4 ms·

This ... is not the best way to take advantage of what is basically a sales lead. After all, Scrollytelling is a small company with only a handful of clients, o

by HillRat 10y ago

This ... is not the best way to take advantage of what is basically a sales lead. After all, Scrollytelling is a small company with only a handful of clients, of whom De Volkskrant appears to the most important, so why barge in with DMCA takedowns and angry allegations before you have to? This would have been a great opportunity to work through Scrollytelling's existing relationships with their clients (and their clients' reporters) to get in front of AJ and make a case for their platform (and only go for the lawyers if talks broke down). Instead they've now ensured that, regardless of anything else, at least one reporter is never going to use their platform again and is going to be one hell of a net detractor. For a small company, garnering a reputation as being troublesome loose cannons isn't a good way to grow market share.

Waterluvian 10y ago
Even large companies do that. When a company I was working for began to grow, we got some contacts from Adobe etc. About "hey, you're using illegal copies and we can help you go legit."
- laurentdc 10y ago
  Illegal copies of software (e.g. Photoshop)? I wonder how do they know that - do pirated versions leave fingerprints in your graphic assets? I know for example that typography companies or stock photo agencies crawl the web seeking for unlicensed use for their .woff files or pictures. (I'm just curious, I have a CC subscription)
  - extra88 10y ago
    The traditional way is for Adobe to receive a tip from a disgruntled former employee about the business using unlicensed software.
ada1981 10y ago
Completely disagree with this, you handled yourself well and expressed yourself honestly and made an interesting PR case for yourself and your firm. I'm inspired by how you stood up for yourself. "a reputation as being troublesome loose cannons isn't a good way to grow market share." They sent a DMCA notice that was ignored and are justified in being angry. Perhaps a reputation as someone worth copying who doesn't put up with bullshit is exactly the reputation they want vs. willing to roll over because we think we might make some money somehow, or want to win the approval of others. There is a misconception that being "angry" is somehow a character flaw. We live in this world where everyone is pretending to be "happy" and we shame others for expressing anger.. Anger is a super healthy emotion and when acknowledged and not stuffed into your shadow it can help drive amazing progress.
- tilsammans 10y ago
  Thank you! I also didn't see the DMCA takedown as especially angry or hostile. It's the established way to (try to) take down infringing content, not a lot of room for emotion that I see. For a person it's quite something to receive one, for a business with a large online presence not so much I think.
tilsammans 10y ago
It's worth noting that we didn't barge in with the DMCA, so I updated the blog post to reflect that. Besides, nothing wrong with a DMCA. It's a valid, and expected way to take down infringing content. Which Al-Jazeera chose to ignore. We're not treating them as a sales lead. What they did is not a great start to a fruitful relationship. We just would like them to take down the infringing code and at the very least stop using our bandwidth for their stories. It's kind of ridiculous. As you say, we're small. So when a large bully steals from us, that makes it okay? I really don't understand. People go to jail for copyright infringement but when Al-Jazeera does it to a small startup nobody bats an eye. We chose to speak up after it was clear that Al-Jazeera would keep ignoring our friendly requests and formal demands.
- HillRat 10y ago
  Ah, your update definitely clarifies the situation, and your course of action makes more sense. I get the feeling that you've got a mismatch between your market's expectations and what you're providing -- they seem to think of your service as an authoring tool that gives them rights to the generated results, whereas -- as I understand it -- you see yourselves as a service provider that retains full rights. Given how low your price points are, I wonder if this experience might suggest a change in direction; for example, a more expensive tier that allows a client to repackage content for distribution. Finally, I'm going to risk being a bit stentorian here and say that ethics in business is a one-way street; it puts a lot of demands (quite rightly) on us, but doesn't help when someone acts unethically and even unlawfully towards us. When it happens -- and it will happen, repeatedly -- you have to put aside any moral indignation and just focus on turning the situation to whatever advantage you can wrest from it. In this case, what's your BATNA -- your "best alternative to negotiated agreement?" If, for example, your clients, their reporters, and AJ all ignore you, what is your best option? What course of action protects your rights without damaging your prospects and incurring needless costs? That becomes your new baseline and, combined with the other players' BATNAs, becomes the context in which you try to build negotiations. Now that you've knocked on the door of legal with a DCMA request, you need to have an escalation path. My experience is that legal action is generally used to force negotiations, not end them, and a DCMA request is actually a pretty canny way of starting the process since it's short of actually filing a lawsuit. But if this doesn't lead to getting everyone in a room to discuss options, then you'll need to determine whether you have to escalate or break off. Difficult problem, really.

