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April 27, 2005
Good coaching from a GTD evangelist...
Thought I'd share last night's email dialogue with Merlin (w/his permission) for those of you who might be interested in the small worm can that I opened two blogs ago...
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Hi, David, Saw your post today on IP. As an enthusiastic cheerleader for your work, I like to think I've attributed to you very generously, but if you ever feel that's not the case, I do hope you'll contact me personally. We good? Best, Merlin
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Merlin, (Unofficially) I think so... I certainly appreciate your support and evangelism, and would like to support you, too. We had people starting to use GTD in ads, promoting their own stuff, and our attorney said we've got to step into this or it would really get out of hand. We're going to be coming up with some guidelines to publish about this, and then you can evaluate your stuff against that. I wouldn't concern yourself at this point. Thanks for communicating... David
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Thanks, David. I appreciate the response. I had a feeling that's the sort of thing that you'd intended in your post. I'm sorry to hear that this has become a problem for you, and I do understand your need to protect your brand. It can be very tricky, though, to communicate these things well on the 'net, where you never know how people will read nuance and tone.
It would be valuable for you to clarify the advice you've received to issue C&Ds--that these are essentially going out to folks who are deliberately lying about a relationship with Davidco or who are
implying non-existent licensing relationships, or what have you.
That's a horse of different color from "fan sites" and the like.
*Big* difference to your GTD community, I can assure you. For what it's worth, "Cease & Desist" is a very emotional hot-button phrase in the online community--where you currently enjoy a *huge* amount of respect, deference, and, as Mr. Bush might say, capital. :-)
It would be an awful shame for any of that valuable web karma to be
damaged by an unnecessary misunderstanding, you know? Just one data
point from an admirer. Anyhow, good luck, and please do stay in touch. Best Regards, Merlin
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Merlin,
I take your coaching to heart, and will post haste work with my attorney to draft something of an "official" document for the community.
David
Posted by David at April 27, 2005 04:18 AM
Comments
What about Lawrence Lessig's Creative Commons license?
"a flexible range of protections and freedoms for authors and artists. We have built upon the "all rights reserved" of traditional copyright to create a voluntary "some rights reserved" copyright."
Posted by: Gunnar at April 27, 2005 05:22 AM
David--
Don't feel bad about having to do what you're doing. Remember that at one time, "Yo-Yo" and "Frisbie" were brand names too. They were not vigorously protected and now they've become generic terms for almost any toy that spins at the end of a string and for any flying disc, even if they are of less quality than the originals. To maintain the quality of what we know as GTD, ya gotta do what ya gotta do.
--Bert
Posted by: Bert at April 27, 2005 07:10 AM
I have to say David your system is too good NOT to protect it aggressively! In fact it is mandatory that you do, in order to protect all of your copyrights, trademarks, etc. We know that if a company does not aggressively protect its assets... it is harder to do so down the line. In this case you do have to look EVERY time someone crys "Wolf!"
But I agree with Merlin in that there is a huge difference between a person "touting" or "evangelizing" a product as opposed to representing oneself as an "entity" or "official representative" of said product or company.
I know I would be ticked if as a company, I bought services for a team building event that falsely represented themselves as "GTD Coaches," when in fact all they did was attend a few seminars or read the book.
Warm regards,
Steven Banks
"white belt"
Posted by: Steven Banks at April 27, 2005 12:06 PM
I've been fascinated watching GTD grow in the online community, and I've wondered now and then if something would need to be done to separate canonical GTD from the community-driven parts of the GTD culture.
I think you're taking a balanced approach, and that's a very good thing. A line in the sand requiring clear notification when a resource is unofficial is probably the right way to go. You get to keep the community active without getting the core resources lost in the moleskines.
Posted by: Dan Ridley at April 28, 2005 08:24 AM
"canonical GTD"
Now that's what I'm taking about! Pope David Allen VII,XX,IV (Roman for GTD) :-)
Posted by: Steven Banks at April 28, 2005 11:28 AM
Ha! I meant "canonical" in the sense in which it's used for fan fiction. But your take amuses me.
Posted by: Dan Ridley at April 30, 2005 11:44 AM
Nothing is ever more important that copyrighting and protecting human life.
To think that one can actually copyright, trademark things that have already existed since the beginning of time is silly on some levels but we live in this world where people and businesses feel they must control their existance.
that's all i got to say about that.... he he
Posted by: warmac at May 8, 2005 12:47 AM
