It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. These are the lines that actor Greg Kinnear uses in the movie Flash of Genius in his court case brought against Ford to receive credit for his invention of the intermittent wiper.
As the components of his invention existed prior to him using them, he said, so did all of the words existed in the English language before Charles Dickens put them together in that combination – and effect. The secret sauce, what the inventor contributed, was the combination.
That is what content is to today’s content creators. The combination of words and phrases to a desired effect. One that exposes their skills and knowledge. One that engages and involves. One that is increasingly rare in this harried, results-oriented world of marketing and communications.
A compelling piece of content that informs and persuades is not something that everyone can cobble together who knows how to write. It takes time, experience, knowledge, and talent to create content like that. That’s why sometimes it’s tempting to just copy what someone else has written.
Content is the writer’s bread and butter. It’s their value-add, how they make their living and what they love doing. What would you do if an agency used your content for their marketing materials without crediting or paying you? Would you be upset? I bet you would.
Brent Leary was, and with good reason. I can hardly make his case. He already made it beautifully himself. But perhaps we can use his story to learn something.
Brent is an accomplished professional with many publications and contributions under his belt, as described by his colleague Paul Greenberg at ZDNet. One such contribution is a guest post spot at American Express OPEN Forum blog. A blog that I venture to guess has good traffic and exposure.
In mid-November, Brent published an interesting post where he discussed how to win friends and influence people in a Web 2.0 world by connecting Dale Carnegie and Barack Obama.
I saw the post while researching Obama’s social media campaign for a post I wrote as Brent also co-published a Barack 2.0 site during the campaign. The Dale Carnegie/Barack Obama post also caught my eye because I saw it referenced in Brent’s blog, twice.
Once as a letter coming from Marketing/PR firm, LaForce & Stevens, the other as the American Express OPEN Forum blog post I had read and enjoyed. You don’t believe me? You can see the whole copy here, where Brent kindly provided a comparison as well as the history of his thoughts.
I especially like the collected and reasonable tone Brent adopted in making his case – surely you, too can see the evidence. In Flash of Genius, the movie I watched this weekend, all the inventor wanted was respect in the form of credit for his invention. He wanted to make an honest contribution, and yes earn a living doing it.
Giving attribution is not only one of the tenets of social media, it is an unspoken code for any professional worth their salt. It baffles me that to this day – and I corresponded with Brent very recently – LaForce & Stevens would not even acknowledge their actions.
Plagiarism may be a strong term, but it’s quite accurate in this case, given the evidence. Everyone is under pressure to deliver. Why wouldn’t we work together instead of separately?
My questions to you:
* At this late stage, would you consider coming forward and apologizing? Why/why not?
* What steps would you take in Brent’s place? Do you have any advice for him?
* Do you have any other thoughts on this incident?
Hi Valeria – I think you uncover the root cause of the problem in your next to last paragraph. It’s Brent vs. L&S. A person vs. people hiding behind a corporate brand.
Here’s a similar situation where source (Robert Paterson, @robpatrob) http://bit.ly/uWt34 and derivative work (The Economist, @theeconomist) are too close for comfort http://bit.ly/FxUfW .
When my own content has been plagiarized in the past, here are some of the crazy excuses I’ve heard:
- It was the ghostwriter’s fault
- My colleague didn’t tell me it was copied
- I was going to write the same thing anyway
- A lot of people are linking to it, so it’s public domain now
I had a great breakfast conversation with a former colleague where we discussed copyright and fair use. In a nutshell, content should never be cut-and-paste without direct consent; even a link and citation of the source isn’t enough.
In Brent’s case, one course of action would be for L&S to send an apology and clarification to everyone who received their letter. Do you think that’s a possibility?
Unfortunately, it’s much too easy to break windows in internet neighborhoods.
Valeria thanks so much for bringing light to this area of content attribution, and specifically to my situation.
There are plenty of people like me that have found themselves in this predicament, and I am so greatful to people like you who have rallied to my defense. It just goes to show that social web community will not tolerate this kind of activity. They will not let it be swept under the rug.
Content is the lifeblood of the web, and we should celebrate the good works of others, not diminish it in with the actions you so beautifully illustrated in your post.
Thanks again Valeria!
@Peter – amazingly, the examples you provided are very close to each other. The funny thing is when mainstream media companies(I’m thinking of AP) put the walls up on their content… why not extend the same courtesy to others? I raised the question on Twitter a couple of months ago and the responses were pretty consistent with our reactions here. Does it start in school? Do people do it because they see others do it? My thinking is that L&S missed an opportunity and lost credibility with their inaction. Imagine if they are teaching companies about participation! Oy.
@Brent – the thing that most impressed me about this whole situation has been your professional demeanor. I can tell you that my Italian nature would have had the best of me. That was probably the main reason why to this day I remain puzzled as to why someone from L&S would not have reached out to you with an apology. You did the right thing, they need to learn about the right thing to do.
I think many people don’t realize sometimes how important copy really is. It is the major factor that allows customers to react and actually perform on action on your website.
Plagiarism extends beyond just writing, although it isn’t called the same thing in my world. As a voice over artist, I need to make sure that my auditions aren’t being used without being paid for. I can watermark them by either changing the copy a little (like a phone number) or putting a sound in that renders it useless.
I’ve found that a well-worded blog post can do wonders for sullying a company’s online reputation. And it often leads to a correction in the action that put it there.
@Nick – thank you for stopping by. Content is very important to differentiate yourself, even in a crowded space.
Good thoughts on motivation.
@Jeffrey – that is fascinating. I didn’t know people would use the voice overs of others. Early in my career, I recorded about 200 hours of voice overs for a non profit medical center as a very nominal fee (very) and never even signed a release form