Companies need to work with, not against, the internet

Oct 28 2009 by Tom Scotney, Birmingham Post

Companies are increasingly finding that they don’t own their brands any more. The rise of the internet, and more specifically the rise of social media – allowing the common man to share and shape information at speeds previously unimaginable – has made a mockery of legislation often rooted in history.

Wragge & Co, one of the top legal names in Birmingham, is responding to the rise of the web with a new unit to track down people making defamatory comments online.

Yet the internet has always defied attempts to police it. The solution is not to update legislation, but rather to accept the inevitable and look at ways to deal with the digital landscape that companies have to work in these days.

Music companies are faced with the same issue. While the debate (and legal action) goes on over whether file-sharing is illegal – or immoral – file-sharing continues unchecked. For every site struck down, another rises in its place.

Regardless of whether music companies can win a legal battle, practically speaking, they have lost the war. It’s legal realpolitik. What they need to do is find a way to survive even with file-sharing, as it’s not going away any time soon. The same goes for managing brands and fighting a bad reputation.

Firms will find more success in engaging with people online, with creating relationships with their customers, with building their own reputation rather than trying to knock down those who try to destroy it.

It’s not for nothing that Google – perhaps the most successful company of the century – has the motto “Don’t be evil”. So while Wragge & Co will no doubt find a lot of work, companies need to start to think further than the courthouse to protect their image.