[trustfundbaby]

I think painting the people who partake in these 'contests' as victims is a bit hyperbolic ... they simply should know better.

Maybe if designers redirected their efforts from pouring opprobrium on the people who follow natural human tendency of wanting good work done on the cheap to educating members of their profession on the dangers of partaking in spec work ... things might be different.

[rhizome]

"Good judgement comes from experience; experience comes from bad judgement."

What I hear you saying is that we should respect these businesses for providing designers with an opportunity to exercise bad judgement. Someone's gotta teach the hard lessons, right?