Community Guy - Latest Comments in Non-profits need to play by the rules too

Re: Non-profits need to play by the rules too

bkmcae — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 21:35:23 -0000

Good to see ACS responding, but seriously, Jake, ACS is one of the most advanced, savvy nonprofits out there. This shouldn't have happened.

Re: Non-profits need to play by the rules too

Lee LeFever — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 17:21:27 -0000

Yes, thanks for the quick response David. I've talked to some other folks at the ACS and it's clear to me that it was not intentional. No harm done, no hard feelings.

Re: Non-profits need to play by the rules too

Jake — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 15:52:54 -0000

Wonderful news, David. Thanks for the response and great job on the UBER fast response time! Clearly you're monitoring the Social Web :)

Re: Non-profits need to play by the rules too

David — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 10:50:29 -0000

Hey All,
This is David J. Neff and I work over at the American Cancer Society. I would like to apologize to Lee and let you all know we will be taking the video down for some re-tooling. (Is that a word?) We went in today and changed the CC as well as giving credit to Lee and his peeps over at Common Craft, but have still chosen to take it off the site for now. I also emailed Lee this weekend about this very subject. Hopefully you will check out the site more (SharingHope.TV) and see what other uses for Video we are doing, when it comes to helping people with cancer.

Thanks,
David

Re: Non-profits need to play by the rules too

Sam_Eder — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 23:23:48 -0000

Let me preface this comment for full disclosure: The American Cancer Society is a client of ours and I’m not a lawyer (though I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night). While I fully appreciate the need for organizations and individuals to respect copyrights, I think that the ACS’s video is a creative and effective parody of the Common Craft social network video. Sure, it is copying the style and subject of the CC video but the “critical difference” that helps define it as parody is the application of ACS specific content (thank you very much, wikipedia). But, by concentrating on the legal mumbo jumbo I think we’re missing more pertinent discussions: Was this an effective way to get employees spread across multiple states and countless field offices to join their internal network? Did they put more value in explaining how social networks function rather than making it super relevant to their daily jobs? Are there better strategies for engaging multiple age groups to the community? So if pleases the court, I’d like to rest my case and drown my sorrows over my busted NCAA bracket.

Re: Non-profits need to play by the rules too

Patrick O'Keefe — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 16:29:05 -0000

Thanks for mentioning this, Jake. Can't believe they ripped Lee and Sachi, but I guess I shouldn't be surprised. I agree with you as far as non profits following the rules. I do this at my forums. I don't care if anyone is a for profit, non profit, personal site, etc. - everyone follows the guidelines. Terrible!

Re: Non-profits need to play by the rules too

Lee LeFever — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 14:49:36 -0000

Thanks Jake! We often see videos that are likely inspired by our work - and we're flattered by them. Most will link to us as a gesture of appreciation for the inspiration, if they were inspired. We're happy that we can help people to create something new.
What surprised me about the video above was that it used direct quotes and visuals from our video *and* did not mention Common Craft as a source on the video page. I suppose there aren't many hard and fast rules in the new world of online video sharing, so it's likely a detail that was overlooked, but I would expect more from such an organization.