Nonprofit Speech Rights | Center for Effective Government

Survey Results and Text

The survey and results from The Nonprofit Agenda's online survey. Nonprofit Presidential Survey

Domain Name Dispute Resolution

Portions of the following information are drawn from previous postings on the NPTalk discussion list. The following material is provided merely for background and reference information, and should not be considered or substituted for legal advice. Please consult with your organization's legal counsel for more information. To date, nonprofit legal battles over Internet domain names would seem to suggest a common theme: the holders of trademarked names tend to get the benefit of the doubt in disputes with domain name registrants.

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Internet Taxation

Fact Behind Fiction A number of you have probably been rolling your eyes for at least the past decade at the notion of any number of e-mail alerts, warning of proposed surcharges on the use of modems on telephone networks and per-minute long-distance charges on Internet connections ("proposed" by a Congressman who has never existed, using bill nomenclature that does not even come close to following that of any chamber of Congress).

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Nonprofit Domain Names

Nonprofit Domain Names: Prelude to a Precedent Portions of the following information are drawn from previous postings on the NPTalk discussion list. The following material is provided merely for background and reference information, and should not be considered or substituted for legal advice.

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CIPA, COPA, COPPA, CPPA: Child Online Protections Explained

A nonprofit overview of: COPPA: Children's Online Privacy Protection Act COPA: Child Online Protection Act CIPA: Children's Internet Protection Act CPPA: Child Pornography Prevention Act Portions of the following information are drawn from previous postings on the NPTalk discussion list. The following material is provided merely for background and reference information, and should not be considered or substituted for legal advice. Please consult with your organization's legal counsel for more information. COPPA: Children's Online Privacy Protection Act

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Nonprofit Lotteries and Cyber Accountability

Portions of the following information are drawn from previous postings on the NPTalk discussion list. The following material is provided merely for background and reference information, and should not be considered or substituted for legal advice. Please consult with your organization's legal counsel for more information. Why would any nonprofit be confused about whether or not it can conduct online gaming to help raise funds, attract members, or for other purposes?

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Getting Health and Medical Information on the Web

One market segment of the Web that has lured audiences, advertisers, and investors is the health and medical information services sector. It's no wonder: In 1999, over 25 million American consumers, physicians, and health care providers were expected to have gone to the Web for all manner of health and medical information, according to the research group Cyber Dialogue. Some of the more popular sites included WebMD and Medscape.

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Tracking and Securing E-mail

E-mail messages are important not only to the intended recipients, but also to a growing number of third-parties as well, especially marketers, solicitors, and distributors of "junk mail." Pixel Tags: Smart Cookies or Dumb Crumbs? If you think junk e-mail is worthless, you might want to think again. A Forrester Research estimate predicts that the e-mail marketing industry will generate some US$4.8 billion by 2003, and that by 2004, the average US household will get 9 pieces unwanted or unexpected e-mail solicitations a day. That's not the best part, though.

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The Politics of Web Linking

The simple fact is that what we know as the World Wide Web would not be possible without them. But sometimes their ability to connect both related and disparate content and information sources are blocked by complicated legal issues, as evidenced by Byron Petersen's article, "To Link or Not to Link?: That Is One Complex Question," in the 6/19/00 edition of Content Spotlight. Petersen, a lawyer and law school professor, addresses the legality of "deep linking" (the practice of posting a URL on one's website that links directly to content on

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Using Search Engines to Boost Visibility

We have discussed, in past NPTalk postings, how search engines play a key role in the marketing of websites online. By using effective keywords, metatags, and understanding how search engines (especially the most popular) work, websites can boost their visibility to a wider audience, rather than relying upon the search engines and users to "find" a site through serendipity. The next step in increasing (or enhancing) the presence of an organization online is directly advertising to the online public. Web ads are a major source of support for online efforts, mostly for commercial sites.

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