Copyright Law Blog

Why Outsourcing to Vietnam is a Sound Business Decision

August 10th, 2009 at 12:41pm Under intellectual property

1. Overview

This document lays out the business case for meeting your company’s software development needs by outsourcing to Vietnam. It first outlines factors to consider in deciding which offshore locations to outsource to. Then it considers those factors one at a time for Vietnam, concluding that the country is a promising offshore location for outsourced software development and for business’ other IT needs.

2. Factors to Consider Regarding the Offshore Provider’s Location

In this section, we present a simple and straightforward framework for understanding the advantages and disadvantages of various offshore locations for your outsourced projects and business functions. This list of factors focuses on the most important and relevant factors, without becoming overly complex by listing unimportant minutiae.

The main factors that should be considered are as follows:

3. The Benefits of Outsourcing to Vietnam

As stated in the introduction, this section will evaluate Vietnam as an outsourcing destination against each of the factors listed in the preceding section.

4. Who outsources to Vietnam?

Many Japanese companies are choosing to outsource much of their IT work to Vietnam. According to a November 2006 article in GlobalServices, “Vietnam: Capitalizing on the China-Japan,” by the year 2010 as much as 10% of Japan’s software outsourcing may be sent to Vietnam.

Intel is also heavily reliant on Vietnam to meet its outsourcing needs. In October of 2006, Intel Capital, the unit involved in venture capital for the Intel Corporation, announced a $3.5 million investment in FPT, Vietnam’s largest software company, located in Hanoi. Earlier in that same year, the company said that it was going to build a factory for chip assembly and testing with a price tag of $300 million (San Jose Mercury News, “Intel Invests in Vietnam Software Company, October 24, 2006).

Other companies that have chosen to outsource to Vietnam include Nortel Networks, Bayer, Sony, Cisco, and Anheuser Bush (source: CIO.com, “Outsourcing to Vietnam”).

5. Vietnam Is an Excellent Outsourcing Destination

For all the reasons described above, Vietnam is clearly an excellent choice for meeting any business’ outsourcing needs. Here is a quantitative summary of the advantages of working with offshore providers located in Vietnam.

Contact:

Ms. Doanh Nguyen: Sales

Email: sales@blueball.com.vn

Sales Representative

International Marketing Department

Blue Ball Co. Ltd.

www.blueballgroup.com

Thailand

252/94 Muang Thai – Phatra Complex

Tower 2, 17th floor, Ratchadapisek Rd.

Huay Kwang, Bangkok, Thailand Tel: +66 2 6932940

Fax: +66 2 6932941

Vietnam

Quang Trung Software City Ground Floor, Anna Building District 12, Ho Chi Minh City Tel: +84 8 4371032 Fax: +84 8 4371033

10 Good Reasons to add Royalty Free Music to Your Website

August 9th, 2009 at 06:43am Under music copyright

The number of Internet broadband subscribers surpassed 200 million in 2005. According to the Computer Industry Almanac, this number is forecasted to reach 500M by the end of 2010. This expanded broadband capacity is creating an explosion of rich media productions.

Companies are now demanding music-enriched websites, advertising and e-learning tools to serve this growing clientele. Sounds and images are now the norm and music is being integrated at every step. To meet that demand, Web designers and Flash developers are constantly looking for good music at a decent price.

Here’s why Royalty Free Music is the best option available on the Internet.

1. Royalty Free Music is 100% legal.
When you purchase a license from a Royalty Free Music vendor, you are legally allowed to play the music on your website. No need to worry about copyright or music clearance.

2. Royalty Free Music is cost effective.
Licensed music can cost a fortune! But you can use original musical compositions on your website for a fraction of the cost one would normally pay.

3. Royalty Free Music is instantly available.
As soon as your transaction has been processed, a link is sent to your email address. You simply click on the link and follow the instructions to download the music immediately. No need to wait for a CD to come in the mail.

4. Royalty Free Music offers worldwide unlimited license.
Once you purchase a license, you can use the recording for as long as you want, anywhere in the world, with no additional payments.

5. Royalty Free Music is made by professional composers.
Several Royalty Free Music libraries are now filled with professional quality work. Long gone are the days when Royalty Free Music or Stock Music meant low quality “canned music”.

6. Royalty Free Music is flexible to fit your needs.
Available in various formats, track lengths may be as short as 15 seconds or as long as 10 minutes. Loops are also available. Loops are small piece of music that “loop” or repeat themselves indefinitely. Because of their small size, loops load rapidly and are often used for flash animations.

