Flexibility is one reason many of us became freelancers. The idea of being your own boss, choosing your own hours, and having room in your life for other options are all very appealing.

Rockall Recruitment’s Freelance Guide lists flexibility as one of the benefits of freelancing:

Freelancers are their own boss. The only people who dictate to you when you work is you and your bank manager. This flexibility can be beneficial if you have interests outside of your chosen career field, such as your own business, family commitments etc. If you develop a good relationship with your agency, then they will quite happily accommodate you if you need to take a few months off to pursue your own interests, whereas you will seldom find this if you are working permanently for a company.

In the last few months I’ve been able to do some things as a web worker that would never have been possible if I had a nine-to-five job:

• I look after my eleven-month-old son some days while my wife is at work, meaning that she can work more day shifts, and less exhausting night shifts.
• I unexpectedly traveled interstate when my dad was very unwell in hospital.
• I also traveled interstate to celebrate my son’s 21st birthday.
• I was able to keep up all of the essential parts of my work while being very sick for ten days.

There is often a cost to achieving flexibility, but in each of these cases it has been really worthwhile. Here is how I achieved it.

Caring for My 11-Month-Old

Looking after my son was one of the main factors that drew me towards a more flexible job. My wife, a nurse, had been avoiding day shifts – when I was at work – and did as many evening, night and weekend shifts as possible. She would look after Hayden when I was at work, and I’d look after him when she was at work. And we rarely saw each other.

The transition has gone very smoothly. My wife is still required to do a variety of shifts, but now does more day shifts. And I’m actually able to get more work done than I expected when she is at work.

I normally get up quite early, and do a couple of hours work before Hayden wakes up. And because he’s still quite young, he normally sleeps for an hour or two both morning and afternoon, which lets me get another three or four hours of work out of the way. So when evening comes, more then half of my work is already done.

During school holidays and on weekends, my other kids are sometimes very helpful in sharing the responsibilities. In other ways it’s harder to work when the whole family is home, but that’s another story.

Visiting My Sick Dad

A couple of months ago, my dad was found to have kidney stones, and a few days later had an operation to have them “blasted”. The doctors didn’t realize when they sent him home that they had missed the stones and put a hole in his kidney. After a few days of passing a lot of blood, he returned to the hospital weak and concerned. He received four blood transfusions and was kept in for observation. I kept up with the news of his recovery over the phone.

The next day I was having a great work day – I had got up at 5:00 am and worked productively till lunchtime, when I had finished all of my essential tasks. But while I was working, my wife and sister had been speaking on the phone. My sister lives in Sydney not far from Dad, and had been visiting him. She was concerned, and felt under pressure. The two ladies decided I should go down and support.

They convinced me. I grabbed some clothes and my laptops, borrowed my son’s car, and made the eleven hour trip.

It was an effective week. I stayed with my sister, visited my dad most days, helped him around the house once he was released from hospital, and spent worthwhile time with my sister and her kids.

And I kept up with my work. I got up at 5:00 am every morning and got between two and four hours work done before going to see my dad. I usually got an hour or two done in the late afternoon, and finished the rest before bedtime.

I worked in the lounge room, on the sofa lounge that was my bed, on the dining room table, and at McDonalds, taking advantage of their free wifi. I tried to do most of my work when the kids were in bed, at school, or at sport. One disastrous evening I worked at McDonalds until my laptop battery died, only to arrive home and discover my sister had given me the wrong key. I was stuck outside in the cold for an hour or two with nothing to do.

One lesson I learned that week is to keep my work as portable as possible. While I already kept a lot of my work in Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Docs, Google Sites and Remember the Milk, I had been doing some of my planning in a paper notebook. That notebook was the one thing I forgot to pack, and as a result, I published one article on the wrong day. While the mistake certainly wasn’t a disaster, it is a lesson to learn from. Now I make sure that all of my work and planning are accessible from any computer.

I was very grateful to have a flexible job that week. I spent a lot of quality time with my dad, supported my sister, and felt like I made a difference. And they understood my work situation, and were supportive when I had to vanish for a few hours to “get things done.”

Celebrating a 21st Birthday

My oldest son is doing well for himself and moved to Melbourne this year. He recently turned twenty-one. (Yes, I really do have an eleven month old and a twenty-one year old … and four others in between.) Though he is so far away, I was determined to share his birthday with him, and booked some flights.

There was little disruption to my work during this trip. I didn’t want to try to do a full day’s work on the day of the flights, so I did extra work on the days leading up to them. The rest of the time I worked as normal, took most of the two weekends off, and even went into the Envato office a few times.

