Copyright Proofing

Me and Sally have been debating copyright. Perhaps a little more heatedly than we should. Her web copy has been stolen and she's furious, as most people would be.

So does she get legal on the thief and have the copy taken down? What about next time? What about if 50 people do it? Or 500? How much time and money can you spend chasing up your copyright? Especially when programs can be written to automatically steal your web copy the second it's published.

What options does she have? If she lets it slide then she risks losing clients who fear their competitors will get the work they're paying for, for free. If she spends her time and money chasing it up, you have to feel that will be at the expense of current client work.

I'm on the unpopular 'change your business model' side of the fence. I think we need to make our work more copyright proof. If you do web copy, maybe you should advise your client to make their products and services so unique it doesn't make sense anywhere else.

Nobody steal's Apple's web copy, nor Dyson's. Their copy wouldn't make sense for anyone else. Nobody steals Tesco's low-prices and uses them on their site neither. The fact that Sally's web copy, especially product descriptions, can be stolen and used on another website says something about the lack of difference between the two companies.

Comments

[Sally Whittle]

Richard

Good grief.

Your position on this issue is so stupid I am not going to debate it further. If you don’t have the mental capacity to see the utter bollocks you’re spouting, then I’m afraid I can’t help you.

Do me one favour, though? One day when you’re no longer doing work experience and you have proper, corporate clients, I want to come to a meeting.

Not just any meeting. Oh no. I want to come to the meeting the week before your client launches a major new product, which will be kicked off with a global marketing campaign and huge press launch. And where they just found out their competitor has ripped off the whole shebang and is going to launch an identical campaign the following day.

I just so want to see the relief wash across the client’s anxious little face when you tell them that the theft of their £20m project is actually an “opportunity”. Also, they brought it on themselves because their business model? Well, it really wasn’t unique enough, was it? After all, if it was really unique, nobody would bother to steal it. Hey, don’t be dinosaurs – this is all part of the dynamic new world, and it’s an opportunity to change your business model! Gosh, I can just imagine how excited they’ll be to hear that.

And that’s in a big business in the fortunate position of being a major player in the market. If you’re working with a small business, well, the meeting will be even better. Because the challenge is just so much greater when the money you invested in the new service proposition was only justified by the sales you predicted it would generate, and now you’re not going to hit targets, the bank may withdraw the overdraft and you’re going to have to start letting people go. Can’t wait to hear you tell that guy he should let it go, or see it as an opportunity.

Businesses big and small invest in websites, service propositions, people, marketing. Those creations – developed using someone’s hard work and invention – are known as intellectual property. It’s called “property” because someone owns it. And when someone takes intellectual property without permission, guess what? It’s called “theft”. It’s illegal, Richard. It’s not inevitable.

Oh, and just ask Apple how blasé it is about the issue of copyright theft. Because judging by the number of copyright lawsuits, IP lawsuits and civil lawsuits for confidentiality breaches it’s issued in the last few years, I’d say the answer is “all over the issue, thanks”.

[Richard Millington]

Sally, you're talking about problems but not solutions. Copyright theft is wrong, of course it is. But it's becoming more and more common. We can agree on that right?

So what are you going to do if 500 people, or 5000 people, steal your web copy the very second you publish it?

If the answer is 'send letters to every one', then how much time are you willing to spend doing it? 5 hours per week? 10? 50? How is that going to affect your work and your income?

We need answers to these questions. Mine is to do work for clients that can't be easily stolen, and to work for clients that are willing to change adapt to what is most certainly a different ball game from a decade ago.

[Niyaz]

True