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Yes, Freebies are Real! If you tell someone that something is free, they immediately start looking for the catch. After all, the words of wisdom “there is no such thing as a free lunch” have usually been proven true for people time and again throughout life, and so a healthy cynicism towards free stuff usually springs up with good reason. If you are one of these skeptical types, however, you may be missing out on some really great stuff. The truth is that you CAN get free things that are really and truly free, and yes, actually worth having. You just have to know where to look. OK, here is where the caveat comes in. The definition of “free” often depends on the definition of “cost.” As any economist can tell you, cost really doesn’t only come down to how much money you have to hand over to get something. There are additional costs, like inconvenience and time spent doing something. And true, some freebies have these “non monetary” kinds of costs associated with them. You have to balance all of the costs with the value of the free stuff you are getting and decide if it is worth it to you. The two biggest costs associated with freebies? Time and convenience are at the top of the list. Time is a big factor in many free offers. Companies want a bit of your time in exchange for their free products. Indeed, some companies literally want hours of your time. Have you ever taken advantage of one of those “free weekend vacation” offers in which you received free accommodation in a beach house or condo for a weekend in exchange for suffering through a long presentation and intense sales pitch? For some people, they can handle the presentation and have no qualms about refusing to buy anything and the free vacation more than makes up for it. Other people would rather pay any price to avoid having to listen to one of these spiels. So, while these weekends are freebies, for some people, they cost too much. More often, a company wants your time in a less obvious way – they want you to spend time filling out forms. These forms may simply be your name, address and email address, or they may be very lengthy, quizzing you about buying habits and the like. The reason the companies want you to do these forms is often for market research, and they are more than happy to give you a freebie in exchange for this. Many people find the time spent filling out these forms will worth it to get a great free product. Convenience is the other cost involved with many freebies. Time and convenience go hand in hand in some cases – after all, it may not be especially convenient to fill out form after form simply because it is time consuming, but convenience takes another hit from freebies in the form of spam email. Often, signing up for a freebie can land you on a spam email list, and for some people, getting tons of spam is so inconvenient that they would rather pay full price. The truth about all of these costs of freebies is that the freebie is in the eye of the beholder. You have to decide what you are willing to put up with in order to get a free product. Once you know the limits to your freebie costs, than you can cash in on some really great products that don’t cost you a dime. When you spend five minutes filling out a form and get rewarded with a free DVD player that you have been wanting, you will realize that there are free things out there to be had.

Movie Copyright Law College Students Are Being Targeted For Breaking Movie Copyright Law Many people have taken up the hobby of downloading movies and songs on the Internet and sharing them with their friends and family online. However, this is direct violation of the movie copyright law. Not surprisingly, the biggest violators of the movie copyright law are students. It is not surprising that the movie industry sector is sending out copyright infringements claims to college universities around the country. One reason that college students may be the hardest hit when it comes to violations brought against them for infringing on movie copyright law is that they are not aware of how serious a crime it truly it. Many college students who have suits brought against them are shocked, to say the least. They question why they were not warned about the perils of downloading movies and songs online and passing them along to friends. However, with the rise of claims that are being handed down, no one can claim ignorance for much longer. Word is being spread near and far that if you are engaging in illegal downloading and/or sharing then you can be brought to court. College students are learning the hard way that it is against the law and in violation of the movie copyright law to share or download copyrighted material. Many colleges and universities are now stating in their handbooks that it is against the law and the university rules to illegally download movies, music and other forms of media online using a school computer. In addition to illegal downloading and sharing software, the files take up space on the computer systems and use a considerable amount of bandwidth. While most universities and colleges will not look at the content an individual has -- they can isolate and identify the individuals who are hogging up the bandwidth by using illegal file sharing software. The movie and music industries have stepped in and are demanding restitution for illegally downloaded movies, music and other forms of copyrighted media. They have detection agencies that have the technology to identify and trace copyright infringements straight to their source. Once the computer is located they can notify the university or the college that they are in violation. The university will be told that they have a copyright infringement claim against them. Based on the Digital Millennium Copyright Act once the computer is isolated Internet access is terminated to that computer and court proceedings can begin. Does this sound far fetched? Well, it is not. You should know that in April of 2003 four students were sued by Recording Industry Association of America. These students attended Princeton, Michigan Technical University and Rensselear Polytechnic Institute. One student alone had an estimated liability of $150 billion. When you consider that you can be charged $750 per song that is illegally downloaded, the total can add up fast! The good thing is the lawsuits against the college students were settled for amounts less than $20,000. That is not pocket change for college students – or anyone for that matter! Movies and music are meant to be enjoyed. However, illegally downloading movies and music is not much different than walking into a video store and sticking DVDs and CDs in your pocket. Be careful. You do not want to be caught violating the movie copyright law.

