There is was,  right on twitter this morning, much to my surprise.

The Rocket Matter, LLC Daily is out! ▸ Top stories today via @ consumerfinance @ lavocate @ davisesq212 @ scottgreenfield

It’s not the first time I’d seen a twit like this, but the first time I actually looked at it.  It occurred to me I had no idea who or what Rocket Matter is and what their daily had to do with me.  So I looked.

It turned out to be another of those internet Dailies, the fad for those who create nothing to have something to use to market themselves by glomming off the content of others.  Most of the stuff was typical social media garbage, apparently the sort of stuff they find interesting. But why me?  Why was my post in there?

There’s no commentary.  There’s no “value added.”  It’s as if the editor of the New York Times went through a bunch of stories in other newspapers and put them together to make a New York Times, but without asking anyone’s permission.

So who is this Rocket Matter and why are they using my content for their Daily?  They are a business that sells .  Nothing wrong with that.  It doesn’t interest me, but so what?  If there’s a market for whatever it is they sell, they should go for it.  I’m all for capitalism.

But why then does this business that sells software to lawyers have a “Daily” that takes content from other people’s blogs, other people who happen to be lawyers, for example, and put it out as if it’s created something?  Could it possibly be to market their company?  Could it possibly be that their Daily is a marketing tool?  And could it be that they are using other people’s content, without permission, to create the fodder by which they are marketing themselves?

As  Antonin Pribetic  suggests, the likely answer to this issue I have is:

@ rocketmatter‘s response will be “I’m doing you a favor by promoting your blawg. You’re welcome.”

That’s because every marketer assumes the same of everyone else.  After all, what other reason could there possibly be to an online existence except to market, and anyone who spreads the word, regardless of what their ulterior purpose may be, should be embraced.  It’s the core of social media, as any guru will tell you.

Well, nobody at Rocket Matter asked me if I wanted to be part of their Daily.  Nobody asked me if I wanted them to “promote” me to whoever would read their Daily.  There’s the implicit suggestion that I somehow support, or at least don’t oppose, whatever it is their selling by being a part of their Daily.  And there’s the implicit suggestion that I am happy to be a part of the great social media marketing campaign by having my post named a “top story” by some software seller.

I’ve got no clue whether the software Rocket Matter sells is great or total crap.  I don’t want it and won’t use it, so it doesn’t amount to a hill of beans to me.  But I never chose to become embroiled in their marketing campaign, for better or worse.  Notably, not a single person has ever come to SJ via the Rocket Matter Daily, so obviously there aren’t too many of their readers who are fascinated by my content.

Nor do I care to have my stuff promoted to anyone who would be inclined to find the Rocket Matter Daily worth a read.  The vast majority of stuff there, at least at the moment I saw it, was social media nonsense posts, the warmed over crap that one typically finds a blogs that have no reason to exist outside of marketing.  Anyone who would find that interesting isn’t the sort of person who has any business at SJ.  And I’m not only okay with that, but awfully happy about it.

My pal  Bruce Carton made the point that these “Dailies” are tame, and he’s right.  I’m not rushing down to court to sue anybody.  It wouldn’t be worth the subway fare.  But that doesn’t mean it’s fine with me either.  Rocket Matter can have a Daily to market itself all it wants, just not using my posts without my permission.

Bruce asked a  deeper question as well:

Do you never want anyone to quote a sentence of yours or link to your posts? What is OK and what is not?

I responded in typical twitter form, short and short, but it’s worth a fuller answer.  Fair use, meaning commentary, discussion, whether for or against, or merely to substantiate a point, is great with me.  Anyone and everyone, even marketers, are free to grab a quote, sentence or even a couple of paragraphs if it makes sense, as part of a discussion.  What is not okay is to use my content as the lunch meat for your marketing sandwich. 

Brian Tannebaum, who assault on social media trash took a notably softer turn, informed me that now, given the stink I made, Rocket Matter would no longer promote me as one of its “top stories.”  I’m good with that.  I’ll just have to suffer one less marketer promoting me in the context of promoting itself.

And what does Rocket Matter  have to say  about all this?

My lord @ scottgreenfield complains so much he sounds like an old lady on a bus.

Nice how someone who uses other people’s content for their own marketing purposes calls me an old lady on a bus. 

If their legal productivity software is any good, I hope Rocket Matter sells a ton of it, but either way, keep me out of your marketing scheme.   If you want to put out your marketing Daily, do it on your own content.  Not mine.