iCopyright, Inc.

If you publish original articles that you would like to promote and monetize, this service is for you!

The internet’s copy/paste culture makes it very difficult for large publishers and individual bloggers to make a living.  Most websites compound the problem with Print, Email, and Share buttons that facilitate the unmonetized distribution of their content. It’s the primary challenge facing online publishers today – how do you encourage the wide sharing of your content and yet earn a fair return on your work?

iCopyright has a highly integrated platform to address this problem.  The platform helps you distribute your content widely yet at the same times allows you to monetize the content wherever it goes.

By deploying the iCopyright toolbar on your articles you instantly offer to your readers over 20 content monetization services, all nested under buttons labeled Print | Email | Post | Republish.

 

These services are also available to your readers from an interactive copyright notice at the bottom of each of your articles:

 

Your readers will be able to instantly pay you to syndicate a feed of your original content for posting on their website, purchase reprints of your articles, license individual articles to republish either in print or online, and so forth.  Readers will be able to share your articles, which you monetize by inserting ads.

 

And that’s just the beginning.  The platform allows you to source content from other publishers which you can display on your website, and even sublicense to your readers.  It helps you track where your content flows on the web, identify content pirates, and take actions to convert those content pirates into customers.

 

Through an easy-to-use backend console called Conductor you have complete control over which services are on and off, and what prices you charge.

 

As the network of participating publishers grows over time the opportunities for you to monetize your original content and content you source from other websites will grow.

Until now, publishers needed to involve an IT specialist when integrating their content management system with iCopyright’s content monetization platform. But now any publisher using Drupal, Joomla, or WordPress can install the iCopyright platform with just a few clicks and no IT expertise! This allows the platform to interconnect many more publishers, allowing the network effects and earnings provided to each participating publisher to scale more rapidly.

Go to Drupal's module *directory*, Joomla's extension directory, or WordPress' plugin site, search for "icopyright", and follow the instructions for installing each platform given here:

• http://info.icopyright.com/drupal
• http://info.icopyright.com/joomla
• http://info.icopyright.com/wordpress

After registering your publication you will have an account in the iCopyright Conductor console. Your Conductor console (https://license.icopyright.net/publisher/) is the focal point for establishing services, setting policies and prices, and generating reports.

Go to https://license.icopyright.net/publisher/ (you should bookmark this URL!) Your email address is your ID, and your password will have been created when you registered.

Login to Conductor and go to My Account > Profile. Click “Edit these settings.”

You must also make this change your plugin's "Advanced Settings" section!

Go to the Conductor login page (https://license.icopyright.net/publisher/) and click at bottom for a password reminder.

Login to Conductor and select Publication from the top menu bar.  Select your publication (this step not necessary if you only have one publication).  Select Logo from the sidebar. Click “Upload a logo” to upload a new logo or to change a currently used logo. Important: the logo file must be no larger than 234 pixels wide by 60 pixels high, and the logo file format must be GIF (preferred), JPEG, or PNG. The publication logo appears at the top of the licensing window and at the top of rendered versions of licensed content. If no logo is uploaded, your publication title is inserted in plain text in these areas. See Help > Publications > Logo for additional information.

Login to Conductor and go to Publisher > Profile. This section shows where we mail your checks for licenses sold through the iCopyright system. Click “Edit these values” to update the information.  Don’t forget to click “OK” to save the changes.

Login to Conductor and go to Publisher > Registrars.

Login to Conductor and go to Publisher > Billing.  Make any changes necessary.

Login to Conductor and go to Publications > Services.  (If you have more than one publication, you should select the publication you wish to modify before selecting Services in the sidebar.) For the Service Category you wish to modify (Print, Email, Post, or Republish) click [settings].  You now see a list of all services in that Service Category.  The Active Services are listed at top and the Inactive Services are listed at bottom.  To turn on a service that is currently Inactive, click [settings] and then, at the top of the screen, turn it on by switching the radio button from “OFF” to “ON” (or for some services, from “None” to “iCopyright”.)  Do the reverse to turn off an active service.

NOTE: Don’t forget to click “OK” to save the change.

Upon installation, certain default pricing and permissions policies are used. You should edit them to meet the needs of you and your readers.

 

Login to Conductor and go to Publications > Services.  (If you have more than one publication, you should select the publication you wish to modify before selecting Services in the sidebar.)

 

Each Service Category has a separate settings link to modify Print, Email, Post, or Republish; click the one you wish to modify. Then, click [settings] next to the specific service you wish to modify.  You can then click to edit pricing or other terms.  For many services you can click to establish separate pricing for non-profit or educational users.

 

NOTE: Always remember to click “OK” so your changes are saved.

