BAD and UGLY -- and ALTERNATIVES
April 08, 2013
There seems to be some denial that the craft community is "not guilty" of the BAD or UGLY behaviors mentioned in my lecture, The GOOD, The BAD, and The UGLY in the AGE of the Internet.
On the contrary, ever since the lecture went public, more people are "coming out" and revealing more examples of BAD and UGLY behavior.
Perhaps some don't realize the impact of their behavior. We all slide into some patterns. We all make mistakes. But we can also learn and correct our behavior without placing blame.
Every single person can BE a "Force" for "GOOD", substituting alternatives to the "BAD" and "UGLY" behaviors in all media.
Perhaps some don't realize the impact of their behavior. We all slide into some patterns. We all make mistakes. But we can also learn and correct our behavior without placing blame.
Every single person can BE a "Force" for "GOOD", substituting alternatives to the "BAD" and "UGLY" behaviors in all media.
In this post, I will share a condensed list of BAD and UGLY behaviors and possible alternatives. (They are listed below in no particular order, and not a comprehensive list.)
The problems are extensive and multifaceted, but there are persistent examples of BAD & UGLY. I welcome your stories and alternatives which can be added to this post. Please consider submitting an example with an alternative in the comments or send it privately through my contact page on my website.
UGLY:
Pirating & selling of DVD's for which the original author no longer gets royalties or revenue.
ALTERNATIVE:
Purchase DVD's from the original author or a legitimate authorized seller.
UGLY:
Purchasing a DVD and then sharing the techniques direct from the DVD on your blog or social network without permission from the original author.
ALTERNATIVE:
Sharing information benefits the field only when it is shared with both ethical and legal foundation in mind. If the information on the DVD is superb, then write a review and link to the original source for the DVD.
Or share information after obtaining permission of the author, citing the source for the information and citing permission of the author.
The best option is to share information that you created yourself based on your own depth of skill, experience and your own ideas.
UGLY:
Translation to another language of chapters and whole books without permission, authorship credit, or revenue to the original author.
ALTERNATIVE:
Do not buy, share or trade unauthorized copies, or PDF copies of book chapters or books. Inform these unauthorized individuals about ethical behavior. Can you report this incident to the original author or publisher?
UGLY:
Public announcements at events, guild meetings or conferences that a person is willing to show everyone how to pirate specific tutorials.
ALTERNATIVE:
Unethical behavior such as pirating should not be endorsed by organizations. Establish a "higher" standard for your guild, organization or conference that presentations will only be content from the original author or original technical innovator/workshop teacher.
UGLY:
A student expressing disappointment that a workshop had been cancelled due to low enrollment, since she already had six people signed up to take the "copied" class from her the next weekend. In a similar ugly, six people chipped in to send one person to the workshop so she could copy the handout and then re-teach the workshop the next weekend.
ALTERNATIVE:
Do not encourage unethical sharing of workshop demos and materials. This impacts the revenue for the teachers and the sponsor. Preparations for workshop planning, demos and materials require a huge investment from the teacher and the workshop sponsor. Violations of these principle also means that the information may not be available for future workshops because the teachers and sponsors can't afford to arrange future workshops.
UGLY:
People taking a workshop so the student can now teach the same technique representing themselves as an expert in the skill. This misrepresents the experience of the teacher.
ALTERNATIVE:
Develop a level of mastery in your own area of expertise, skill or technical innovation along with superb marketing and demos based on your own depth of experience.
UGLY:
Teaching a workshop based on another author or teachers content. Examples would include teaching a workshop based on a magazine tutorial or a skill you did not develop. This robs the magazine of potential revenue from new subscribers and jeopardizes their future. Teaching a workshop based on other people's innovations is stealing their livelihood after they spent months or years developing the information.
ALTERNATIVE:
Develop your own artistic voice, skill or technique. This is when you can honestly represent yourself as a master in your medium.
UGLY:
Facebook pages that offer tutorials/books in any media or topic as a free PDF download when they did not write the information themselves, do not own the copyright, and are not authorized by the author.
ALTERNATIVE:
Do not participate in these offers. Report these websites to the author and publisher of the original book. Do not share this illegal source with your community. Be an upstanding member of your community and report these unethical offers as a copyright violation.
It is necessary to clarify that I am not against sharing of information. I am speaking out against illegal and unethical sharing of information that was not authorized by the innovator, author, teacher, book, magazine, blogs, websites or publisher.
Citations and quotes for a limited amount of content with a link to the original source is O.K. This would be sharing enough information to pique interest such as a citation for credibility and to warrant further investigation from your reader.
If you care to share with me privately or through the comments, we can all add to this list of BAD or UGLY and ALTERNATIVES.