Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

I just went through that this week.  A woman selling a "Start your own business" book on eBay bought my book and signed up for access to my site.  I only discovered this morning what had happened.  There`s a long story in there with a little past history, but I believe that some of her material is ripped off from some of my older stuff.

Long story short, when I discovered what happened, I cut off her subscription to my group, refunded the money for the access (but not the book since she got that already) and told her POLITELY I was "on to her".  I also reminded her that she signed a legally binding agreement not to repackage, re-sell or use the information from my book.  Thankfully, she never logged into my site.  It`s 1000 times more content rich than my book. 

This has now happened to me 3-4 times where my competition either joins or I have current members decide to compete against me.  No one has succeeded for a variety of reasons. 

Despite being angry about it, I always handle the situations with the most polite attitude and utmost fairness.  I figure it`s better to NOT give them anything they can point to and say bad things about me.  For instance, I refunded $30 back to the woman today despite the agreement requiring her to purchase 3 months minimum of access in order to get a discount on my book. 

So, how do YOU handle these situations?  Do you fly off the handle and say everything you`re thinking that might be saved and used against you in the future?  Or, do you take the high road (because in most of these situations, the other side takes the low road and calls me names) and not give them anything to use against you?  

~Kim

This was one of our "happy accidents." But it`s a fascinating topic, to me, at least.

I start with the premise that just about anyone can copy just about anything, up to a point. As a writer, I come up with a plot. Anyone who hears it can then "steal" the main idea. But as many authors have said, give 12 writers a plot synopsis, and you`ll get 12 very different books.

From there, I assume anyone will try to reverse-engineer a product that catches on. So how hard would it be?

When we came up with these flags we make, I thought it`d be a no-brainer. Kathy`s a great seamstress, and we figured we could pop them together, toss `em into the market place, and make scads of money.

Turns out that yes, we can make simple flags. But to make precision flags, with all the lines straight or at perfect angles---that`s a trick.

Nobody could easily reverse-engineer our product. But we didn`t KNOW that up front. We decided that the more competition, the more "market awareness" there would be, which would drive curiosity and desire, and increase the market itself.

If someone buys our flags then re-sells them, that`s fine with us. It`d be a whole lot more convenient for them if they talked with us, as we might even give them a deal.

So: If this lady was grabbing your content and ideas, do you have a copyright issue....or would it actually expand the market for you?

I have had similar problems with people copying my content. I have been writing technical specifications for security systems for over 20 years. Some of these documents have fallen into the hands of competitors, others have been passed along from client to client so that I now have people using my specifications that I have never heard of.

A few years back, I had a woman from a well known institution call me and ask if I could review a security specification that she had prepared for an upcoming RFP. She emphasized that she didn`t need me to write the spec, but only to review it and offer suggestions for improvement. I met her at her office and she let me read the spec. "What do you think of  it?", she said. I said "It`s great; I wrote it myself several years ago". Needless to say, she was embarrassed. 

I was very angry when this first started happening and wanted to sue (or throttle) somebody. I later came to accept that this was just a part of the business. You can copyright your work and take other reasonable steps to protect it, but the fact is, if someone wants to copy it, there is very little you can do from a practical sense. Most small businesses don`t have the legal resources to fight infringement, and in many cases, the violators wouldn`t have the ability to pay even if you were to successfully win a judgment.

What people are buying from you is not only the content, but your presentation and delivery as well. I doubt seriously if you have ever lost any business because someone bought your content from a competitor rather than you.

Just keep turning out the best product that you possibly can and don`t worry about the competition. If they don`t have the ability to produce their own content, they probably don`t have the ability to do any of the other things that they need to do to be successful anyway.

 

-------------------------

Michael A. Silva
Silva Consultants

www.silvaconsultants.com

Michael hit the bottom line. When you`ve created something, it`s out there in the wind. Sure, you can copyright it, but the expense and time involved of suing someone usually is too much.

But way more importantly, when someone gets involved with you, the creative person, you`re bringing with you the ability to think on your feet, solve problems unique to their situation, answer strange questions the "infringer" never heard of, and you can customize a solution for the person.

It seems to me that we`re slowly arriving at a turning point in our overall culture. People tried the cookie-cutter, one-size-fits-all ideas of the past 50 years. Now, with computers making it possible for TV Guide to publish schedules by town, people expect customized, personal information.

I`ll second the motion: keep doing the best job you can, and compete on imagination, new-ness, ideas, and quality.