I’ve been asked to divulge the details behind the mysterious case that led to my involvement in the Myows project in the first place. The whole matter was fairly convoluted and I’m not entirely sure that the other party is to blame although a lot of other people seem pretty convinced. But here’s the story – make of it what you will. Just bear in mind that this is my opinion only!
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The issue of whether Myows is trustworthy is an interesting one.

Okay, to be honest, it’s a little frustrating. But then I guess it’s always annoying to be faced with trust barriers when you’ve started a positive initiative and all you want to do is go out there and nail bad guys. Of course, these questions are only natural at the end of the day. So here is our response.

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A lot has been made about Myows’ role (or potential lack thereof) in the lives of our American users. This is partly because US copyright law works slightly differently from the rest of the world and partly as a result of the availability of USCO (The US Copyright Office) to those stateside. Of course, the two are linked. For those who are confused, allow me to clarify:

The question essentially is this: because USCO is available to US users and certain rights are exclusively granted to parties that register their work with this authority, what is the point of using Myows? Here’s my opinion on the matter.
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I was recently on one of my more vociferous tirades… something to do with prolific creative theft, copying and piracy… about the flagrant disregard for the rights of fellow creatives (and their livelihoods). How can everyone be so dishonest and selfish? As always, reason found me eventually and calm returned. This time it came in the form of a lawyer friend… She rightly pointed out that in many (if not most) cases involving copyrights there is no clear antagonist, no obvious victim. Put simply: both parties often feel that they are in the right.

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Anyone know how many creative people there are out there? Current estimates put it at around 6,692,030,277. 

Huh?

Yup! That’s a massive figure right? How did I come up with that one? Given a simple assumption: everybody on the planet is creative.

Everybody.
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I set myself the creative challenge of coming up with 10 ways to use Myows other than for its intended purpose.

Some are ridiculous, some are based on precedent but many I have just made up because I am feeling inspired.

If you have more suggestions or creative uses of Myows to share, just leave a comment.

Please remember that the real reason Myows is here is to protect and manage your copyrights.

If you really wanted, you could also:

1)   Get together with other Myows users and play the world’s most certifiable game of ching chong cha (rock, paper, scissors) by all uploading pics at the same time.

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So Myows is all about protecting and managing… well Your OWs.

But what exactly is an OW?

The official version that you’ll find on the Myows site is: “Anything you create that is not a copy of something else and has been ‘reduced to material form’ (meaning it’s not just an idea).”

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The Myows logo and mascot have received a lot of attention and people are asking how we came up with them. So today, I’ll detail the process of how we went from brainstorming ideas to producing a critically acclaimed illustrative logo.

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Two of the biggest challenges in any web application are simplicity and security.

The importance of good security is immediately obvious. The security and integrity of a user’s data is the most important thing that an organisation such as myows.com is entrusted with when the user signs up to their service… and the challenges airtight security represents are numerous.

Secure design is also not something that can be tackled on at the end of development, but must be a consideration every step of the way.

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Traditionally, creative types have been compelled to offer their work to the end-user via wealthy gatekeepers who have had access to the capital needed to exploit the work. In doing so, they have signed over most of their rights to the middlemen in return for a small percentage of the royalties earned from the sale or exploitation of their work.

With the advent of the internet, a new platform has developed for creatives to offer their work to the market without having to go through the gatekeepers. However, there is a downside: this new platform is also a breeding ground for copyright infringement.

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