On his birthday, my wife surprised us all. She had taken some time off work, and drove the rest of the family around 1,800 kms to celebrate with us. She can be very spontaneous, and the surprise was appreciated by everyone. Unfortunately when passing through Sydney she picked up a very contagious stomach bug while visiting my sister, and shared it with us all. And that leads me to my next story.

Doing the Essentials While Sick

I’ve been quite sick for the last ten days. Every day I’d wake up expecting to be better, and each day I’ve been disappointed. Maybe tomorrow!

If I had a normal nine-to-five job, I would have been on sick leave for the whole time. I wasn’t well enough to leave the house, and I’ve been concerned about sharing the germs. But as a web worker, I’ve been able to keep up with the important parts of my work.

I haven’t done everything, and I have only been able to work in short bursts. But by carefully choosing what really needed to be done, and making the most of my time, I’m surprised with how much I’ve accomplished.

I haven’t done any computer support work. I passed on whatever calls I had to others, or delayed the appointment until a time when I’m likely to be well again. I haven’t returned every email, though I monitored them and answered the ones that were urgent. I haven’t done all of my planning and organizing and paperwork. But I have managed to keep up with my writing and editing, and all important correspondence.

None of that is meant to say that I’m not entitled to be sick. But I want to recognize that a flexible job allowed me to do things when sick that would never have been possible in a “normal” job.

In Summary: Four Key Principles for Flexibility

As a web worker, I don’t want absolute flexibility – I need to maintain a routine to be productive. But from time to time opportunities arise that a flexible lifestyle allows me to take advantage of.

But in order to take advantage of those opportunities, I need to be prepared. Here are four principles I’ve learned:

• Don’t leave everything to the last minute – leave yourself some room to move.
• Understand priorities – what you can put off (temporarily) and what you can’t.
• Be organized – and have a system you can take with you.
• Remember that flexibility has a cost – your work will have to be done eventually, either late at night, or in long catch-up stints. Make sure it’s worth it!

How flexible is your work? How do you take advantage of it?

One of my favorite things about being a freelancer is the flexibility it brings. Having control of who you work for and when is one of the boundless joys of freelancing. Couple that flexibility with location independence, and it opens up all the possibilities that come with taking your business on the road.

But traveling while working is not all beer and skittles, it takes real planning and the willingness to roll with the unexpected. Knowing how to travel and work can mean the difference between enjoying your trip or needing a vacation from your vacation.

Fail to Prepare, Prepare to Fail

When your goal is to work while traveling you have to think about more than if you brought enough underwear. While you will never be able to prepare for every eventuality, there are plenty of things you can do to avoid some of the traveling pitfalls.

• Schedule a slow work load. You may think you can handle your full work schedule while being away from the office, but let me tell you – you can’t. It’s no fun worrying about deadlines while you’re worrying about trying to catch your next train. So work hard before your trip so you don’t have to work hard on your trip.
• Prep your clients. If you have clients that will have to be in touch with you while you are traveling, let them know that you will be on the move but assure them that you will be taking their work with you. Inform them if you are going to be in a different time zone and replying to their emails at odd hours. You may not have mobile phone access, so let them know that email will be the number one way to get in touch.
• Prep your laptop. If you use a laptop as your main computer, you’re already in a great position to travel as you work. If your are like me and work from a desktop, you’ll want to make sure your laptop has everything you need on it. Sync your email, transfer all the files you think you’ll need (and even a lot of those you don’t), toss any critical files into Dropbox, and make sure you have all the software you are going to use installed and ready to go. As a added bonus, drop your bookmarks into Dropbox or use an online bookmark service. There’s nothing more annoying than hunting for a website you know you have bookmarked on your office computer.
• Travel light. Find yourself a comfortable backpack that can hold all your gear. But before you stuff it full, prioritize your essentials. Do you really need to lug around your DSLR and a 10 pound zoom lens when a quality compact will do? I’ve spent too much time kicking the crap out of an overloaded backpack to want to hump around equipment I end up not using.
• Prepare for the unexpected. I don’t know why it is, but traveling seems to bring all my clients out of the woodworks. No sooner have a left the door than clients I haven’t heard from in almost a year are emailing to talk about their project. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great problem to have, but be prepared to handle some work you may not have planned on. Transfer even old or delayed projects to your laptop and be prepared to have the FTP login information accessible for all your clients. I like to have a service like KeyPass set up with all my important security information and the encrypted file available on Dropbox if I need it.

Wireless – the Fickle Mistress

In a perfect world you will have fast and reliable internet access for your entire trip. But as I sit here working on this article while taking a train across Canada, I notice my promised wireless access is currently experiencing trouble. What I planned to be six hours of online work has suddenly changed to either offline work or six hours of twiddling my thumbs.

