3 Reasons You Don't Need to Worry About Copycats

Just by putting our content out there on the internet, we risk someone copying it. It's easy to get so caught up in this fear that we avoid hitting publish at all. Here are three reasons I think you actually don't need to worry about copycats.

If you want to protect your content and feel confident you know the steps to take if you ever have to deal with a copycat, sign up for the Copycat Workshop here. 

Key Takeaways

• You automatically own the copyright in content that you create. That means you have legal steps available if someone copies your content.
• People generally want to do the right thing. People also make mistakes. Usually, if you call a copycat out on it, they'll take down what they copied.
• You are unique. The world needs to hear what you have to say. Don't let the fear of copycats stop your from sharing your unique point of view.

Resources Mentioned

• Grab your ticket for the Copycat Workshop
• Watch the free masterclass 
• Follow Amy on Instagram @artfulcontracts

Next Steps

Thank you so much for listening! If you enjoyed this episode, please reach out and let me know by sending me a DM on Instagram @artfulcontracts

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• Leave a review on Apple Podcasts
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• Share the episode on social media and tag me @artfulcontracts

Episode Transcript

Hello, hello from snowy New England where we have lots of snow and ice and no power or internet at the moment. I'm recording this on my laptop and I've got my fingers crossed that the power and Wi-Fi will come back so that I can upload it. But anyways, that's just how things go sometimes up here. So we make it work. Wherever you are, I hope you are staying warm. I'm actually kind of excited about the snow because I'm going skiing later this week and it's gonna be great.

Anyways, I'm not gonna talk this whole episode about snow. We're gonna talk about copycats. Consistently, I have people coming to me with this concern that if they publish something, if they produce their great offer, if they start implementing on some awesome idea that they have, someone is going to steal it or copy it or use it and sell it. This is a very pervasive fear, and it's really interesting because I see some people who worry about this so much that they don't even get started, that they just get stuck in the ideation phase and never actually launch anything. And then I have other people who don't even think twice about it. They don't blink, they don't worry about it at all. And this dichotomy is so interesting to me. So I've been trying to figure out what makes that difference.

I am someone who falls into that second camp. I didn't worry about it, I don't worry about it, I am not concerned about copycats. And so I was wondering, you know, what makes the difference? What do I know? What do I believe that is different from people who get so stuck in the concern of someone else copying them? And so I have three reasons today that I think that you don't need to worry about copycats.

Hey, I'm Amy Nesheim, licensed attorney for online business owners and founder of my own business, Artful Contracts. You're listening to Legal Made Easy, the show that makes the legal aspects of online business easy to understand and implement so you can grow your business with confidence knowing you've got it all covered. Let's dive in.

It totally makes sense that people are worried about this at a basic level. And I've said it before on the podcast, everything that we do in our business, especially in the online space as creative entrepreneurs, everything is the product of our ideas, and those can be so personal. There's no other way to say it. You nurtured it, you created it, putting it out there to other people is scary because they might judge it. But on the other hand, they might like it too much and take it from you. And that it is such an emotional experience. So of course, people are going to be worried about it. So here's my first gut instinct response.

To put it into perspective, basically everything I sell is online content. My business started as a contract template shop. So I got this question of like, what do you do to make sure that people can't duplicate your contracts, give them to other people? You know, you're just sharing a Google Drive link, they just copy it. Can't they just share that link with everyone? Yes, I'm sure there are probably some of my customers who have misused the permissions that I've given them and copied my documents and shared them with people that they shouldn't have shared them with. But personally, I would rather have that one person who's a bad actor still have access to my stuff than limit the thousands of other people who have benefited. I'd rather make my ideas and my templates make the things that make it easier for other people. I'd rather have that be available to more people than get so hung up in the way that someone might copy something that I restrict it from people who are gonna do the right thing.

One of the core values in my business is accessibility, and I want people to be able to access my content and the information that I put out. And that is more valuable to me than the idea that one person might take advantage of that. So that's really a philosophical idea. I fundamentally think that people are going to try to do the right thing. For the most part, most people want to do the right thing and they don't want to mess up, they don't want to hurt other people. And so that means, you know, a thousand of my customers are gonna be good and maybe one is gonna copy something or share something when they shouldn't. And I have proof of this because I have web design customers who come to me and say, "Hey, I bought your website templates. I have clients, can I give them the ones that I bought or how should I go about that?" And just the fact that they ask me shows that, and I've had more than one person ask me that, shows that you know, those people are trying to do the right thing. They just double check and then I tell them, "Yep, just join my affiliate program and you know, have your customer buy their own." And they're always fine with that.

So basically, on a philosophical level, I believe that most people are gonna do the right thing and they're not going to intentionally take advantage of, you know, the internet ability to copy something just because they can. And if somebody does, so be it. I'd rather still be serving all of the other people who do the right thing. Now that brings me to the second reason, which kind of piggybacks off of this. Because most people are trying to do the right thing, they're gonna be fine with me saying, "Hey, can you stop copying that? I noticed you used my thing in a way that you're not supposed to, please stop." One of my professors in law school would always tell us to assume ignorance over malice, to assume that someone is making a mistake before you assume that someone is out to get you. Now he was mostly talking about working with other lawyers in a litigation context. You don't want to assume that they're actually, you know, it is an adversarial situation, but you don't want to assume that they've done something to screw you over and then react as if they have done that if they haven't. Like it's better to react in a way where you're just like, "Hey, this thing isn't okay. Is that what you meant to do? Or can you change it in this way?" That gets a much better result than automatically assuming someone is out to get you and reacting in kind to that.

