The problem is that so many people describe marketing as “selling” or “promoting” or “convincing others to buy stuff.” Unfortunately this is far from the core of what is marketing.

As a gift from me to you, I’ve made an infographic – it seems to be the common trend nowadays – answering once and for all, “What is marketing?”

Simple enough!

Yes, it includes a diverse set of disciplines such as sales, public relations, packaging, branding, statistics, analytics, customer service, distribution and many more.

However, at it’s core, marketing is a communication process geared toward the creation of opportunities that you can seize to help others reach a GOAL, all the while, establishing and maintaining a reputation of being the best in doing just that.

What is the best platform for having a continuing conversation – would it be Facebook?

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The short answer: It depends. It depends on what your trying to do, who you’re trying to do it for, and on what platform they’re on.

A better question to ask is, “What’s my reason behind having a continuing conversation?”

Will having a continuing conversation help you  create opportunities that you can seize to help others reach a goal, all the while, establishing and maintaining a reputation of being the best in doing just that? If so, then you should ask, “what platform is best for creating those opportunities?

Lets take an example of three known names and how they’ve approached communication platforms to create opportunities to accomplish business goals.

Zappos.com

Zappos.com’s brand promise is: free shipping, free returns, free 365 day return policy, 24/7 customer service, and happiness.

They do that mainly through the telephone. They have an active and responsive customer service platform with which they have their “continuing conversation.”

Seth Godin

Seth Godin’s goal is to share ideas. His most successful medium for doing that is his blog. You’ll notice that his blogs, whether it be his personal Typepad or Domino Project, he has comments disabled.

He’s stated on his blog,

I think comments are terrific, and they are the key attraction for some blogs and some bloggers. Not for me, though. First, I feel compelled to clarify or to answer every objection or to point out every flaw in reasoning. Second, it takes way too much of my time to even think about them, never mind curate them. And finally, and most important for you, it permanently changes the way I write. Instead of writing for everyone, I find myself writing in anticipation of the commenters.

For him personally having a “continuing conversation” on his blog would actually deter him from him goal of sharing ideas.

Park51 Community Center

When I was working with Park51 in January 2011, they were addressing a communication crisis. Statements were being said about the organization that just weren’t true and it was branded as “the ground zero mosque.”

When we launched the blog, we did it with the aim of engaging the public and joining the existing conversation. However, the decision makers decided against comments on the blog because of the perceived effort that would be required to maintain and moderate.

In my professional opinion, it was the wrong decision at the time in the context of the goal.

Many organizations want to have a medium for broadcasting, and sometimes treat social channels as a place for one-way communication. Generally, this isn’t wrong. However in the context of Park51′s goal, I believe this was the wrong decision.

I can understand at the time Park51 was receiving a substantial amount of opposition and the risk of having comments enabled on the blog could potentially lead to people expressing themselves using inappropriate language and even false statements. However, In my professional opinion it would have been a more strategic move to simply moderate such comments with a dedicated online community manager.

The biggest business benefit of having the ability to comment on a blog is the opportunity for readers to connect with the authors as well as the staff running the organization.

So, what’s the best platform?

The best platform for you or your organization depends on how do you measure success. What does success look like? Will a continuing conversation impact your success in the way you’d want it to?

The PR Daily web had a great post recently about how FedEx turned a disaster into a PR win.

This reminded me of when I used to deliver newspapers early morning. Sometimes, that meant delivering papers before sunrise.

First week on the job. I didn’t know the route nor the houses well. It was dark and I was looking for a house number… while slowly backing up…threw the paper…CRASH!

My car’s rear hit a parked SUV. I rung the house it was parked in front of and a sleepy gentleman opens the door.

Pointing to the parked SUV, I ask, “Is that yours?”

He’s answers, “Yes!”

I respond, “I backed into it.”

A moment passes and then he says, “It’s an accident. So far you’re doing pretty good.”

Later, it turns out that gentleman is Mayor.

The only genuine way of dealing with a mistake is facing it and ensuring that changes are made to make sure it doesn’t happen again. It’s possible that you may lose a customer and possibly some money. But you cannot put a price on your reputation or integrity for that matter.

For those who may not know what this is about, here’s some context regarding Lowe’s

TLC launched a reality show featuring Muslims from Dearborn, MI. Some welcomed it, others didn’t think very highly of it and some paranoid individuals felt that it was a jihadist plot to overthrow American freedom.

