Virtual Moxie - The Cure For The Common Virtual Assistance Practice

Copyright—a down and dirty lesson

I’m amazed at how many Virtual Assistants use my work without my permission. More, when I point out to them that they’re doing it, they always behave as if they’re shocked that I’d be upset by it. Or they tell me that they didn’t take it from me, but from somewhere else (as though that makes it somehow better, or even ok).

So I thought I’d take a moment to give you the down and dirty truth about standard copyright (that is, copyright that’s protected by the US Copyright Office, rather than copyright that’s been non-traditionally protected licensed by Creative Commons). There’s actually no real need for you to understand all the ins and outs of the thing—it’s long, boring, and even the people in charge of it don’t really understand it all.

But you? When it comes to your business? You need to know enough to keep yourself safe from big problems due to stupid or plain ol' ignorant behavior.

First, a trip in the Way-Back-Machine. Unless you were absent on the day they covered this in elementary school, you no doubt remember the first time you were assigned to do a report, and were taught about plagiarism. By way of a reminder, that's where you can't take someone else's work and call it your own. If you remember that you cannot plagiarize (and don’t want to even try it, young man, because old, nasty Mrs. Smith has an eagle eye and WILL KNOW IF YOU’VE DONE IT ::::finger wagging for emphasis::::), then you actually also know everything you need to know about copyright infringement. While not the same, copyright infringement and plagiarism often look the same, and, as a practical matter, the lesson is the same: Don’t use something that’s not yours.

The moment I write something, it’s copyrighted. It’s mine. I can send it off to get a far more “official” registered copyright, but I don’t have to…its creation and/or publishing is far and away enough.

I get to say who can use it, and in what context. If you’re interested in using it, you have to ask my permission. You can do with it whatever I give you permission to do with it, but nothing else. You can’t, without permission, reprint it—even in it’s entirety, and even with attribution. You can’t change pieces of it and call it a “derivative” work. You can’t even make photo copies and pass them out to your friends.

That’s cause it’s mine, and not yours.

It’s kind of like if you’re walking down the street and see a red ball in my yard and you want to play with it, you have to ask me if you can, and you have to abide by my decision. If you take the ball without asking, or play with it in any way against my wishes, you’re a thief.

Similarly, if you take my content without asking or use it in some way other than what I give you permission to do with it, you’re a thief.

Simple, eh?

This little rule holds true for anything written by an individual—for the life of that person plus 50 years (we have Sonny Bono to thank for this; remember that factoid, it’ll come in handy sometime while playing Trivial Pursuit!), and if it’s something of corporate authorship (including items created as work for hire in the US), it’s 120 years after it’s created, or 95 years after it’s published. After that (not that any of us will be around by then or caring about it) it’s considered “public domain” and you’re free to play with it.

There’s one more thing to know about copyright. You can use a small snippet of something (of a book, a chapter, an article, a blog post, a video, a song, etc.) as a quotation or sample, with attribution, without having to get permission from the owner. That’s called “Fair Use.” There are further guidelines about this, but in general, the smaller the snippet, carefully used with attribution, the less likely you are to get in trouble. Notice I didn’t say you wouldn’t get in trouble, but that the smaller the snippet, and used with attribution, the less likely you are to get in trouble.

And that brings us to the take-away Bit O’Moxie from this lesson. ASK PERMISSION. Ask anytime you want to use something that isn’t yours. Don’t assume it’s ok—it’s most likely not.

Even if you see something that’s perfect…that you couldn’t possibly say better or more clearly, if you want to use it, ask. Sure, you run the risk that you’ll be told you can’t, but if you’re actually given permission, you’re home free, yanno? (get that permission in writing, though, just to be safe)

And if you use something because you genuinely couldn’t figure out who to ask (I know we all see unattributed stuff floating around the internet) and you simply couldn’t stop yourself from doing it because you’ve absolutely no self-control or creative bones in your body that would let you come up with something of your very own to use instead, put it in quotations, attribute it as “unknown,” and if the owner shows up to claim it, be extraordinarily gracious about attributing it (if given permission), or removing it if that’s the request the owner makes.