Examine the Interior of Publishing Companies (publishing companies) The publishing company can be seen as the backbone of the writing world. Written words seemingly would not have been able to be seen without publishing companies. The publishing company provides a great service to society by publishing and displaying the work of authors. The existence of publishers is obvious, but the interior of the publishing world and its companies is unknown by many people. Publishing is known as an apprenticeship industry, which means that most of the knowledge needed by a publishing professional will be learned with hands-on experience on the job. Generally, information that is learned in one department of a company is useful throughout the publishing house, which gives professionals the opportunity to move between departments. There are many levels to a publishing company and they all have different functions. The administrative level is the first level of any company, and has many responsibilities in the functioning publishing companies. The administrative department is responsible for managing daily operations for publishing executives and management. This responsibility involves interaction with all of the employees from all of the departments, as well as interaction with authors and agents. The administrative employees are required to manage the calendar, maintain organized files, screen/prioritize mail, draft correspondence, make travel arrangements and prepare itineraries, process expense reports, take minutes at meetings and prepare reports. A position as an administrative employee allows a person to have a high-level of understanding of a publishing company, while being visible to executives. Advertising is another division of publishing companies. Most publishing companies have in-house advertising agencies that purchase media space and create and design advertisements. In a publishing company, the advertising department works closely with the marketing directors, editors, and publishers of titles to create an advertising plan that will promote sales of an individual book. Every advertising plan requires research and negotiation to provide the best venues and the most cost-effective methods of advertisement. These employees also work closely with graphic designers, commercial sales representatives, printing presses, and internal staff to facilitate the run of advertisements. The editorial department of a publishing house is one of the most important departments. This department acquires, negotiates, develops, and edits book projects for publication. The daily activities of editorial employees include preparing acquisitions for transmittal to the production department, developing and maintaining relationships with authors, booksellers, and agents, performing general administrative duties, participating in editorial, design and marketing meetings, and reading and evaluating submissions by writing reader’s reports. The editorial department must work closely with all departments. Another division of publishing companies is the marketing department. The marketing department has the responsibility of creating, preparing, and establishing marketing strategies and policies for each title by coordinating the efforts of the publicity, promotion, advertising, online, and sales departments. The marketing department is responsible for preparing all sales presentation materials, audio recordings, fact sheet collation, and promotions, creating and producing additional account-specific presentation materials, researching and establishing relations with new markets, and planning and maintaining sales and marketing schedules. The publisher’s office is also an important department for many publishing companies. The publishers oversee the life cycle of a title from acquisition to production, and onto the sales force. Publishers are responsible for making executive decisions for all titles within assigned imprints while staying within any cost restraints. This department is also responsible for sponsoring book projects, strategies, and initiatives for the publishing company. The subsidiary rights and permissions department is also one of the most important divisions of a publishing company. This department finds additional sources of profit for a given title, including serials, book clubs, and paperback, audio and e-book rights. The daily activities for the subsidiary department include writing submission letters, sending manuscripts, proposals, and books to foreign publishers and agents, coordinating co-productions with other publishers, working with book clubs and sales for special editions, and maintaining relationships with other publishing companies. Publishing companies have many divisions, including, sales, purchasing, publicity, promotion, production, managing editorial, legal contracts Internet development, information technology, human resources, finance, art and design, and audio.