Washed-up wrote:

---

 

ACE wrote:

---

Not to defend him, but the pictures may not be his fault.  I've had web/seo companies trying to sell me a website and they told me not to worry about pictures that they had
"stock" photos.  You know what I'm probably wrong, if he's gonna lie about being certified he'll steal pictures and doesn't belong here.  Let's fire up the lynch mob.

---

This is the main reason I put watermarks on all new pictures. I am rebuilding my web page and it takes a ton of time.

 

---

Dwayne,

 

you can create a watermark in photoshop and run a batch process to do all your pics at one time.

I run batch process of actions I create on 1000+ pics at a time.

You can just run the action on one or two pics at a time as well.

 

Chris

gutterdog wrote:

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I stoped doing watermarks, takes forever in picasa. I played with it a while back.

---

3 clicks in photoshop with the batch process and all the pics are watermarked. 

To answer some of the questions asked:

We do not currently have a way to track guys that do this, but as we get more organized we eventually should.

We need a copyright on the Certified logo, but we can work a claim based that they are claiming we did something we did not (certify them) meaning they are lying about our practices. (Not a lawyer, there is a better way to say this)

Yes this is the paid section :)

A policy is not in place to deny these people membership, and honestly it would be hard to prove they did it and not the web company they use.

A personal note: I don't think we want to deny people as much as we want to teach them a better or more honest way to operate. Having a way in the future to verify certifications on our main site will help our customers find these people for us. All in all this is kinda good. We find lot's of guys using it while it is uncopywritten and that shows it has value if they are stealing it. With that said we do want to stop them from stealing it and having a cert# and a verification online should help tremendously.

Baltimore MD Roof Cleaning 410-482-4367 wrote:

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Mike send those girls over to clean my roof!! Do they want a job, we will take em. Will sell great to the old man crowd :)

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 Hey Bill me and my graphics guy thinkin something similiar for a commercial, If we ever do one. Ya never know!!!

 Keep looking in that direction till ya get there!

Baltimore MD Roof Cleaning 410-482-4367 wrote:

---

To answer some of the questions asked:

We do not currently have a way to track guys that do this, but as we get more organized we eventually should.

We need a copyright on the Certified logo, but we can work a claim based that they are claiming we did something we did not (certify them) meaning they are lying about our practices. (Not a lawyer, there is a better way to say this)

Yes this is the paid section :)

A policy is not in place to deny these people membership, and honestly it would be hard to prove they did it and not the web company they use.

A personal note: I don't think we want to deny people as much as we want to teach them a better or more honest way to operate. Having a way in the future to verify certifications on our main site will help our customers find these people for us. All in all this is kinda good. We find lot's of guys using it while it is uncopywritten and that shows it has value if they are stealing it. With that said we do want to stop them from stealing it and having a cert# and a verification online should help tremendously.

---

Bill,

I'm sort of torn on this one but mostly think those who practice in this manner aren't the kind of people we want in our ranks. True, maybe someone else did their site and added all that stuff that isn't theirs. But... I approved EVERYTHING for another website I have that I paid someone to do. There wasn't one page that I didn't have to sign off on. So... as far as I'm concerned, anyone who ueses the RCIA logo or someones pictures w/o permission is stealing. If someone is doing so then the BOD should send them a strong letter, from that point they have been warned. I think those using the logo should have to be on some kind of probationary period if they ever did want to join, from the date they decide to sign up.

For those of us who have paid for the privledge, I don't think it's "kind of good". We paid to use the logo while others steal it or don't remove it after the changes were made and the rules were changed.

Our web pages state at the bottom, "Content copyright 2010-2011. XXX Roof Cleaning. All rights reserved." That alone is what violates the law even w/o individual copyrights. "Copyright does not protect ideas, only their expression or fixation. In most jurisdictions, copyright arises upon fixation and does not need to be registered." Once we have a picture that we took it is protected. Same goes with a logo. "Once the creation is placed on a visible medium, copyright laws apply and the author is entitled to document this on their work, but registration provides positive proof of the authorship and is necessary before any litigation can take place."

From Legal Zoom:

"Copyright falls under the auspices of intellectual property law and protects the rights of creators of original works of authorship whether the work in question is published or not. Original works of authorship include literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic works such as poetry, novels, movies, songs, computer software, and photography. By law, when something is written, drawn, photographed, etc., its copyright is automatically owned by the author. In other words, a copyright exists at the moment the work is created.

Registering a copyright with the US Copyright Office is voluntary. Copyright protection exists without registration; however, your work must be registered before you can file a copyright infringement case in a US court. In addition, registration of copyright makes it easier to prove ownership of your work in the event of an infringement and allows you to collect more in damages from the infringer."

The best way to track is for the members to do the tracking. That would make it much easier for the BOD to not have an added duty.

Brett

Roof Cleaning Blue Ridge VA 540-949-6277 wrote:

---

 

Baltimore MD Roof Cleaning 410-482-4367 wrote:

---

To answer some of the questions asked:

We do not currently have a way to track guys that do this, but as we get more organized we eventually should.

We need a copyright on the Certified logo, but we can work a claim based that they are claiming we did something we did not (certify them) meaning they are lying about our practices. (Not a lawyer, there is a better way to say this)

Yes this is the paid section :)

A policy is not in place to deny these people membership, and honestly it would be hard to prove they did it and not the web company they use.