• Plan your online and offline work. There’s plenty of wireless internet out there but always have a backup plan when connections don’t go your way. You may want to research the area and the means of travel you are using to make sure there’s internet readily available.
• Have planned work stops. Plan to devote certain days or parts of days to getting work done. Do your research so that you know you’ll have all the tools and access available to do your job. So even if all your wireless plans fall through, you still be able to get at least some work done.
• Scout ahead before you commit. I always look for an AC plugin and wireless access before I buy my Americano. You may think that every Starbucks is freelancer friendly, but that is not always the case. Scout your planned work area before you commit yourself to buying anything.

Other Traveling Tips

It seems like you always learn something new when you travel. Here’s a few tips that I’ve often found out the hard way.

• Charge your gear at every opportunity. I have two rules when traveling – never pass by an opportunity to go to the bathroom and always charge your electronics when you have a chance. Mobile phones and laptops will always die when you need them the most.
• Prepare yourself mentally to face problems. Nothing will ever go perfectly according to plan. How you respond when things go south is completely up to you. Keep your cool and think things through rather than do what I sometimes do and throw what my wife refers to as my ”daily rant.” I like to pretend that I’m on the Amazing Race and this is just another challenge to overcome.
• Don’t work too hard. Remember you are out there to enjoy life and your surroundings. If you wanted to spend your whole day with your head stuck in a laptop then you could have just stayed home. Plan your work, but also plan to enjoy your travels.

Do you have tried and true travel tips or want to share your stories about taking your work on the road? Let us know in your comments!

Like many people on this blog, I’ve dreamed of becoming a professional photographer. Then I looked at the realities of the photo business. Here are a couple of sobering facts for those trying to break into the market:

Data Point #1 — Of Pizzas and Photographers

There’s a joke that’s been making the rounds for years: What’s the difference between a large pizza and a photographer? The punchline is that the large pizza can feed a family of four.

Not the sort of adventure you’d like to subject your spouse and two kids to, is it?

And, if you’re getting the impression that making the transition from being an amateur/hobbyist to being a full time professional photographer isn’t easy, you’re right. In my opinion, this transition is made all the more difficult by:

1. Photography’s supply problem. There is both an abundance of images and people creating them. And they’re generating more supply all the time. Recall your your economics class that high supply tends to drive down prices. (Think microstock photography here, folks.)
2. The “love” problem. There’s quite an abundance of people who love taking pictures. In fact, they love photography so much that they’d gladly do it for free. Which presents quite a challenge to those who wish to get paid for their work.

Data Point #2 — Full-timers vs. Part-timers

Last summer, I attended a seminar hosted by the Tucson chapter of the American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP). The topic was stock photography. This topic was of great interest to many in the audience, because the economic recession has reduced the assignment work that many photographers have long depended on.

I don’t think the audience was gladdened by the presenter’s slide which stated that, in the United States, the number of full-time photographers is declining while the number of part-time photographers is increasing. Interestingly enough, one of the requirements for full ASMP membership is that you must derive the majority of your income from photography.

So, if it looks like that shutterbug won’t stop biting, what should you do? I suggest doing photography on a part-time basis. Yes, you may get some flack from some of the full-timers who won’t consider you to be a real professional, but you’re not in business to earn their approval. You’re in business to earn the approval of your clients.

Since this is a blog for creative professionals, I’m going to venture out on a limb and say that you already have a significant advantage. If you’re a graphic designer, you already know quite a bit about composition and the use of color. Now you’re adding a camera to your toolkit. Which means that you can sell Web or print design projects that include your photos. Speaking from my own experience, I can say that honing your photographic skills will make you a better designer.

Or, let’s say that you’re a writer. If you’re selling articles to publications, you can offer them “one stop shopping” by including your photos in the package. Michael Sedge’s book, The Photojournalist’s Guide to Making Money, will provide you with lots of good how-to information. You’ll find that photography will broaden you as a writer – you’ll break out of the “wordsmith” trap and grow into a larger role as a verbal and visual storyteller.

Okay, I hear the programmers jumping up and down and hollering, “What about us?”

Well, good question. Because when it comes to understanding the technical side of photography, you guys and gals have a real edge. And have you ever heard of Phillip Greenspun? He’s a computer scientist’s computer scientist – and a crackerjack photographer. You’ll also enjoy his article on scripting Photoshop to produce JPEGs for the Web.

Regardless of whether you’re a full-time or part-time photographer, you’re going to need a Web presence. There are people who will still ask to see a portfolio book that they can pick up and read, but more often, you’re going to be asked for a URL. So, set up a website, preferably with a blog, and keep them up to date.

It’s also a good idea to offer e-commerce, which includes instant downloads and print ordering. I set this up via PhotoShelter, and I’d be interested in learning about what you’re using. Feel free to post a link in the comments below.

