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A competition has been launched to find better ways of exchanging information between copyright holders and end users, giving companies in the UK the chance to win up to £37,000, to bring their ideas to life.

The Digital Licensing Framework (DLF) contest is being run by IC tomorrow – an organisation set up by the government's Technology Strategy Board in 2010 to enable content owners and application developers to trial their ideas with UK consumers through its test bed.

The total prize money of £180,000, split between six winners, is partly supported by the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) Innovation Infrastructure Challenge Fund.

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Applicants can enter the competition in one of three categories:

Specific sector: Applicants must design a prototype that shows understanding of the licensing landscape in either music, publishing or museums & galleries (one prize for each). The prototype should enable consumers to send licence enquires to rights holders and view licensing information in a meaningful and educational way. Aggregator: Applicants must design a prototype application or service that aggregates licensing information from multiple sectors or media types including music, publishing, images and others. Intermediary: Applicants must design a prototype service that provides an 'alternative' or 'enriched' source of licensing information from multiple rights holders, using existing metadata or content specialists (two prizes).

Pitches must be submitted online by 22 March. The six winners will be awarded contracts of up to £37,000 on 4 April, and will have two months to build their prototypes before trials take place using IC tomorrow’s digital platform in June and July. The trials will be attended by leading rights holders such as Bridgeman Art Library, EMI, Pearson, PRS for Music and Tate.

“Copyrighted content is often integral to innovative start-ups and media companies, yet there are a number of challenges when it comes to exchanging information between rights holders and rights users,” said Dr Nick Appleyard, head of digital at the Technology Strategy Board. “This competition will bring the industry’s finest entrepreneurs together to develop ways that streamline this process and support a new generation of commercial opportunities.”

The contest is open to any startup or company working in rights management, content metadata cataloguing and identification systems, content aggregation or distribution and rights management workflow solutions. For more information visit IC tomorrow's website here.

The news comes amid reports that more European countries are shying away from the controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). Both Poland and the Czech Republic have decided to delay ratification of the intellectual-property treaty, despite signing it on 26 January, and Cyprus, Estonia, The Netherlands, Germany and Slovakia are still refusing to sign.

So far 22 European Union member states have signed the treaty, which aims to strengthen copyright and intellectual-property rights enforcement, but opponents of the deal say it leaves the door open for countries to force Internet service providers to become the unofficial police of the Internet.

Meanwhile, equivalent digital copyright legislation in the United States – the Protect IP Act (PIPA) and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) – has also hit the rocks, following a mass protest from the likes of Wikipedia, Google and Reddit.

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Competition launched to make digital licensing more transparent

Daniel Atwood works with organizations in the social sector to craft meaningful experiences for customers and constituents, and to find innovative product, campaign and messaging ideas in unexpected places.

We live in a world where new digital products are solving problems daily -- from managing our finances to remembering the groceries. Often, they're solving problems we didn't know we had, like the need to connect several times a day in 140 characters or less. Occasionally, they're creating new problems (but that's a topic for another conversation).

[More from Mashable: Connected Cars: How to Accelerate Mainstream Adoption]

What we're just starting to see, and what is for many the most exciting trend in technology, is the emergence of digital products designed specifically to provide social services at scale. This isn't a rant about the death of the traditional non-profit, but a birth announcement. Non-profits (and other organizations aimed at making a social impact) are taking new approaches that look less like direct service and more like Google. These aren't just brochure websites. They're tools -- proprietary, unique and scalable. And this means there’s an increased need for talented digital product managers in the social sector.

Let’s take a quick look at where organizations have been focused for the past several years; we’ll call it Non-profit Digital Engagement 1.0.

[More from Mashable: Hands On With Google Chrome for Android]

In this phase, a handful of tools came to dominate our understanding of how non-profits could engage in the digital space. Specifically, these were tools that enabled people to email Congress, sign a petition, tell-a-friend, send a letter to the editor or make a donation. This toolset focused on two activities: fundraising and advocacy -- raising money and making noise. Those activities are important for most organizations, but they represent only a small slice of how non-profits actually aim to create change. And partly as a result, too many organizations were applying the same tools to engage people around wildly different problems.

