A month or two back I was in an online discussion with someone who had had an article of theirs printed and quoted from without their permission, and without the proper copyright notice. The author was up in arms and was wondering what to do about it.

No matter how much inventory you have, or how large your customer base, the viability of your business depends on the flow of your thinking, your creativity, your presence. What do you do when someone steals your hard work?

Send a thank-you note.

Remember the Grateful Dead? I was never a big fan, more into punk myself, but I was always intrigued by friends who had dozens and dozens of "bootlegs" of Dead shows- recordings they personally made, or bought from someone else.

What many people don't know about the Grateful Dead is that early on they made a decision to treat the band as a business, and made many decisions to leverage their success, without compromising their values.

They noticed that their fans were recording their shows. Unlike many other bands and industries that tried to stop this nefarious activity (remember Napster?), the Dead encouraged it. Why?

Have you ever tried to act like someone else? How long could you keep it up? The last time I unconciously started writing like someone I admired, I started getting unsubscribes and complaints like crazy, and I had to come back to my own authenticity in a hurry.

The Dead, by smiling at bootleggers who were making "unofficial" copies of the shows, were actually encouraging the growth of community. More people attended their shows just to record bootlegs. It created a "collection" mindset. It was a big deal to say that you had a particular bootleg, and even more of coup to say that you had been at that show.

And, their official records, more than 50 live and studio releases, were a part of the 'collection mania' and had strong, profitable sales over 30+ years.

Instead of spending your time and energy trying to police your "intellectual property rights," put your attention on your heart and your authenticity, and encourage others to make the best use of your materials and ideas. Trust that your customers can tell your authentic presence from someone else who is just riding in your draft.

Are there times when it's worth it to protect your stuff?

Keys to Hippie Protectionism

? It's not thieving to be in the morphic field.

Biologist Rupert Sheldrake originated the "morphic field" theory in modern science (something that has been observed spiritually for eons). The basic theory is this: genetics alone doesn't explain why a plant grows in a particular form. Why do oak leaves all have basically the same shape?

Sheldrake advanced a holistic theory that "morphic fields" hold the pattern for structures. In a similar way, it's not uncommon to find scientists, writers, researchers all working independently on similar ideas, remote from each other. Read his article.

If you are "inspired" by a particular idea, and you notice others taking up the flag as well, don't fret about being stolen from, or someone getting "there" faster than you. Instead, rejoice that the morphic field is making your inspiration more accessible and understandable to the general public.

? Creative Commons Licensing

Instead of a regular strict copyright, you can use the Creative Commons licensing approach to be more flexible and generous in approaching your "intellectual property."

In their own words: "Creative Commons offers a flexible range of protections and freedoms for authors and artists. We have built upon the 'all rights reserved' of traditional copyright to create a voluntary 'some rights reserved' copyright. We're a nonprofit. All of our tools are free."

For more information, check them out. http://creativecommons.org/

? Wholesale stealing of your entire show.

I have seen instances when someone has copied a website completely, word-for-word, including the free give-aways and bonuses. I always feel a little sad the very, very few times I've seen or heard of this, because someone is so clearly shut-down in their heart, and feeling desperate. Their business won't last sustainably like that, but it is good to take official notice so you don't have problems later on.

In these instances it's often easy to send a note to them telling them you've noticed them and they need to cease and desist. If they don't respond, you can look up their website registration on Whois.

Generally, an email sent to the company where they have registered their domain name will result in some action.

If you want to track certain words and phrases on the web, you can use Google Alerts.

However, this is an extreme case, and you will probably not encounter it.

Let your heart rest easy about "borrowers." Stay in your authenticity, keep letting your heart move you forward, and rejoice that what you are inspired by is resonating so strongly with other people. This means you probably have a very viable and profitable market for your business.