The public posting by Noel from a few days ago about Nick Denton ‘stealing’ his work has taught me some great lessons, and might teach the rest of us a few too. I’ll try to list a few of them here:
1. Free never means free.
It’s become apparent that Noel did some work for free and in good faith, for Nick and his company. He showed that work (and all the raw work behind it) to Nick without promise of payment. Nick used the work that Noel did, without restitution for said work, and now Noel’s mad about it. Nick’s gotten a little bad publicity out of the whole deal, and thus the ‘free’ work that Noel did has ended up costing Nick something, thought how much that bad PR hurts Nick in the long term is anyones guess.
2. Understandings aren’t always understood.
It’s pretty clear that Nick and Noel each had their own ‘understanding’ of what the fair use parameters for Noel’s work was. Both understandings weren’t clear to the other party though. Communication broke down between these two parties, and that’s really sad. Noel has pretty much lost the opportunity for further work with Nick (not that Nick had guaranteed Noel any paying work in the future) and Nick’s lost the faith and readership of a few people that also don’t understand the reality of the miscommunication, but have nonetheless made up their minds about who cheated whom.
3. Blogs opened this conversation up
Not that this will astound anyone, but without weblogs, a few things wouldn’t have happened here: a) Noel wouldn’t have been able to comment this publicly about the deeds involved, b) Nick wouldn’t have been able to comment on his attackers own website for all the world to see, c) I wouldn’t have been able to join the conversation, and d) We all might not have seen this little event transpire.
I used to work for a person that was pretty ruthless in business. He wasn’t all that honest with the people that worked for and with him all the time… he was sort of slimy to say the least. That doesn’t mean he didn’t have the best of intentions, he just wasn’t all that ethical. At the beginning of all of this, I jumped to conclusions and thought for sure Nick Denton was just like my old boss… but…
After reading all of the comments from Nick, Rick, and others, all I’ve decided at this point is that Noel and Nick had a misunderstanding that should likely have been resolved privately. Nick probably handled the situation badly at first, and Noel grew frustrated enough to post a public comment about what had transpired up to that point. The result is a likely impassable situation that no-one wins from.
Any number of more positive outcomes could have presented themselves if both parties had worked a little harder with the other toward a more tenable solution, but it’s almost too late for that.
Big Lesson: If you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say anything at all.
I could have followed that lesson when I originally posted about the situation between Noel and Gawker. Some of the other people commenting on this situation probably could have too. Noel could have followed that lesson when he first brought the situation into the open. I’m sure things could have worked out better had the communication lines been more open.
Some Good News: Noel has posted an update saying that “Negotiations are in the works.” Good to hear they’re communicating again.
Apple has admitted that they don’t make money on the iTMS, and that the introduction of it on the Windows platform is really a “Trojan Horse” aimed at getting Windows users to buy iPods, and getting them to think about buying Macintosh computers in the future. I think that’s a coy ploy for Apple, and I’m happy to hear that they’re pursuing this course of action. And don’t underestimate the power of the 
Long story short, iTunes for Windows is a good thing. It’s a smart tactical and strategic play on Apple’s part, and I hope it pays off. It’s all about the experience.
I came home today… exhausted from a short but stressful week so far. 
I’m braindead today:
Still busier than shit:
Norah Jones is amazing. I just picked up her CD “Come Away with Me” and I love it. Especially, this track:
Still busier than shit at work… got home tonight and cooked dinner while cleaning the pool and drinking a few beers. Here are a few links from the week:
I’ve been working 13+ hour days for what feels like an eternity lately, and thus, this is just a dump of links that I either wanted to write about, or at the least bookmarked for some reason:
