Play the Game
Play the game is perhaps a bit of an obscure title for this blog post, but if you are doing something, whatever it is, you have agreed to play by the rules of whoever or whatever it is. If you do not like or want to adhere to the rules, then play your own game but play it elsewhere. I have seen way to many instances of late where someone does not like the rules, regulations, and in some cases even laws – so they simply decide to ignore those things they do not like and basically do whatever they wish to do. Most, doing so blatantly aware of what they are doing and even taunting the fact that they are doing so. Â One case in point, which I am sure you are mildly aware of you do any of your own blogging or work with WordPress in any way is the ongoing controversy between theme maker of Thesis and the makers of WordPress. Basically, WordPress is distributed under a GPL (General Public License) licensing concept, allow it to be freely copied and modified. Clear points in the license state that any derivative work (such as a plug-in or a theme) must also follow the GPL licensing. The GPL model does not limit the ability to charge for a product by the way, just the code itself is freely available and modifiable. Thesis maker felt that his work was so far beyond what WordPress had to offer that the licensing agreements somehow did not apply to him.
There was quite the stir in the community and my hats off to Matt Mullenweg for his grace in dealing with Chris Pearson. Chris had some arguments, but most of them were lame at worst and circular at best for why the GPL did apply to his work on the Thesis Theme. Bottom line, up until a few weeks ago he challenged WordPress to sue if they truly felt it did not. The issue with that is of course, that it takes time and resources away from the WordPress development and other projects. Clearly though, it would take a person who just did not understand that Thesis would not have existed without running on the WordPress platform in its current iteration to have any confusion about the GPL being applied to the theme. Thankfully, after all the hub-bub, and clearly a black eye in the public that sees such things, Pearson did back down and now honors a limited GPL that applies to the code that integrates directly with WordPress.
My thoughts, do NOT use a base system that has a license you do not agree with if you do not plan to honor it. Simple as that.
Another place I see a lot of the same not following the rules or trying to bend them every which way possible is eBay in conjunction with PayPal. Sure, I understand a lot about the excessively high fees and rules that limit what you can do here and there within certain categories and what you can NOT mention in your auction listings and such. On the other hand, you had a choice when you agreed to the user agreement to not accept it. And for the record, in my over ten years of usage, they have never just sprung something out of the blue – you always get a notice and an option to decline out of the program. Bottom line is, it is a huge potential marketing tool for the right kinds of products to this day, despite declining user numbers on a daily basis and competition for places like Craigslist and Estsy.
When I see folks in an open forum on a generally pretty honest forum talking openly about flaunting the rules and screwing eBay out every penny they can I have to question who is really more greedy – eBay or the person that is so willing to openly break the rules to make a few extra penny’s on the sale. Lets face it folks, fees are high, but if your margins are that close you need to find different suppliers or a more retail outlet for your sales. If you agree to use eBay – use it correctly and quit being the con you are with it.
Sub-note on this one, one person even went so far as to complain that the USPS had started printing logos on the inside of the priority boxes in order to keep people from getting free boxes, turning them inside out and using them with different shipping services or even through the USPS at lower parcel rates. The nerve of this person is beyond believe and I am sure they are not alone. There is a reason the USPS started printing on the inside of the boxes and the people doing the inside out shipping is it.
I have a few more that I could go on about with this concept… getting music for free from less that reputable sites is one that comes to mind readily, but I think you get the idea. If you are going to do something using someones set up – you are by definition agreeing to play by the rules they set forth. If you do not like their rules, simple enough, find a different sandbox.
** – image from Best Board Games, of the classic Parker Brother’s game: Monopoly
