Writing aside, this is more begging and blogging

Well, welcome back. I did notice you were not around much lately. I will definitely check out your site.

jayne - good to see you again!

What makes it so different from Gather?

Jayne: The site looks very interesting. I just wish I weren't so busy right now.

Welcome back, and congratulations on the launch of the new website!!

Seems interesting, I'll check it out. I just have 0% free time now...

Thanks everyone. In response to Rick, it is not just dedicated to writing. We're going for all creative forms, videos, photos, writing, music, anything you can put on the internet, we want to see it and reward you for it.

Oh, there you are, I was wondering......
I'll check it out for you.

Thanks John and Nancy. I found you guys on there.

Hi Jayne,

I signed up. I don't see a way to upload audio. I record music, but so far I haven't gotten to do any music videos. I would love to find a site like Gather that allowed me to share some recordings. I'll play around with Brickfish more later. If it supports QuickTime I can upload my audio as a QT "movie". Typically I encode to mp3 for uploading to the web for maximum compatibility. I have lots of computers but I tend to favor my Macs more then my Windoze machines so I will vocally complain if things don't work on Macs!

Good to see you back here and I look forward to exploring the site.

Thanks Rich. Our engineers are working on the functionality to let people upload audio. IN the mean time, you can do it as a quicktime file or use a encoded jukebox like the one on my page. I added you, so keep an eye out.

I checked it out Jayne. Very interesting. What do you feel is the chief benefits for writers? Thanks.

You're welcome Jayne. I just need to find time from here to finish loading stuff, ha ha.
Take care.

I'll play along, Jayne. This sounds interesting. I'd like to post some vocal music tracks, but since they'd be mostly cover tunes I'll have to check more thoroughly into the application of fair use copyright laws in that medium.

Here's one item from Brickfish's Terms Of Use which appears to be different from Gather:

Assignment of Your Content. By posting any "Content" (which means any and all postings, messages, text, files, images, photos, video, sounds, works of authorship, feedback, bug reports, or other materials) on the Website, you hereby assign to Brickfish all right, title, and interest in such Content (including all intellectual property and publicity rights).

Chris, we're changing those...I can't stand those TOS and I told them we're never going to get creative people with that. We just haven't finished and approved our new ones yet.
Adam I added you.
Ed, to be perfectly honest, we're very much in beta phase, we have all the framework we need and we're working on developing the really creator friendly features right now.
I'd really like to see you guys on there and get your feedback as to how you think it could better benefit writers -or musicans, as it seems we've got a lot of them here. Right now we just have blogs and like gather you can win contests or earn points that can be cashed in for things based on the comments and ratings you recieve, but we deffinately need more features.
I'd really like to know what ideas you have to make it perfect for all creative people to share their work, get fans, collaborate with other writers, etc.

That's cool, Jayne.

Jayne ,
As other have said, welcome back. It is getting harder and harder to keep up with everything, but nonetheless welcome back.

I agree George, it's part of the reason I stepped back in the first place

Looks good, Jayne. I wondered where you disappeared to. Missed you.

Hi Jayne,
We have been watching for you. Good luck on your new venture.
Thanks, for the update, I'll go have a look at the brickfish.

Thanks guys. I added you Sandy, haven't seen you on there yet Cena, but I will add you when I do.

Thanks, Jayne. This might be the new 'home away from home' I need.

Gozer, have you been busy lately?

I'll believe it when you rap about it.

Jayne, I signed up but now I say Chris H's comment and I'm already pissed at brickfish.

What's their business model? Assert IP rights to the pictures people post? That will go over well. Should attract a big crowd with that.

I'd like to use brickfish because it looks like you can post videos, which would be fun. but I seriously won't post anything there until those TOS get changed. Peace.

They will be changed, go read the comments I posted on there.
I'll send you a message on here when we offically change them.
They're basic TOS for social networking services (myspace says that too) and the reason they have them say that is so they can post them on the homepage -or other parts of the site- without being sued. But it doesn't matter anyway because they will be changed. I told them people won't stand for that and they have agreed to change them.

And Gozer, I agree with Sandy, you can't do anything until you rap about it.

Thanks, Jayne.