Now, how do you promote your part-time photographic self? I’ve found that few things work better than being out there with a camera, and using it. A lot.

Doesn’t matter if you’re out there building your portfolio – and I’ve been doing a lot of that in the past couple of years – or shooting a paid assignment. Just be out there with your camera. It’s the best way to let people know that you’re a photographer. (Be sure to have your business cards!)

In addition to being out there, tell people about your work. And keep telling them. You have to be persistent. Here’s a politically-themed example of persistence:

This past summer, I shot photos of a community project that was hosted by a Tucson City Council member. She was there, and I photographed her. After I wrote my photoblog post about this project, I e-mailed her office’s chief of staff with the link.

A few hours after I did that, I saw the politician at a house party. I told her about the blog post, and she was quite interested. I’m also on the e-mailing list for her re-election campaign, so I sent the campaign a link to that blog post.

My goal has been to get hired as the photographer for her campaign events. Alas, it doesn’t look like I’ll get there during this campaign. But I did hear back from the campaign manager, whose e-mail said that the campaign staff would keep me in mind.

Now, let me translate that e-mail for you: What the manager is saying is, “Be persistent, Martha. It’s your job to make sure that you’re top of mind. So, stay in touch – even if you don’t get hired during this election.”

And why might that be? Well, the reason is that this council member is rumored to be a mayoral candidate in Tucson’s 2011 election. And what’s to say that her 2009 campaign manager won’t be her 2011 campaign manager? After all, southern Arizona political circles aren’t that big.

In addition to seeking assignments from local politicians, I’m on several “calls for stock” lists. Calls for stock photography are periodically issued by book and magazine photographers in search of artwork for upcoming issues. You get on the call lists by phoning or e-mailing the photo editors. If they decide that your work meets their standards, they’ll put you on the list.

Then, whenever the call goes out, you’d better have a good system for rounding up your best work so you can respond quickly. I dealt with this challenge by setting up a PhotoShelter-powered stock photography site that gives me the ability to search for the most appropriate images, and then post them in an online lightbox for the photo editor to review.

I haven’t made any stock sales to the publications sending me the calls, but, again, persistence counts. There will come a time when I’ll have the images that they need. In the meantime, I’ll just keep making those lightboxes and posting them for those photo editors.

The stock site is part of my plan to become less dependent on selling my time for money. Reason: When you’re selling your time and expertise, as I do when I’m wearing my graphic designer or photographer hats, you’re only making money when you’re on assignment. Your income goes to zero while you’re looking work – or managing your business.

However, I’m finding that it takes quite a bit of promotion just to make people aware of a stock photography site. Making sales is yet another challenge. But this is true of any sort of “passive income” scheme. You have to work pretty hard to get things so that you can make money while you sleep.

As always, I’ll keep you posted on how things go.

I haven’t thought about my 2008 tax return since April 15th. I probably would have continued to ignore it, except for the fact that last week I received a revised 1099 from one of my clients. It turns out that the form that they send me for my tax records was way off from what they had actually paid me, a fact that they hadn’t caught until just now. To make matters even more complicated, I haven’t actually worked with this client since May, 2008. I had to go dig out records from more than a year ago to figure out just how much trouble I was in.

The Problem With Paperwork

Issues like my amended 1099 can illustrate the importance of holding on to your records long after the point that they seem relevant. In my filing cabinet, I had my last tax return, as well as check stubs from my client and hard copies of my accounts receivables from last year. I could quickly tell that I had actually paid my taxes based on my records, rather than the incorrect 1099 I had received.

But how long do I need to keep these files around? And is hard copy the only option?

It depends, to a certain extent. The typical recommendation for U.S. taxpayers is to keep tax returns and related paperwork for three years — as long as you don’t owe extra money, actually filed a return and there won’t be any problems in your future. In most cases, the IRS has a three-year statue of limitations for conducting audits, which is where that number comes from. However, depending on the situation, the IRS can come back to check on your paperwork up to ten years later. And the IRS actually recommends that anyone not filing a tax return or filing a fraudulent return hold on to all records indefinitely.

Many businesses retain detailed business records for five years. After that, it’s best to keep the broader documents, like a tax return, but it’s probably okay to get rid of your internal records. It’s also important to make sure that your insurance doesn’t require you to hold on to receipts for large purchases or other documentation indefinitely. If you’re based outside of the U.S, the rules governing audits may differ.

Hard Copy & Beyond

It’s not actually necessary to have all of your paperwork on paper. Especially for freelancers, who have a tendency to be more mobile, keeping hard copies isn’t really practical. As long as you have your records backed up in a couple of different places, you’ll be okay with computerized records in most situations. There are a few occasions when the IRS or another authority could ask for an original, but those are becoming less common. If you’re concerned that you might be facing such an issue, you’ll probably want to check in with a tax professional.

