Dirty competition

There's a thread over at ProBlogger about stealing web content. Although that's a very specific type of dirty and possibly illegal competition (and I have written more about that at http://aplawrence.com/foo-web/plagiarism-and-copyright.html">foo-web.com), dirty tricks and blatant copying aren't limited to the world of the web.

What you can or should do of course depends on the circumstances. Unfortunately, even if there are legal issues involved, you may not be financially able to defend your rights. Many small companies have had to swallow their anger when a large competitor has blatantly ripped them off, because even a small legal issue can cost more than you can afford. That's even more true if the issues are confusing and complicated: lawyers aren't any smarter than the rest of us, and you may find yourself spending hours re-explaining details that you thought your counsel already understood. You'll be paying for those hours, of course: I didn't say lawyers are dumb.

I don't mean to be entirely fatalistic. Some issues are worth defending and the cost of legal help can ve well worth it. But the small self employed person has to be particularly wary of getting into costly fights. Perhaps some comfort comes from this thought: if they were any good, they wouldn't have to steal your ideas. You'll have more ideas, and they may not be smart enough to steal them next time.

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