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Beanstalk's SEO News Blog

At Beanstalk Search Engine Optimization we know that knowledge is power. That's the reason we started this SEO blog. We know that the better informed our visitors are, the better the decisions they will make for their websites and their online businesses. We hope you enjoy your stay and find the SEO news contained within this blog useful.

January 16, 2013

Six Strikes and Yer Out!

Things seem to have been quiet on the copyright-infringement front for the last few months, but things are about to heat up again. After more than a year of delays, US ISP Verizon, has released a document showing how they plan on implementing their "six strikes policy" to combat copyright infringements.

Strike 1 & 2:
• Verizon will email you and leave a voice mail message informing you that your account in involved with copyright infringement.

Strike 3 & 4:
• Verizon will automatically redirect your browser to a webpage that will require you to acknowledge that you have received the alerts regarding copyright infringements.
• You will also be required to watch a video detailing the dangers of infringement.

Strike 5 & 6: At this point you are given three options:
• Verizon will greatly throttle your bandwidth for several days
• Wait two weeks, and then throttle your connection
• Or, file an appeal with an arbitration service for $35

IF there are more than six infringements, "nothing" will happen. Subscribers can continue to use their internet connection at regular, full speed. What is not mentioned by Verizon is that the MPAA and the RIAA have been authorized to obtain the connection details via a subpoena for repeat offenders in order to take legal action against them.

The potential for copyright holders to use the alert system as solid evidence gathering for lawsuits remains one of the most problematic aspects of the six-strike scheme.

On the other side of the globe, tribunals will begin next month in New Zealand for those infringers that have received three strikes under the “Three Strikes Law.” Currently, eleven individuals will have their cases heard. One of the individuals being investigated, states that her internet connection was used without her knowledge. It has also been noted that there has been a long history of controversy over this law; from the internet blackout protests of 2008, to the CableGate leak which revealed that the US financed and pushed the law through.

SEO news blog post by guestpost @ 11:04 am

Categories: copyright,Internet Law,Privacy
Tags: copyright infringement, PIPA, RIAA. MPAA, SOPA —

August 2, 2012

SOPA and PIPA Failures & the Sneaker Net Resurgence

Why RIAA Supported SOPA and PIPA & the Sneaker Net Resurgence
We have written extensively about the move by the RIAA to curb the illegal downloading though SOPA and PIPA bills introduced last year. A leaked report shows that the RIAA never really had much faith in the SOPA/PIPA bills and even stated that it thought it was an "ineffective tool" against combating online privacy.

In a leaked presentation given by RIAA Deputy General Counsel Vicky Sheckler last April, she states that they "never actually believed that either piece of legislation would have put a dent in music piracy." Sheckler goes on to state that the intention of the SOPA and PIPA bills were "intended to defer [copyright] infringements [by] foreign sites by obligating/encouraging intermediaries to take action," and they were "not likely to have been an effective tool for music."

The report also shows that shipments from the US music industry declined from $12.3 billion in 2005 t approximately $7 billion in 2011. What is most interesting about the report is that is shows that only 1 in 6 music files are shared over a peer to peer network and that most pirating occurs over a physical sneaker-net; via ripped music CDs or transfer from a physical hard drive to others. File sharing networks only account for barely 4% of the total downloads.

Speculation is that this increase in "sneaker-net" pirating can be attributed to the low cost and availability or large storage mediums rather than a botched attempt by the RIAA to regulate or reduce piracy. Although one can speculate that the actions by the RIAA may have encouraged rekindling of the antiquated sneaker net in the first place.

Previous SOPA/PIPA Blog Posts

July 26, 2012 – “SOPA Friends: Internet League of America“

April 3, 2012 – “Freedom and Loathing in Lost Facebook Accounts“

January 26, 2012 – “The Slippery Slopa“

December 29, 2011 – SOPA Sabotage“

December 15, 2011 – We’d feel dirty not posting about SOPA today.“

SEO news blog post by guestpost @ 9:00 am

Categories: copyright,Internet Law,Privacy
Tags: online piracy, PIPA, RIAA, sneaker net, SOPA —

July 26, 2012

SOPA Friends: Internet League of America

The recording industry, agents, and vendors of music aren’t the only ones spending way too much of their profits on lobbying the government. Major internet companies that see the harm of bills like SOPA/PIPA are spending the time and money to fight back against this lobbying.

Not to be confused with SuperFriends..

This organization is less about crime and more about reasonable expenses for making sure government is making informed decisions.

Google alone spent $3.9million in the second quarter of 2012, and $5.4million in 2012 total so far trying to help government see the internet as more than just a ‘series of tubes’.

