Ethics question: do you abide by a client's wishes even if you disagree?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’m a freelance editor, writer and web designer with several clients of varying sizes. (Their businesses, that is. Though I’m sure they are personally of different sizes too. :))

Anyway, one of them is in a niche field with a few direct competitors that run almost identical businesses. My client is a staunch defender of her trademarked name and certain slogans, and has dinged some of her competitors for violations in the past.

However this woman has recently nabbed several of her competitors’ domain names under different country’s TLDs (that is, top-level domains, for example .co.uk, .it, .is, .ua, .ca, and so on). These aren’t just variations of the competitors names such as misspellings; they’re the actual domain name, just using a different country’s extension.

It’s certainly not up to me to judge what a client does, at least not to her face. :slight_smile: Personally I think this behavior is hypocritical, but hey, I’m not the morality police and business is tough and yadda yadda.

However, she’s asking me to set up these domains to point to her own site. This is where I find myself at a quandary.

I want to refuse. I would do so very politely, very professionally, but simply mention that I’m uncomfortable setting these up since I believe this could cause problems down the road, and I also try not to act in a way that would cause harm if the same were done to me.

If I wanted to be more uptight, I’d mention that it’s a clear bad faith violation of the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP), which basically states that knowingly registering a domain name of a competitor isn’t kosher. For those who don’t wanna read through all that tripe, here’s the relevant section:

[spoiler]b. Evidence of Registration and Use in Bad Faith. For the purposes of Paragraph 4(a)(iii), the following circumstances, in particular but without limitation, if found by the Panel to be present, shall be evidence of the registration and use of a domain name in bad faith:

(ii) you have registered the domain name in order to prevent the owner of the trademark or service mark from reflecting the mark in a corresponding domain name, provided that you have engaged in a pattern of such conduct; or

(iii) you have registered the domain name primarily for the purpose of disrupting the business of a competitor; or

(iv) by using the domain name, you have intentionally attempted to attract, for commercial gain, Internet users to your web site or other on-line location, by creating a likelihood of confusion with the complainant’s mark as to the source, sponsorship, affiliation, or endorsement of your web site or location or of a product or service on your web site or location.[/spoiler]

Mind you, domain poaching like this isn’t illega, or at least, I don’t think it is. ICANN (which stands for the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) isn’t a law enforcement agency or anything. I believe they act as sort of an arbitrator and if one of the competitors files a claim, it’s up to ICANN to resolve the dispute. I have no doubt the decision would go against my client.

(BTW I should mention that what I’m being asked to do is something that the client can definitely do herself – indeed, she’s done it before and knows how. It doesn’t require huge technical knowledge or anything. She’s just asking me because she’s busy with other stuff at the moment. So if I don’t do it, she will. And I don’t care if she does; it’s her business, her decision. I just would rather keep my hands clean.)

Anyway, am I being too much of a prig? Should I shut up and do what my client asks? I don’t think my client would fire me or anything. We’ve worked together for nearly a decade and I think she knows where I stand on such things.

What would you do in this scenario?

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By the way, I’m aware there are some typos in my post, which is embarrassing for an editor. Sorry, I tried to fix 'em but adding the poll lost me my editing window. So please mentally change competitors to competitors’ in that third paragraph, and illega to illegal, and so on. :slight_smile:

3

I guess what does it matter? If you don’t do it, she can probably do it herself anyway as you said. And it’s not like it’s illegal or dangerous. At worst you are facilitating being a minor nusaince to some other business.

4

I don’t think it’s your place to complain about her grabbing those domains. That’s up to her competitors.

I don’t see your doing the job as a moral issue for you. YMMV

5

Do you make any claim that you abide by ICANN recommendations? It might be unethical if you didn’t inform your client of what you know about the subject if you are charging for general expertise. If you are just charging for your time, and you aren’t doing anything illegal or anything in contradiction to claims you make about your services, it’s hard to say there’s an ethical violation.

In the software business it’s common to include language in a contract to protect you from the misuse of work product by the client.

6

Thanks for the responses so far, guys. Interesting. I guess I’m old-fashioned in my feeling squeamish about this sort of thing.

TriPolar, no, I don’t have any reference to abiding by ICANN recs. in my contracts or on my site. It’s probably a good idea for me to do so, though, especially if I want to have an “out” for any similar issues I run into.