And if you’re going to steal stuff outright and try to palm it off as your own, it would behoove you to again be incredibly gracious and accommodating to the owner when you’re caught. Trust me, when it comes to this, a strong offense is absolutely going to be your worst possible defense. It just pisses the owner off and, with a properly motivated and pissed off copyright owner, you could quickly find yourself in some serious hot water.

Copyright infringement comes with some hefty fines, and the law is 100% behind the owner. Ignorance of the law isn’t an appropriate defense, either. And, having read this far, it’s not one you can actually use anymore. Yay! :)

Update: Jan 27, 430p
A friend asked me why any of this matters. "Why," she asked, "do you care if someone uses your stuff? Isn't it flattering to know what someone liked it enough to want to reprint it? And would you really cause a person problems who used your stuff without permission?"

No; it's not flattering. It's insulting to know that people think they have a right to take and use whatever they want and let the world think they were creative enough to have thought of it and birthed it.

And you bet I'd cause someone a problem for stealing my work. I do it on a regular basis. That "problem" could be as mild as sending an email saying I know that my work is being used without my permission, and giving a specific time frame to make it stop. It could also involve having a person's web site shut down, or filing suit against someone who fails to comply with my request. The biggest reason I do it is that if I don't protect my rights, I lose them.

I've worked very hard to create what I've created. It's a representation of countless hours of time, energy, original thinking, crafting of language, and a resulting body of work that is absolutely seminal. Why wouldn't I protect that? I'd protect my belongings and wouldn't hesitate to prosecute if someone broke into my house and stole what was mine, and this is absolutely no different.

Interestingly enough, I think everyone would understand prosecuting a thief who came into my house and stole my property. I'm not sure why it's hard to understand protecting intellectual property. If you have a sense of that, would you please leave me a comment?

If you know it's wrong...don't do it!

Bit O’Moxie: What Danielle said!!!

It's a very strong post about standing in your own shoes and living your ethics, regardless of what a client wants you to do.

I'd add, though, that if a client says she has permission to use another person's intellectual property, yet you have reason to believe she doesn't (even if that's just a gut feeling strong enough to make you want to refuse to do the work), that's probably a relationship you want out of, and quick.

Why? Because it indicates that you don't trust the client's word. And if you don't trust the client's word, there are bigger relationship issues at play than whether the client can use someone else's intellectual property. No trust = no partnership. And if partnership is important to you in your Virtual Assistance practice, then there really can be no path forward without trust.

One thing you can do, though, to make things easier on yourself, is get to know/understand copyright law. If you know what's plagiarism and why, vs. what's fair use, vs. what you can do with material in the public domain, vs. what you can do with material covered by various Creative Commons licenses, you can both help your client understand these issues, and navigate difficult waters for yourself with greater ease. Wikipedia has a fair primer on copyright topics, regardless of the fact that they're calling for better sited references. More on fair use is available in another article.

Who's in the hot seat? Probably YOU.

Last week, I said I'd write about why working in VA teams and subcontracting are generally bad ideas.

Let’s first try to agree on why someone would either sub contract or work in a multi-VA team. People say that working in these models allows them leverage—to do more work, and/or to better serve clients. And all of that is true…and you know that I absolutely can get behind VAs leveraging themselves and better serving clients!

What I can’t get behind is their doing it in teams, or via subcontracting, because most of them will be putting themselves in the middle of a liability nightmare they’re likely not even aware of.

The issue at hand is indemnification—who gets the legal finger pointed at her when something goes wrong.

If you’ve procured the client for either of the situations mentioned above, chances are it’s you, whether or not you created whatever problem has caused a legal finger to be pointed. The reason for that is that the client has the agreement with YOU.

