Does the end justify the means? Too often, in the world of aerospace marketing, the answer is yes. And that’s not a good thing.

In their zeal to be noticed and remembered, some marketing people are willing to bend the rules, and, worse, break the law, in regard to intellectual property.

Sometimes it’s ignorance. Not everyone has a marketing background. Some came from the military. Others are engineers.

Case in point. Military marketers at a major OEM wanted to use the song “Bad Moon Rising” in a product video. They just didn’t want to pay for it. So they got permission to use the song once, then proceeded to break all the terms of the agreement, making copies, showing it to groups, and violating copyright laws left and right.

Photo usage is even more problematic, as there is a stubborn resistance to pay for photography and sometimes outright refusal to respect the usage rights for same.

Copyright infringement is a crime that impacts the livelihood of designers, authors, composers, songwriters, and filmmakers. Frankly, it’s theft. And we’re better than this.

Aerospace is a special industry full of good professional people who have integrity and most of us genuinely want to do the right thing. Here’s a reliable resource for more information: copyright.gov