I’m 100% certain that my client knows she’s putting herself at risk. I’m about 95% certain she’ll respond to my informing her of this (again, politely and without a judgmental air) with, “well, they’d do it to me if I hadn’t grabbed all permutations of my domain, plus they already use my company name in their META tags.” And she’s right, they do.

I don’t know why this bothers me so much. It just does. But it sounds like most people think I’m sounding schoolmarmish and just need to get over it.

Edited to add:… Except that looking at the poll results, it’s interesting that the majority are saying that they wouldn’t do the work. Now that’s even more interesting. Why are the “no” crowd silent, but the “yes” folks doing all the responding? I’d have thought it would be the other way around…

7

I didn’t vote before. I did vote “no” now. You didn’t really make clear to me in your OP that you thought it was a violation of your personal ethics, but I answered based on the wording of the poll question. But part of my ethics would be to abide by my promises, even if I should have considered them more closely to start with, except in extreme cases like illegality. The borderline cases are always the toughest. I don’t see a clear answer for your particular case except to be up front with the client.

8

I think the area of what’s unethical can cover a broader space than what’s illegal. This seems to fall into the unethical but not illegal zone.

I can see your dilemma. You don’t want to do something you feel is unethical but you don’t want to lose work either. I don’t know your business situation so I can’t offer advice.

If you want help in supporting your decision to follow your ethics consider your professional reputation. A reputation for being somebody who upholds an ethical standard may have more value in the long run that whatever you’d earn from this job. And the reverse may also hold true.

Personally, there have been times when I have experienced inconvenience because of a decision to not do something I considered unethical. But I’ve found that the inconvenience was temporary while the knowledge that I did what I thought was right has lasted. And the reverse has again been true.

9

Sure I do. Often I’m working with incomplete information (I’m not always privy to a client’s global strategy, for security reasons) so all I can do is make sure they are aware of the potential problems of doing what they want to do, and I’ve done my job.

10

Gotcha, thanks, TriPolar. I really thought I had expressed that this was a personal ethics issue, and didn’t realize I hadn’t made that clear. But yeah, I don’t think there’s any official code of ethics in the freelance web development world, though it wouldn’t surprise me if various guilds or associations had something like that. (I’m not a member of any, so I don’t know.)

Does it make a difference if I’m not under a contract for this particular job? I’ve been working with this client for such a long time that we only use contracts for major projects (redesigning an entire site, for example). Otherwise she just asks me to do stuff and I do it, then bill her. There’s no overriding contract between the two of us.

Thanks, Little Nemo. You put that very well, and I’m not just saying that 'cause I agree with you. :slight_smile: That is how I feel: there’s a way I like to do business, and how I treat my clients, and I think that in the long run, the fact that I do behave this way means that they know they can trust me to deal fairly with them.

But I also can tell that others here think I might be making an ethical mountain out of a ethics-neutral molehill. So I’m still not sure what to do. I really don’t want my client to think I’m balking for a silly reason, or that I’m more trouble than I’m worth. Though realistically speaking, I doubt she will; I do a lot of work beyond the call of duty…such as being up at 1:18AM on a Saturday transferring domains!

That’s fair. I think I’d feel more comfortable shrugging my shoulders, lying back and thinking of England if I didn’t know so damn much about her business, and her competitors’ businesses, and all the ridiculous petty shenanigans they all get up to in order to mess with each other. So I kinda know too much to claim ignorance.

11

Ok first, I said not ‘clear to me’ because I’m having an ADDish day. So maybe your unease and mention of hypocrisy was clear enough for others. IMHO you should just make up your mind and discuss the results with your client. More to the point, it seems like nasty business, but business can be nasty. If your client is not violating a law you may want to consider that she’s engaged in competition along the same terms as her competitors. You seem to be looking for a way to avoid or justify a situation that makes you feel uneasy. Trust me, if you’re in business long enough, you’ll face situations that make you feel much more uneasy than this.

Frankly, this situation wouldn’t violate my personal ethics, but might make me feel uneasy too. I’d hold my nose and do it, because I’d feel gratitude toward a long term client whose business may have been crucial in making it this far. But I don’t know all the little details of the situation that could make it swing one way or the other.

Aside from that, I’d recommend against establishing any new policy that will limit your future options unless you can establish a clear benefit for your business. That way you can still make choices on a case by case basis.