You do have to be confident that you can restore your records easily in the event of an emergency if you don’t keep any hard copy. An offsite backup is probably the minimum precaution necessary, although that’s true of most record-keeping if you’re a freelancer, even without bringing the IRS into it.

Every year, around this time, I get an email or two from someone wanting to know how to make a few bucks freelancing in time for the holiday season. I generally try to point these folks towards other options, although it does get me thinking about why someone would turn to freelancing for seasonal work. There are more than a few myths that seem to pop up, making freelancing seem like a viable option for seasonal work.

While debunking these myths shouldn’t scare off any freelancers in it for the long haul, they can be easy answers for any friends hoping you’ll help them find a freelance project or two that will bring in enough money to cover some holiday expenses.

You can get freelance work on short notice

This isn’t actually that much of a myth anymore. Where a freelancer would have once met with a client and put together a proposal, there are now alternatives, like websites where a freelancer can bid on projects immediately. The work is generally not lucrative, but it is there.

Instead, the myth has become a question of whether a freelancer can really make enough to matter with the work that is easily available online. Especially if you’re starting from scratch, it can be quite difficult to land enough work to cover the value of the time you spent looking for that work in the first pace. It is possible, but he odds are that you’ll be taking on projects at prices below market rates to do so.

You can start freelancing at any time

While it certainly depends on your clients and your field, it’s been my experience that the amount of freelance work available is lower during the weeks before and during the holiday season. Many of my clients over the years have wanted a clean slate for the new year as well as plenty of free time during the holidays, which means reducing the amount of work they hand off to freelancers at this time of year.

If you want to freelance in order to cover some of your holiday expenses, it’s easier to take on small projects over the course of the year — you won’t be cramming a bunch of work into a time of year where you’re already over-scheduled and you can build a reputation as a freelancer, which makes it easier to continue to land projects on a regular basis. It is possible to start freelancing any time of the year if you really need to, but there are certainly times that are harder than others.

You can make lots of money on a freelance project

Freelancing can be lucrative — but you’re not going to get that payout before Christmas. If you’ve managed to land a good freelance project despite searching for it at the last minute and not not having a solid reputation as a freelancer, the odds of completing the project, invoicing the client and getting the client to pay the invoice in time to use your income towards the holidays is pretty unlikely.

With some companies taking as long as 90 days to turn around payments on invoices, there are always faster ways to make money. Even if you can’t expect to make as much money at another seasonal job, it may make sense because of time constraints.

If you’re like many creative freelancers, you have a blog. And being the diligent type that you are, it’s updated at least once a week.

But here’s the bad news: There are a lot of other blogs out there. Which means that you’ll have to work hard to make yours stand out.

Oh, no. Those two four-letter words: w-o-r-k h-a-r-d.

They beg the question, what should you be hard at work on? Here are six suggestions:

1. Don’t just create a blog post and let it sit there. Tell the person/people involved in about it. I like to send a short e-mail with the header, “You have been blogged.” The body of the message includes a clickable link to the blog post.

In some cases, I don’t hear anything back. But, in other cases, the response is quite warm. There are plenty of people and organizations who love being blogged about. And, I’ve found, if I ask them nicely, they’ll link to me.

2. Being included in someone else’s blog post can also be an opportunity. Not long ago, I noticed that a local political blog used my photo of a city council member marching in a July 4th parade.

Now, a lot of photographers will tell you that you’re supposed to get all hot and bothered, that you should send them huffy e-mails mentioning lawyers and the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, and that they’d better remove that photo right now.

I just wasn’t in the mood for that sort of thing.

Instead, I e-mailed the owner of the site, which gets quite a bit of traffic, and asked for a link. Wish granted.

3. If you have an e-mail newsletter, make sure that your best blog posts are included in each issue. Month after month, I’ve found that my “Best o’ the Blog” feature has been my e-mail newsletter’s most popular.

4. Does your blog have an RSS feed? Make sure that the feed icon is prominently featured in your blog’s theme – say, up at the top of the page. And, for those who don’t know what RSS is, offer e-mail subscriptions to your blog. FeedBlitz and FeedBurner are the heavyweights in this field.

5. Do you also have a website? Make sure that your blog links to it, and vice versa. And, if your website doesn’t have an e-mail newsletter subscription form, why not offer e-mail subscriptions to your blog? This will help you stay in touch with your visitors. Over time, some of them could become clients.

6. What do you want people to do after they’ve read your latest blog post? I don’t know about you, but I’m interested in money, honey! That’s why I include a short pitch for assignments after the posts that relate to the areas in which I’d like to get assignments. For the areas in which I’d like to sell stock photography, well, let’s just say that I’m in the process of building a stock selling site, and when it’s done, my blog will link to it.

