Well, according to the MPAA, it is terrible. According to local governments in Los Angeles (after following New York’s lead), not only is piracy bad, but it "substantially interferes with the interest of the public in the quality of life and community peace, lawful commerce in the county, property values, and is detrimental to the public health, safety, and welfare of the county’s citizens, its businesses and its visitors." (I added the emphasis)

I think they have gone a little far in this depiction of how bad piracy is. I mean… really, causes health, safety and welfare concerns?

I agree that it is, and should be illegal, to violate copyright laws. I make my living on writing and designing and want my content to be mine. I am building a business on custom software applications and I don’t want someone to distribute that without me getting my cut. I don’t care if someone uses my content as long as I get credit, but I would never say that you are causing health concerns by stealing my content.

What really confuses me is on sites that are centered around file sharing (those that are accused of aiding and abetting the crime of piracy) still get plenty of advertisements. You might think that most of the advertisements come from fringe or illicit material websites… but you would be wrong. Notice the Verizon and the Netflix ads I found on one such site. I won’t take you there via a link because I don’t want to be accused of perpetuating the problem. But, I wonder, does advertising on a site that has been under fire for years of providing these sharing services actually legitimize the act of piracy? What’s more is that I even saw an ad from NBC on the same site but I refreshed too fast to get a screen shot.

You might ask, "What is the real business case for this discussion?"

Well, I am glad you asked. The real issue is that file sharing is here to stay. You aren’t going to change that. Sharing a book, a cassette tape, a CD or DVD has been around for a long time, but what is different now is the ability for someone to proliferate it more quickly than ever before.

Many TV shows are now available online after they air. So, many of the networks get it. If you can provide your content in a medium that people want it, you can likely monetize that it other ways. Until the MPAA understands that people don’t want to spend $20 on a DVD that cost them $.20 to produce, they will always be at odds with their customers. Here’s a thought… Provide it on-line to view for $1. Or provide the ability to download an burn to your DVD for $3. Make it affordable and people will stop stealing.

Now, this isn’t a rant on copyright protection. It is a discussion of not being at odds with your customer. As long as you don’t provide your product or service in a way that your customers want to receive it, they will find other venues to obtain it. That is called competition… get used to it.

In light of my last post, I wanted to post a link for a forensic accountant.

This is offered from Business to Business CFO provides CFO services to growing companies and offering financial fraud investigation, litigation support, forensic accounting, and expert witness services to litigating attorneys on a nationwide basis.

They offer a directory service for a link exchange at their site. Take a look you might find a category to make it worth your while to post a link on your site.

Keep the data on your screen invisible to roving eyes. Not bad if it gets a little to bright to see your display either.

Thanks to Bekathwia for the pic.

In my search for the right VoIP, I am doing some testing on RingCentral. Their quality of service seems very good, but their price is a little high for me… no other complaints. What sparks this post is an email that I received from them.

Dear Corey Smith,
In order to comply with FCC regulations, RingCentral will be disabling the Automatic Login to Voicemail feature from service on 04/13/2008.
Automatic Login to Voicemail enabled automatic voicemail system login without password entry when calling from a pre-designated phone number. The FCC has required us to remove this feature due to concerns regarding the protection of messages, call records and personal information.
As of 04/13/2008, this feature will be removed from service and you will be required to enter your password each time you access your account by phone.
We appreciate your understanding and thank you for using RingCentral.

I was happy they didn’t address me as "Dear Valued Customer" but if I call from my phone, I hate having to enter my password. If my office is secure, that should be my option to have an auto-login on my voice mail.

I can’t fault RingCentral for the FCC requirement, but what struck me was "The FCC has required us to remove this feature due to concerns regarding the protection of messages, call records and personal information."

Let me explain how RingCentral had it set up… you had to manually request the ability for an auto-login to your voice mail. It wasn’t something that was set-up by default. So, the FCC seemed a bit over zealous that I am not smart enough to take the responsibility for my own voice mail security.

What, the government taking personal responsibility away? Will wonders never cease?

Corey Smith is the Chief Web Architect for Dealer Marketing Systems and maintains news for the copier, printer and document management industries.

I mentioned that I have a new computer. Today, I needed to access my online banking from my new computer. I entered my password correctly and was taken to a screen that prompted me for the following:

I don’t ever remember answering these questions before, but I must have. The problem is that I read so much that I don’t know if my favorite book then is the same as my favorite book now. I don’t know what city I was born in because I was born on an Air Force Base and never cared to learn more. I have a favorite movie… well I did when I was a kid, so I know that one because I have used that as an answer in many places.

So, I clicked on the "forgotten the answers link" and it told me to call.

I called. They reset my password so that I can start over.

So, here are my question options.

For question 1:

What is the name of your best friend? (I’ve a few friends. Can’t pick one. Sorry Jared)

What is the name of your first grade teacher? (haven’t a clue)

What is your favorite book? (again… don’t know)

What is the name of your favorite pet? (I hate pets)

For question 2:

In what city/town were you born? (I wasn’t really born in a city or town)

What is your favorite color? (Blue… no YELLOW)

What is your birthstone? (No Idea)

What is your favorite holiday? (Christmas, National Frozen Food Month, Festivus)

For question 3:

What is your favorite fast food restaurant? (Depends on the day of the week)

What is your favorite author? (Related to my favorite book… might remember this)

What is your favorite movie? (At least one that I can remember what I answered)

What is your favorite athlete? (Don’t really care about sports)

–

What is my point here?

