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A comment on the idea "Adopt Gravatar support" in Get Satisfaction:

Hi, topic starter here. I have to agree with you. It's extremely disappointing. – Earle Martin, on November 09, 2009 15:39
Robert K.'s reply to "Adopt Gravatar support" was just promoted to the most useful! Earle Martin and 2 other people think it's one of the best replies.

Urr... or you could just add ...?default=(user's gsfn avatar URL) to the Gravatar URL to redirect to the user's GSFN image if they don't have a Gravatar.
will's reply to "Adopt Gravatar support" was just promoted to the most useful! Earle Martin and 3 other people think it's one of the best replies.

It's never going to happen. It's like 2 lines code in a rails helper, and if they were going to, they would have by now.
A comment on the idea "Should Have Edit Option on Posts" in Brightkite:

Okay, thank you! – Earle Martin, on March 24, 2009 18:57
Earle Martin replied on March 22, 2009 16:43 to the idea "Should Have Edit Option on Posts" in Brightkite:

Hi Brady,

Just wondering if there's any update on this. Many thanks.

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Earle Martin started following the question "Is it possible to edit check-in addresses?" in Brightkite.
Earle Martin marked one of Brady's replies in Brightkite as useful. Brady replied to the idea "Should Have Edit Option on Posts".
Earle Martin started following the idea "Should Have Edit Option on Posts" in Brightkite.
Earle Martin marked one of David Sifry's replies in Offbeat Guides as useful. David Sifry replied to the problem "Massive license violation on content used from Wikitravel".
A comment on the question "UK postcode handling a bit off" in Brightkite:

Great! Thanks very much. – Earle Martin, on December 11, 2008 18:52
Earle Martin marked one of Lesley's replies in Brightkite as useful. Lesley replied to the question "UK postcode handling a bit off".
Earle Martin marked one of mdy's replies in Twitter as useful. mdy replied to the idea "Implement OAuth for 3rd Party Limited Access". Earle Martin and 2 other people think it's one of the best replies.
Earle Martin marked one of Dave Cross' replies in Twitter as useful. Dave Cross replied to the idea "Implement OAuth for 3rd Party Limited Access". Earle Martin and 3 other people think it's one of the best replies.
Earle Martin started following the idea "Implement OAuth for 3rd Party Limited Access" in Twitter.
A comment on the question "When will Skitch for Linux be available?" in plasq:

Quite. – Earle Martin, on November 22, 2008 04:08
Earle Martin marked one of David Sifry's replies in Offbeat Guides as useful. David Sifry replied to the problem "Massive license violation on content used from Wikitravel".
Earle Martin replied on November 15, 2008 21:05 to the problem "Massive license violation on content used from Wikitravel" in Offbeat Guides:

Thanks very much, Dave, I'm really happy to hear that!

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Earle Martin replied on November 13, 2008 17:56 to the problem "Massive license violation on content used from Wikitravel" in Offbeat Guides:

Hi Eric, thanks for your quick response on this. Thank you also for the invitation to email, but I prefer to discuss this here where others than me, who may well be better-informed than I am.

Regarding your "references" section, that's not quite enough to satisfy the licensing requirements. Please take a look at http://wikitravel.org/shared/How_to_r... , which notes "A link back is not a substitute for following the terms of the license." It's also possible for your users to not include the references section at all, which I suspect will be the case for many users; I wouldn't have much use for a sheet full of URLs on most vacations.

A list of URLs is also fairly cumbersome. I would suggest that you include something along the following lines in your output, in a non-optional (this is important) section:

"This guide includes text from the Wikitravel articles London, London/Central, London/West End, London/Chinatown, London/Covent Garden, London/Leicester Square, London/Oxford Street, London/Soho, London/Trafalgar Square, London/Bloomsbury, London/Clerkenwell, London/City of London, London/Holborn, London/Marylebone, London/Mayfair, London/South Bank, London/West, and London/North West, all available at http://wikitravel.org/ . A list of contributors to the text is available from each article. This text is made available to you under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 1.0 Generic License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b...)."

You also need to include a URL to the license for the cover image that you've used, which in this case is the Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 2.0 Generic License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b...). At the very least, you are mandated to mention what it is licensed under.

This would, to my knowledge, satisfy the attribution requirements. Howver, it would still not resolve the issue I referred to with your Terms of Service, which are in direct conflict with the Wikitravel license terms, and must be changed. I notice also that page 2 of the PDF preview you linked to says "Copyright © 2008, Offbeat Guides", which is also incorrect - neither the textual nor photographic content of your guide fall under your copyright. To know precisely what is, I would suggest that you seek the services of a legal professional skilled in intellectual property issues. I notice also that you have included images from Google Maps, which, according to their Terms of Service (http://www.google.com/intl/en_uk/help...), may not be commercially redistributed by business users. Again, I am not a lawyer, and I would suggest that you have yours consider this.

Thank you for your time.

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Earle Martin reported a problem in Offbeat Guides on November 12, 2008 18:42:

Massive license violation on content used from Wikitravel
Offbeat Guides is using content from Wikitravel (http://wikitravel.org/). All material in Wikitravel is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 1.0 License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b...), which requires that: "You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work)", and that "If you alter, transform, or build upon this work, you may distribute the resulting work only under the same or similar license to this one."

I created a test guide on your site for London. The text was taken word-for-word from the Wikitravel article "London" (http://wikitravel.org/en/London) - "Noisy, vibrant and truly multicultural, London is a megalopolis of people, ideas and energy...." Yet I was not able to find a single attribution to the source of the material, still less any reference to the license that the material is offered under.

As if that was not bad enough, your Terms of Service (http://www.offbeatguides.com/tos) state:

"All content included on this site, such as text, graphics, logos, button icons, images, audio clips, digital downloads, data compilations, and software, is the property of Offbeat Guides or its content suppliers and protected by United States and international copyright laws.... Offbeat Guides grants you a limited license to access and make personal use of this site and not to download (other than page caching) or modify it, or any portion of it, except with express written consent of Offbeat Guides. This license does not include any resale or commercial use of this site or its contents; any collection and use of any product listings, descriptions, or prices; any derivative use of this site or its contents; any downloading or copying of account information for the benefit of another merchant; or any use of data mining, robots, or similar data gathering and extraction tools. This site or any portion of this site may not be reproduced, duplicated, copied, sold, resold, visited, or otherwise exploited for any commercial purpose without express written consent of Offbeat Guides "

This is not only flat out wrong, but it is outright theft of the hard work of the many contributors of Wikitravel, who produced it as a FREE CONTENT resource.

I am not a lawyer, but I know enough to tell you that you are in serious violation of the license of Wikitravel's content, and that you have two choices: either radically modify your site and ToS to both attribute the content and show how it is licensed; or remove it in its entirety. The ball is now in your court.

I have sent this to Evan Prodromou, the creator of Wikitravel, who will no doubt be in touch with you in due course.
Earle Martin asked a question in plasq on August 27, 2008 17:49:

When will Skitch for Linux be available?
Just wondering. I'd imagine it's an easier port than Windows...

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