So, what’s next? In short, less focus on tools that aim to engage more people with causes, and more focus on a new wave of customized digital tools that provide social services at scale to constituents.

Some examples:

Kiva: This is an early one, but one worth noting. Kiva created a digital platform to connect small-dollar funders with nascent social entrepreneurs. This let it scale its model in a way that would have been nearly impossible had it not put a significant focus on technology. Brighter Planet: Actually a for-profit company, Brighter Planet is a great example of using digital thinking to find new ways of adding value to social causes. It created the CM1 platform to calculate carbon impact and opened it up with APIs that allow others to plug in and do the same. MasterCard has signed on and will soon be providing carbon impact reports to its corporate clients based on its employees' travel habits. Brighter Planet has focused on a specific need, and it's offering a scalable solution for it. Google’s Haiti Person Finder: When an earthquake hit Haiti in January 2010, Google teamed up with the State Department to rapidly create a tool that let people submit and search for information about missing loved ones. It has since deployed it several times for other disasters, including the 2010 earthquake in Chile and the 2011 earthquake and resulting tsunami in Japan.

These examples go beyond the traditional paradigm of raising more money and sending more emails to Congress. They are each providing a real service in a constituent-centric, scalable way that would have been impossible just a few years ago.

A corollary to this promising growth in digital services is that it’s going to require more money invested in work that is traditionally viewed as ‘overhead’ in the non-profit world; namely, the significant staff time, design and development costs associated with creating and maintaining great digital products. Donors will have to think differently about investing in these types of projects. And organizations that hope to undertake them will have to lead the way by educating and inspiring donors in new ways.

For those groups that do want to create and scale digital services like these, the key to success will be putting the right people with the right power in the right positions. There is still a dire need for campaigners and organizers -- no question about it. But as often happens in this still-evolving field, we’re seeing a new core role emerge naturally: the digital product manager. Product managers -- people who can envision, build and market digital tools that add real value -- will play an increasingly critical role. Good product managers thrive on strategic thinking, but are also obsessed with ensuring that the final detail is just right. They care as much about design as about sustainable coding. They are tireless, tenacious and patient.

As many have already noted, we can't solve all of our problems with technology. But technology has opened up new opportunities for organizations to create scalable, innovative services in the social sector. And we're just beginning to realize the implications of that shift.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, TommL

This story originally published on Mashable here.

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What Digital Non-Profits Can Learn From Companies Like Google

LOS ANGELES, Feb 12 (TheWrap.com) - Lionsgate's most recent quarter was hardly cause for celebration -- revenue fell 23 percent at the company -- but its digital and video-on-demand revenue was certainly impressive.

Digital and on demand revenue jumped 80 percent to $62.4 million during its third fiscal quarter. Theatrical brought in only $8.4 million during the period.

Licensing deals for the studio's television programming, particularly the licensing of the first five seasons of "Weeds" to digital platforms, kept the money flowing over the three-month period. Vancouver-based Lionsgate has licensing deals with Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime.

"We've created a whole new revenue stream for serialized shows," Lionsgate co-chairman and chief executive officer Jon Feltheimer told analysts on Friday.

Overall revenue dropped to $323 million during a period in which the studio released no new films. There was a decrease of nearly $100 million from the same quarter last year. Lionsgate also announced losses of $1.7 million.

"The Hunger Games," its hotly anticipated adaptation of Suzanne Collins' best-selling novel, cannot come soon enough for the studio. Box-office prognosticators are predicting big things for the movie, but in the short term Lionsgate can comfort itself with having adroitly manipulated emerging home entertainment platforms.

In recent quarters, digital revenue and video-on-demand have actually been more consistent performers than theatrical releases. Revenue from Lionsgate's digital business increased 123 percent in the previous quarter to a record $65 million. Theatrical revenue was $22.3 million during the period, with "Abduction" and "Conan" both failing to hit it big.