The same thing applies here. If you find out that somebody has copied something of yours, assume that they just didn't realize that they were doing something wrong. Because a lot of the times this is the case. Again, people are not generally out to get you. That's one of my basic beliefs. You can disagree with me if you want to, but based on my experience, especially in this copyright situation, they either don't think about it at all, or they don't realize that they've done they're doing anything wrong. They just think, "Oh, that's a cool idea. I'm gonna use that idea." Or they think you won't notice and that they'll get away with it. And so if you just call them out and say, "Hey, I noticed you were inspired by me, but this is actually my copyright, please take it down." You know, you can think of your own way of saying this. Nine times out of ten, they're gonna say, "Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry, I didn't realize, I'm so embarrassed," or they're gonna be embarrassed, they won't even say anything back, they'll just take it down.

So obviously, when this happens to you, it's going to be emotional and it might be difficult to react that way at first. You're gonna have this initial gut instinct emotional reaction that's probably gonna be a negative experience. But if you just sit with that, if you just process it, let yourself feel it, and then respond, and then reach out with kindness, assuming that they've made a mistake instead of assuming that they're up to get you, it's usually gonna work out okay. Now, if it doesn't, here's the third reason that you just don't have to worry about it. Everything you create, everything you hit publish on, everything you sell that you have created, you own the copyright to it. Just by creating something, you own the copyright. You have legal ownership of that thing that you created by using your imagination and creativity and unique thought processes and ideas to bring something to life, to put it down on paper or recorded or whatever, in a way that someone could copy it, you own the copyright to it. And that means that there are legal avenues available to you. You have legal recourse if someone copies your stuff. Yes, I recommend reaching out as the first step, but that doesn't mean it's the only thing you can do. You also have the law on your side. There are steps you can take. If they say nope or if they ignore you, when you reach out and ask them to take something down that they've copied, there are other things you can do. And that might be something like sending a cease and desist letter. That is just a stronger, more urgent demand to remove the infringing material, and that can have a threat of further legal action in it, and those are usually quite effective.

The other thing you can do is file a DMCA takedown notice, which is basically letting the platform that they've published your content on, letting them know that it's infringing material, and the platform is incentivized to take it down. So if somebody, you know, posts something on Instagram that they screen grabbed from your profile, you can report that as a copyright violation and Meta is incentivized to take it down. Now I'm not saying that you will never be copied if you hit publish on something. Yes, it's a real concern that somebody might steal something that you've created and publish it on their own and claim credit for it. That happens. What I'm saying is I never want you to hold back from what you want to share because of that fear. Because there are ways of number one, preventing that, and number two, getting someone to stop if they have copied you. Legal reasons, but also beyond that, just the personal aspect of it. People don't like being called out, people don't like making mistakes, and fundamentally they're trying to do the right thing, especially if it's another business owner, there's no profit in stealing other people's work. They're gonna fall flat eventually. They're not gonna be able to win by doing that forever. But when you know that you have the law on your side, when you know what the steps are to prevent copycats and to take if someone does copy you, it gives you that confidence to be able to hit publish on something, knowing that you have things that you can do, knowing that the law is on your side and your knowledge is on your side, because the world needs to hear what you have to say.

All right, there we have it. One more reason. You're the only one who can say what you want to say the way you want to say it. You're the only person who can communicate your message the way that you communicate it. Even if somebody else does copy you, they can't be you. And in this online space where we are personal brands and service providers and coaches, people are paying to work with us. They're paying to work with you, you personally, your personality, your energy, your vibes, whatever you want to call it. They're working with you and not just that one post that you posted. Okay, as an example, I sell contract templates. Somebody else, some other lawyer, could be selling the exact same contract templates that I have, but you can't tell that. You can't tell that on the front end. I don't think that's happening because that would be crazy. But you can't tell that on the front end. Like if you, if somebody is deciding to work with me, they're deciding based on getting to know me, the posts that I put out there, the emails that I write, this podcast, my personality, the way that I communicate, my values, they're buying my content, they're buying that template, not knowing exactly what's in it, but they trust me because of who I am and who I present myself as. And so if somebody was copying my templates, they wouldn't be able to sell it in the same way. They wouldn't be able to have that same connection. So we could have two people selling the exact same thing, and they would still buy from the one that they like. The customer would still choose based on a whole lot of other factors. People are buying from you, and that means they need to see who you are, and that means no hesitating to publish things. People need what you have to say.

I really hope that this episode has been encouraging for you and given you a little confidence. And if you want to go deeper on this, these concepts, if you want to learn those exact steps that you can take both before hitting publish on something to protect it, and those steps of enforcement afterwards, I am hosting a live workshop in February, on February 9th, that goes over all of this. It's called the Copycat Workshop, and pre-sale tickets are on sale now through January 31st, and then the price goes up. So you can go to artfulcontracts.com/copycat-workshop, and I'll put the link down in the show notes. Or just send me a DM on Instagram and I can send you the link. This is gonna be a 90-minute-ish workshop with time for questions, and I'm honestly so excited about it. You'll come away with a really deep understanding of what a copyright is, how it helps protect you, what you need to do ahead of time to protect your content, those enforcement steps that you can take if someone does copy you. And we're also gonna be talking about the other side of it, which is how to use other people's content legally and or at the same time how to tell if someone else is what they've done is not copying, but actually legal, permissible use of your copyrighted material. And I think that's an important distinction to understand. So the goal of this workshop is for you to feel confident hitting publish on your content because you know that you own it, you know that you have something to say, and you know that you have the steps to take to protect it afterwards if something does go wrong. Click the link down in the show notes to grab your ticket or send me a DM over on Instagram with the word copycat and I'll send you a link. Stay warm out there. I'll see you next week.