Login to Conductor and go to Publications > Advertisement Setup. Follow the instructions on the page for entering your ad script.

No catch. In fact, our goal is to be writing you monthly checks! For most of our services we make money only if we generate money for you, so we’re very incented to help you make money! If you elect to subscribe to syndication feeds from other websites, or if you elect to activate the premium version of our infringement detection and response service, we will request a credit card from you at that time. Even then, amounts you may choose to incur for those services are netted against amounts we owe you for license sales. For details, including revenue splits, see the iCopyright Services Agreement, Schedule B.

Login to Conductor and go to Publications > Keywords and enter keywords that correspond to the topics covered by your publication. Also, go to Publications > Classifications and select classifications relevant to your publication.

Login to Conductor and go to Syndication.  Click on Enter under “Feed and Tag Syndication”.  Input the name of the publication you would like to syndicate from or keywords describing the type of publications you would like to to see which publications offer syndicated feeds. Please note that the range of participating publishers will grow over time, so please check back periodically for new publications.

You pay for this feed based on the number of times the syndicated content is viewed on your website. The fee rate is shown on a per-thousand-page-views (also called "CPM') basis.

To measure how many times the content is viewed by your readers, iCopyright inserts an invisible page view counter in the article feed. The iCopyright toolbar is displayed along with each article in the feed, allowing your readers to click on the toolbar to obtain the rights to reuse the content yet again.

You can earn money from this content by placing ads alongside it as you would for other content on your site. Additionally, you earn a share of the revenue when your reader pays a fee to reuse the content from the iCopyright toolbar. The Net Revenue from such transactions (after deducting iCopyright's commission) is split between you and the content owner according to the percentage shown in the “Net Revenue Split” column. The services that are offered via the toolbar and the prices for these services are preset by the content owner.

How the sum of ad revenue and toolbar revenue you earn by displaying this content compares to the fee charged will depend on your individual circumstances. For many websites, displaying syndicated content will have additional important benefits beyond these direct revenue impacts.

NOTE: As a condition of receiving the feed, you promise not to modify the iCopyright toolbar or the page view counter, or to amend the articles you post.

On the next page you select specific search terms, which you can modify at any time. Many publishers allow you to get a feed of all their content, and for those publishers you don’t need to specify search terms if you want to receive the broadest range of content (which can be overwhelming, so not necessarily recommended).

Each month you will owe iCopyright and the content owner an amount based on page views of this content on your site. At the same time, iCopyright will owe you money when your readers have clicked on the toolbar and purchased a reuse license. Each month iCopyright nets these two amounts. When the amount you owe us exceeds the amount we owe you, iCopyright charges your credit card for that amount. When the reverse is true, iCopyright mails you a check. There is a minimum charge for all your feeds combined of US$5.00 per month.

You can modify or terminate your feed at any time. You can also combine content from multiple publications into a single feed.  You can choose whether to get the feed in RSS or HTML format.

Once you’ve got your syndication feed you’ll want to display some or all of the articles on your own website.  Click below on the icon of the CMS you use to see a brief video on how to do this.

Click below on the CMS you use to see a brief video explaining how to display syndication feed articles on your website:

Login to Conductor and go to Publications > Services.  Next to “Republish”, click [settings].  Next to “Get Syndication Feed”, click [settings]. Turn the service off by clicking the “None” radio button and turn it on by clicking the “iCopyright” radio button. Under “Feed Pricing” set the amount you wish to receive for every 1,000 times an article of yours is viewed on a subscriber’s site. The iCopyright toolbar, with your prices and service settings, will float with your article to the subscriber’s site.  Under “iCopyright Toolbar Revenue Split” you specify how Net Revenues from toolbar transactions of your articles on a subscriber’s site are split between you and your subscriber.  Don’t be a hog – you want to give others an incentive to syndicate your content!  The default setting is 50/50. If you click the “require keywords” box, then subscribers will be required to enter specific keywords and will get articles only on related topics.  If you don’t check this box, subscribers have the option of getting all your content or just articles related to keywords they specify.

NOTE: Don’t forget to click “OK” to save your changes.

Yes, if both parties participate in iCopyright’s Tag-Only Syndication. Login to Conductor and go to Syndication.  Click on Enter in the Tag-Only Syndication box.

Login to Conductor and go to Discovery.  Discovery searches the web for matches to your content on other websites.  You can examine the match, determine if it is a case of someone infringing on your copyright, and if so take a range of actions.  For more information or assistance, click “Help” from the top menu.

The iCopyright Article Tools should be displayed only on articles you own or have the right to sell licenses. In the settings page you can specify whether all articles display the iCopyright Article Tools or only certain categories of articles. Check that you have set this appropriately for your needs. You can also turn off the iCopyright Article Tools on a per-article basis as follows:

 

In Drupal, go to edit the node in question. Click "iCopyright settings" at the bottom of the page, and check the box "Do not offer iCopyright Article Tools on this story".

