How not to conduct your business

I’ve been following the latest design scandal over at Flickr. I missed out on the previous scandal that, but this one is proving to be even more fascinating. In short, a logo site called LogoMaid stole the logo from a well-known designer and is selling it for profit. Not the first time something like this has happened, and guaranteed not the last. Yet what makes this one so interesting is that the owner of LogoMaid joined in on the Flickr thread, accused Simplebits of copyright theft, and created a bunch of sockpuppet to troll the thread. The scandal has been discussed many times over: a good link summary is found here and here. It even made the front page at Digg.

What’s funny (or sad) about all this is that LogoMaid’s reputation (if it even had one to begin with) has gone down the drain, not just because of the theft, but also because of how the owner conducted himself in the discussion. He could have averted all this just by apologizing and taking the offending logo down. Now the logo unsellable, and the business itself is now on shaky ground — a Google search turns up many negative posts. All this to save the $199 it was selling for. After five days, the owner finally apologizes and takes down the offending logo. I think it might be too late for his business.