With my lawyer hat on, it doesn't seem like it should be too difficult to change the most offensive part of the existing TOS language, which seems to say that you're basically signing over ALL RIGHTS to whatever you post to brickfish (in other words, read literally, the TOS says once you post a picture there, it's not even yours anymore -- it belongs to brickfish).

All they would have to do is change this:

"you hereby assign to Brickfish all right, title, and interest in such Content (including all intellectual property and publicity rights). "

To this:

"you hereby grant to Brickfish a non-exclusive license to such Content for purposes of displaying such Content on brickfish."

There ya go. Problem solved.

I know. Trust me, it's been bugging me since they posted it. They're supposed to change it in the next few days though.

Here's a thought for the Brickfish management: a lot of musicians like me play cover songs. I write songs too, but they tend to be personal. But I love to do my own interpretation of songs by other musicians. Technically, you have to pay ASCAP, BMI, RIAA or SEASAC for that (I forget which one). No one does pay them, but they are just asking to get sued. What would be a real service is a web site that negotiated a deal with whichever of those handles royalties for covering songs. A site that can allow anybody to cover a song and finds a business model that compensates the appropriate royalty agency out of ad revenue from people listening would have a killer model that would attract lots of great musicians from all over the world. Just some food for thought.

I was a co-founder of RadioCentral which in the late 90s tried to negotiate with those, err, agencies (not the first word that came to mind) and they were super arrogant. But now their very life depends on finding a model that works in the digital age. It's either find a way to obtain fair compensation for fair use, or whither to piracy. I'd be happy to chat with your execs or in-house counsel. I am not an attorney but as a founding exec at RadioCentral and then later at CenterSpan I know a bit about licensing music rights.

Great thoughts Rick, I'll pass those ideas along to our creative development guy. I agree that it would be a really nice service for musicans.

Anyone that raised concerns over the BF TOS, please go check them out now...they were just changed.

Hey, Rich. I heard somebody was trying to set something like that up. I think it was the guy who originally founded Napster, but I could be wrong about that. Someone is definitely working on setting up some sort of user friendly licensing/royalty concept. You could probably find it without too much work on Google.

Jayne, it wouldn't take them "a few days" to make the change I suggested. It's not some deep, troubling legal question -- unless they actually do want to assert some kind of ownership rights to the Content. Not trying to be a pain in the ass.

Jake, the problem occurs when someone puts their stuff on the site and then someone else takes it and puts it on youtube.com. Then the person takes it down and tries to sue us because it's their content.

Brickfish's TOS kept me from joining. I'll never put any content, including my opinions, on a site that claims ownership of others' work.

I see this has already mentioned, but I'll wait until it's fixed before considering joining.

It already has been fixed, go check it now.

Am I the only one that sees a little touch of treason in asking people to sign up for another competitive site. At least I will give you props for not sending out a mass mail about it. I barely have time to keep up with Gather. Maybe you should submit a resume to Gather jayne and that could solve your employment problem.

I have to agree with Rush. Gather has been great from the start, and out of respect for this site, I will not even visit.

Jayne, that's a totally different issue and if the language that I and Chris H. objected to is being used for that purpose, it's a bit like using a sledgehammer to kill a gnat. If some lawyer told brickfish that was a good way to fix the problem you referred to, brickfish is getting bad legal advice.

To address the issue you described above, first make the change I suggested above then add some new language that says:

"You waive any claims against brickfish for any use anyone else (other than brickfish) may make of Content you post on brickfish."

Well is there a problem with what it says right now?

Rush & Mr Wonderful. I don't think people should stop using Gather. I'm personally a big fan of Gather. But I think wach site has it's own uses and our site is really great for people who want to share other things beyond writing, since that's all gather focuses on.
More than anything I just want some feedback from the people here on gather because I respect their opinions and our site is only in its baby phase so we really need some cool opinions on how we could help creative people share their gifts.

I'll definitely check out your brickfish site, Jayne. I've been misssing in action from Gather for awhile now as well because of health problems, but once I get better I will try to set up a profile on your site. Maybe that will be where I post my fiction or political ruminations, the way I use Gather exclusively for my poetry. Thanks for telling me about it and congratulations and good luck with the job.