Google isn’t alone in fighting for your rights, Amazon’s spending between Jan 2012 and June 2012 was pegged at $1.34million, EBay spent nearly as much at $827k, and Facebook also jumped into the fight for $650k of lobbying.

It stands to reason then that if they all had the same message a lot of time and money could be saved by joining forces, and this is how the Internet Association has come to be.

With Google, Amazon, EBay and Facebook already signed into the Internet Association it’s already huge and it’s still in the ‘coming soon’ phase of setting up.

This new group should not be confused with existing organizations like The Internet Defense League which are seeking other solutions to keeping people informed as to threats to online access/freedom.

A few sites (RIAA partners?) are panning this as ‘evil‘ and un-Google for companies to work together to support a shared message to the government, but I think anyone who knows the extent of SOPA/PIPA and other bills will see that spin for what it really is, fear and loathing of anything that stands in the way of an easy profit.

Google Fiber

Remember us writing about Kansas City dark fiber, Google’s plans to light it up, and the various media/recording industry fears/objections?

While I was composing this article on the new Internet Association I managed to eavesdrop on the details coming from the live broadcast at the launch of Google Fiber in Kansas this morning.

Here’s what I caught (again this was just details I overheard and not officially published):

Google Fiber is run right to your house
A fiber-conversion firewall appliance converts the optical signal
The Google fiber-wall has built in WiFi and 4 gigabit RJ45 ports
The WiFi radio is very fast (no specs given) and features a guest portal system
Google Fiber offers TV boxes that act as WiFi boosters
The TV boxes stream Netflix/Youtube in HD quality with more options to follow
Google’s TV boxes work with Bluetooth headphones and can be controlled by Bluetooth devices
Currently purchasing a TV box will including a free Nexus 7 Tablet that acts as a remote control for the TV box.
$300 is mentioned as the ‘construction fee’ to send a Google rep to your home to install the fiber cable.
$120/mth for the TV and Gigabit Internet package (on 2 year contracts the $300 fee is waived)
$70/mth for just Gigabit fibre internet (no install fee for 1yr contracts)
$Free/mth 5mbps down, 1mbps up, of capped fiber access to anyone who wants to pay the $300 install fee
The free service option is guaranteed for anyone in the service area for 7 years
You can pay the $300 fee off over time if you wish as an incentive to connect everyone regardless of income levels
1TB of Google Drive storage (directly linked to the Fibre) comes with the $70/mth and up packages
No mention of monthly data use caps, but they would need to be fairly generous

Apparently they are deciding which homes get fiber first by running a lobbying contest where they reward the communities that lobby other communities the most. The speaker tried to sell this as ‘doing it for Kansas’ and ‘spreading the word about what fiber really means’, but of all the announcements, there was no applause for
this.

Clearly most of Kansas is tired of waiting for Google Fiber and would like to start actually using it vs. running around ‘competing’ with other communities for the first chance to get hooked up.

It’s an odd move for Google but you have to respect that they had to find a fair way to select the first communities to get connected.

UPDATE: They have published the official Google Fiber data plans and yes, there’s NO DATA CAPS. Wow.

SEO news blog post by Ryan Morben @ 11:25 am

May 16, 2012

Why Canada Will be “sorry” for The Canadian Copyright Modernization Act (Bill C-11)

Old cassette tape from the Dead Kennedys

The Canadian government has imposed a limit on Parliamentary debate for Bill C-11: The Copyright Modernization Act which will completely change the way that Canadians interact with web content.

While the bill’s proponents state that there are many benefits to the act, opponents state that the bill’s "digital lock" provisions are excessively restrictive and feel that they are the result of increasing pressure from US corporations.

Opponents state that these provisions will lock down content that has previously been available to consumers and must be immediately revised. In effect Canadians will not have the right to take material they purchase (music, movies etc) and transfer it onto different devices. If the proposed bill passes without amendment, any circumvention would be a crime; regardless if you have legally purchased the material you want to view on another platform.

The Stephen Harper conservative government has decided to defeat all proposed amendments to the bill from the Liberal and NDP parties. The Speaker of the House has selected 18 proposed amendments from Green Party Leader Elizabeth May for debate in the House of Commons.

In an email newsletter sent to constituents and in a video release, May contends that this is Canadians last chance to make any changes to the act:

"These amendments represent sensible changes that will ensure this bill does in fact modernize our copyright law, rather than unfairly undermine our rights as consumers – They will remove digital lock provisions and allow for exceptions, while addressing creators’ concerns about the possible effects of the addition of ‘education’ to the list of fair dealing categories."

