“It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both.” – Machiavelli
The blogosphere has not been so adoring of Peter Shankman over the past week. It seems that others have experienced the same unfriendly side of the social media darling that I encountered about a year ago.
Shankman, the entrepreneur behind “Help a Reporter Out,” better known as HARO, has amassed more than 100,000 subscribers to his free list of queries from reporters looking for experts to quote for their stories.
Much of Shankman’s appeal has been the nice-guy image he has promoted through his blog and the personal banter he includes on his multiple daily emails. While building his list, he frequently has claimed “karma” to be the reason for the project, even though he now brags that he pulls in more than $1 million dollars per year from the advertising he sells on the emails. He has thousands of adoring fans who follow and comment on his blog posts, and he is a favorite speaker at PR and social media events all over the country.
On Feb. 26 Ryan Waggoner got a cease-and-desist letter from Shankman because Waggoner had launched a site called PRManna.com, a site to help startups and small businesses connect with reporters and other journalists looking for experts and sources for stories. In it, Waggoner credited Shankman with originally inspiring him to start the site. But at his blog, Minister of Awesome, Waggoner says he viewed Shankman’s service as a simple mailing list, “nothing more, and I thought the idea could be improved upon substantially, so I did.”
In the four-page C&D letter, which Waggoner calls “legal bullshit,” Shankman claimed Waggoner stole his idea, used his name without permission and “blatantly” copied the “look and feel” of Shankman’s site. Shankman’s letter demanded that Waggoner remove any mention of him or his service from Waggoner’s site, stop using PRManna and transfer ownership to Shankman.
Here is a screen shot of PRManna:
Shankman's site looks like this:
Waggoner’s post drew 35 supportive – and sometimes irate – comments such as:
Shankman ought to be ashamed of himself for his bullying tactics. I have cancelled my subscription to his service and I believe anyone who agrees that this is a malicious overreach on his part should do the same. (Michael Johnston)
I thought HARO was founded on the principles of better communication channels for media and sources/PR? This move just makes Mr. Shankman lose some credibility as it seems his only intent is to corner the market … (Juan)
What a childish response to competition …(Gordon Brander)
Waggoner’s post also released a firestorm all over the net, with additional posts on the controversy by high-profile blogs including mediabistro.com, techdirt.com, techprdecoder.com, fairsoftware.net, webfeetim.com allheadlinenews.com and others.
As Yogi Berra said, this is “déjà vu all over again.” I, too, started a service, HRMediaConnectionz.com, with the purpose of connection journalists and sources about two years ago. My service, however, is for “local only” journalists and sources in the Hampton Roads, Virginia, market. I, too, included a line on my site saying that it was “inspired by Peter Shankman of HARO,” and I encouraged people to sign up for his list if they were looking for national links.
I actually met Peter at a conference shortly after he started his service, and I personally told him that I was doing this, but he ignored me. Imagine my surprise when I launched my site, and Peter emailed me accusing me of stealing his code. He immediately cut me off from getting his service.
I called him and tried to make nice with him, explaining that I was not competing with him and had no plans to do so. My service is free, local and not for profit. How am I a threat to him? So after talking to him, he seemed to be cool with it all and allowed me to re-subscribe to his service (as a PR consultant, I was using his list to help my clients). I thought we were done with it.
Then eight months later on March 19, I, too, got a cease-and-desist letter from Shankman’s lawyer accusing me of stealing his idea, violating his copyright and copying the “look and feel” of his site. My site looks nothing like his. The only similarity between the two services is that I’m also connecting reporters and sources.
Here's my site:
As with Ryan, Shankman’s letter demanded that I remove from my site any reference to him or HARO and to include a statement that my site was in no way related to his. The letter hinted at further action: “We are continuing to investigate the scope of your activities and any potential infringement upon our client’s intellectual property.”
I was livid. I wrote an equally nasty letter back to Shankman and his lawyers telling them that I would gladly remove any reference to him. Why would I want to promote Shankman after the way he had treated me? I said I would include the disclaimer they requested – not because they were right, but because I knew that Shankman had the financial resources to make my life hell. In our judicial system, you don’t have to lose to pay – you just have to be accused.
Sometime afterwards I found another similar service online, and I contacted the owners to warn them about Shankman. They, too, had had a “Shankman moment.” This is apparently his M.O.
So here lies the irony. Shankman’s service was “inspired” by ProfNet, which preceded his service by many years. He bragged about thumbing his nose at them when objections were raised by their owners. HARO’s competition with ProfNet has no doubt cost that company millions. But Shankman continues to promote himself as a benevolent guy who is just trying to help reporters while sending C&D letters to much smaller "upstart" businesses that dare start services resembling his in any way.
Shankman posted a veiled response to Waggoner’s post about the C&D letter, reinforcing his “nice guy” persona, combined with part victim, part lion:
If I’m threatened, if I feel like I’m being taken advantage of, or if I feel like someone is trying to use my “nice guy” attitude to take what is mine, I’ll come down on you so hard, you’ll think you just got struck by a freight liner. Why? Because you didn’t expect it. You assumed “Oh, he’s nice, he won’t try and fight.” You’re wrong … I have the sharpest team of lawyers, advisors, and counsel that you never, ever want to meet.
The ultimate in irony comes from Shankman’s own pen when he published the post “B-A-D B-R-A-N-D M-O-V-E (23 POINTS)” on his blog in July 2008 about the shutdown of the popular app Scrabulous on Facebook:
Facebook is saying the decision was made by the Scrabulous developers, not Hasbro or Facebook. Of course it was! If you’re facing a multi-million dollar lawsuit, you’d shut down, too.
Why Hasbro took this route, similar to Fox shutting down Simpsons fan sites back in the late 90s, is beyond me. Why not just work with them? It would generate a hell of a lot more goodwill, make Hasbro beloved, let them both share in the ad revenue, and hey, I bet even get more people to buy the physical version of the game.
Sigh. Stop listening to the lawyers, Hasbro. For once.
Hmm. Can you spell H-I-P-R-O-C-R-I-S-Y?
So here’s the thing. I don’t begrudge Shankman — or anyone — for making money. And I wouldn’t blame him for protecting his intellectual property if someone had violated it, which they haven’t. Trying to patent a service to connect journalists and experts through email would be like trying to patent a peanut-butter-and-jelly-sandwich.
But I do object – and obviously so do many others who have commented on all the postings about Shankman’s C&D letter to Waggoner – when someone pretends to be one thing online, then behaves offline in a manner that is completely inconsistent with the image they are advancing. He apparently assumed that the twain would never meet.
With the speed, memory and ubiquitous nature of the Web, what you do speaks louder than anything you say. As a PR and social media guy, Shankman, above all, should know that.
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