The Florida Family Association encouraged people to write letters to the companies who had advertising spots on the TV show to pull their spots in order to fight terrorism. Lowe’s decided to pulled their ads. As a result, they suffered a backlash and many people came out in support of the American Muslim consumer. Russell Simmons went in and bought the last remaining advertising spots (he’s the man!) in support of anti-bigotry.

The following two steps, in my humble opinion, can help rectify the situation

1 – Own up to your mistake and acknowledge us for who we are, not what they say we are.

The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said:

Be conscious of God wherever you are. Follow up a bad deed with a good deed and it will blot it out. And deal with people in a good manner.

We’re human beings, just like everyone else. We have feelings too. Deal with us in kindness.

When someone says or does something hurtful against us, well, as a community we feel hurt. We don’t like being picked on. Just because the media made us their punching bag, doesn’t give you the right to join the bullies.

Sooner or later (as you’ve now experienced), we’ll stand up and say “enough!” and other will stand by our side.

A company is a group of human beings that make mistakes. Own up to mistakes. Say, “I’m sorry” and work toward treating us better!.

2 – Be an example for others to follow. Support us and we’ll support you!

A lot of people who support your decision to pull the ads are taking the position that you’re exercising your right to do so. No one’s denying that. The argument here isn’t whether or not you had the right to pull the ads, but whether or not the reason for which you pulled them was founded in social responsibility.

The pulling of the ads basically gave bigotry support that it desired. Whether that was your intention or not is water under the bridge now.

The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said:

None of you truly believes until he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself.
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Let’s move forward toward a better tomorrow and, as you so keenly say in your tagline, let’s build something together! In every city across the country, we’re working hard toward building and expanding community centers. We’re seeking a means to support our neighbors and community.

There’s so much you can help with. Help build playgrounds for disadvantaged neighborhoods. Perhaps you can mandate sensitivity training within your corporation (if you don’t already). Help us in community outreach effort to better the country as a whole.

All I ask is: become a leader in social responsibility.

I look forward to witnessing the greatness of your potential realized!

(Shout out to Salim Patel for the suggestion and hadeeth reminder)

A year ago I left my day job as a senior graphic designer at a firm after two and a half years working with them here. To be honest I was bored and I felt it was time to do something of my own.

Since I’ve ventured out on my own, I just can’t seem to be able to ground myself enough to start on something and carry it through until the finish! I have so many ideas whether its little projects or huge! I’ve tried so much but NOTHING materializes from it!

People tell me I am very talented creatively, but I am lacking motivation!

I don’t believe your challenge is finding motivation. It’s my assumption that you are unclear of what you want for yourself, which I believe is a challenge of lifestyle design.

I wrote an article previously titled: “Developing a Higher Purpose for your Business and Dawah Venture” << this article is appropriately a precursor to what I’ve written below.

In this post I present to you the importance of having “fire in your belly,” the three key elements you need clarity on to live the life you want, and I conclude with a (fictional) story of how Ayoub shares his passion for tea with the world.

Two questions you need to answer; (1) What do you want for yourself? (2) How do you want to live your life?

Without knowing what you want for yourself, you will be lacking a key ingredient: Fire in your belly. It’s the undeniable need to succeed which will drive you forward through the ebbs and flows of life.

Passion alone isn’t enough to complete what you start because it rises and falls through time and it’s influenced by several factors. However, the need to succeed, to fulfill a vision greater than yourself is constant.

We all have responsibilities of sorts.
On top of that we all have aspirations.

The key is to designing our life and pursing of our goals such that it fulfills our duties and  aspirations at the same time.

The way to do this is to assume the inevitable. We’re all going to die sooner or later. Assume that it’s going to be soon, and by “soon”, I mean give yourself a death date – label it “D-Day” on the calendar to not freak anyone out.

How do you live your life and pursue your goals such that they’ll survive your own passing? Assuming you know what your goals are and you have an idea of what you want out of life, you need clarity on the following three things:

First, Secure a Vehicle

Just as we use planes, trains and automobiles to get to our destinations in life, to fulfill a vision – regardless of what that vision is – and get to where you want to go, you have to secure a vehicle to get you there.

There are three types of vehicles in my opinion.