12

You might want to suggest she check with her IP lawyer about cybersquatting.

13

Your generic question is easy for me: the entire point of my having ethics and morals is that they are considerations above everything else. I don’t intentionally violate my ethics for anyone. I would feel physically sick doing something I feel is unethical just because it would get me more money.

Your other question is a bit more complicated, but I think I see it as effectively pretending to be someone else, and that’s wrong. It’s why I support laws against trademark abuse, even if I’m not nearly as happy with copyright law.

And once I’ve decided that it’s wrong, paragraph one applies.

14

I’ve probably just been lucky in the last 20 years or so, since I’ve mostly worked for arts nonprofits where, although things can get stressful, usually there’s no competitive intrigue or sabotaging going on. At least not that I ever knew about! Maybe Carnegie Hall secretly calls up City Center and books it for two weeks during the busiest time of the season, then cancels before the money is due. Or perhaps the Met used to order 20 pizzas and send them C.O.D. to MOMA.

Well, perhaps there’s a way to state my preferred way of doing business in a not-very-specific manner on my website. Just oblique references to things like “trustworthy” and “ethical” or other similar code-words might at least give some indication that I’m not into “black hat” tricksy behavior.

Well… that’s not quite what she’s doing. Cybersquatting more accurately relates to someone buying up a domain with the intention of selling it to the likely would-be owner at an extortionate – or at least exhorbitant – price.

Brandjacking is the term you’re looking for, and I’m pretty sure she’s very aware of it since she’s kvetched about her competitors doing just that (using her brand in Google adwords so their companies show up in searches for her company name).

Yeah, that’s kinda where I am. Regarding TriPolar’s pertinent comments about loyalty to a client whose work has indeed been very steady and has benefitted me for many years… I think I’ve done my duty as far as that’s concerned, by consistently working longer hours, doing work “off the clock” for free, and looking out for her interests by paying close attention to trends in her industry and making suggestions for future products-- stuff that isn’t in my job description, but is always greatly appreciated by her.

So I think I’ve done right by this client, and I guess what I’m saying is that I’ve convinced myself not to do something that makes me uneasy–something that I would object to if performed against my client. Put it this way: my name, and my company’s name, is listed on this client’s website as the webmaster/designer/developer of her site. I don’t want to do anything that I wouldn’t want my name associated with.

I know it probably seems melodramatic but… well, I don’t often get to take moral stands on things in this business, even tiny ones like this. Every now and then it’s good to be tested like this, so you can see where your compass takes you.

Most likely my client will just roll her eyes at my email, go ahead and forward the domains herself, and then write back saying that she understands and is cool with my stance. Like I said, she already knows and tolerates my beliefs about right and wrong when it comes to issues like intellectual property, giving proper credits to artists, not “sharing” commercial fonts, and so on.

Anyway thanks to all for your comments. Actually I’d be very interested in hearing anecdotes from anyone who’s made decisions like this. I think it’s an interesting and important topic, especially for people who run their own businesses and who don’t necessarily have an official “ethics manual” to which they must abide. When you’re in a field where there aren’t any/many codified rules, what if any stances have you taken?

15

choie, I admire your decision. You are sticking to your guns, and you are the arbiter of your own personal ethics.

16

Wow, thank you, TriPolar. That’s really very kind of you to say!

'Course, it’s not like I’m a Chinese dissident facing a tank in Tiananmen Square, here – I’m not really risking anything (except maybe some mild client annoyance, but as I said, she’s already familiar with my uptightness in some areas and accepts it – plus, she loves/needs my skills, so it ain’t like she’s gonna fire me). I’m not gonna pat myself on the back for huge moral courage or anything. :slight_smile:

But all that notwithstanding, I’ll take your praise gratefully, because it’s generous of you and it’s a very nice way to start my day.

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You’re welcome. But don’t spread it around, I have a bad reputation to maintain.

18

As soon as her competitors become hip to what she’s doing, I’m certain she’ll be receiving some legal letters. Hell, we once mentioned one of our competitors by posting a link on our site to an article about them being shut down by the government and within 24 hours, we had a stack of complaints from their legal team. Good times.

19

What exactly is her risk? You’ve said what she’s doing isn’t illegal, so how can ICANN penalize her?

Also, what would your ethics say about doing the work, and then ratting her out?

20

Like I said, I think the risk is more civil in nature than anything.