As an example: You have an agreement to do work for a client. Some part of it is something you don’t know how to do, or don’t want to do. So you sub out/team out that stuff. The sub/team member screws things up royally, causing a problem for the client. The client loses money, or looks bad to peers, or has some other problem, and royally pissed off, sues…YOU.

Now, you can then sue the sub or team member, but what’s the point of all that? Even if you made a few bucks on the deal, I promise it’s not going to feel like enough if you end up in the hot seat.

It’s true that you could have an attorney draw up a hefty legal agreement meant to protect you from such an eventuality. But I feel quite certain most VAs don’t spend the money to have this done, and most clients wouldn’t sign it if they were presented with it. And in truth, even an agreement like that wouldn't stop someone from suing you (because as a practical matter, anyone can sue anyone for just about anything), although it might get you out of the hot seat once you get to court.

Bit O’Moxie: These models are fraught with very real legal danger. Unnecessary legal danger, in fact, when the key to getting to exactly the same place (leveraging yourself and/or getting stuff done you can’t/don’t do) is so easily at hand (read more here, and here), and doesn’t carry the same peril. I suggest you stay away from these models, and, instead, build the resources that you can share with clients, allowing them to choose their own vendors, pay them directly, and have you manage the process. It's simply cleaner, all the way around.

If you know something about this that I (and the various attorneys and E&O insurance agents I’ve discussed this with over the years) am missing, please share what you know. I really am entirely behind anything VAs can do to strengthen their practices, but I just don’t see this as something that strengthens, when there’s so much potential to destroy what you've built.

Ethics: What's the fuss?

Almost as soon as I created AssistU, I created the AssistU Standards of Excellence and Ethics pledge. Soon after our initial classes graduated and I realized I was going to be adding a community component to what my company was going to offer, I decided to require our community members to sign the pledge yearly, promising to let it guide their practices.

In 2003, I realized that if the pledge was going to mean something, there had to be a way to hold the Virtual Assistants accountable for violations to the pledge. That's when we created a formal grievance process for people who worked with AssistU VAs, and who felt the VAs were operating their businesses in opposition to the pledge.

Until this week, we'd had only one grievance filed. This week, we've received two. And although I don't sit on our Ethics Committee, ethics are certainly on my mind this week, and I thought I'd share some thoughts about it with you.

Bit O’Moxie: Ethics are a big deal in life and in business. You may think you can get away with doing whatever the hell you want, and, in reality, you probably can—but yours will likely end up being a very solitary existence, as no one (not even other people who have sloppy ethics) likes to deal with people whose ethics are lacking.

Many people gloss over ethics, thinking that the topic is just so commonsensical that they don't need to specifically think about it. I disagree. One of the hallmarks of a terrific and successful VA is not only having great ethics, but modeling them for her clients whose own may need to be strengthened.

It's extremely important for you to understand what's ethical and what isn't. Here are some resources for you to read that will help you have a better understanding of this important topic:

* What is Ethics?
* A Framework for Thinking Ethically
* Five Approaches for Dealing with Ethical Issues
* Chris Bauer's Weekly Ethics Thought (delivered via email)

Ethics in your VA practice

It's critical to developing trust with clients that they believe that you will behave in an ethical manner at all times. As I mentioned, graduates of AssistU agree to certain standards of ethical behavior that we've created. You may have your own ethical standards or agree with standards created by an organization to which you belong. But you need to do more than simply agree. You need to carry those standards into your practices, and walk your talk.

Here are a couple of examples of things you might come up with if you were to think of things that might be ethical challenges in your practice:

* Working for competitors (conflict of interest)
* Billing differently than agreed (or padding your invoice)
--- only unethical if you don't tell the client that you do it

Here are a couple of examples of ethical challenges you might not think of:

* Copyright violation (how much do you actually know about copyright law??)
* Leaving client materials out on your desk where your family members can see them
* Not keeping computer backups in a safe/secure place
* Gossiping/talking about your clients (by name) with others (especially if you have language in your policies and procedures that stipulates that you won't do it)
* Refusing to be helpful to a nasty client during his transition out of your practice. Even horrid clients have the right to expect you to behave in accordance with a pledge you've agreed to!