In October, Lionsgate released "Margin Call" on video-on-demand at the same time the well-reviewed Wall Street drama debuted in theaters. The Roadside Attractions movie has grossed over $5 million at the domestic box office -- a figure the studio said it expected to match on demand.

It reportedly plans a similar release strategy with its recent Sundance acquisition "Arbitrage," a hedge-fund drama starring Richard Gere.

View original post here:
Lionsgate reaps big money from digital distribution of shows like 'Weeds'

LOS ANGELES, Feb 12 (TheWrap.com) - Lionsgate's most recent quarter was hardly cause for celebration -- revenue fell 23 percent at the company -- but its digital and video-on-demand revenue was certainly impressive.

Digital and on demand revenue jumped 80 percent to $62.4 million during its third fiscal quarter. Theatrical brought in only $8.4 million during the period.

Licensing deals for the studio's television programming, particularly the licensing of the first five seasons of "Weeds" to digital platforms, kept the money flowing over the three-month period. Vancouver-based Lionsgate has licensing deals with Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime.

"We've created a whole new revenue stream for serialized shows," Lionsgate co-chairman and chief executive officer Jon Feltheimer told analysts on Friday.

Overall revenue dropped to $323 million during a period in which the studio released no new films. There was a decrease of nearly $100 million from the same quarter last year. Lionsgate also announced losses of $1.7 million.

"The Hunger Games," its hotly anticipated adaptation of Suzanne Collins' best-selling novel, cannot come soon enough for the studio. Box-office prognosticators are predicting big things for the movie, but in the short term Lionsgate can comfort itself with having adroitly manipulated emerging home entertainment platforms.

In recent quarters, digital revenue and video-on-demand have actually been more consistent performers than theatrical releases. Revenue from Lionsgate's digital business increased 123 percent in the previous quarter to a record $65 million. Theatrical revenue was $22.3 million during the period, with "Abduction" and "Conan" both failing to hit it big.

In October, Lionsgate released "Margin Call" on video-on-demand at the same time the well-reviewed Wall Street drama debuted in theaters. The Roadside Attractions movie has grossed over $5 million at the domestic box office -- a figure the studio said it expected to match on demand.

It reportedly plans a similar release strategy with its recent Sundance acquisition "Arbitrage," a hedge-fund drama starring Richard Gere.

Here is the original post:
Lionsgate reaps big money from digital distribution of shows

Fees may be a fact of life but that doesn’t mean you have to simply accept them. Fees can easily be overlooked when it’s just a few dollars, but even small fees can really bust your budget.

Here are a few fees that can be avoided:

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1. Gym sign-up fees

Fitness centres are known for pushing this fee on new customers. Initiation fees can run up to $129 or more and are pure profit for the fitness centre. The fitness market is extremely competitive, so shop around for a gym that will waive the sign-up fee.

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2. Mortgage life insurance

If you own a home, chances are you were offered mortgage life insurance. This insurance is not required and must not be a prerequisite for qualifying for a mortgage.

Term life insurance is much cheaper and offers greater protection than mortgage life insurance offered by your bank. Mortgage insurance is the one financial product which declines in value as you continue to pay. [More: Why you shouldn’t buy mortgage insurance]

3. Give up your landline

About 2 million Canadian households no longer have a landline, opting for wireless service.

There are some risks — 911 emergency services have a harder time identifying your location, monitored alarms and other services require either a landline or added-cost wireless technology, and during bad weather, call volumes can increase exponentially causing disruptions to cell phone service.

But if the phone is mainly used to receive telemarketing calls at dinner time, consider dropping your landline service to reduce household expenses.

Skype, Google Voice, and Voice Over IP services can often drop phone service costs down to just a few dollars a month.

4. Cellphone roaming fees

Talk to your mobile carrier about a pre-paid long-distance/roaming package before travelling to the U.S. or elsewhere.