The Liberal party has also launched a petition calling for amendments to Bill C-11’s digital lock rules which would make it illegal to copy a DVD so that you can watch it on your tablet device even if you are not infringing on the copyright.

They also state that "If the Bill passes without amendment, any circumvention will become a crime, even if it is only done to enjoy material you have legally purchased on the platform you want to view it on."

Following in the footfalls of the SOPA and PIPA controversies the ongoing debate for a fair and equitable balance between the copyright infringement and legitimate fair public usage is far from being resolved.

SEO news blog post by guestpost @ 11:46 am

Categories: copyright,Internet Law
Tags: Bill c-11, Canadian copyright infringement, Elizabeth May, Green Party, PIPA, SOPA, Stephen HArper —

April 10, 2012

Netflix has not yet formed a Pro-SOPA SuperPAC

While Netflix has an increasing budget for lobbying ( $20,000 in 2009, $130,000 in 2010 and $500,000 in 2011 ), and they have formed a PAC called the FLIXPAC, the company has not gone on record as opposing or supporting SOPA in particular…

… YET.

Some writers even tried to point out that rampant piracy is good for Netflix as they offer a business model to provide easier-than-pirating access to video content. The logic is that the studios might see Netflix as ‘better than nothing’ as long as piracy is big revenue factor.
Not until you see the whites of their eyes!
I personally just see history repeating itself and expect that Netflix will be converting subscription profits into anti-piracy efforts the instant they see the whites of our eyes.

Last Week for Beanstalk Minecraft Map Contest

This is the final week for getting submissions into us for judging your Beanstalk themed Minecraft maps for our Beanstalk Minecraft Map Contest. If you are busy putting on the final touches, and want to wait till the last second, we understand but cannot make promises about late entries so try to make sure you don’t miss out!

The lightning video posted last week was disappointing on a lot of levels, not only because it was too dark to see the Beanstalk, but also because it was private and/or required a Vimeo login. We fixed it ASAP but that doesn’t do anything for the syndicated version.

So here’s a jwplayer based re-make with a creeper tossed in for fun:

(Oh man this is my Monday, what’s with the cursor in the video and that aspect ratio?!.. At least I can edit the video because we are hosting it.

)

TL;DR: Submit your maps. If you haven’t made one yet, get on it. If you don’t have time, tell your Minecraft friends, because this is the last week and we are giving away such a sweet prize!

SEO news blog post by Ryan Morben @ 11:53 am

Categories: Internet Law,Net Neutrality,Technology
Tags: FLIXPAC, minecraft contest, Netflix, SOPA —

April 3, 2012

Freedom and Loathing in Lost Facebook Accounts

Freedom Online?

Not if the free-loaders have any say about it, and brother, they will not shut up. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, “when you cut the head off the serpent two more shall replace it“.

True to form, each head we lop off seems to simply provoke the beast further.

In this case the latest bill the spring forth from the carnage as a likely candidate for passing (with over 100 co-sponsors) is called the Rogers-Ruppersberger bill, also known as CISPA or HR 3523.

The HR 3523 bill is so bad that it’s made the ACLU’s comparison chart of ‘Information Legislation’ bills. This PDF is an excellent way to see how each bill will effect information flow and the freedom of on-line communications.

Yes this is another ‘we must act now’ moments.. If you are growing tired of them then the only recourse is to go for the heart of the beast until it stops sticking it’s heads where they don’t belong.

Facebook Access for Employers

Did this actually happen? Has the world really gone nuts?

According to articles on-line that have been popping up all morning, Kimberly Hester, a teaching aid, has been ‘fired’ for refusing to grant access to a private photo inside her Facebook account.

Kimberly Hester (pictured above) was called into the superintendents office to investigate claims that one of her private Facebook photos was inappropriate.

After three requests for access to her Facebook account that she refused to comply with, the decision was made to ‘presume guilt’ lacking further information, and to her employment was terminated.

The picture has made it’s way on-line and it’s just a blurry image of a co-workers pants, around her ankles. For all we know the co-worker was wearing a skirt, shorts, etc., and there’s nothing at all ‘wrong’ with the photo in terms of ‘appropriate content’.

Clearly what we have here is a school superintendent that likes to pay legal fees for trampling the rights of it’s workers?

Anyone who has read Facebook’s Terms of Service/End User Agreement knows that it’s a CLEAR violation of their policies to allow someone else to knowingly access your account. By asking Kimberly for access, the superintendent is actually risking the loss of Kimberly’s private Facebook account based on the allegation that anyone who has access might see something inappropriate.

