Luxury Real Estate

By Robert Lockard

A helpful warning to bloggers: “Be prepared.” It’s the Boy Scout motto and it’s also good advice for people in all walks of life. It appears that many bloggers, myself included, are a little unprepared for the possibility of close scrutiny of blogging. What if we were told that we had used too much of someone else’s news article in our blog entry or that we got our facts wrong and are guilty of negligence or even defamation? It’s a scary thought, but that’s the risk we take in offering our work in a public environment.

Have you noticed that, as bloggers, our responsibilities and rules seem to be a little hazy and hard to define? It sometimes does to me. Luckily, in college I studied media law, fair-use doctrine and other libel laws, so I have a pretty good understanding of what is allowed and forbidden when writing content.

The rules can get pretty complex, but they boil down to the fact that writers need to respect others’ rights by not stealing their work, spreading lies about them or being unfairly critical of people we disagree with. I don’t believe I’ve witnessed any of that in the discussions I have seen on ActiveRain and the LuxuryRealEstate.com Blog, but it’s still important to keep in mind. Kindness and honesty are generally essential for free speech and democracy to thrive. I have no desire to defame anyone because my goal is to uplift by exercising the Golden Rule as much as possible.

When you use a news story or another person’s blog in your work, make sure to give credit to the person you borrow from. I always strive to do that when I write a blog entry, since much of my inspiration for writing about specific topics comes from news sources and other bloggers. Actually, this blog was inspired by two news articles: a Seattle Times article by Brier Dudley entitled “Battle of the day: AP vs. blogs,” and Marcie Geffner’s article in Inman News entitled “Is your blog a lawsuit magnet?” I highly recommend reading them both so you can make sure you’re aware of some potential pitfalls.

The one thing I don’t know too much about is the fair use of photos in blogs. I almost always provide a link to the source of the photos I use, and I try to include the photographer/artist when it’s available. Maybe someone can help me out on this aspect of fair use because I’m unsure what the rule is there. Is it okay as long as we give credit to the person responsible for the work or do we need to obtain written permission? Speaking of which, the photo above is from www.flickr.com/photos/katiegail/1344714672, and it is the copyright of rakastajatar on Flickr. I got the idea to check Flickr for a safer photo to use because of Ms. Geffner's comment in my ActiveRain Blog.

In closing, I strongly advise you to pay close attention to Ms. Geffner’s 17 questions in her Inman News article. I won’t reprint them here because I wouldn’t want to use too much of her work or remove the incentive to visit her site. As I read them, I went over in my mind the times when I had encountered these different situations or at least considered them. I hope this helps you be a little better-prepared in case anything like this might come up as you blog.

Happy blogging!


Editor’s Note:
Robert Lockard is the Public Relations & Media Specialist with LuxuryRealEstate.com. I am Robert. I create all of Luxury Real Estate’s newsletters, write the editorials in LuxuryRealEstate.com Magazine and much more. I hope this helps. Feel free to contact me with your suggestions about the photo issue I mentioned.

By Bob Melvin

Dear Friends,

There was a very important vote before the Charlotte County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday, April 8, 2008. This vote decided whether Charlotte County will be either OPEN for Business or will continue to be CLOSED for Business. In short, the vote will allow developers, on a case-by-case basis, to increase heights of buildings up to 65 feet, from the current 35 feet.

No quality developer will come to Charlotte County without this flexibility. For each 10 feet a developer raises a building, a community enhancement “public access” has to happen on-site. The County staff and County Commissioners will make these decisions, based on merit, with lots of public input!

This flexibility is absolutely necessary for the economic development of Charlotte County. For example, I am currently working with several world-class hotel companies to bring an eco-tourism resort hotel to West Charlotte County. In turn, I believe that this type of development will also bring upscale retailers and upscale marinas, in particular, to West Charlotte County. In my opinion this is exactly the type of economic development we need.

I would like to encourage you to send an email to our County Commissioners, hopefully in support of this Planned Development amendment change. Make no mistake, change is coming to Charlotte County. This change will allow for higher-quality development… especially now that we have lots of rooftops, and a lot more that have been approved and not yet built… this is a “window of opportunity” for hotel and commercial development.

For example, did you know Charlotte County has the most waterfront in Florida with the least amount of hotel rooms? These are the types of businesses we need, and I hope you agree.

All the best,

Bob Melvin
Owner/Broker/Realtor

Gasparilla Properties, Inc.
P.O. Box 1364
411 Park Ave.
Boca Grande, FL 33921
941-380-8891 Cell
941-964-5650 Office
941-964-5654 Fax
bmelvin@GasparillaProperties.com
www.GasparillaProperties.com

Bob Melvin Properties LLC
1861 Placida Road, Suite 203
Englewood, FL 34223
941-473-5444
941-473-5447 Fax
bmelvin@bobmelvin.com
www.bobmelvin.com


Editor’s Note
Bob Melvin is the Broker, Owner and REALTOR® of Gasparilla Properties and he and his company are considered the “go to” experts for real-estate sales in the Boca Grande, Fla. area. Issues like this are very important for luxury brokers and agents to be aware of and take an active part in shaping. I hope that we will follow Bob’s wonderful example and do our best to improve our communities through positive public policies. Here’s to Charlotte County’s future as a luxury community.