I really do know the answer to that question is no, but I am dismayed. Not naïve-just dismayed, and you'll see that I'm sounding off.
Among the people I spoke with on the phone last week were CEOs of two major sales training providers. During a long discussion with the first executive, I mentioned that I was surprised I hadn't seen anything new on his company's Web site recently. He told me he has stopped listing his new offerings on the site because he “wants to stop educating his competitors.” I have first-hand knowledge of his company's intellectual property being, in his words, “repackaged” by his competitors and used to compete against him. Is that CEO paranoid? No. But he's got to find another way to compete. His competitor's willingness to imitate on the product side is forcing this CEO to innovate on the marketing side.
The second CEO and I had a discussion about the client companies listed on his site. I knew for a fact that some of the companies listed were no longer his clients. “You're right,” he said. “I will just not spend my time and money keeping that list updated when all it does is provide a list for all my competitors to call. My clients get annoyed. I'm seriously considering just not having a list of our clients on the site at all.” Is telemarketing to the clients listed on your competitors' Web sites wrong? Does it show a lack of innovation? Or did this CEO show a lack of understanding of what really goes on today in business by having had his clients listed on his site for all to see and poach in the first place?
Here is a personal experience-a different kind of identity theft. I've written dozens of articles. Every once in a while I'd find someone republishing my copyrighted material without attribution. In every case, except one, they would relent and either remove the article or provide proper attribution. The one is a well-connected and respected sales and marketing management consultant who has a Web site with dozens of articles that he represents as his own. How does he do that? He strips off the authors' bylines and copyright notices.
I've contacted him a number of times and he simply stonewalls me. “We're redoing our site next quarter and I'll fix it then.” This has been going on for two years. What's worse, business Web sites pick up articles (including mine) from his site providing much wider distribution, and they are being attributed to him. I would expect that he is delighted. But what about us on the innovating end of things that are stamped “Original.”
Should we stop writing articles? Should we rather spend our time and money taking legal action when our copyrights are infringed upon? Should we take innovation to a new level by figuring out a creative way to expose someone like this in front of their clients and peers? Or should we just move on and accept the fact that behaviors like these bring everyone down a few notches and try to be innovative to bring things to at least where they were, if not making them a bit better?
Amen, Dave. I have been ripped-off by larger and more established competitors... and it drives me insane. I have republished other articles and blogs... but I ALWAYS reference the author. Most recently, I caught someone tape-recording my speech without permission. The fellow was an underling for his company and thought I would be flattered that they were going to burn copies and distribute it to their clients!
I am growing more weary and cautious about how I promote my material. I just wish better business morality would take hold.
Keep up the good work.
Posted by: Will Dettmering | February 23, 2006 at 02:15 PM