That’s like saying that I had a friend over who saw a private picture on my mantle of what looked like a pair of naked legs in some pants, so they told my boss, and now my boss needs to fire me because I refuse to give him a key to my house so he can come over and look at things?

And finally, what is going on with the mother that had earned a ‘friendship’ status with Kimberly on Facebook? At what point do you go after someone’s job vs. speaking to them about something like a decent human being?

We clearly can’t stop here..

SEO news blog post by Ryan Morben @ 12:58 pm

Categories: Facebook,Internet Law,Net Neutrality,Privacy,Technology
Tags: ACLU, ACTA, CISPA, HR 3523, PIPA, SOPA —

January 26, 2012

The Slippery Slopa

Ever try to catch something slimy only to have it slip away from your best attempts to grasp it? That’s how the intellectual world feels towards SOPA and the various laws that follow in it’s slimy footsteps.
Slippery sopa snake

Public protests erupt as Poland signs ACTA

Yesterday Poland went ahead and signed onto the ACTA agreement joining the nations already signed on and enraging it’s public in the process. The internet is cheering on activists who took to the street in mass protests of the signing.

“Over 9000 protesters meet in the streets of Kraków to have their voices heard!”

Hopefully this strong public reaction will be a very clear message to other political powers debating on how bad the public backlash will be over signing such ‘internet endangering’ agreements.

As if ACTA wasn’t bad enough?

Over in Ireland they are showing respect for the people by slipping in a bit of legislation called the “S.I. No. of 2011 European Communities (Copyright and Related Rights) Regulations 2011″, which will pass via ministerial order which does not involve a public vote.

Is it the sort of addendum that doesn’t merit input from the public?

Well Irish legal expert Tim McIntyre had the following comment on the new regulations:

“At a minimum this will probably allow courts to require ISPs to block access to alleged infringing sites (such as the Pirate Bay). Over and above that it becomes impossible to say — the language is so vague it might, for example, allow a court to require an ISP to introduce a three strikes system or to block certain ports. However, once copyright plaintiffs get hold of this power you can expect it to be pushed to its absolute limit.”

There’s still time!?

While the USA, Canada, and Mexico are already signed onto ACTA, there’s no reason why the public can’t organize an opposition to the decision and work to either get the agreement amended or have support withdrawn one country at a time. The only roadblock is getting folks to agree on a meaningful reaction that everyone can rally behind. So far the most centralized effort I’ve come across is the SOPA subreddit which has plenty of discussions on ACTA and PIPA as well.

SEO news blog post by Ryan Morben @ 11:50 am

Categories: Internet Law,Technology,web hosting
Tags: ACTA, PIPA, SOPA —

January 19, 2012

Leftover SOPA scum

Congrats to everyone that participated in the SOPA/PIPA Jan 18th blackout, even if all you did was sit on Twitter and complain(some strong language was used), you did something to bring the topic into the foreground.

Yesterday’s on-line unity was a clear message to the political parties backing these bills. Last I checked the opposition to PIPA was only 6 senators away from the required 41 “no” votes needed to keep PIPA stuck in the Senate for good. While I haven’t seen a public list of senator opposition to SOPA, it too needs 41 “no” votes to end the future of the bill.

While this sounds great, it really just means that the entertainment industry, and fans of public censorship, now have to try even harder to keep their efforts out of the public eye. Make no mistake, there are people, wealthy and misguided, that will keep trying to find a way to sneak this sort of law through. Don’t think that’s a fair/optimistic assessment of the situation, well here’s the flip side (Very strong language/opinion warning) from Mr.Maddox.

Just last night I was trying to get some programming done while watching a bunch of movies I’ve been backlogged on. One of the movies in the stack was ‘Kick-Ass‘ and I won’t spoil a decent film for you with too much info, but there’s a scene where they are streaming a web broadcast live on the news. As the live stream becomes ‘too violent’ for television the audience quickly switches to the web to watch the rest of the live stream on-line.

While most folks watching the film were probably totally distracted by the context of the scene, I was immediately thinking about all the conservative types watching this unfold and thinking to themselves:

‘This should never be possible, we should have the ability to censor a live stream that is so disturbing! If it can’t be shown on TV it shouldn’t be viewable on the Internet! Just think of all the things the internet could broadcast un-censored! We need something like this SOPA/PIPA thing we can abuse!’

I’m not sure if the big players in Hollywood actually intended that sort of reaction to the scene, I’m not saying the film is a brain-wash attempt by the industry, but the thought did cross my very ‘open’ mind, so it stands to reason I wouldn’t be the only one.