by HillRat 10y ago

Waterluvian 10y ago

Even large companies do that. When a company I was working for began to grow, we got some contacts from Adobe etc. About "hey, you're using illegal copies and we can help you go legit."

laurentdc 10y ago
Illegal copies of software (e.g. Photoshop)? I wonder how do they know that - do pirated versions leave fingerprints in your graphic assets? I know for example that typography companies or stock photo agencies crawl the web seeking for unlicensed use for their .woff files or pictures. (I'm just curious, I have a CC subscription)
- extra88 10y ago
  The traditional way is for Adobe to receive a tip from a disgruntled former employee about the business using unlicensed software.

ada1981 10y ago

Completely disagree with this, you handled yourself well and expressed yourself honestly and made an interesting PR case for yourself and your firm. I'm inspired by how you stood up for yourself. "a reputation as being troublesome loose cannons isn't a good way to grow market share." They sent a DMCA notice that was ignored and are justified in being angry. Perhaps a reputation as someone worth copying who doesn't put up with bullshit is exactly the reputation they want vs. willing to roll over because we think we might make some money somehow, or want to win the approval of others. There is a misconception that being "angry" is somehow a character flaw. We live in this world where everyone is pretending to be "happy" and we shame others for expressing anger.. Anger is a super healthy emotion and when acknowledged and not stuffed into your shadow it can help drive amazing progress.

tilsammans 10y ago
Thank you! I also didn't see the DMCA takedown as especially angry or hostile. It's the established way to (try to) take down infringing content, not a lot of room for emotion that I see. For a person it's quite something to receive one, for a business with a large online presence not so much I think.

tilsammans 10y ago

It's worth noting that we didn't barge in with the DMCA, so I updated the blog post to reflect that. Besides, nothing wrong with a DMCA. It's a valid, and expected way to take down infringing content. Which Al-Jazeera chose to ignore. We're not treating them as a sales lead. What they did is not a great start to a fruitful relationship. We just would like them to take down the infringing code and at the very least stop using our bandwidth for their stories. It's kind of ridiculous. As you say, we're small. So when a large bully steals from us, that makes it okay? I really don't understand. People go to jail for copyright infringement but when Al-Jazeera does it to a small startup nobody bats an eye. We chose to speak up after it was clear that Al-Jazeera would keep ignoring our friendly requests and formal demands.

HillRat 10y ago
Ah, your update definitely clarifies the situation, and your course of action makes more sense. I get the feeling that you've got a mismatch between your market's expectations and what you're providing -- they seem to think of your service as an authoring tool that gives them rights to the generated results, whereas -- as I understand it -- you see yourselves as a service provider that retains full rights. Given how low your price points are, I wonder if this experience might suggest a change in direction; for example, a more expensive tier that allows a client to repackage content for distribution. Finally, I'm going to risk being a bit stentorian here and say that ethics in business is a one-way street; it puts a lot of demands (quite rightly) on us, but doesn't help when someone acts unethically and even unlawfully towards us. When it happens -- and it will happen, repeatedly -- you have to put aside any moral indignation and just focus on turning the situation to whatever advantage you can wrest from it. In this case, what's your BATNA -- your "best alternative to negotiated agreement?" If, for example, your clients, their reporters, and AJ all ignore you, what is your best option? What course of action protects your rights without damaging your prospects and incurring needless costs? That becomes your new baseline and, combined with the other players' BATNAs, becomes the context in which you try to build negotiations. Now that you've knocked on the door of legal with a DCMA request, you need to have an escalation path. My experience is that legal action is generally used to force negotiations, not end them, and a DCMA request is actually a pretty canny way of starting the process since it's short of actually filing a lawsuit. But if this doesn't lead to getting everyone in a room to discuss options, then you'll need to determine whether you have to escalate or break off. Difficult problem, really.