Type 1: Your Own Business Venture (your vision)

Type 2: Employee at a Job (you buy into a vision of another and accept is as your own)

Type 3: Volunteerism (same as employee, but you don’t get monetary benefit for it)

Regardless of what vehicle you pick you have three roles to fulfill;
(1) Entrepreneur (or intrapreneur for type 2 and 3) – the visionary innovator 
(2) Manager – the process maker and implementor of the vision
(3) Technical expert – the person who does the actual work in the front lines

Second, “Trailblaze” Yourself to Hit Your Goal

This goes back to leveraging the fire in your belly to hit the goal you’ve set out for yourself and be that much closer to the vision you have for yourself. Like in all journeys, you’ll face complications, roadblocks and detours. The key is to continue with lazer-like focus.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Third, Build Systems to Maintain & Surpass Your Goal Without Your Presence

This is legacy building.

Let’s take the following story as an example:

Meet Ayoub. He’s got a business venture website project where he’s selling tea that he’s truly passionate about it. Every cup of tea he drinks is like being transported to another part of the world and he wants to share that transcending experience of drinking exotic tea with others.

Ayoub has defined his success as getting 10,000+ unique visitors to his website which result in at least 1200 sales of various brands of loose-leaf tea packages every month, from which Ayoub can pay himself to live the lifestyle that he’s aspired to live so that he can take care of his family, travel and experience more tea.

First Ayoub needs to personally sell and build relationships with distributors and online vendors to reach the sales numbers he’s set out. However, once he reaches that number, if he were to personally stop, so would his sales. Thus he decides to develop processes to define how he can get others maintain the relationships and drive traffic to his site so people can continue to buy his tea and he personally doesn’t have to continuously work long hard hours.

He implements a digital system that enables other tea enthusiasts who regularly blog and make videos to receive commission whenever someone buys tea through them.

He also leverages the power of search engines to drive traffic. He calculates how many tea-bloggers he needs to drive traffic and starts working toward building that system.

Ayoub then realizes that he can duplicate himself by creating videos of himself traveling to the different tea gardens across the world educating people about the various benefits of tea. None of the other competitors in his space are doing that, so he spends the next six months producing videos that do just that.

After 6 month’s he observes on social networks that people are talking about him, his videos and how great his teas are.

Ayoub decides to leverage the conversation to grow his brand of tea further by engaging them directly online and interacting with them and driving them to a website landing page where he can communicate with them via email directly through an initial set of automated messages which are then later followed up by occasional direct emails.

Ayoub now has four streamlined systems that are doing what he started off doing manually:

• System 1: Online sales people (tea-enthusiast bloggers) and search engine optimization
• System 2: Video (YouTube) – basically sharing the tea experience with others as he’s always wanted
• System 3: Social networks – he’s in a crowd of people talking about him
• System 4: Email – automated system to sell tea directly to their inbox

At this point, Ayoub can give the management of the system to someone else, retire, disappear or die and people will still be able to share in his wonderful experience of tea – which was his dream initially.

Coming Back to Reality

The story above is fictional but the point I’m making is real.

Click here to view the embedded video.

What does success in this world look like to you? Describe it in full detail.

Recently my little brother opened up for the 2011 American Muslim Consumer Conference in New Jersey:

Click here to view the embedded video.

In this blog post I share with you a personal story that demonstrates my headlined point.

First, a Couple Insights From My Brother’s Presentation

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The prophet Suhaib was a man from among the people whom he was sent to.

A key element you need before you embark on the journey to invite people to accept a message is trust. People need to know who you are and that you’re not trying to scam them. And in the event something does go wrong, they can find you to correct it.

Before Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) called the people to the message of Islam, he first asked them what they thought of him. When they replied that he was the truthful and trustworthy from among them, only then did he proceed with delivering his message.

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Injustice is a result of our actions and the true righteous people are those who treat others with justice.

I’ve seen quite often people engaging in business and professional dawah while not having understood the etiquette in which to carry themselves appropriately. They have a “Muslim” title, but their character and approach demonstrates otherwise.

Personal Story

When either my independent work or the work I do for clients is emulated by others or the work itself is copied and uploaded as a means of further sharing the content and message, I’m humbly flattered.

However, when someone takes that work and strips it of essential branding elements that is key to the measurement of success of the project – without the permission of myself or my client, that individual has unjustly trampled on the rights of myself and my client.

In addition to the violations of basic rights, they’ve also gone back on their word and agreement with YouTube when they created the account. On the YouTube Terms of Service Agreement, it states:

You affirm, represent, and warrant that you own or have the necessary licenses, rights, consents, and permissions to publish Content you submit; and you license to YouTube all patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright or other proprietary rights in and to such Content for publication on the Service pursuant to these Terms of Service.