Well, I already have to remember usernames and passwords for a myriad of sites. No one can get into my account without my username and password and I always (or at least when the site allows me to) use a strong password… you know, with upper and lower cases, at least one number and at least one symbol). There is no way anyone is going to happen across my password because it has no relation to my life now.

So, why make it so hard for me now? Why give me something else to remember? More importantly, why lock me into questions when my answer might change in a few months? If I read the new Rida Allen novel and it suddenly becomes my new favorite, I am going to forget all about Twilight, aren’t I?

Besides, if someone could get my password… which is hard to figure out, don’t you think that in casual conversation, someone could probably figure these questions out if I happened to have specific answers.

So, when I called the company and complained, I was told that if I can’t remember, then I should write them down. Great, now a would be hacker just has to read my password list.

Corey Smith is the Chief Web Architect for Dealer Marketing Systems.

Recently, I decided that, even though my work is reliant on email and the internet, I needed a fax number. So, I decided to get an IP fax number from an online provider. A number of years ago I had done the same… in fact, I had used that number for about 4 years.

In both cases, I had the same experience. Every so often, I recieve faxed documents from various locations that shouldn’t come to me.

What is more… many times, those fax documents come with very private information. The most recent fax I received was for a loan application for a particular individual… containing very private information. If I was malicious, identity theft would be easy.

If you use an online provider be sure that those who are sending faxes to you are using the right fax number. If they don’t have to send your private information via fax, don’t do it. If you are a business that needs to send a fax, make sure the fax number you send to is the right number.

Better yet… just move to email.

Corey Smith
Co-founder of Resumango where you can build a better resume for free

I wonder if that sounds like an oxymoron. Sometimes I think of email management as a misnomer. I tend to think that my email manages me more than anything.

It occurs to me the following possible scenario.

You get a subpoena for all the emails that you exchanged with a customer, contractor or employee for the last 12 months. What do you do? Maybe not so hard if you have them in your sent and in boxes.

What if you have a company of 20 employees (or more)? Can you get all the messages quickly and without too much difficulty? Does it take hours of hunting them down on backups? Can you provide proof that you have provided all the required information?

Now, let’s throw another twist to the scenario? What if the subpoena includes all attachments, phone messages and other correspondence related to that email? Can you fulfill the request.

Look at the way you are storing your data. Are you prepared in the event that something like this comes up? If you are, I’d be curious to know your strategy.

Corey Smith
Co-founder of Resumango where you can build a better resume for free.

It is estimated that organizations waste as much as 10% of their time because employees can’t find some information. (Datamonitor)

Atle Skjekkeland points us to the Datamonitor study and says:

Over 50% of staff costs are now for employees performing information work. But the employees are suffering from both information overload and information underload, and as a result they spend up to 25% of their day searching for the right information. Datamonitor argues that this why some organizations could be frittering away as much as 10% of their staff costs on wasted effort. The report goes on to say that ineffective search and discovery strategies are hampering business competitiveness, impairing service deliver, and putting companies at risk.

So, how much time do you waste?

If you are looking to implement a scanning solution, it is very important that you have three, very important features. Those features are not scanning to email, scanning to folder and scanning to document management. Then, what do you think they are?

Scan to email, folder and document management systems are very important features that can not be over looked. They are never the most critical components, but these are the features that most people consider. Most often, people forget to look at the most critical features first.

Most Important Feature 1 - Ease of Use
There are so many types of systems out there right now. Some are incredibly complicated. Some require too many buttons to push for something as simple as a scan to email. They require the push of one button to enter an email, the push of another button to add the subject and yet another button to add the note. Not to mention the little screens and virtual keyboards that make any button push cumbersome.

Most Important Feature 2 - Tight Integration
I have talked this week a bit about point solutions. A point solution is a solution that is implemented for one purpose, regardless of the implication on other areas of the business. In order for your scanning solution to be effective, you should look for integration with your current environment. You shouldn’t have to come up with work-arounds to tie it seamlessly to your MS Exchange server. You should be able to send an email from your scanner and have the message appear automatically in your sent items folder. If you want to password protect the system, it should authenticate against your existing server and not have to create a new password system. More over, you want it to integrate with your document management system so that you don’t have to take extra steps to get your documents where you want them when you want them there.

Most Important Feature 3 - Security and Compliance
Did you know that most scan to email and scan to folder options are open to abuse from malicious users? In most scan to email systems, I can send an email anonymously, or worse, put someone else’s name as the return address? Did you know that in most scan to folder locations, security settings need to be turned off so that scanning can work easily on the network. These problems allow for violations in regulatory compliance with regulations such as HIPAA, SOX and FACTA.

Don’t forget these key features when looking for a scanning solution.

How do you make sure that you have compliance with your information management system?

Information management systems are at the heart of document management systems.

Atle Skjeklland at AIIM Knowledge Center points us to their book they published titled Information Nation. In that book, they talk about the seven steps to ensuring compliance.

• Good policies and procedures
• Executive-level responsibility
• Proper delegation
• Program communication & training
• Auditing and monitoring to measure compliance
• Effective & consistent enforcement
• Continuous improvement