B.L. Ochman has been getting some bad press for hawking her notes from the recent Search Engine Strategies NYC …
Is it legal, and would the notes even be credible from such a source?
The notes are being promoted as “Essential Tips, Tactics and Resources from Search Engine Strategies New York 2005” and Ian McCanerin of SMA NA raises the issue of legality at Jupiters own SearchEngineWatch Forums saying:
But what happens when you take it to the next step and start charging for that information? What if you attend an SES, take a bunch of notes, then charge people for it?
You could argue that the time and effort put into collecting the information and presenting it makes it valuable and therefore charging for it is appropriate.
You could also argue that copying down someone elses work and repackaging it for sale is a copyright violation.
A good point made i think, perhaps Jupiter will have something to say on this at some point.
Legalities aside, are they worth $15?
The notes are being flogged at $15 a crack, what interests me besides the possible legalities involved is the fact that for all appearances, B.L. Ochman is a Search Newbie and it could be argued that not only are the notes potentially in breach of copyright, but are not what they are marketed to be.
What qualifies Ochman to sell (at admittedly a pittance) notes on the following?
- 24 Need to Know Search Engine Optimization Tactics
- 21 Insider’s Tips for increasing your search ranking
- 23 essential resources for Search Optimization Strategy
I’ll gladly retract the last paragraphs if someone can point to something that validates her as a Search expert, but for now, i’d say that $15 was about $14 too much to ask…
For an excellent summary and commentary on many of the sessions at SES NYC see Barry Schwartz’s coverage for FREE here.
Nick Wilson is the publisher and founder of Threadwatch.org.
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