Changes

Regular readers may have noticed a few little tweaks to the interface of this blog recently. The most important one, from my perspective, is the addition of an ESN barcode, which reminds visitors of my legally enforceable intellectual property rights. Now, people need no longer be in any doubt about the status of the materials appearing here - it is all copyrighted: my property. This has become necessary, due to the unauthorised use of images and text, with users claiming my work as theirs. Chris Elphick has suffered far more than I have, with his various online ventures. Copyright infringers seem unable to grasp the concept that using someone else's creative works and passing them off as their own, is in fact a crime, punishable with up to ten years' imprisonment or an unlimited fine. The UK legal system takes the protection of intellectual property rights seriously, and these rights exist in relation to any creative work, whether it is a song, painting, poem, novel, photograph, etc, from the very second it is created.

If anyone has similar concerns about their own online works, go to Numly.com, where you can sign up for an account and generate your own barcodes, free of charge. Take a tip, though - do NOT register your main personal email address with them - anyone clicking your barcode can see your registered email address. I made that mistake the first time around, which I've now rectified, by substituting a temporary mailbox address, used only for internet sign-up purposes. All mail received into this account is deleted unread, no matter how enticing the subject header. I also delete the mailbox and set up a new one, with a different address, about once a fortnight. I suggest you do the same if you use this service to advertise your legal rights, otherwise some crafty spammer or stalker will target you.

Another change I hope to implement over the coming days and weeks, is a template revamp, complete with new logo. I can't say for sure when this will happen, as I'm incredibly lazy about these things. However, this blog has looked the same for far too long, and I'm fed up with it. I doubt the template will be too ambitious, as my web design skills are somewhat outdated, and they were very limited to start with. However, I shall give it a go, and will appreciate any constructive comments on it once it's done.