Google Game & Editing FAQ page

Q: "Is it worth putting Google Adverts on my site to make money?"

A: "It depends".

There are generally three components to [sic]"earning money from adverts" on any website; 1) the amount of traffic the site gets; 2) the number of adverts clicked; and 3) the amount earned per-click.

It's important to understand that having a lot of traffic does not in of itself automatically mean earnings from advert placement is exponential, i.e. having "lots of traffic equals loads of money", whilst it can be considered a very general rule of thumb, is also an assumption because 1), it's not possible to 'force' visitors to click Adverts (Ed. it is but see the points below), and 2) the amount of revenue generated by said click activity is typically not under the control of the site owner (this assumes the use of a third party service like Google Adverts). This presents a bit of a conundrum because whilst a site owner pursues the traffic needed to remain viable the flip side is not an automatic grant of Ad revenue.

"But what about all these articles online which say you can earn thousands putting Google Adverts on a site?" Well... technically it is possible, but (there's always a "but") it depends heavily on the presence of the three points above; high traffic, high number clicks, and high earnings per click. Unfortunately these so called 'marketing articles' are more likely to mislead the Reader by pre supposing or presenting an biased picture of 'possibilities' rather than examples of abject reality, which are in fact typically very, very different (articles on "internet marketing" are not about providing the Reader with quality information but rather farming traffic for, yep, Advert clicks). For example. Reading much of the aforementioned material the typical site owner could be forgiven for the mistaken thinking that adverts typically pull in $1 or $2+ per click. Not bad the budding marketeer might think to themselves. Except... for 'common' websites, per-click revenues are closer to $0.10 cents and more often $0.01 cents a click - a vast majority of revenue generated from Ads is in this lower revenue-range, so to make the touted "thousands" from such low income per-click events, websites would require hundreds-of-thousand or millions of page views/visitors a day or week, never mind a month or year.

In addition to the above site owners have to be mindful of addressing the Visitors perception of the site when adverts are placed everywhere. Granted some adverts may be acceptable contextually, but there is a line, the other side of which is spamming every available bit of 'white-space', forced placement between comments and forum posts, page stalling, pop-ups/unders and so on, all of which negatively impact the 'reputation' or 'street cred' of a website irrespective as to its inherent value as an information or service source; visitors begin/see the site as being there solely to generate revenue from their input. This is a BIG turn-off generally, being one of the major major reason why people stop visiting (notwithstanding lack of site activity of course).

Still interested?

If so, the 'trick' then, if it can be called that, is to place adverts such that they don't spam the appearance of the page nor interrupt the users ability to navigate the site unhindered. Some sites do this regardless but have such a near monopoly control over their follows that they can afford to 'tunnel' users in this way. Being a "small fish in a big pond" with a fraction of the traffic, the lowly site owner can't afford to play such games with users so the better approach is to be slightly more conservative and perhaps experiment with placements to see what happens. Don't spam however, that desensitises the user making them 'blind' to Advert placement on a page which defeats their purpose. The key to remember is that your game, portfolio or content website is about engaging an audience, not distracting or pushing them around for the sake of a (pittance) payout.

OK this is causing enough misunderstandings within the IMVU community for it to be posted here for fellow IMVU Creators.

Effective immediately, a new rule is being implemented for the Pulse feature that will affect all IMVU customers irrespective of their registration date or status:

We will no longer allow any non-IMVU links to be posted in a pulse post or comment. Shortened URLs will also not be allowed to be posted. All links must be to IMVU website pages - product pages, groups, forum posts, public rooms, photos posted in IMVU's albums are considered IMVU links and therefore allowed. All users irrespective of their registration date will be able to use Pulse feature to make their own posts or comment on other community members' pulse posts.

Thank you. [source: http://www.imvu.com/catalog/modules.php?op=modload&name=phpbb2&file=viewtopic.php&p=10595635#10595635]

OK so if you've not seen the above then take note.

For CONTENT CREATOR's in IMVU this means;

1) Use PHOTOALBUMs for screen shots and other IMAGE BASED MEDIA (find the image in your photoalbum, click it, then copy/paste the imvu.com url if you need to link to a specific image - this also reduces the amount of "Photo not available" errors when using services like PhotoBucket etc.).

2) Drop YouTube videos and other offsite material into your PRODUCT PAGES (copy/paste the product page url - increases the rate by which products are purchased because "Buy" and 'watch' are on the same page).

3) Link directly to a Resellers IMVU ACCOUNT (authorised resellers will have one and should have an official 'reseller badge' on display).

4) Advertise your products by linking directly to the PRODUCT PAGE.

Use the tools IMVU have provided and make it easy for people to buy your stuff!.

