Protection of the Internet Commons

Overall View

The “environment” that McAnerin International Inc and her sister companies affect, and are affected by,  is most often the Internet. Although the protection of the Internet is not as life-threatening as that of our planet, it’s still an important shared resource that enriches lives, educates, and shines a bright light into the dark corners where dictators, scam artists and other undesirables used to act with near impunity.

We think that this “commons” should be both shared and protected. Although it would be nice to think that people who use and depend on something would also desire to take care of it, the evidence shows clearly that there are some people who really don’t mind ruining something in the long term as long as they profit somehow in the short term.

McAnerin International Inc is committed to helping prevent this, and to supporting the internet in the same way, and for very nearly the same reasons, that we support the protection of the environment.

Open Source, Creative Commons and The Respect of Copyright

We support the Open Standards community, and commit to respecting the purpose and intent of the community by giving back whenever we are able.

We commit to continually offering free tools, information and resources to the web community, and acknowledging the usefulness of the free tools others provide that we use by linking to them or otherwise promoting them.

We commit to respecting intellectual property (IP) rights, and acknowledge that the artist or creator, and no other, should say when and how something they made should be made available to the public. We commit to supporting commercial and shareware authors and publishers by paying for the software we use without question. If we think something is too expensive, we don’t buy it or pirate it. Instead, we either support alternatives or build our own.

We commit the promotion of IP alternatives that make anti-piracy initiatives unnecessary in the future, and to respect anti-piracy initiatives in the meantime.

We believe that although a company is entitled to keep some of it’s core IP to itself for competitive purposes, that many companies hold IP that is not core to their business. We believe that if we all share our non-core IP with others, we will gain back far more than we give up, and that the world will be made better as a result.

Anti-SPAM, Anti-Phishing, and Anti-Fraud Stance

Marketing is not a bad thing. It’s what we do, and we do it very well. We target relevant people with a high quality message that fits what they are looking for. The ultimate goal is a satisfied visitor and a happy client.

SPAM is an unwanted and untargeted form of marketing. It is an intrusion into people’s lives and workspaces, and is a waste of time, resources and money. It is, at its most basic level, a decision to allow harm (even of the virtual kind) to come to others for your own profit. By targeting indiscriminately, the spammer shows they do not care about anyone other than themselves.

We commit to working to reducing and eliminating SPAM whenever and where ever possible.

Spamdexing (Search Engine Spam)

As a company that focuses on search marketing we have a special interest in search engine spam, or spamdexing. Like email SPAM, spamdexing often targets indiscriminately. Unlike email spam, sometimes the message is targeted. Spamdexing attempts to rank a website for terms that the website would not ordinarily rank for, in effect harming the reputation of the search engine as a relatively unbiased source of answers in exchange for visitors.

Once again, the key distinction is that the spammer does not care about the harm caused to anyone other than themselves, and in doing so makes the web a less valuable place in the pursuit of their own wealth.

We commit to the promotion of methods that are fair to the search engines. We commit to making websites better to rank well, rather then attempting to trick the search engines into thinking they are something they are not. We commit to helping remove search engine spam, either by directly reporting them, or by using approved tactics to place better sites belonging to our clients above them.

Commitment to Standards

We do not believe that standards for the sake of standards is a benefit. We believe that standards made with the best interest of the community (not a particular company or special group) are required for the internet to function and thrive.

We commit to creating and encouraging websites that uphold stable versions of W3C validated CSS, HTML and XHTML code. We commit to avoiding proprietary code or hacks unless absolutely necessary and in the best interests of the website visitor. We commit to only using plugin-technology (such as Flash or PDF) sparingly or not at all, and only those plugins that are widely and freely available.

We commit to coding and design that is accessible to the disabled and to search engines, and to work to help make the information on the internet available to all, not just to those in perfect health.

We commit to the true globalization of the internet, where people can communicate in their own language, culture and ideals, and to help people understand and appreciate the language, culture and ideals of others.

Promotion of Positive Change

We commit to working towards improving the internet – how it functions, where it is accessible, and who it is accessible to. We commit to making the internet safer, more secure, and more stable, but at the same time respecting privacy and individuality.

We understand the difference between a troll or spammer and someone with a message that may not be popular, and work to minimize the former and to protect the latter.