If you are a small/mid size business that subscribes to this blog, there are two things that I truly wish for you: 1) I hope your business grows beyond your wildest dreams and has a positive impact on you, your employees and those who use your products and services; 2) I hope - no... I pray, that you give back at some point. It doesn't even matter to whom, but give back to someone whether it's your family, your employees or the customers that got you to where you are.
In Google's early years, they came out with their company motto, "Don't Be Evil." While I was never too impressed by the actual slogan, their intent was a good start. What I would really like to see is a company come out with the motto, "Don't Be Greedy." I love Gordon Gekko just as much as anyone else, but most companies don't really set out to be evil, the real problem is they get greedy, and "greedy" leads to evil things. To quote another great line from the movie, Wall Street (1987), "The main thing about money, Bud, is that it makes you do things you don't want to do. "
Time and time again there is some company, or person, or band doing something that's a slap in the face to their customers or fans which makes you sit back and wonder, do they just don't get it or are they just being greedy and don't care. Metallica is one of the most well known metal bands of all time, but when they came out years ago protesting against music piracy it left a bad taste in people's mouths. From the fans' perspective, it's simple, "You have made tens of millions of dollars off of people like me who have purchased things legitimately throughout your career. Are you really going to whine now over someone trading 1 or 2 songs?" I realize that the work of an artist is a precious thing and selling an entire pirated album is wrong, but I think these companies could spin the story so much better. How loyal would Metallica fans be if they came out and said, "Hey, we don't support illegal file sharing and we ask that you don't do it, but since many of you have been such loyal fans for years, on our next new album we will post 3 DRM-free tracks on our web site that you can download entirely for free." This "olive branch" would have made the fans a little more open to listening.
I watch YouTube pretty often, and my biggest gripe about cloud applications like these video hosting services is that your favorite clip can be yanked at any time because of whatever law has been passed in whatever country; you are at the mercy of someone else's rules. There are some very funny and talented people out there who have spliced clips, made parodies, and even created compilations of great moments in sports or movies. It's sad when the poster leaves a message on his page stating they had to remove the video, because some multi-billion dollar org was upset that a 5-second piece of their work was included in the footage. Stealing a track from a new artist that's scraping to get by on their road to becoming famous is one thing, but incorporating a highlight from an NFL game seems minor in the grand scheme of things. The organization usually ends up with bad PR because it comes across as the company being greedy. What is even more ironic is that when you go to some of these official sites to watch some historic highlight the official company won't even have the video posted - some clips just get lost forever. If it wasn't for YouTube, I wouldn't know about half the stuff people are talking about at work, because I don't watch television that much anymore. The masses that take the time to post some of this content allow great moments to live on forever - don't worry if you missed the last 2 minutes of game 7; it's on the Net - at least for now.
While arguments around copyright issues is a sensitive one, I use it here to highlight the importance of companies deciding which battles to pick. If you have to stand firm on copyrights, then pick another area where you can be more liberal - show that you care, show that you can give back. As my friend from Hawaii used to say, "Spread the Aloha." I say, "Don't Be Greedy!"
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Posted by: Research Term Papers | August 09, 2010 at 05:12 AM