When I produced the kinetic typography video “Jannah” by Ammar Alshukry, I was happy at the fact that people were sharing it far and wide. Later however, when I found someone had stripped that video of it’s original branding and added their own introduction and web address inviting people to their t-shirt sales business, I was quite disappointed.

If a business wants to use work that I produced for my client to increase their web traffic and profits, they’re more than welcome to do so, so long as my client and I are appropriately compensated for it.

When I initially contacted the channel to rectify the situation, they responded with a message saying they’ll take care of it that week. several months passed with no action having been taken.

When I followed up with the individual requesting for the video to either be restored to its original unaltered form, be taken down, or be kept up in exchange for fair compensation for my client and my company, I was met with rudeness and accusations of being a “fake Muslim” because the channel is a “dawah” channel.

I could care less about people being rude. I started off doing telemarketing and door-to-door sales for several years out of high school, met my share of rude people and rejections. I’ve learned to not take things personally.

However, what I find appalling is the fact that this person would claim to be doing dawah while ripping off other people’s work and being rude in their engagements with others.

Importance of Upstanding Personal Character and Integrity

And you (Muhammad) are upon an exalted standard of character
- Surah AlQalam: 4

And by the mercy of Allah, you dealth with them gently. And had you been severe and harsh-hearted, they would have broken away from about you; so pardon them, and ask for forgiveness for them; and consult them in the affairs. Then when you have taken a decision, put your trust in Allah, certainly, Allah loves those who put their trust (in him).
- Surah Aleimran: 159

If we take an example of personal character from the Qur’an and sunnah, we can see that the Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) was praised for his personal character in the Quran.

If you’re going to be communicating the message of Islam to others while being rude and ill mannered, then you haven’t understood the message yourself and people will not be receptive to what you say.

Assalamu’alaikum Belal,

I am the Ameer of Qabeelat Madinatayn in Minnesota (President of the Minnesota AlMaghrib Institute student body), alhamdulillah.

I read your blog post about KhalifaKlothing and had a question about a video I just made about our one-year anniversary for the Qabeelah. I used a nasheed (a song without Islamically prohibited musical instruments) in the video by Yusuf Islam and put a reference to that in the description.

YouTube sent me a note about some copyright material being matched, but they said there was no action required at my end as of now.

Here is the video:

Click here to view the embedded video.

I wanted to ask: Should we just not bother with this at all and take the video down to avoid any issues? Do you know of any easy alternatives?

We don’t have to use nasheed, just need some audio for the three minute presentation. Anything you can point us to would be great. I’m new to all of this so I’m just trying to leverage your expertise, inshaAllah.

Jazakallahu khariun for your help!

wsalaamu alaikum,

Disclaimer

This is not legal advice. I’m not a lawyer, nor have I ever played one on TV. My response is for informational purposes only.

Using Copyrighted Material in General

The general rule is that, you cannot use material you don’t own or have permission to use. Permission to use any sort of digital material whether it be a video, an interview, photos or audio is usually granted in the form of a release or contract, both of which are usually written documents. In some cases email is acceptable.

You may find that some copyright material goes under “Creative Commons licenses” in which the content owner has allowed the use of their material by others to a certain degree. You can learn more about Creative Commons licenses here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_Commons_licenses

Using Copyrighted Material on YouTube

YouTube being the behemoth that it is, is susceptible to lawsuits from content owners and has to protect itself from liabilities by having policies and systems in place that prevent unwanted situations.

YouTube has an algorithm in place that systemically matches the content to a database of copyrighted material. If there is a match, based on what the content owners choice is on how that copyrighted content can be used, YouTube will take appropriate action and notify you of it.

The following is taken from YouTube’s website: Using copyrighted material in your video

We provide content owners with the ability to control the use of their content on YouTube. Because content owners have the right to change their mind about how their content is displayed on our site, it’s possible that content that was once allowed is subsequently blocked. Also, it is possible that multiple parties hold rights to a different components (e.g. audio, video) of a copyrighted work. While one owner may allow the use of their material on YouTube, another may decide to disallow use.

Some content owners and artists don’t allow for their songs to be uploaded onto YouTube by other people. If this was your situation then your video would have been removed.

However, in your particular situation with the Yusuf Islam song, it seems that the content owner has allowed for the song to be used on YouTube so long as YouTube puts a link on it so people can go and purchase the song.

I believe the limitation with this situation is that if you were a YouTube Partner, you probably wouldn’t be able to share in advertising revenue with that video nor would that video be accessible via mobile devices.