Paying a bit up front could save you hundreds of dollars, and they usually last for 30 days so if you don’t use them on a first trip you have them for the remainder of the month. But beware - data and text roaming may not be covered, and there are other pitfalls to avoid.

5. Cellphone cancellation fees

Cancelling a cell phone contract or a cable package before the end of the contract (or “service agreement”) can bring fees of several hundred dollars.

Bell and Rogers both charge up to $400 to cancel a cell phone contract early — plus additional fees if you have a data plan. Be aware of the fine print in your service agreement and choose your time to change contracts wisely, or don’t sign a contract in the first place.

6. Annual credit card fees

Platinum and gold reward cards can carry annual fees of $75 to $120 for features you don’t use, unless you are a high spender or business user.

They offer faster accumulation of reward points like Air Miles or Aeroplan, but if it takes you more than two years to earn enough to fly, you’ve already paid a hefty amount of your reward in fees.

There are no-fee credit cards that offer rewards. They include MBNA Smart Cash MasterCard (3 per cent cash back on groceries and gas, 1 per cent cash back on everything else), or the President’s Choice Financial MasterCard (points toward groceries).

Don’t carry around extra credit cards. You can be hit with fees for forgetting to make a monthly payment on a card you rarely use. [More: Choosing the best reward credit card]

7. Prepaid credit cards

Visa, MasterCard and American Express offer prepaid gift cards that can be used just like credit cards at merchants across the country. Unlike regular gift cards, prepaid credit cards come with a host of unnecessary fees.

There’s a $3.95 fee just for purchasing an RBC Visa gift card. After six months, a $1.50 fee will be charged monthly until the balance reaches zero.

Stick to buying regular store gift cards that come without the fees and expiry dates. [More: Are pre-paid credit cards good for students]

8. Banking fees and ATM fees

Banks and credit unions usually offer accounts that waive monthly fees if you maintain a minimum monthly balance. Online banks like ING Direct and PC Financial offer no-fee chequing accounts and don’t require a minimum balance.

Avoid non-bank cash machines in convenience stores, bars and plazas. You are charged $1.50 to $2.50 at the machine and often another levy by your own bank for a total of up to $4.50 a transaction.

Plan ahead, use a smart-phone app to locate your bank’s own closest machine or be aware of other locations.

CIBC customers, for example, can use President’s Choice machines and ATMs in most Mac’s Milk outlets without fees. Credit unions have their own extensive shared ATM network. [More: How to fight your bank and win]

9. Airline fees

Pack carefully — Air Canada and WestJet charge $20 for checking a 2nd bag, and bags that exceed the maximum weight or size can cost you an additional $50. And book your tickets online to avoid a telephone booking charge. [More: Correcting credit scores takes tons of work]

10. Coin-counting fees

Rolling loose change is a chore. Many people use coin-counting kiosks, found in grocery stores and malls, which quickly convert your loose change into paper currency. This convenience comes at a steep price, however, with companies like Coinstar charging a hefty 11.9 per cent processing fee.

Skip this fee and roll your change at home. You can buy coin wrappers at a discount store, or buy a small coin-counting machine for home use.

If you insist on hauling your loose change out of the house, most banks offer free coin counting to their customers. Bank of Montreal Coin Counters are free to use for both BMO and non-BMO customers.

11. Probate fees

These are charged by provincial governments to prove that a will and executor have been certified by a court, which can help avoid potential disagreements in dealing with an estate.

These fees (really taxes) vary by province and with the size of the estate — in Ontario, the fee on a $500,000 estate amounts to $7,000. But there are ways to reduce the amount of probate fees paid, with some planning. [More: How does probate work?]

12. Credit report

Under Ontario law, you are allowed to check your credit report to see what information financial institutions are sharing about your credit history.

It’s a good idea to make sure the information is correct before you apply for a loan or mortgage. But as Moneyville columnist Ellen Roseman has pointed out, the consumer reporting agencies want you to pay $15, despite the fact it’s your right to get it for free once every 12 months.

Read more from the original source:
12 annoying fees Canadians should avoid