Laura’s Winning Ideas

Once again, copyright is in the news.

David Klein

This time, an artist, Richard Prince has been sued for copyright infringement. The case was filed in New York District Court, alleges that Prince violated copyright when he scanned photographs from a book, printed them onto canvas, and then painted on top of them, adding evocative elements like face paint and electric guitars.

His defense is that he “transformed” the original image and so is free of the tethers of copyright. (Yeah. right.)

Don’t do this at your firm. Like running with scissors, letting your scanner substitute for legitimate licensed images is dangerous.

There’s a great article in the Wall Street Journal about this case. Click here for the link free for the next week. (After that you’ll need a subscription to get this article on-line: Color This Area of the Law Gray)

There are some instances in which “transformation” will pass muster. Like the time that Jeff Koons was inspired by a fashion photo of a woman’s legs with dangling sandal. He’d massaged the image so much that only the photographer could see the resemblance.

Even so, if he’d been a businessperson instead of an artist with renown legal representation, I suspect he would not have prevailed.

Satire is another shield for artists, but in business, it makes you look petty to satirize a competitor.

Don’t think that you can “transform” the logo of your competitor and come off looking good nor staying outside the legal protection afforded trademarks and copyrighted images.

Keep it clean out there, and don’t run with scissors scanned images!

Good conversation yesterday with Aina Vilumsons of the Wisconsin Procurement Institute.

I left her office with some nuggets that sparked several ideas today which can be used for marketing in the next few months.

Time is of the essence

The bad news has been delivered to the White House: infrastructure projects can’t get underway in less than 18 months, and money needs to be flowing NOW.

Consider holding a brainstorming session in your firm. Are there ways you can improve or drastically change the way you deliver that would transform the speed to market?

I’ve seen engineers split projects in a way that allowed construction to begin very early, with some loss of efficiency, but accomplishing the goal of an immediate construction start. If your team can come up with ways to expedite flow, you may find opportunities to land new work based on your ingenuity.

Architects, Engineers, and anyone early in the infrastructure pipeline has an opportunity. The challenge is to shift from focusing on scraping your fees down as low as possible to focusing on allowing the larger expense of construction to proceed earlier than usual, or in a way that solves the problem.

Remember, you can have two: Fast, Cheap, Good. The focus in this moment may be Fast and Good, rather than Cheap and Good.

Money Will Shift

Defense spending will go down, Energy spending will increase. DOE and EPA will have more opportunity as funding shifts. Where you market to federal agencies, a shift should be considered. Where you contract to prime contractors who work for DoD, you may need to look for prime contractors with relationships in other agencies.

Easy to see that some areas will have attention paid, and other areas will be starved for funding. Adjust your marketing accordingly.

These are my two favorite passages from today’s Inaguration Speech by President Barack Obama.

“We remain the most prosperous, powerful nation on Earth. Our workers are no less productive than when this crisis began. Our minds are no less inventive, our goods and services no less needed than they were last week or last month or last year. Our capacity remains undiminished. But our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions — that time has surely passed. Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.”

. . .

“To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict, or blame their society’s ills on the West — know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy. To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.”

Great piece of writing. Promising future if we can keep fear at bay and get back to work.

What passage from today’s speech will stay with you?

A portable death ray looks tempting today.

“Weaponized portable lasers for sale“