Disclosures
https://secure.actblue.com/content/fineprint
“This article was authored by a 3rd party not related to the Washington Post. Any opinions or views it has are not a reflection of the Washington Post”
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What To Do With The Money. Assuming we get Walmart and Amazon permission deciding what to do with the money is essential. Use for: online videos? give donations to environmental groups working on climate change 2024 election issues ? Support candidates? ( I think impacting elections is the purpose of the Website, which would continue after the 2024 election. The climate crisis will not only continue post 2024, it will worsen.
Thought, if we don’t get permission from Walmart and Amazon “now”, we could simply launch the site as an interactive climate change site focused on the 2024 election, and later bring in the funding sources of Walmart and Amazon et al.
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From: Bob Vitamante <[email protected]>
Sent: Friday, March 22, 2024 2:44:58 PM
To: Bob Vitamante <[email protected]>
Subject: Internet approvals needed
Hi Bob,
It was great to meet with you and Robert earlier. As I mentioned there are questions around our rights to use the materials of other companies or organizations on our website. I do not know those laws, but Michael or John may have some insights to share. Regardless of their advice, we will also want our legal representatives to doublecheck the advice at some point.
These are the approvals that need to be sought. It should also be determined if the need for approval changes if we are a nonprofit enterprise.
News sources – Politifact, etc.
Are we able to carry their logos and data outputs on our website without a formal approval? Do we have to have our own caveats regarding the accuracy of the information, etc.? This is important since a direct link eliminates their ‘fund raising’ and advertising income possibilities. As a subset, can we include for each of them a ‘donate now’ button that they approve of?
Reporting organizations – League of conservation voters, etc.
Same questions as above. Also, since some information will be used to allocation of our net profits, are we under some duty to assess their ‘correctness’?
Podcasters. Etc.
Are we completely free to include their shows and productions? Are there special disclosures needed?
General caveats. Do we need some overall disclosures, caveats that should be included on the website?
Related organizations. We may want to ‘name’ the law firm and CPA fir that will represent us. There will have to be approvals from those firms since they will be ‘associated’ with us, and they will have strong protections around that activity as part of their due diligence. (They will not be willing to associate what might be attacked as a scam.)
Regards,
Bob Vitamante
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Robert Sulnick
From:[email protected]
To:’Michael Kramer’,’Bob Vitamante’
Sat, Mar 23 at 12:07 PM
I think we should have a lawyer review these issues. Once Bob B resolves what exactly he wants tht lawyer to review, I will see if I can find one.
Disclaimers: I am not a copyright lawyer (I’m an environmental litigator); and as a consultant I have “no pride of suggestions” and realize that Bob B is the client and ultimately it’s he who should decide what’s appropriate.
Initial Thoughts Regarding the Website
Funding and Being a For Profit:
· While I think being a 501 (c) (4), which can lobby and take donations, would have been a better designation. It would have put us in the position of having to seek charitable donations, approach foundations etc; with the reality that donors could not take charitable deductions.
· Understanding that Bob B cannot be expected to continue funding PV indefinitely, it might make the most sense to ensure Walmart and Amazon have signed on to giving PV a commission for sending them customers while using their brands to raise money for Planet Voters (which would mean their brands are donating to Planet Voters).
· Proceeding without their permission is untenable. While we would be raising money for them, we would be using their brands to raise money for PV without their permission.
Blogs, Environmental Organizations, Podcasts, Quotes
· Blogs: Not withstanding Michael’s comments and disclaimers, generally speaking one needs to obtain permission to re-post a blog:
“If it’s someone else’s content, though, then you may need to obtain copyright permission before sharing or republishing it on a website, blog or social media site like Twitter or LinkedIn.
You can only post someone else’s article on your website if you have obtained proper permission from the rightsholder. Simply citing the source is not enough; you must respect copyright laws”.
· A lot of bloggers are now getting paid for their blogs. This, for example is true on Substack. This further complicates using other people’s blogs without permission. We can publish our own blogs as we see fit. In fact, this is a good way to build followers.
· Who Are We? One other issue which your choice of blogs raises: Is planet Voters about climate change or the environment in general? For example: Birth Place of the A Bomb, Florida Neighbors, Lead poisoning, Dog Food et al are not about climate change and dilute the power of Planet Voters; unless you want it to be a general environmental site. In addition, all of the general environmental blogs are issues which the environmental community is working on.
· Environmental Organizations: This as a for profit is tricky. Generally one needs to have agreement with environmental organizations to cooperate/collaborate ( which can be time consuming to set up). In this case, we would be using these organizations to raise money for PlanetVoters, not the other organizations, which they would object to.
“Does copyright apply to nonprofit?
You might think that since a non-profit isn’t making any money from a project that incorporates copyrighted content, they are protected by fair use provisions.
If you use a copyrighted work without authorization, the owner may be entitled to bring an infringement action against you”.
· Podcasts: “Podcasts are protected by copyright law, just like other forms of creative content. When someone creates and publishes a podcast, they automatically hold the copyright to that content, meaning they have the exclusive rights to reproduce, distribute, and publicly perform their podcast”.
· Quotes: I think it is safe to quote famous people.
“To use quotes from famous people as long as they are used in a brief and positive or neutral way to support your independent work – and with proper attribution. To quote or reference the title or author of a work such as books, poems, movies, TV shows or songs.”
League of Conservation Voters:
· National Environmental Scorecard is essential. While I think legally we would need to get their permission to link with them because we are so close to the election I don’t think they would try to stop us from posting their score card on the website.
“This Privacy Policy describes how the League of Conservation Voters, Inc., League of League of Conservation Voters Action Fund, and LCV Victory Fund (all three entities together called “LCV” for purposes of this Privacy Policy) collects, uses, and shares information with respect to your use of their websites, including, by way of example only, the websites located at https://www.lcv.org, https://www.lcvactionfund.org, and https://www.lcvvictoryfund.org, as well as other websites owned and operated by LCV that link to this Privacy Policy (collectively, the “Website”). Before you use or submit any information in connection with the Website, carefully review this Privacy Policy. By using the Website, you consent to the collection, use, and disclosure of your information as outlined below. The terms “you” or “user” refer to all individuals and entities accessing the Website for any reason. The terms “us” or “we” refer to LCV”.
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BB Robert S feedback
External
Inbox
[email protected]
1:39 PM (3 hours ago)
to me, Robert
I think Planet voters has two problems: its identity, and, of course, funding mechanisms.
The way the website reads, to me, is like any other environmental organization; focusing on a range of environmental organizations. In my view the world doesn’t need that, there are enough of them. What the world needs is a strong focus on climate change on social media ( and main stream media as well). Planet Voters is poised to do that and given the existential threat of our overheating planet it, in my view should.
As to money, think we should reach out to Walmart and Amazon and see if we can agree to working together on climate change. If not consider the possibility of temporarily launching without an income stream focusing on targeted social media and climate change. I realize this is not economically sustainable for Bob B, but it would give us “standing” and the profile to figure out the financing ( with Walmart, Amazon and others).
As to pulling the environmental groups, let’s talk about that tomorrow. I think we need League of Conservation Voters on our website and perhaps other climate groups like Third Act and CCL and would be happy to reach out to them. In my view, we don’t need gerneral environmental groups; if our identify and focus is on climate change.
