Internet Lawyer: Consumer Advocate or Devil’s Advocate?
Some cannot understand how one can simultaneously represent some of the biggest Internet info product marketers while attacking others for unethical conduct. A public relations stunt? Loose cannon? What the heck is going on?
To understand the what, you’ll need to learn the why I’m about to share with you for the first time.
My grandparents and great-aunt instilled old-fashioned ethics in me from childhood. They grew up during the Great Depression and spent their working lives as blue collar employees. To them, “get-rich-quick” meant the stock market crash of 1929, massive unemployment, and doing without.
If I could sum up their views on how to live, it would be these words: “Do what is right.”
Have I always done the right thing? Of course not.
Like you, I’m human and have made mistakes (and hopefully learned enough not to repeat them).
But doing what is right is the goal post that I aim for each and every day.
Is there a conflict between representing “big gurus” and doing what is right? Not if the goal of those gurus is also to do the right thing.
Do these clients make mistakes? Of course. They’re human too.
And if there comes a time where a business decision is made to profit from knowingly doing wrong to customers, that’s where the attorney-client relationship quickly comes to an end.
Some claim that I’ve been too harsh on certain marketers who have engaged in fraudulent and deceptive business practices. But there is a difference. Those marketers who I’ve publicly criticized for such misconduct have not made a mistake. They’ve chosen a way of doing business that is designed to profit by taking advantage of others.
Exposing these Internet scams is done because it is the right thing both for consumers and honest online business owners who shouldn’t be tarnished by association with the so-called “guru” marketers.
This holiday season will be a tough one for me. My grandparents have passed away. In recent years, my great-aunt has been the sounding board that invariably answers “do the right thing.” Now terminally ill, I’ll be visiting with her for the last time this Thanksgiving.
I hope that in the coming years, I live up to her expectations to do what’s right. If that means offending some scam artists masquerading online as gurus, so be it.
Do old-fashioned ethics have a place in the way we do business with each other on the Internet? Absolutely.
That’s why a group of Internet marketers committed to doing the right thing has just formed the Internet Ethics Council. If you’re truly committed to treating your customers with courtesy and respect, you’ll want to join us. To learn more, click here.
Forced Continuity, Negative Word-of-Mouth Marketing, and the FTC
There’s a reputable direct response marketing organization that has generated a firestorm of negative publicity with its forced continuity program. You can read more about the particular incident at the Copywriters Board and the Warrior Forum. Monthly billing under a forced continuity program was purportedly instituted without full disclosure of the programs existence to purchasers of the initial product that triggered the continuity program after a free trial period.
Let me disclose at the outset that I’m a big fan of the organization in question and was shocked to read about this incident.
If the accusations are true, the organization is exposing itself to legal liability through the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC), states’ attorneys general bureaus of consumer protection, and even private lawsuits. Personally, I’m hoping that the prior track record of providing valuable content will dissuade anyone from instigating such proceedings.
Yet even if the organization is not held accountable by law for the alleged misconduct, there the negative word-of-mouth negative publicity serves as judge, jury, and executioner when it comes to sales. The information will not be erased from the Internet — and it will result in lost sales. That’s a shame because there’s a lot of valuable offline and online marketing information one can learn from the organization.
While forced continuity appears to be the flavor of the day for marketing because of profitability, it will probably take the FTC to come down hard on someone for deceptive trade practices before the methods of marketing such programs are cleaned up. If they decide to pick a marketer to make an example of, I just hope it isn’t the one at the center of this controversy.