Your Next Action

I don’t believe you have anything to worry about. YouTube notified you that no action is needed on your part. They sent you that notice to cover their back.

I recommend you read up on YouTube’s copyright policies just so you can stay informed: YouTube Copyright Center

I hope that helps!

This video is no longer available because the YouTube account associated with this video has been terminated due to multiple third-party notifications of copyright infringement from claimants including:

1. Life of This World Media
2. Salam Studios
3. Challenge Your Soul

Sorry about that.

I was a contributor to the KhalifahKlothing channel. A lot of the lectures and Gem Reels I produced for AlMaghrib Institute had been uploaded on KhalifahKlothing with AlMaghrib’s permission. Those videos are now gone. However, I have all the original files and I will be uploading them to my own channel over the coming weeks.

If you want to be kept aware as I load up that content, go ahead and subscribe to my channel by clicking here.

News on the KhalifahKlothing Account Situtation

Update (Oct 19, 2011): KhalifahKlothing YouTube account has been restored.

KhalifaKlothing has made a new backup YouTube account called: DigitalMimbar

There’s a discussion about the account suspension on YouTube’s support site: http://bit.ly/qCUB5Q

Here’s a video uploaded online by a fellow YouTuber:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Salam Studios has posted a statement on their blog: The Truth About KhalifahKlothing’s Youtube Suspension. Here’s what they said:

There is a lot of information floating around about what happened to KhalifahKlothing’s YouTube channel.

The truth is KhalifahKlothing posted a number a videos they pirated from our YouTube channel. Having trouble contacting them in the past we filled out YouTube’s automated form to have a video removed becuase it was copied from our channel.

A few days later we were contacted by the owner of the KhalifahKlothing channel. He informed us that the channel had been reported for copyright infringement many times and was on their last strike.

Through an intermediary we came to an agreement that they could keep Salam Studios content on their channel if they simply linked back to ours with a credit.

At that point we retracted our complaint, we helped KhalifahKlothing file a counter claim, and we contacted YouTube directly by email and phone.

KhalifahKlothing sheds some light - copied from the comments section below

as-salaamu ‘alaikum

Firstly, Wallahi I have no ill feelings towards the brothers that filed that copyright claims. I’m sure if they knew that it would lead to this they would not have gone forward with it. I am disappointed that none of the brothers ever messaged me regarding the videos before they went ahead and contacted YouTube.

Now, I have never claimed that all Islamic material (DVDs, CDs) should be available for free. I tried to be careful enough and didn’t upload material that wasn’t already available for free online, so I’m shocked when brothers accuse us of stealing and piracy.

These are the videos in question:

1. “Interview with Belal Muslim – The Deen Show” – Brother Eddie used footage – only seconds if I’m not mistaken – from YouTube of brother Belal’s video which was produced by “Life of this World Media”. Now I’m not denying that they own that footage, but please don’t accuse us of doing dawah through theft when we never received any warnings or complains or refused to comply with your demands.
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2. “Covenant with Allah – Nouman Ali Khan” – A really good lecture by Ustadh Nouman which I saw on Salam Studios’ channel with very few views, so I decided to give it more exposure by mirroring it, and placing a link to their website (Salam Studios) the time it was uploaded. The only other video by them was “Islamophobia – Nouman Ali Khan” which was very necessary and popular, which also had a link back to their website, since the time it was uploaded. I was naive enough to assume they would not mind if this material was shared with a much larger audience since they had contacted me before regarding posting other lectures they recorded (Tafseer Sessions). I received no warnings or any messages from them. Again, I have no ill feeling towards the brother and he was very cooperative when I contacted him through a mutual friend regarding retracting the claim, and he did so right away.
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3. “Judgement Day – Khalid Yasin” – This was the only Khalid Yasin lecture on the channel even though there are a ton of DVDs by him out there. And the very reason why I never uploaded anything by him is because he does not allow his DVDs to be put up for free online. The reason why this was uploaded is because it was recorded and edited by a friend of ours from ‘Ahlussunnah Productions’ circa 2004 and it was distributed and sold by them. At that time Khalid Yasin made no contract with them, and did not prohibit them from recording and distributing the lecture. Some time after that Khalid Yasin started making contracts with those who recorded his lectures and granted them specific permissions. “Challenge Your Soul Media” assumed that this was most likely a lecture that fell under a contract, and went ahead and filed a copyright claim shorty after it was uploaded. Again, without contacting us. They cooperated and retracted their claim, and said they would not be able to message every single channel who uploads their material, because there are hundreds every week.

