Formalities play on fear. Bravely refuse.
A year after starting CD Baby, when it was going pretty well, I got a call from a friend who was setting up his own similar web-based business.
He said, “Do you have any advice about how to do our ‘Terms and Conditions’ and ‘Privacy Policy’ on the website? Which lawyer did you use for that?”
I said, “Huh? I don’t have any of that legalese stuff. I’ve never hired a lawyer.”
Shocked, he said, “That’s crazy! What if some kid buys a CD from you, then kills himself? What if you get sued over that?”
I said, “Then no stupid footnote legalese would protect me anyway, so I’ll worry about it if it happens.”
Do you passionately love the “Terms and Conditions” and “Privacy Policy” pages on other websites? Have you even read them? If not, then why would you go putting that garbage on your website?
After CD Baby grew to fifty employees, all the business-to-business service companies started pitching me on how I needed an official employee review plan, sensitivity training, “Terms and Conditions” postings, and all this corporate crap.
I got such joy out of saying no to all of it.
Never forget that there are thousands of businesses, like “Jim’s Fish Bait Shop” in a shack on a beach somewhere, that are doing just fine without corporate formalities.
As your business grows, never let the leeches sucker you into all that stuff they pretend you need.
They’ll play on your fears, saying that you need this stuff to protect yourself against lawsuits. They’ll scare you with horrible worst-case scenarios. But those are just sales tactics. You don’t need any of it.
> After CD Baby grew to fifty employees, all the business-to-business service companies started pitching me on how I needed an official employee review plan, sensitivity training, “Terms and Conditions” postings, and all this corporate crap.
>
> I got such joy out of saying no to all of it.
I like how you emphasize "I got such a joy out of saying no to all of it." by putting it on its own line.
The thesis seems like it's true to me. But it would be cool to get some data on this. I wonder if it exists, or how difficult it'd be to obtain.
The interesting thing is whether the ROI is worthwhile.
- So for the "investment" part, you'd have to know how much time and money companies spend on, say, legalese. That shouldn't be too hard, especially to approximate.
- The "return" part seems tricky. You can look at companies who didn't invest in legalese who got caught up in law suits, see how expensive the lawsuit is, and I guess estimate whether legalese would have prevented it. You'd also want to know whether companies who had spend on legalese would have ended up getting into lawsuits, but that seems like it's probably too hard to estimate.
Internationally, the U.S. does not have a good reputation for lawyers. I believe they have the most per capita of anyone in the developed world, Japan has the least.
In a Japanese manga (comic) there is a scene where one teenage girl, half angry, half laughing, says to another: "If we were Americans I'd sue you!"
An American reports being surprised when on a Japanese elevator the "door close" which is a fake in the U.S., worked in Japan. A Japanese businessman in the elevator responds, "In America they've been. disabled, because of law suits."
My latest pet peeve is the recent adding of "not limited to" after the words "includes." Can't Americans use common English? As in, to use a made up example, a lawyer writing "The U.S. has many states including, but are not limited to, California, Nevada and Texas."
They never wrote way when I was a young man.
Well that's just the perfect freedom I never considered taking for myself! Love it!
Love how you did this with CD Baby too, and your responses to us artists always set you apart from the other companies as well. Thank you!
So true. Over thinking is the greatest enemy to creating anything.
hi derek ,i have never been a reader (have tried but it was never my thing).
But your book held me and i ended up reading/living every line of it.
Thank you so much for this wonderful experience and lastly there were many instances where your clarity and courage had me shocked.
Thansk once again.
And then there’s Germany where you have a thing called “Impressumspflicht” (obligation for an imprint basically).
I don’t really understand the legal basis but as soon as you’re providing a service, like selling books or a “journalistic” weblog or whatever, you’re legally obliged here to have an imprint with a specific set of contact information. Theoretically, if a competitor sees that you don’t have one, you have an unfair advantage by not having one and they can initiate legal steps. The maximum fine could be as high as 50,000€.
I have never heard of anyone this happened to, but in theory that’s how it goes. That’s Germany for you ;)
I don't know when you wrote thus text, but do you stand by it even if the "legal crap" is legally required?
For example, having a data processing notice is a requirement under GDPR...
I do, yes. I understand why they made those laws, and they’re needed for big companies that collect our data. But a guy with a blog or a hobby site, in that context of someone getting started or making an appealing little service, those laws can do more harm than good so it’s morally justifiable to refuse. — Derek