An open letter to a web content copyright violator who pled ignorance to DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act).

Dear "Muffin,"

You don't know me, and I don't know you, except that you are a thief, and a pretty shameless one at that. Please, don't take offense at that. If you'll recall, you already admitted to being a thief in a public web message board. The topic of message board was Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA).

Let me refresh your memory with what you wrote:

"I've use some picture from japanese artist on my web and this morning i've receive email about to sued me..... I never hear about DMCA before....PLEASE....i don't know what to do...."

Funny thing was, your message almost made it sound like you were a victim.

Muffin, not only were you not a victim, you were very, very lucky. You see, your victims actually asked you nicely to stop stealing from them. They even implied they wouldn't call in cops if you stopped stealing and promised not to do it again.

Muffin, let's conduct a little life experiment: next time you’re in a shop, walk out door with a bit of merchandise stuffed down your trousers. It doesn't have to be anything too expensive. Just make sure it has some kind of inventory-control tag so people who run shop will be sure to know what you've done, because that's whole point of this experiment.

You see, Muffin, more than likely--and I mean, much, much, more than likely--the shopkeepers will not just ask you nicely to take their merchandise out of your trousers and put it back on shelf. You might even have to pay for that stuff! Heck, if they really are out to victimize you, they might even call police! Seriously!

Muffin, I have to be honest: I would not be so nice to you as people you stole from. You see, I'm one of those crazy creative types who actually create stuff from scratch or maybe pay for it rather than just take it off someone else's website. (I know, if all of us creative types were as smart as you we'd all save a lot of time just copying stuff rather than putting it out there for other people to…ouch! Excuse me, I think I just stumbled over a logical paradox.)

You see, Muffin, I'm a writer, and a pretty generous one. I even let people put most of articles I write on their websites for free. All I ask for is that at end of article, they leave in little link to my site I include there.

Muffin, would you believe there are people who put my article on their site without link to my site?

And when I told those site owners about their mistake, some of them just took article down off their sites! As if that undid fact that they had already been using my article and making money by showing advertisements next to it.

The owners of those websites were not as lucky as you, Muffin. You see, I'm like shopkeeper who doesn't just politely ask you to put stuff back on shelf. No, I called in police.

More to point, I called in Google. You can read Google’s official policy here: http://www.google.com/dmca.html Yes, that's dmca as in DMCA, as in Digital Millenium Copyright Act.

Don't worry, Google lets you file a counter-complaint when someone reports you as a DMCA violator. And you can feel free to email your counter-complaint to all people who won't find your site when they do a web search.

Of course, I didn't just send a message to Google's legal department. You see, some of those thieves' websites were even showing Google Adsense advertisements. Note that I said *were* showing advertisments. You see, Google's Adsense TOS doesn’t take as rosy a view of copyright violations as you do, Muffin.

The companies that owned those websites' internet hosting servers didn't like being accessories to crime, either.

Well, Muffin, in closing let me just introduce you to a PDF of Digital Millenium Copyright Act: http://www.copyright.gov/legislation/dmca.pdf Sadly, this definitively means you can't say anymore that you have never heard of DMCA.

But maybe you can still try telling shopkeepers you never heard of shoplifting?

About the author
Joel Walsh is the owner and head writer of UpMarket Content (upmarketcontent.com), Check out the website promotion content package by clicking here: http://upmarketcontent.com/website-promotion-package.htm.

Small Business Branding Advertising and Marketing an Oxymoron?

Unless you're a ubiquitous consumer products company, value of branding is far, far less than value of direct response. What good is impressing someone with your brand if he or she never comes into contact with your business again—and why would they come into contact with your business again if you haven’t gotten a direct response?

Branding is essential for Coca Cola and Microsoft and Sheraton and all other consumer giants because they don't need direct response. Their offering is available every time you drive down street, so burning their logos into your eyeballs will actually make you more likely to buy. But if you have to search out business, having a logo floating in your consciousness won't be enough to motivate you.

Even if branding alone could drive business, how long will it be before that logo or slogan or jingle has left your memory forever? A few hours? A day? One of basic requirements for branding is repetition. Numerous repetitions. Like seeing little Microsoft flag every single day, in lower left corner of your screen, on your computer's case, in magazine advertisements and on television commercials. One visit to your website or one glimpse of your advertisement won't accomplish this—and remember, unless you have Coca Cola’s budget, one exposure is all you’ll likely get.

In reality, even numerous exposures to your brand might not be enough--you've got an awful lot of deep-pocketed competition in this game. People must be exposed to your brand again and again and again, not just for a certain span of time, but forever. Otherwise, your brand will get pushed out of their minds by all logos that do appear again and again and again.

In contrast, if someone requested a whitepaper from you, or called in for more information, you would have their attention for much longer.

The two cases when branding make sense in marketing your small business