Alhamdulilah the brothers have been cooperative, and have all retracted their claims by contact you tube. I’m not sure how long this will take to process, just make du’a that Allah makes us sincere and keeps us away from violating other peoples rights. May Allah forgive us all and guide the channel to that which is pleasing to Him.

Life of This World has posted a statement – copied from the comments section below:

We cant speak about the issues regarding Khalid Yasin and Salaam Studios, but we can tell you that Life of This World Media made every effort to contact “The Deen Show” before we filed a copyright claim. We sent at least 3 messages and never received a reply. So it is not truthful to say we never made contact or that they didn’t receive any complaints.

Also, just to clarify, the Deen Show episode in question used at least 5 minutes of our video, not a few seconds. It was included in its entirety, not just the parts which concerned the show, but also parts showing other people who had nothing to do with that episode of The Deen Show. It was literally just “dumped” in with no thought given to the editing or the context. Also the video was not a “dawah” video as such (ie it was not a lecture or designed for non-Muslims) It was in-fact a regular, commercial video.

With no reply or contact from the brs for around 2 weeks we then initiated the copyright infringement. The very next day we got emails back from both the Deen Show (brother Eddie) and Khalifahklothing. Both apologized sincerely for their mistake, and we accepted the apology immediately. At this point the video in question was blocked by YouTube, but the channel was still up and running.

The brother at khalifahklothing then asked us to write back to YouTube and retract the copyright notice, which we did. He also said he would credit the use of our video and link it back to our channel, which we agreed to.

Since then the actual entire channel has been suspended pending further investigation on multiple claims. This is of-course a regrettable situation, that could have easily been avoided with just the basic courtesy to fellow Muslim organizations.

1. In the 1st instance this situation could have been avoided if they had simply asked for permission. If they they took the time to research and find our video, took the time to rip it off youtube, took the time to edit it into their own video, and took the time to upload it onto their own channel, then surely it is not too much to ask that they send a polite email/message asking permission to the channel they are actually ripping it from?
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2. Even beyond that, the action could still have been avoided if they had responded to the 3 messages we sent via the Deen Show website. But we waited for 2 weeks and received nothing until after the copyright infringement had been logged with youtube.

Since then we have sent 3 messages to YouTube asking for the channel to be re-instated, as well as complying with a counter notification from KhalifahKlothing to help speed up the process. InshaAllah we hope to see the channel up and running very soon.

Its of the utmost importance that organizations who are operating within the field of Islamic media are aware of copyright laws protecting individual works, and that they respect each others work. We should be exemplary in the way we run and manage our affairs. If you look at our youtube page, or our facebook group, you will not see one single video that has not been filmed, directed, edited and produced by Life of This World Media. If we did not produce a video, there is no way we would upload it. This is just one of the basic rules we operate by, So processes need to be put in place that will stop this from happening again in another few months.

To this end we have offered to send The Deen Show some of our own literature and useful web links on copyright and will inshaAllah be supporting brother Eddie promote his show further in the UK. We pray that our efforts in the media industry help promote professionalism and integrity within Islamic media circles.

JazakAllah Khir

Life of This World Media
http://www.youtube.com/lifeofthisworld

Statements from Muslim Speakers

Muhammad Alshareef – copied from Google+

Definitely a sticky situation. The copyright issue has always been a touchy one, and now this: you gotta feel for the great work KhalifahKlothing was doing, and at the same time one has to respect the work people have put together and that they should have a say in how their videos are used. I don’t have an opinion on the issue, I just pray it can get resolved and KhalifahKlothing reinstated.

Nouman Ali Khan – copied from his personal Facebook

Someone posted some silly comments while pretending to be me online and apparently its spreading. Just a small word of caution…if its on a forum, or social media outlet other than Bayyinah or this one, it ain’t me!

I have no problem with my videos online and dude, whoever you are, not cool… (referring to false statement below)

Nouman Ali Khan – copied from the comments below Turned out to be a fake post.

Assalaamu Alaykum

@KhalifahKlothing @SHEIKH DANISH RIYAZ: Please don’t upload any of my videos. I respect the hard work and copyright of my Muslims brothers. I humbly request you all to understand the rights of others and treat it accordingly.

Humbly,
NAK

Copyright and Islam

A lot of visitors have been posting comments declaring “there is no copyright in Islam” or how people shouldn’t claim copyright on knowledge.

Our individual beliefs and opinions on copyright are irrelevant in this context.