Summery
Log in error using the App versions of Words with Friends et-al (does not appear to affect Facebook or web based versions of the games)

Description
When trying to log into the App version of "Words with Friends" the "Login failed" error message appears. Error may also affect "Hanging with Friends" and other installed "...with Friends" games due to the way a single account is used as the access point for all Zynga games on an iPod, iPad, iPhone, Android device. This can cause additional issue whereby the help menu is not available/does not load, because the account being accessed is not logged in to so there is no immediate or apparent way to start the retrieval or login bypass process.

Cause
The problem generally appears to be caused by a corrupt file in iTunes, the device or through the Apps installation.

Solution
The following may provide a solution for this persistent error;

• Remove the applications from the device (iPod).
• Shut down the device.
• Delete the apps from iTunes or marketplace App and make sure they are removed to the recycle bin.
• Close iTunes or Marketplace App.
• Upon re-opening iTunes/MarketPlace, from the Store re-download the App.
• Plug in the device.
• Go to device manager and drop the Apps back in to place. Apply and/or Sync to install.
• Once installed, eject device and turn it off (DO NOT reboot or 'soft-start' the device, it MUST be switched off completely).
• After a few moments, restart the device.
• Start the App - this should present the Log in screen.
• Log in.

[UPDATE]
As of Oct 2012 the email address associated with DMCA matters has been changed from DMCA@imvu.com to dmca_agent@imvu.com

DMCA Background
Before filing (sending in) a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (H.R.2281) (referred forward as "DMCA") Notice to IMVU, it is vitally important to understand that doing so initiates, or is a response to, a legal process. Under Title 28 USC § 1746, a DMCA Notice and Counter Notice are regarded as being an "unsworn declaration", signed under penalty of Perjury (as prescribed under Title 18 USC § 1621); that is, to make a false statement of fact, or in other words to 'lie' (this includes, but is not limited to, using false or fake credentials, contact details or identity information as well as, or along side, any false claims in the notice), is a felony crime which carries a fine and/or imprisonment as potential punishment. Although the Digital Millennium Copyright Act is a US Law, it becomes 'binding' on a particular individual or entity once a DMCA Notice or Counter Notice is signed into being^[5] - upon signing, the signatory agent is making a voluntary declaration to be bound by US Law in matters pertaining to DMCA and prosecution thereof generally.

How does DMCA work within IMVU?
Generally speaking there are three parties to a DMCA Action through IMVU; 1) the Copyright owner, 2) IMVU themselves, and 3) the infringing (receiving) party. In any such action IMVU simply acts as a conduit through which the necessary 'paperwork' is passed. They make no judgments or assessments as to the veracity or even correctness of any claim except to make sure it complies with the requirements of DMCA itself (see below).

In essence, "Creator A" ("A") finds their work being used by "Creator B" ("B") without proper attribution or derivation (typically a stolen mesh or texture, or a 'like-for-like' remake of an asset). "A" naturally takes exception to this so goes about filing a DMCA Notice with IMVU. IMVU receive this notice and as a result 'takes down' (hides) the offending material whilst the matter is being dealt with. They then send an email notification^[4] to "B" informing them of the action taken and the step(s) they can take to reinstate the material. If the claim made by "A" is 'true', then "B" won't really have a leg to stand on. If the claims are a mistake or outright false, then "B" can send a Counter Notice back to IMVU stating such. "A" then has approximately 10-14 days to respond else the alleged infringing material is unhidden and made available in the catalogue. Typically, claims and counter claims rarely go beyond this this initial process.

Filing or sending a DMCA Notice to IMVU
IMVU has to comply "substantially" with the requirements of DMCA itself (Sec (3)(c)(a)). This means any Notice sent to IMVU about another's infringing activities needs to be in a particular format. This is laid out in IMVU's Terms of Service (cf. "Copyright and Trademark Infringements") as follows;

• A physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.
• Identification of the copyrighted and/or trademarked work claimed to have been infringed, or, if multiple works at a single online site are covered by a single notification, a full list of such works at that site.
• 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 at the Site, and information reasonably sufficient to permit IMVU to locate the material.
• Information sufficient to permit IMVU to contact you as the complaining party, such as an address, telephone number, and, if available, an electronic mail address at which you may be contacted.
• A statement that you have a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright and/or trademark owner, its agent, or the law.
• A statement that the information in the notification is accurate, and under penalty of perjury, that you are authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.

A DMCA Notice then, is a 'declaration' that a particular individual is the holder of Copyright on a specific item, or list of items, that are being infringed by another party. In layman's terms, you identity yourself as the Copyright owner, the items you own, the items being infringed and finally the all important Declaration of these facts. Once written up this is sent to IMVU's designated 'Agent' (see ToS for details). From there, any content (products) subject to the Notice are hidden from view^[1] and the infringing party receives an email outlining the 'offense' and the action that can be taken to counter the claim or claims being made.