Putting These Suggestions in a Larger Context

My first two suggestions allude to something that the search engine experts call “link popularity.” The idea is that the more links you have, the better your ranking will be. Just be sure that the links you’re seeking are with the kind of Internet company you’d like to keep.

The next three suggestions involve your ongoing efforts to stay in touch with your clients and blog visitors. Face it, a lot of them will hit your blog briefly, then they’re gone. Inviting e-mail and RSS signups will enable you to bring your content to them. Over time, this can help you build relationships that turn into sales.

Which brings us to the final suggestion. None of us are blogging for the sheer love of blogging. We’re freelancers who are in business to make money. But first, let’s not forget to ask for the sale.

Since the advent of the Internet as a wide-open information conduit there has been a lot of worry amongst legislators, media corporations, and others with a stake in preventing content piracy to create a law that would add teeth to copyright for electronic communications. The long discussions, lobbying, and heated arguments between interested parties were loud and public. The end result was the passing of a complex law called The Digital Millennium Copyright Act, or DMCA.

DMCA was enacted by Congress in October 1998, to bring American copyright law in line with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) standards and rules as well as to tamp down on alleged piracy of electronically published media. It consists of five parts, of which the following two sections are most important:

• Title I: WIPO Copyright and Performances and Phonograms Tries Implementation Act
• Title II: Online Copyright Infringement Liability Limitation Act, called OCILLA for short.

Together, Titles I and II have had a huge impact on how information is published and referenced electronically, physically, and how it is cataloged and searched. For the first time, it became a crime to create any software or services that try to hack or break the coding placed into CDs, DVDs, and electronic media stored on servers that was meant to thwart pirates from stealing copyrighted work. The term used for the code that is often programmed directly into the chips or data streams is Digital Rights Management or DRM. The DMCA goes further than just criminalizing the creators of DRM hacks. It also criminalizes any person who tries to break a DRM whether they actually infringed on a copyright or not. Lastly, the DMCA increased the penalties for any copyright infringement on the Internet, correcting a missing level of protection for copyright holders.

Before the addition of Title II, DMCA required that the hosting company, called the Internet Service Provider (ISP), police its servers and take down any file that was felt to infringe on a copyright. Infringement is defined very broadly and can include even linking to copyrighted materials with attribution. Before the OCILLA addition, there was little defense for the owner of the offending materials or the ISP. This was an onerous requirement, and the OCILLA clause, nicknamed Safe Harbor, was created to remedy the liability of ISPs.

Safe Harbor states that the holder of the copyright has to request to the ISP that the alleged infringing material be removed. The ISP must act within a specific time period to take down the suspect material and then give the owner of the item’s name to the requester. Any litigation between the copyright owner and the alleged infringer then occurs away from the ISP, and cannot bounce back on the ISP. ISPs apply to use the safe harbor clause and there has developed an entire bureaucracy devoted to processing OCILLA requests and applications.

DMCA Could Stifle Education and Literacy Programs

It became apparent very quickly that the strict interpretation of the DMCA would play havoc with legitimate copying rights, such as the fair use copyright clause, free libraries, universities, public and private schools, and personal backups, as well as other reasons to legitimately copy or reference copyrighted works. So, additional clauses were added to the DCMA so that users could apply to the Government for three-year exemptions. According to Wikipedia, in November 2006, the following exemptions were approved:

1. Audiovisual works included in the educational library of a college or university’s film or media studies department.
2. Computer programs and video games distributed in formats that require the original media or hardware as a condition of access when upgrading to a newer physical or software format.
3. Computer programs protected by dongles that prevent access due to malfunction or damage and which are obsolete.
4. Literary works distributed in e-book format when all existing e-book editions of the work (including digital text editions made available by authorized entities) contain access controls that prevent the enabling either of the book’s read-aloud function or of screen readers that render the text into a specialized format.
5. Computer programs in the form of firmware that enable wireless telephone handsets to connect to a wireless telephone communication network.
6. Sound recordings, and audiovisual works associated with those sound recordings, distributed in compact disc format and protected by technological protection measures that control access to lawfully purchased works and create or exploit security flaws or vulnerabilities that compromise the security of personal computers.

DMCA and the Freelancer

If you build websites, write web content, or are considering publishing your writing, videos, graphics, audio, or other multimedia content on your own website, then the DMCA affects you. The DMCA has a chilling affect on the freedom to share information on the Internet because it gives copyright holders unprecedented say in who is infringing and how. So far, there have been no lawsuits against linking to copyrighted materials or sites, such as online newspaper articles, white papers, corporate brochures, multimedia embedding, and so forth. But there have been massive suits against such sites as eBay, Google, YouTube (owned by Google), and Veoh (a multimedia service company for publishing clips from copyrighted materials). These law suits protest the operation of automated peer-to-peer file sharing systems and other systems that support the publication of materials on the Internet if the copyright owner feels there is an infringement of their rights.