The right to claim copyright infringment comes from the fact that all of us operating on the YouTube platform have agreed the policies (when we registered for an account). If someone uploads something, whether they invented it or not, no one else has the right to upload it to another account without permission from that account holder or from those who performed, compiled, produced, and edited content originally.

Here’s an example for clarity:

If I made a video of myself reciting just straight Qur’an, I own the copyright to that digital content. If I upload that video to YouTube, no one else on YouTube has the right to upload that video to another account without my permission.

If someone does upload it without my permission, I have the right – as per YouTube terms of service – to claim ownership of that digital content. I’m not claiming copyright on the Qur’an. I’m claiming copyright of the digital content that I produced and uploaded. You’re more than welcome to record yourself doing the same exact recitation the same exact way, and you have full rights over that.

The knowledge and Qur’an itself isn’t the subject. I hope that’s clear.

This situation has to do with an individual’s character and honoring agreements.

When an individual creates an account on YouTube, that individual is contractually agreeing to follow the policies that YouTube has in place. In the event that individual takes content from one channel and uploads it to another without permission, that individual is breaching that agreement – an act that is most inappropriate of an honorable human being.

Respect for people and good character always comes before knowledge. It’s with the best of human character that dawah is made possible.

What any one of us believe about copyright and islamic knowledge is irrelevant in this discussion.

However, if you’re looking for insight on the scholarly position of Copyright in Islam, you might find the following to be insightful.
Taken from: http://www.islamqa.com/en/ref/99558/copyright%20knowledge

Question:
What is the ruling on printing and selling Islamic books and making a profit from this? Like the books of the scholars of the Salaf (early generations) and also the books of the recent scholars who write these books so that people benefit from them and not for profit. Is making profit from these books not my right? I have read the answers regarding the intellectual property rights, but I need more explanation.

Answer:
Praise be to Allaah.

Firstly:

Copyright is one of the intangible rights that are protected by sharee’ah, as has been explained in the answer to question no. 26307.

Secondly:

There is nothing wrong with printing and selling religious books, because the basic principle is that it is permissible, and because it is a means of spreading knowledge, improving its quality and making it available to people, which cannot be done except by dealing in books.

Based on that, there is nothing wrong with printing any of the books of the salaf or contemporary scholars, unless their authors have not permitted it, in which case it is essential to have their permission, as well as to be trustworthy and honest in publishing these books. That also includes things that a scholar wrote without the aim of making money. It is permissible to print it and sell it and make money from it, so long as he did not object to that, in which case it is essential to have permission from him or his heirs.

It says in Fataawa al-Lajnah al-Daa’imah (13/187):

Question: Is it permissible to record a tape and sell it, but without asking permission from the author or, if the author is no longer alive, from the publisher, to record it? Is it permissible to make many copies of a book and sell them? Is it permissible to make a copy of a book and not sell it, rather keep it for myself? If the book carries the mark “All rights reserved”, should I ask for permission or not? Please advise me, may Allaah bless you.

Answer: There is nothing wrong with recording useful tapes and selling them, or copying books and selling them, because that is helping to spread knowledge, unless the authors have not allowed that, in which case it is essential to have their permission. End quote.

And Allaah knows best.

Original Blog Post

My Thoughts

I loved that channel. It literally had thousands of great videos with beneficial knowledge that was built up by the contribution of many content producers and syndicators alike, yours truly being one of them.

I was truly disappointed.

Disappointed toward the names mentioned, by whom the copyright infringement was claimed, and disappointed toward those who uploaded the content without getting their permission.

I was disappointed at the copyright claimants because, as a content producer you want your stuff to be seen by as many people as possible. KhalifahKlothing’s channel had well over 50,000 subscribers. It’s the best place to get exposure if you’re trying to reach the mainstream conservative Muslim audience. The videos I had uploaded to the channel for my clients had collectively well over two million views.

I understand as a content producer, you don’t want other people ripping off your hard work for their own gain. However, I know for a fact that KhalifahKlothing never benefited from ad revenue. That channel’s purpose was dawah.

I was disappointed at the contributors for not clearly getting the permission from the companies and organizations who originally produced the content. Everything that I had contributed to the channel I either produced myself or had a hand in it.

I’m not perfect

I once had a situation where a series of videos I had edited for YM ( Young Muslims ) back in 2004 had never been distributed. Since YouTube hadn’t existed then, the terms in which the work was done wasn’t clear on the issue of online distribution. I decided to I uploaded them to KhalifahKlothing as a benefit to the organization.