In fact if you haven’t looked at ACTA, you might want to check it out. This is a more international version of PIPA/SOPA with the same issues surrounding loose definitions and loopholes that could be exploited while doing little to actually stop piracy. ACTA has been bouncing around since 2006 with a bunch of countries already signed on to the current version.

The closure date for signing onto ACTA isn’t until 2013 but it looks like there may be some difficulties getting all signing countries to agree on a final version (yay for diversity!). A notably large issue of ACTA, especially in the eyes of the EFF, is that it has been drafted in secret, hidden from public eyes by participating governments around the world. So if you haven’t poked your nose into it, you really should.

Speaking of closure, I think Chia Bart’s pretty much grown all that he will and I’m cheating now to try and get the top of his head to sprout.

Leaf me alone! The kid is not my sun!

SEO news blog post by Ryan Morben @ 12:25 pm

Categories: Internet Law,Net Neutrality,Privacy,seo articles,social media,Technology,Twitter
Tags: ACTA, eff, Maddox, PIPA, SOPA, Wacko Jacko —

January 18, 2012

January 18th is SOPA Strike Day!

Are you having problems getting to some of your favorite sites today? This may be a sign of things to come if the unpopular SOPA legislation comes into effect. Today is the WWW Protest SOPA Day. Most of us are aware of the SOPA/PROTECT IP fight that has been raging for some time. However many people are still very confused about the protests against the potential new legislation and whether or not they should be part of it.

I came across a video that explains the whole issue very succinctly and may help you to determine which side of the bill you are on.

PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future.

More than 7000 sites have blocked access to their web content in protest.

Sites like sopastrike.com are urging people to protest and sign an online petition:

January 18th, 2012 is the largest online protest in history, to stop the internet censorship bills, SOPA & PIPA. Join in by blacking out your site and urging everyone you can reach to (http://sopastrike.com/strike/)contact Congress now.

Confirmed SOPA Blackout Participants:

SEO news blog post by guestpost @ 10:43 am

Categories: seo articles
Tags: protect ip, SOPA —

January 17, 2012

Surviving the SOPA Blackout

Tomorrow, January 18th, is SOPA blackout day, and lots of very popular sites are committing to participate in the blackout.

How can web companies, such as SEOs, and supporters (like us) maintain workflow in the midst of a major blackout?

We’ve got some tips!

I need to find things mid-blackout!

While some sites will be partially blacked out, a lot of the larger sites will be completely offline in terms of content for maximum effect.

This means that during the blackout folks will have to turn to caches to find information on the blacked out sites.

If Google and the Internet Archives both stay on-line during the blackout you can use them to get cached copies of most sites.

If you’re not sure how you’d still find the information on Google, here’s a short video created by our CEO Dave Davies to help you along.

I want to participate without killing my SEO campaign!

If all your back-links suddenly don’t work, or they all 301 to the same page for a day, how will that effect your rankings?

Major sites get crawls constantly, even 30 mins of downtime could get noticed by crawlers on major sites.

A smaller site that gets crawled once a week would have a very low risk doing a blackout for the daytime hours of the 18th.

Further to that you could also look at user agent detection and sort out people from crawlers, only blacking out the human traffic.

If that seems rather complex there’s two automated solutions already offered:

sopablackout.org is offering a JS you can include that will blackout visitors to the site and then let them click anywhere to continue.
Simple putting this code in a main include (like a header or banner) will do the trick:
<script type="text/javascript" src="//js.sopablackout.org/sopablackout.js"></script>

Get a SOPA plugin for your WordPress and participate without shutting down your site. It simply invokes the above Javascript on the 18th automagically so that visitors get the message and then they can continue on to the blog.

I’d be a rotten SEO if I suggested you install an external Javascript without also clearly telling folks to REMOVE these when you are done. It might be a bit paranoid, but I live by the better safe than sorry rule. Plus just because you are paranoid, it doesn’t mean people aren’t trying to track your visitors.

How’s Chia Bart doing? .. Well I think he’s having a mid-life crisis right now because he looks more like the Hulkster than Bart?

To all my little Bartmaniacs, drink your water, get lots of sunlight, and you will never go wrong!

SEO news blog post by Ryan Morben @ 11:28 am

Categories: Bing,Google,Internet Law,Rankings,Search Engine News,seo articles,SEO Tips,SEO Tools,Technology,web design,Yahoo!
Tags: Blackout, Chia Bart, imgur, mojang, reddit, redstone hosting, SOPA, wikipedia, wordpress —

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