The key statement is that the copyright holder only has to THINK the item infringes—the real situation doesn’t matter. For example, YouTube recently displayed a video posted by a noted producer to test the viability of a future movie. “Confessions Of An Iraq War Vet” used Burl Ives’ “Have A Holly Jolly Christmas” as background music that served a critical emotional juxtaposition with the suicidal confession appearing in the scene. YouTube pulled the music saying it allegedly infringed, yet the Producer had permission from the Ives’ Estate to use the song. It didn’t matter, as YouTube had received a DCMA Take Down Order and had to comply. Subsequently, the Producer and Copyright holder worked out another version of the song and the video was re-posted. This process occurred outside the responsibility of YouTube and it’s parent company, Google. The safe harbor clause is not cut and dried, but still highly contested.

You Think Someone Has Stolen Your Materials – What You Can Do

Should you discover that someone has posted something you have copyrighted, then the DMCA Take Down Notice offers a structure that legally requests the offending site to immediately delete the copied material and alert the perpetrator of the notice. The DMCA format, however, does not always work well with Creative Commons-licensed materials even through Creative Commons is an add-on to standard copyright and upholds DMCA standards.

The problem with DMCA from a freelancer’s point of view is that the onus of researching who owns the copyright for information we would like to cite or use in our work for hire is on us, even if our client says they own the copyright. Our client’s website is defined in DMCA cases as the ISP and if we are publishing content for the client and that content is deemed to be infringing, we are liable and not the client (if they own a safe harbor certificate). In addition, the DMCA is vague in how it defines infringement and take down requests must be followed simply if a copyright owner accuses a user of your client’ site (or yourself) of infringement, or you, as a website creator or owner will bear the penalties. There is no clause for discovering if there actually has been infringement.

The DMCA Take Down Notices may be capricious or spurious, such as when the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) issued a very wide-ranging Take Down Order against a website called Scribd.com (a site for sharing documents in the same way that YouTube shares videos) for alleged copyright infringement pointing to a series of reading lists for teenagers and Creative Commons-licensed documents and caught several authors who had posted their own work. Cory Doctorow was caught in this dragnet because he published a book under the Share and Share-Alike, Not-For-Profit clause in Creative Commons and the book mentions Isaac Asimov which was one of the keywords used by SFWA to pick up copyright infringements. (Taken from Ars Technica, Nate Anderson, August 31, 2007, “Worse Than Vogon Poetry: Bogus DMCA takedowns stun sci-fi lovers”).

So, freelancers have more to worry about than meeting deadlines and making sure that they respect copyrights. To protect yourself, be sure to set up a process for handling DCMA take down notices.

How to File a DCMA Take Down Notice

If you find something you wrote or created posted without attribution on a website or copied, then you can contact the webmaster of the site and send them a DCMA Take Down Notice. The DCMA Title II Section specifies six pieces of information be included in the Take Down Notice:

1. A physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.
2. Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed, or, if multiple copyrighted works at a single online site are covered by a single notification, a representative list of such works at that site.
3. Identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing or to be the subject of infringing activity and that is to be removed or access to which is to be disabled, and information reasonably sufficient to permit the service provider to locate the material.
4. Information reasonably sufficient to permit the service provider to contact the complaining party, such as an address, telephone number, and, if available, an electronic mail address at which the complaining party may be contacted.
5. A statement that the complaining party has a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.
6. A statement that the information in the notification is accurate, and under penalty of perjury, that the complaining party is authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.

The website owner or manager must take down the material whether or not it actually infringed on the copyright within 10 days. The alleged infringer then has the right to file a counter notice back to you. The Counter Notice must contain the following information. If you are sent a Take Down Notice Announcement from your Hosting service, you should avail yourself of the right to respond with a Counter Notice back to the Host requesting that the material be re-posted.

1. A physical or electronic signature of the subscriber.
2. Identification of the material that has been removed or to which access has been disabled and the location at which the material appeared before it was removed or access to it was disabled.
3. A statement under penalty of perjury that the subscriber has a good faith belief that the material was removed or disabled as a result of mistake or mis-identification of the material to be removed or disabled.
4. The subscriber’s name, address, and telephone number, and a statement that the subscriber consents to the jurisdiction of Federal District Court for the judicial district in which the address is located, or if the subscriber’s address is outside of the United States, for any judicial district in which the service provider may be found, and that the subscriber will accept service of process from the person who provided notification under subsection (c)(1)(C) or an agent of such person.