7. Music helps you stand out and capture your visitors’ attention.
Times have changed. Over 30 million websites are competing for the attention of more than 1 billion users. High speed broadband use on the Internet keeps expanding. Streaming music and videos are everywhere. Internet surfers now expect websites enriched with music and images.

8. Music makes your website more stimulating and alive.
Today’s Web surfers are demanding not only information, but also an entertaining Internet experience. Properly chosen music enables a more complete appreciation of your website. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a picture with music is worth ten thousand.

9. Music moves people to action.
Music makes any presentation more effective. Music adds instant mood to a message, and helps people bond with the values of your products and services. Multimedia presentations are far more engaging. People will feel more emotionally connected to your website.

10. Music can be integrated into your website within minutes.
You can easily find inexpensive Flash Music Players on the Internet. Some websites even offer various models for free. Simple and clear instructions make for an easy installation on your website.

If you want to add music to your website, Royalty Free Music is the way to go. Stay on the legal side without going broke, and feature high quality professional music. Get you visitors’ attention and help them remember your website by engaging their emotions through music.

Small Business Copyright Issues

July 17th, 2009 at 06:42pm Under copyright protection

Short Copyright Facts
The owner of a copyright has the exclusive right:
to copy the work
to modify the work
to distribute the work
to perform the work publicly
to display the work publicly
Copyright is important when you obtain content for your site, and in the protection of your content. Copyrightable works are usually on the form of text, image, music, etc. Facts, titles, recipes, form designs, alphabetical lists and other items do not have the required “originality” to merit copyright protection.
One of the misconceptions about copyright protection is that you have to register your work to gain legal protection. If you do protect your original works, you are more likely to win attorneys’ fees and, sometimes, higher damages.
The term “Public Domain” does not mean that everything in public or on the Internet is free from copyright protection. It refers to items that either do not qualify for copyright protection, or for which the protection has expired. The default you should assume for other people’s works is that they are copyrighted and may not be copied unless you know otherwise.
The correct form for a notice on your web site is:
“Copyright [dates] by [author/owner]”
You can use C in a circle © instead of “Copyright” but “(C)” has never been given legal force. The phrase “All Rights Reserved” used to be required in some nations but is now not legally needed most places.
Even if you don’t charge anyone for a product that contains copyrighted materials, you are still violating the law. An example of such an unlawful act would be when Napster enabled widescale download of copyrighted music.
One exception would be fair use. Copyright law does not block your freedom to express your own works. For example, you may be reviewing an article from a news paper’s web site that requires you to reproduce some of the work on your site is not the same as simply copying the work to your site so you don’t have to create your own work. Of course, that does not mean that you can start posting articles from other web sites and pretend you are reviewing them, but you are simply stealing content to cut corners.
One of the key to the fair use doctrine is that you can not diminish the value of the original work. Copying just 300 words from Gerald Ford’s 200,000 word memoir for a magazine article was ruled as not fair use, in spite of it being very newsworthy, because it was the most important 300 words – why he pardoned Nixon.

Taxes, Trademark Issues, And Corporations

July 13th, 2009 at 12:42pm Under trademark law

Corporations may enjoy certain tax advantages. Due to the complexities involved, you should consult an experienced CPA or tax attorney for details. The corporation can adopt a pension or profit-sharing plan for the benefit of the employees. If certain requirements are met, contributions of cash or other property by a corporation to such a plan will be deductible by the corporation for federal income tax purposes.
The corporation pays income tax on the profits that were not distributed to the shareholders as salary or in some other form deductible by the corporation for federal income tax purposes. The shareholders are required to pay a tax on dividends.
A trademark is a word, phrase, symbol or design, or combination of words, phrases, symbols or designs, which identifies and distinguishes the source of particular goods. By and large, a mark for goods appears on the product or its packaging. A “tm” on a product indicates unregistered trademark rights, and an “®” indicates a registered trademark. It is unlawful to place an “®” on a mark that does not have national registration.
As your domain name can become a highly valuable business asset, you should think in terms of trademark registration. Don’t worry about registering your trademark in the very beginning if you are pressed for funds, but take action once you have more revenue available.
One of the most important facts to consider is to avoid using a name that has been trademarked by another business. If you build your brand, even if you have done it unknowingly, around a trademarked name, you could be sued and held liable. Before you register a domain name, go to www.usptodotgov and run a trademark search for the names you’re considering. If you don’t find a match that doesn’t guarantee that your desired trademark is not protected. The database you are searching is about 12 months behind. Doing your own research is worth it because it lowers your risk of violating trademark laws.
When trying to determine the ideal trademark for your business, keep in mind that the purpose of trademark law is to prevent consumer confusion about the source of goods or services. Ask yourself if a consumer would confuse your name with that of another product, service or company.