I write this with a heavy heart and a certain amount of fury and indignation. I write this because I feel that small providers are being done in, and people like me who are independents are being held liable for extremely shoddy material. Yes, an agreement is made between the developer and the client but sometimes these developers just disappear!
We recently were engaged by a company that wished to purchase material for a SETA. We acquired it in good faith, paid a fair amount for it too. Only to find that 80% of the Material is plagiarised straight from the internet and without any references. We now are being held liable – legally by the said company for this for damages because they unfortunately had already uploaded the material at great cost to their online system. We are a tiny company that pulls in experts when needed and there is no way that we can carry costs for legal action. This is not the first time we have dealt with extremely poor material in the last two years. There is just no integrity or ethics left!
What has happened to the development industry? It used to be so very good? I now only purchase from two well known development companies and refuse to touch anything else.
With hands in my hair, what can we do to stop this? Suggestions?
I end this short, indignant, despairing rant with the following quote:
“If I had a prayer for you, I would pray that you would get the disease called integrity. And I would pray that you would have it so contagiously it would travel around and you would follow it up with loving and demonstrate it by being that.”
– John-Roger, DSS