As you work in your practice, your ethics will be important to keep an eye on, as they impact your credibility, integrity, attractiveness, and ultimately, your business as a whole. I get that it's sometimes extremely difficult to know whether something is ethical or not. In those situations, I suggest revisiting your ethical standards and asking yourself (be rigorously honest as you answer, too!) whether someone could say that your behavior falls outside those parameters. If so, then you might want to look at how you have to clean that up before it becomes problematic for you.

Agreement "protection"

Recently, one of the AssistU VAs posted in our community about a client who wanted her to sign a confidentiality agreement about his intellectual property. This particular confidentiality agreement spelled out, very specifically, an exorbitant amount of money she'd be responsible to pay him if she spilled the proverbial beans. Her question was whether this was customary, and what she should do from there. Today's Bit O’Moxie is my reply to that question:

As a VA, I worked with high-profile clients who never asked me to sign non-disclosure or non-compete agreements--and they really should have. I don't believe that their not having me do it was because they were open and trusting. I believe it was because they didn't necessarily know better at the time, and, possibly because they didn't think I was a threat to them (meaning that even though I had all their "stuff," I didn't have what it took to use it and make money with it). They weren't fearful, but they were pretty stupid on all counts. They had something super valuable to protect, and they didn't protect it. That's stupid.

And I think that's the key to consider when presented with a client who wants to have you sign an agreement...what, exactly, is at stake? The more important, or valuable something is, the more likely someone is to want to protect it, because the more likely it is that someone will want to rip it off.

So, having said that, when I created the IP for AU, I had a contract drawn up that was to be signed to those I threw wide the doors for. My agreement is non-negotiable. If someone wants in, s/he signs. If s/he doesn't want to, or doesn't feel able, that's ok with me--but we won't be working together. Simple.

Am I fear-based? I don't think so. I think I'm protective of the stuff I own that I view as being highly valuable. You can bet that I don't sit around worrying, gnashing my teeth, or spending hours and hours looking around the net to see who's ripping me off. But you can also bet that when I find someone who's doing just that, I get into action about it.

Sure, there are professional thieves in the world. Some of them are even going around stealing IP. I think, though, that most of the people who engage in copyright infringement and theft of IP are people who are genuinely ignorant of the laws about such things. Those are people like you and me.

So, your client, having something s/he views as valuable, wants you to sign an agreement to protect that. It doesn't matter that you believe yourself to be trustworthy, nor does it matter that you've signed an ethics pledge and run your practice in accordance with it. What matters is that the client feels the need to protect his/her stuff, and does not know you enough to know whether you're trustworthy, and might even want the agreement signed even if s/he did know, you know?

In a situation like this, remember that it's not about you. Nor is it about whether you can be trusted. It's about protecting the "stuff." It's also about protecting a dream. If you have anything of value that you protect (a home, a relationship, jewelry, a car), you should understand this.

Do have an attorney review anything and everything (I meant that, quite literally) you're considering signing. What you think something says, and what it really says could be vastly different and you could find yourself in a pickle that a few hundred bucks could have prevented. Make it a standard.

And make this a standard, too: If you don't have the funds to have an attorney review agreements, just say no to things/clients that require you to sign such things.

The bottom line to it all? Realize that a client who wants an agreement signed is simply protecting something s/he feels deserves to be protected. Don't freak out about it, just have a strong standard that will deal with it (and that would be to have an attorney review the agreement before you sign it, or to walk away from the client if you can't afford the attorney's review).

It's far better to walk away than find yourself bound to something you wouldn't have wanted to be bound to if you'd known better. High standards here are the key.