The gentlemen behind YM instead of filing for copyright claims, sent a few emails to the channel and myself. They were launching their own YouTube channel and wanted to host the content there exclusively. We agreed to take down the video from KhalifahKlothing and the issue was resolved without a problem.

I wonder if a similar process was followed by copyright claimants and the contributors of the KhalifahKlothing channel regarding the videos in question.

My Professional Advice to Fellow YouTubers

Don’t be an idiot.

We need to be professional in our work and dawah. When you produce content, make sure that you have written releases that state you have permission to distribute the content online. If you happen to be a YouTube partner, make sure that you state you’re a partner and you’ll be participating in revenue sharing with the content that you’re producing.

If you didn’t produce it, don’t upload it.

Whether or not you believe copyright has a place in Islam is irrelevant. You cannot impose your beliefs on others when you’re in their domain. Doing so is anti-dawah and unislamic.

YouTube has rules, and you agree to those rules when you create an account. This country had governing laws and as a citizen or resident alien you have agreed to abide by those laws.

Be an example for others to follow.

As stated earlier, all the videos that I had produced and uploaded to KhalifahKlothing are now gone from YouTube. However, I have all the original files and I will be uploading them to my own channel over the coming weeks. Most of the content was of AlMaghrib Institute instructors.

If you want to be kept aware as I upload that content, go ahead and subscribe to my channel by clicking here.

Asalaamu Alaikum (May peace and blessings be upon you) Belal.

I had a question I wanted to ask you. I’m having a tough decision on what camera I should buy? I’ve been reading you’re site and it’s interesting. I want to bring the beauty out of the picture because a picture can tell a thousand words.

Walaikum Asalaam (May peace and blessings be upon you as well).

It is my assumption that you don’t just want to capture a beautiful image, but you want to be able to tell a story and convey a message. If my assumption is correct, you should instead ask, “What will it take to tell my story?”

If you’re going to use video to tell your story, then obviously you’ll need something to capture images. Its difficult to recommend a camera without knowing your comfort level with technology, familiarity with editing platforms, and what sort of budget you have to work with.

However, the following will help you on your way.

Take Inventory of Your Assets

There’s a wide variety of devices available that will allow you to capture video. Everything from cell phones to hand held cameras to HD-DSLRs to the bigger budget RED class fo cameras. Don’t let not having a specific type of camera keep you from producing and telling a story.

Take stock of what resources you have available to you now; money, people around you with equipment, university computers for editing, etc. With that figure out what story you can tell. If all you have a cell phone video, work with that.

If you’re able and willing to spend some money to buy a camera, do it based on what your comfort level with technology is and what your needs are. If an HD-DSLR camera will help you get the result that you’re looking for, then by all means. If not then pick that which is most suitable for you.

If you already have a camera that functions just fine, then work with it. Use it to the best of your ability. You wont progress in your skills and ability unless you practice. It’s not the camera. Rather, it’s the story and the person(s) involved in it.

Principles of Producing a Good Image

Regardless of what you use to capture moving images, there are three key principles you need to keep to:

• Appropriate Lighting
• Clear Coherent Sound
• Smooth, Stable Image {subjective}

The third point is “subjective” because how you position or move the camera is subject to what sort of emotion you’re trying to elicit which stems from the theme of your story and message.

Plot Your Course & Embark on Your Journey

Whenever you embark on a trip, in order to get you from point A (where you are) to point B (where you want to g0), your GPS plots a course to your destination based on you’re current location.

You are the hero of your story and you’re on a journey. You know your goal or destination is to have a completed video that conveys your story and message. If you’ve followed through, you’ve taken stock of what you have available to you.

Every journey requires a vehicle to move you from point A to point B. The paper you write your plan on, the camera you use, the editing platforms you work with and the distribution channels you syndicate on are all vehicles. Some vehicles are faster than others if you can afford them. If you can’t you work with what you have.

It doesn’t matter how slow you go, so long as you do not stop.
- Confucius

As Scott Myers would say, regardless of what vehicle you can take advantage of, be prepared to face complications – situations that slow you down, roadblocks – obstacles that force you to take a detour, and reversals – moments where you’ll have to take few steps back and reroute in order to move forward again.

Enlist a Guide

Every hero needs a mentor and every star quarterback has a coach. I can’t score the touchdown for you, but I can give you the ball and give you the instruction on how to run.

I have a course online called “Secrets of Video Production” where I have over seven hours of organized content that guides you from development, production, post-production and syndication. To learn more about it, click here.