own user account with privileges. It is also highly recommended not to share your user account information with anyone.

Conclusion

In our modern era, tips and information on software and operating systems can easily be found on the Internet. It proves useful to stay informed while educating yourself about new tools and malicious attacks. One easy way to accomplish this task is by reading security-type magazines, forums, newsletters or other types of communities. Knowledge is power and the more you learn, the more you will be able to protect the security of server-side scripting.

Guest author Alfred Richards an experienced web designer and has profound knowledge of web hosting and web marketing, to know more visit his site VPN service.

Useful links: Zoom bug, CSS1K, iTunesU App

Zooming Bug in Webkit at AlastairC is must reading.

CSS1K. This is great stuff. It’s like CSS Zen Garden grew up and became super efficient (meaning under 1K) while still being very cool.

New iTunes U App Hits iTunes With Over 500,000 Free Lectures, Videos & Books. This is important news to web educators and anyone interested in teaching and learning. It’s only for iOS5+. Here are the basics, from Mashable.

Apple has launched a new, dedicated iOS application called “iTunes U.” This educational content portal, previously available only in iTunes, has now arrived in the App Store for all iPhones, iPads, and iPod Touch devices. It has also undergone a major revamp so as to better complement Apple’s newly-announced educational offerings, including iBooks 2 and its iBooks Author Tool, which allows anyone to easily create books and textbooks.

The Terms and Conditions are important reading, because you need to know what rights and how much money you are giving to Apple when you do this. If the Terms and Conditions don’t scare you off, you’ll find that creating a book with iBooks Author is extra easy. Much easier than creating a book for the Kindle.

And, of course, you shouldn’t overlook the possibility of using the open standard EPUB to create your books.

Useful Links: Flipped Classroom, Digital Talent, #mencallmethings, Treehouse, gamification

Progress report on my flipped classroom. Here’s what Suze is taking about:

The flipped classroom turns this model on its head; lecture materials are provided via video and other multimedia, and assigned as homework. Students complete the video lessons on their own time, at their own pace. Then, classroom time is devoted to assignments and projects, and applying the concepts learned in an open, creative environment. The teacher’s role is flipped as well, from instructor and lecturer to facilitator and coach.

What do you think about this article? Why Digital Talent Doesn’t Want to Work At Your Company from Fast Company.

Speaking out about harassment made its way to Twitter as Geek Feminism reports. Here’s the Twitter tag: #mencallmethings

Think Vitamin launched a new learning site called Treehouse. Videos, quizzes, badges and more.

The gamification of everyday life. Good explanation of the issues with an excellent resources list at the end.