• A sample Notice is provided by IMVU here (or see attachments below)

Filing or sending a DMCA Counter Notice to IMVU
On receiving a DMCA Notification from IMVU (it's important to note that the receiving party does not receive the original DMCA claim, but instead a simple email from IMVU's DMCA Agent with an outline of the Notice they received), if the claims against the receiving party are 'true', then no action is going to be needed, the claim being legitimate. If the claim is not legitimate and/or there are concerns over the veracity of the charges being made, the receiving party can issue a DMCA Counter Notice. As above, a Counter Notice also needs to be in a particular format and/or contain specific information, which IMVU again lays out in their Terms of Service (cf "Counter-Notification") as follows^[2];

• Your physical or electronic signature.
• 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.
• A statement under penalty of perjury that you have a good faith belief that the material was removed or disabled as a result of mistake or misidentification of the material to be removed or disabled.
• Your name, address, and telephone number, and a statement that you consent to the jurisdiction of Federal District Court for the judicial district in which the address is located, or if your address is outside of the United States, for any judicial district in which IMVU may be found, and that you will accept service of process from the person who provided notification of a complaint of allegedly infringing materials or an agent of such person.

As with a DMCA Notice, a DMCA Counter Notice is similarly a 'declaration' of fact that the information presented in the document is true and/or that any claims made against the receiving party are either in error or miscalculation on behalf of the originating party. In other words, if you believe the claims to be untrue (but not necessarily 'false'), then you can send in a Counter Notice to this effect. Once received by IMVU, the originating party of the action has between 10 to 14 days to respond, else, IMVU will reactivate or re-enable the material previously hidden (note this is a time-frame within which the receiving party has to respond, not necessarily when items are returned to the catalogue).

General Notes
At no point in the initial stages of the process are either the Claimant (person or entity sending the DMCA Notice claiming ownership/infringement), or Defendant (person or entity receiving the DMCA Notice^[3]), required, or otherwise obliged, to provide any physical proof or other substantiating evidence to back up the claims being made - DMCA is simply a 'notification process', 'evidence' comes later, in Court. In other words, Creators/Developers do not need to send any material back-and-forth to IMVU other than the DMCA Notice and DMCA Counter Notice declarations themselves. If either party does feel the need to do this, DON'T; never, ever, send through any original material, working files, or copies thereof with respect to a DMCA Notice or Counter Notice as the material has absolutely no baring on the way IMVU deals with DMCA claims and counter-claims. Furthermore, as part of the general DMCA procedure, when responding with a Counter Notice, any and all accompanying material is forwarded on to the Claimant (person whom sent in the DMCA Notice).

Personally Identifiable Information
To expedite both a DMCA Notice and Counter Notice, parties are required to use valid contact and/or identification details. This serve two main purposes, 1) it identifies the parties involved, and 2) provides a physical address to which litigation paper can be sent where necessary. As such, and as per the above, it is Perjury to falsify, fake or use incorrect PII (with the deliberate intent to mislead).

Where sending a Notice might involve using personal details (a home address for example), the use of a valid P.O. Box or 'business' address is a viable alternative. Keep in mind however, that if further paperwork is 'served' at the address, and to the named entity provided, access will be necessary (note that paperwork delivered in this way is considered 'served' so "I didn't get it" is never a reasonable defense).

To reiterate. What must never be done is to use 'fake', 'made-up' or otherwise 'false' credentials in a DMCA Notice document - [sic] "... because they did it" is not defensive justification for it being done in return, it more than likely would jeopardise any additional action undertaken and make the signatory just as liable for Perjury as the opposing party.

DISCLAIMER: The above should not be construed as or considered to be legal advice, it is posted for informational purposes only. As the DMCA process is a legal procedure, anyone (individuals or entities) wanting to issue or counter a Notice is urged, in the strongest fashion, to seek out Legal Council before doing so; there may be unknown liabilities associated with filing a DMCA with IMVU against another Creator/User, of which Council will best advise with respect to these.

Additional Resources

• H.R.2281 -- Digital Millennium Copyright Act [alt link "Title 17 USC"]
  - TITLE II--ONLINE COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT LIABILITY LIMITATION
  - - Sec. 512. Limitations on liability relating to material online
• 18 USC § 1621 - Perjury generally
• 28 USC § 1746 - Unsworn declarations under penalty of perjury
• 17 USC § 512 - Limitations on liability relating to material online, in particular;
  - §(c) - Information Residing on Systems or Networks At Direction ot Users (3)(A)(iii)
  - §(f) - Misrepresentations
  - §(g) - Replacement of Removed or Disabled Material and Limitation on Other Liability
  - §(h) - Subpoena To Identify Infringer
  - §(m) - Protection of Privacy
• What rights do I have if someone knowingly demands removal of material to which they do not have the rights?
• Does a DMCA takedown mean the material taken down was infringing?
• Does the DMCA require service providers to filter or monitor user postings to their sites?
• Copyright Office US
• DMCA Conference Report, H.R. 2281 p.73 [pdf] "This legislation is not intended to discourage the service provider from monitoring its service for infringing material. Courts should not conclude that the service provider loses eligibility for limitations on liability under section 512 solely because it engaged in a monitoring program."