If the web hosting service agrees to re-post the material, the originator of the Take Down Notice can take you to court and the Web Host is able to claim Safe Harbor status. If you issued the Take Down Notice, you have the right after 10 to 14 days of taking legal action.

How to Deal Rationally With the DMCA

As writers, designers, programmers, graphic artists, and creative entrepreneurs we can’t just ignore this law and hope it goes away. We do have to stay cognizant of what is posted on our servers or what we give to clients to be published online. The DMCA makes derivations, mixes, and even attributed embedding more difficult just as these art forms are coming into its own. There are organizations set up to combat the over-reaching of Take Down Notices, such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation (http://www.eff.org/issues/dmca) who publishes white papers and legal briefs in support of fair use rights.

As a freelancer, we can both thank the Government for protecting copyright and providing a vehicle to stop infringement and really dislike DMCA for its stifling affect on free expression and sharing as well as the paperwork it causes. But we can’t stay ignorant.

You can subscribe on other podcast aggregators by using our podcast feed–it’s simply http://feeds.feedburner.com/FreelanceRadio. Download the podcast file (in MP3 format) via the link (right-click to save).

The Shownotes:

• Theme of the Episode: This episode’s theme is a typical freelance day.
• Mailbag: Markos has a question on finishing projects.
• Freelance Radio Recommends:
  • Dickie: Storefront that donates to non-profits Rahzo.com.
  • John: November event National Novel Writing Month.
  • Kristen: Xbox 360 gaming site Fragbox360.com.
  • Von: File exchange web app (and more) DropBox.

  Other links mentioned include FreelanceDaily.net for freelance leads, HelpAReporter.com for self-promotion, and Von’s interview about this very topic–a typical creative day.

And that’s the episode! If you like it, please feel free to rate it in iTunes or your favorite podcast aggregator, and don’t forget to email your questions/comments via the Freelance Radio form. If you’d like to record a question/comment or submit an original outro song, you can upload them via this form.

Find out more about the panelists at the following sites:

• John Brougher, podcast host and new media/communications specialist: johnbrougher.com; John’s Twitter is at twitter.com/johnbrougher
• Dickie Adams, designer, photographer, technologist, jack-of-all-trades (and master of all): twitter.com/dickieadams
• Kristen Fischer, writer and author: kristenfischer.com; Kristen’s Twitter is at twitter.com/kristenfischer
• Von Glitschka, illustrator, designer and so much more: glitschka.com; Von’s Twitter is at twitter.com/vonster

“Drafting a contract that covers you, and doesn’t just enumerate information, is more than important: it is a must. Freelancers do not have the benefit of a legal department dedicated to protecting their interests with a watertight contract. Nevertheless, a freelancer’s contract must be comprehensive, concise and clear. It should outline the scope of the job, scheduling demands, the expectations of both parties and more.”

The History and Evolution of Social Media:

“Social media has become an integral part of modern society. There are general social networks with user bases larger than the population of most countries. In this article, we’ll review the history and evolution of social media from its humble beginnings to the present day.”

Five Things I’ve Learned Since Getting A Book Agent:

“At the time of this writing, my blog at the World’s Strongest Librarian is five months old. Somewhere around Month Two, I woke up one morning to find an email from Seth Godin in my inbox.”

Update: The Shane & Peter Inc. Contract:

“Despite all the possibility for disaster, projects went relatively smoothly. We learned a few good lessons and as a result, our terms and conditions grew. Time to update the old contract.”

Pretty In Pink: 25 Creative Websites That Make You Think Pink:

“Trends come and go but one that I have yet to see fade out is the color pink. It’s had its high times where almost everyone was using it, but lately we’ve seen it taper off from the forefront of the design trends in web-design. Some might still think that it’s overused, but I personally like seeing it used in creative ways.”

9 Invoicing Tips for Better Invoicing:

“When it comes to creating invoices there are instances where we end up in committing errors or entering partial details. Such ambiguous invoices not only delay the payment process but can also lead to disputes between the concerned parties. To address this issue we recommend adding the following information while preparing an invoice.”

How To Build The Ultimate Job Finding Dashboard with iGoogle:

“In this article we’re going to show you how to take that entire job search process and replace it with a single customized job finding page on iGoogle. We’ll aggregate all of the various job boards, grab feeds for different twitter searches, and create a single dashboard where you can look for jobs at a glance.”

101 Techniques for a Powerful CMS using Wordpress:

“This is the first article in the four-part series, “The Comprehensive Guide for a Powerful CMS using WordPress“. Throughout this article, we’ll be focus on many WordPress Theme hacks, ideas, tips and useful tutorials you need to have ready in hand when developing WordPress websites.”