Rules of the Content Road: How Microsoft Dynamics marketers can protect themselves and their content

You may think of yourself as being in the software business. But if you are a Microsoft Dynamics VAR or ISV and operate a web site, a blog, or use social media, you are also in the content business.

Indeed, the quality and integrity of that content is becoming ever more important to your marketing activities. Given the growing importance of articles, white papers, blogs, brochures, and other such material in communicating your marketing and sales message, content might be said to be a form of intellectual property, much like the code underlying your software is protected by patents and its packaging by trademarks.

Like patents and trademarks, content is offered important protections via our legal system's recognition of the sanctity of copyrights. Article One of the U.S. Constitution empowers Congress to "To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries."

But how well do you know the rules of content? MSDW's recent article about the headaches that arise when Dynamics bloggers lift content from other sites without permission raises questions about just what the rules and best practices are.

"Content is king and it's a challenge," says Jon Rivers of Dynamics ISV Data Mason Software. And Microsoft partners are eager to improve their output. "If you're trying to relay expertise, you need to find someone to actually put that article together. The easy bit is getting it out on social media. It's irrelevant if you know social today or not. That can be trained. But I can't easily ...