---

Notes:
[1] Products are hidden from view during a DMCA procedure and marked as being 'owned' by "DMCAHold" - they are rarely outright disabled so will remain available for use by those whom may have already purchased an item/s subject to the DMCA.
[2] Sending a Counter Notice means any Personally Identifiable Information presented in the document, such as a 'name', an 'address', a telephone number and/or any other such information regarded as being 'personal' and/or 'identifiable', is forwarded on to the originating party as a matter of course. The receiving party to the DMCA cannot refrain from allowing and/or denying this aspect of the process if a counter-claim is to be issued; it is a requirement of IMVU's DMCA process to which failure to comply will result in a returned Counter Notice.
[3] See below, the actual DMCA Notice is rarely, if ever (even if requested), sent to the accused infringing party, there is no way to make any face value assessments of any claims made.
[4] A typical DMCA email notification from IMVU is structured as follows (this IS NOT the actual DMCA notice itself);

• IMVU has received a formal and legal DMCA takedown notice for one or more of your products in our catalog. The notice alleges the following product(s) were submitted in violation of copyright:
  
  Product ID [PID number], "[Product Name/Title]"
  
  In accordance with IMVU policy and pursuant to DMCA guidelines, IMVU has disabled access to or removed these products from the IMVU catalog. Per DMCA guidelines, you have the right to challenge a takedown notice and assert your legal right to hold and submit the materials which are alleged to be in violation of copyright. Please refer to IMVU's policy on copyright and trademark infringement for an explanation and directions for filing a counternotice:
  
  http://www.imvu.com/catalog/web_info.php?section=Info&topic=copyrightinfo
  
  In accordance with our policy, I must warn you that the posting of infringing content is a violation of our Terms of Use, and that further violations of the Terms of Use may result in termination of your account, your ability to post to our Site, and our refusal, deletion or removal of such materials. If you have questions or information pertaining to this matter, please contact me directly.
  
  Regards,
  
  IMVU Designated DMCA Agent
  dmca@imvu.com

[5] This is one of the reasons why declarations are held in such high regard, they are effectively 'oaths' brought into being by the signing party, the signatory is giving 'life' to the statements and/or claims being made.

Q: "Do I need to pay to make products for IMVU" ("does it cost money to become a Creator")?

A: There are two parts to this question; (1) "does it cost to make products for IMVU?" and (2) "does it cost money to be an IMVU Creator?". Both currently answer in the affirmative - "Yes".

(1) There is a 'cost' associated with the upload, submission and/or publication of items to IMVU's virtual catalogue. This cost is in the form of 'credits' that can be obtained from IMVU themselves or one of the many trusted and authorised resellers of IMVU credits. The 'cost' of submission varies depending on the item itself - the amount of profit the Creator wants to generate; and the costs associated with the item from the the product was derived - the 'derivation' costs and IMVU's 'submission' fees^.

(2) As of the 10th May 2012 in order to create items for IMVU, user will need to be subscribed to IMVU's VIP service [see official announcement here]. This change affects NEW USERS and/or NEW CREATORS ONLY who sign up to the Creator Program ON or AFTER the 10th of May; all users who were signed up to the Creator Program BEFORE the 10th have been "grand-fathered" into the system, meaning, they can continue to create and publish products as normal. Some key points to the new VIP program are;

• As VIP 'rents' a users name (it temporarily removes the "Guest_" tag prefix), NEW Creators will not be required to 'register' their names in order to make and publish items as was previously the case.
• If at any point a users* VIP subscription lapses, all benefits, both as a Creator and VIP member will be lost and any submitted products hidden from the catalogue.
• Should users* VIP lapse, accounts will revert back to "Guest_" status and access to Create Mode will be prevented.
• Although a users* products will be hidden upon lapse of VIP, they can still be purchased it linked to directly.
• If a users* items are hidden, they will continue to earn sales income from such items - items ARE NOT disabled

Footnotes:
^ The cost of products varies. Currently the only way to find these out is to go through the submission process, during which the associated costs will be calculated. Note that credits are not regarded by IMVU to be money or virtual currency; although purchased with 'real' money, they are simply seen as being tokens, used as a medium of exchange within IMVU.
* As applicable to Creators signing up to the Creator Program AFTER the 10th May 2012.