A personal note: I don't think we want to deny people as much as we want to teach them a better or more honest way to operate. Having a way in the future to verify certifications on our main site will help our customers find these people for us. All in all this is kinda good. We find lot's of guys using it while it is uncopywritten and that shows it has value if they are stealing it. With that said we do want to stop them from stealing it and having a cert# and a verification online should help tremendously.

---

Bill,

I'm sort of torn on this one but mostly think those who practice in this manner aren't the kind of people we want in our ranks. True, maybe someone else did their site and added all that stuff that isn't theirs. But... I approved EVERYTHING for another website I have that I paid someone to do. There wasn't one page that I didn't have to sign off on. So... as far as I'm concerned, anyone who ueses the RCIA logo or someones pictures w/o permission is stealing. If someone is doing so then the BOD should send them a strong letter, from that point they have been warned. I think those using the logo should have to be on some kind of probationary period if they ever did want to join, from the date they decide to sign up.

For those of us who have paid for the privledge, I don't think it's "kind of good". We paid to use the logo while others steal it or don't remove it after the changes were made and the rules were changed.

Our web pages state at the bottom, "Content copyright 2010-2011. XXX Roof Cleaning. All rights reserved." That alone is what violates the law even w/o individual copyrights. "Copyright does not protect ideas, only their expression or fixation. In most jurisdictions, copyright arises upon fixation and does not need to be registered." Once we have a picture that we took it is protected. Same goes with a logo. "Once the creation is placed on a visible medium, copyright laws apply and the author is entitled to document this on their work, but registration provides positive proof of the authorship and is necessary before any litigation can take place."

From Legal Zoom:

"Copyright falls under the auspices of intellectual property law and protects the rights of creators of original works of authorship whether the work in question is published or not. Original works of authorship include literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic works such as poetry, novels, movies, songs, computer software, and photography. By law, when something is written, drawn, photographed, etc., its copyright is automatically owned by the author. In other words, a copyright exists at the moment the work is created.

Registering a copyright with the US Copyright Office is voluntary. Copyright protection exists without registration; however, your work must be registered before you can file a copyright infringement case in a US court. In addition, registration of copyright makes it easier to prove ownership of your work in the event of an infringement and allows you to collect more in damages from the infringer."

The best way to track is for the members to do the tracking. That would make it much easier for the BOD to not have an added duty.

Brett

---

 Man I wish I was smart enough to understand that! Glad you guys working on that stuff! Legal stuff.

 We are like a football team! Some guys good at throwing, catching. Blockin, puttin the plays together. 

 It's all gelling real good. 

 

EDIT: Every member of the RCIA is the eyes and ears FOR the RCIA. If you stumble upon something, mention it. The BOD will handle it if need be?

 Everything is going really good. 

 

-- Edited by gutterdog on Monday 24th of January 2011 08:28:44 PM

Roof Stain Removers wrote:

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There is a guy in my area who hasn't posted on the forum in almost a year, but has an RCIA certified logo on his site. I think he gave up on roof cleaning ( according to his supplier he hasn't ordered anything in a long time), but to a customer he is more appealing than me because his website says he is certified. I guess I should just let sleeping dogs lie....

---

 Who's the dude?

Roof Stain Removers wrote:

---

There is a guy in my area who hasn't posted on the forum in almost a year, but has an RCIA certified logo on his site. I think he gave up on roof cleaning ( according to his supplier he hasn't ordered anything in a long time), but to a customer he is more appealing than me because his website says he is certified. I guess I should just let sleeping dogs lie....

---

Art,
     Please don't take this the wrong way, but the reason his site is more appealing to customers than yours has nothing to do with the "certified" logo. It has everything to do with being found in the search results. His site shows up multiple times in the first few pages. I looked through 10 pages using the search terms "roof cleaning nc" and didn't see your site. Mike Sullivan - Pressure Washing Pro showed up about 40 times on those pages.

Don't worry about the logo. Worry about content and SEO. If people can't find you when they type in their search terms, it doesn't matter what you have on the site. You need to get your site showing up on the first page and I guarantee you will be busy and happy!

 Brian

Guys,
     I don't disagree with you that it would be nice if the certification process was up and running right now. It is another notch on your belt and when the RCIA gets some national consumer exposure, it may really enhance your business. Don't get caught up in it being the difference in whether or not you are going to get work right now. I can honestly say that I have not had one customer ask me about whether or not I'm certified. They ask about insurance. They ask about references. They test my knowledge. My web site stats show that it is not a real common term they are typing in their search queries. I only just switched my logo to the certified one in the fall. My web site traffic was excellent long before I switched it.

I'm not saying this to belittle the certification at all. I'm just trying to help some guys be aware of some things that are monumentally important when it comes to people finding your business.

Use the regular RCIA logo. It shows continuing education. That is what people like to see. You web site content is what they want to see. Use that to generate the call and then it is up to you to convince them that you are the only logical choice for the job.

There are some real successful guys on this board who were real successful without anyone's certification. They were successful because they took care of all the blocking and tackling issues they had in their business first. They had sound business plans, sound marketing plans, sound customer follow up programs.

Brian