I had an interesting observation recently where there was one person who generated a lot of business through an educational strategy where by releasing a certain amount of free content that will then generate targeted potential customers who end up buying products and services related to his offerings. It is kind of a smart idea in many ways. No different in essence to a trend I see such as supermarkets actually having dedicated people to create content such as how to cook recipes or lifestyle health habits.
There was this one person who I noticed always took information from lesser known sources and then repackage the information to make it his own. Even times when the other person was the exclusive source he would still hide that information where it appears to have simply been discovered by him first. He doesn’t actually say that of course but all the design and messaging obviously implies it. You can then read comments from people who are happy that he was the first to release the information where for the most part he doesn’t say anything and just lets people believe he was the actual source to gain more credibility and exposure.
Would you consider that smart or unethical? To me personally it’s kind of sad as the person who is the real source isn’t really getting the credit they deserve.