Potential Confusion Avoided - rPath Video

Yesterday, we posted about a video by a company called rPath with the title "Cloud Computing in Plain English." Read about it here.

The blog post came as a result of our unsuccessful efforts over six months to illustrate to rPath that their video, because of the combination of the "in Plain English" title and use of paper-cut outs on a whiteboard, was a source of confusion for Common Craft customers. Because rPath insisted on using legal means to communicate their stance, we chose to take a different route that didn't involve lawyers.  We simply asked our fans to help us reduce confusion.

Over the course of the last 24 hours, we've learned a lot. First, let me say that we couldn't have imagined the level of your response. We are very lucky to have people around us who feel passionately about helping us protect our brand. Within a couple of hours of the blog post, the message to rPath was clear and as you'll see below, we have reached a resolution.  We thank you.

Along the way we learned that it is possible to mobilize a community to seek a better outcome. However, it comes with risks. We have no control over what is said and it's impossible to put the genie back in the bottle. We are big fans of civility and reason and there is a chance for these kinds of campaigns to diverge from our strongly held values. We've learned to tread lightly.

Yesterday afternoon I received a note from Jake Sorofman, rPath's VP of Marketing and someone who was involved in creating the video.  Jake's side of the story is that he was never aware of Common Craft or the "in Plain English" series of videos when the video was created. I will take Jake at his word and assume this is the case.  For months, we were dealing with another VP, who made it clear a simple solution would not work. Today, Jake and I have discussed it and we both agree that this issue could have been avoided, had we been able to communicate with him early on. 

Jake has agreed to change the title of the video on YouTube and display a link to commoncraft.com on the YouTube page.  The video itself, which contains a watermark with the "in Plain English" title will remain online.  We think this is a reasonable way to resolve the issue and avoid future confusion. Thank you, Jake.

I'm happy that we were able to resolve this reasonably and without lawyers. Thanks you for all your support! Cheers.

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Help Common Craft Reduce Confusion - rPath's Cloud Computing Video UPDATED

Updated: The issue described below has been resolved. You can read about it here.

While we are happy to be an inspiration for educators and individuals, sometimes we see examples of commercial organizations that choose to make videos that cause potential confusion. When a video uses paper cut-outs on a whiteboard and "in Plain English" in the title, people may mistake it for part of the Common Craft video series. This confusion compromises the hard work we've put into building the Common Craft brand of "in Plain English" videos.

When this happens, we often take a reasonable approach as a first step: we ask them to simply change the title to reduce confusion.

Unfortunately, one company has not been so reasonable. A tech company called rPath made a video called "Cloud Computing in Plain English" that uses animated versions of paper cut-outs on a white background. Despite our multiple requests, they (via their IP attorneys) refuse to change the title of the video.

So, aside from potential legal action, we're motivated to make sure that confusion is reduced. We have our own "Cloud Computing in Plain English" video in the works and we want to ensure that rPath's video is not confused with our video.

So our purpose is clear: The Cloud Computing video by rPath, despite the title and appearances, is in no way related to Common Craft.  Common Craft did not work with rPath in any way.

If you would like to help us reduce this confusion (without linking to the rPath website) it would be appreciated. Might I suggest a comment on their video? Commenting has been turned off.

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UPDATED:  I knew this would happen. rPath is now hiding/deleting the comments on the YouTube video and has turned off commenting completely. That's OK, I managed to grab a few screenshots (below) because I figured they didn't really want to hear what people think about this issue. Thanks to everyone that has commented!

Update 2: The rPath folks have changed the description on the YouTube video page to say "**Not affiliated with Common Craft. If you're interested in Common Craft, visit: http://www.commoncraft.com**" I appreciate them making this change.

Update 3: Jake from rPath has left a comment on this blog post ("rPath Responds" below) and we have been in toch via email.  I will take Jake at his word when he says he didin't know about Common Craft when the video was made.  Of course, as I told him, knowing then and refusing to make a change to make it right now are two different things.

 

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What To Do About Copy-Cats?

For quite a while now, we’ve been flattered to see others create videos that appear very similar to ours. In many cases, these are positive videos that are used as classroom exercises.  We encourage others in the education world to create Common Craft-inspired videos. Of course, some producers have taken the idea in new directions and mediums, which we also encourage. Further, some producers choose to publicly attribute Common Craft for inspiring their work - and we deeply appreciate this kind of recognition.

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Building a New Foundation for Common Craft

For the last few months, we've been "foundation building."  For us, this means taking the time to focus on the business behind Common Craft and how we communicate our business to you. Our goal is clarity - if we are clear about the exact business that we run, then we're more able to illustrate our value to potential customers. It's hard work and something we're excited to see come to fruition. Now that it's in place, we can really focus on videos.

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No Love for SFX Baseball's Strong-Arm Tactics

I just got an email from Patrick O'Keefe, a friend that I've known through the web for years. His story got my blood boiling and I want to share it.

Updated:  Patrick will not have to give up his site (for now).  

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