In Joomla, go to the screen where you edit the article, click "Parameters (Advanced)," and set "Offer iCopyright Tools" to "No."

In WordPress, navigate to the Edit Post page for the article.  In the "iCopyright Custom Field" check the box "Do not offer iCopyright Article Tools on this story".

Each platform has its own procedure for changing the default settings.

For Drupal, go to Administration > Site Configuration > iCopyright and make your selection under iCopyright Article Tools/Orientation.

For Joomla, go to Extensions > Plugin Manager. Click on “Content – iCopyright Licensing Tools”. In the Parameters box under “Select Article Tools” make your selection.

For WordPress, go to your Plugins page and at iCopyright click “Settings”.

Each platform has its own procedure for changing the default settings.

For Drupal, go to Administration > Site Configuration > iCopyright and make your selection under iCopyright Article Tools /Alignment.

For Joomla, go to Extensions > Plugin Manager. Click on “Content – iCopyright Licensing Tools”. In the Parameters box under “Article Tools Alignment” make your selection.

For WordPress, go to your Plugins page and at iCopyright click “Settings”.

Each platform has its own procedure for changing the default settings.

For Drupal, go to Administration > Site Configuration > iCopyright and make your selection under Display Options. You can make different choices for full node and for teasers.

For Joomla, go to Extensions > Plugin Manager. Click on “Content – iCopyright Licensing Tools”. In the Parameters box under “Article Display Option” make your selection.

For WordPress, go to your Plugins page and at iCopyright click “Settings”.

This was a choice made during setup that can be easily changed if you don’t like the way it looks. We strongly recommend that on single-article pages you display both the toolbar and the interactive copyright notice. But for multi-article pages you may prefer a different approach.

For Drupal, go to Administer > Site Configuration > iCopyright and make your selection under Display Options > "When automatically displaying on a teaser."

For Joomla, go to Extensions > Plugin Manager. Click on “Content – iCopyright Licensing Tools”. In the Parameters box under “Frontpage Display Option” make your selection.

For WordPress, go to your Plugins page and at iCopyright click “Settings”.   See “Multiple Post Display Option”.

When EZ Excerpt is activated, any reader who tries to copy/paste a portion of your article will be presented with a box asking “Obtain a License?”  If the reader selects “Yes,” he or she will be offered the opportunity to license the excerpt for purposes of posting on the reader’s own website.  So EZ Excerpt does not physically prevent readers from copy/pasting from your site, but it encourages them to pause and consider whether the reuse they are contemplating ought to result in a purchase of a license.  You can turn EZ Excerpt on/off from your CMS’s settings page or from within Conductor:

For Drupal, go to Administer > Site Configuration > iCopyright and make your selection under Features > EZ Excerpt.

For Joomla, go to Components > iCopyright Licensing Tools and make your selection.

For WordPress, go to your Plugins page and at iCopyright click “Settings”.

The default setting is to trigger the license question if the copy/paste is for 50 words or more.  To modify the number of words that triggers the license window, login to Conductor and go to Publications > Toolbar Configuration.

Tip:  EZ Excerpt can only work on articles where you display the iCopyright Article Tools.  It will not work if you have elected to display only the Interactive Copyright Notice.

iCopyright has a number of built-in mechanisms for monetizing content: licensing articles; ad-supported free uses; syndicated feeds; and monitoring infringements.

• Do you have other Print or Email or Share buttons on your site that encourage the unmonetized distribution of your content and undermine your licensing services?
• Make sure all the services are activated.
• Play around with your pricing matrices.  If you’re not selling licenses or syndication feeds, should you reduce your prices?
• Have you input your advertising codes?
• Are you using our Discovery service to find content pirates and convert them to customers?
• Have EZ Excerpt activated to discourage copy/paste
• Are you subscribing to content feeds that make your content offering more robust?

 

If you’re doing all that, then your earnings will be driven primarily by two things:

the quality of your original content (we can’t help you there!), and

our success at building the size of the network.

 

As we grow, your earnings should too as more people get access to your syndication feed.

The iCopyright Article Tools should be displayed only on articles you own or have the right to sell licenses. In the settings page you can specify whether all articles display the iCopyright Article Tools or only certain categories of articles. Check that you have set this appropriately for your needs. You can also turn off the iCopyright Article Tools on a per-article basis as follows:

In Drupal, go to edit the node in question. Click "iCopyright settings" at the bottom of the page, and check the box "Do not offer iCopyright Article Tools on this story".

In Joomla, go to the screen where you edit the article, click "Parameters (Advanced)," and set "Offer iCopyright Article Tools" to "No."

In WordPress, navigate to the Edit Post page for the article.  In the "iCopyright Custom Field" check the box "Do not offer iCopyright Article Tools on this story".

Login to Conductor and go to Discovery > Risk & Match. Under Match Selections you can adjust the minimum word match so you are not shown matches of short excerpts. Similarly, by adjusting minimum match ratio you can adjust the percent of an article that must match before it is shown to you. Don’t forget to click “Save Settings” to save your changes.

We will email you a weekly report summarizing activity each week.  For more detail at any time, login to Conductor and go to Reports.  You can run all sorts of reports at any time for no charge.

In Drupal, the iCopyright module requires cURL in order to communicate with the iCopyright servers. It must be installed at the same time. You can get the cURL module at drupal.org/project/curl.

When subscribing to a syndication feed from the iCopyright toolbar be sure to click the Login button in box 6 (Payment Information).  This will make your new feed get incorporated into your existing Conductor account.  If you don't do this you may be issued an additional Conductor account for the feed.  If this has already occurred you can resolve it by terminating the feed in the new Conductor account and re-subscribe -- but this time use the login button!

You don't need to signup again because your publication already exists in our system. To reactivate iCopyright on your site you will need your iCopyright publication ID number. To find it, log into Conductor at https://license.icopyright.net/publisher/ and go to Publications > Profile. (If you forgot your password, click "password reminder" on the login page.) Then:

 

Drupal Users: In Drupal, go to the iCopyright Settings page at Administer > Site Configuration > iCopyright. Click Advanced Settings, and input your publication ID, email address, and Conductor password. Click "save configuration". Your site should be live again.

 

Joomla Users: In Joomla, at the top of the iCopyright registration page where the error message appeared, click on the words "(Click here to enter and save your Publication ID)". Now scroll to the bottom of the settings page, click on 'Show/Hide Advanced Publication Settings', and enter your publication ID, email address, and iCopyright password. Click 'Save Settings'. Now go to Extensions > Plugin Manager and 'Enable' the iCopyright plugin. Your site should be live again.

 

WordPress Users:  In Wordpress, at the top of the iCopyright signup page where the error message appeared, click on the words "(Click here to enter and save your Publication ID)". Now scroll to the bottom of the settings page, click on "Show Advanced Settings", and enter your publication ID, email address, and iCopyright password. Click Save Settings. Your site should be live again.

Login to Conductor.  Go to Publications > Create New.  Complete the fields on this page for your new publication and click "OK" to save your inputs.  Go to Publications > Tag and Feed Settings.

 

Click "Edit these settings" and replace the Feed URL of http://your_domain_here/location_of_your_feed/article.xml?id=* with these URLs:

• For a Drupal Site: http://your_domain_here/icopyright/*
• For a Joomla Site: http://your_domain_here/index.php?option=com_copyrightlicensingtools&format=xml&id=*
• For a WordPress Site: http://your_domain_here/wp-content/plugins/copyright-licensing-tools/icopyright_xml.php?id=*

 

You may find that step was automatically done for you if your original publication and the new publication use the same content management system.

 

Before leaving Conductor, jot down the new Publication ID# that's been assigned to your new publication. You can find it at Publications > Profile.

 

Now go to your new website and install the iCopyright plugin. Then:

 

Drupal Users: In Drupal, go to the iCopyright Settings page at Administer > Site Configuration > iCopyright. Click Advanced Settings, and input your publication ID, email address, and Conductor password. Click "save configuration". Your new site should now be live with iCopyright.

 

Joomla Users: In Joomla, at the top of the iCopyright registration form click on the words '(Click here to enter and save your Publication ID)'. Now scroll to the bottom of the settings page, click on 'Show/Hide Advanced Publication Settings', and enter your publication ID, email address, and iCopyright password. Click 'Save Settings'. Now go to Extensions > Plugin Manager and 'Enable' the iCopyright plugin. Your new site should now be live with iCopyright.

 

WordPress Users:  In WordPress, at the top of the iCopyright signup page, click on the words "(Click here to enter and save your Publication ID)". Now scroll to the bottom of the settings page, click on "Show Advanced Settings", and enter your publication ID, email address, and iCopyright password. Click Save Settings. Your new site should now be live with iCopyright.

If you don't want Discovery to show you matches from certain websites, such as syndication partners that you already know are displaying your articles, login to Conductor and go to Discovery > White List Upload. Upload the URLs of your authorized syndication partners. This will make Discovery stop searching those sites. (Note that if a publisher becomes a syndication partner of yours via the iCopyright syndication system, and is correctly displaying your articles, Discovery is programmed not to distract you with those matches.)