The Consentbands idea belongs to everybody

TLDR: Feel free to make your own Consentbands. Name/use/price them as you like: The more, the merrier. Just don’t copy my distinctive design features (e.g. fonts, “Consentbands.com” trademark).

TLBGTRA:

Consentbands.com has clearly struck a nerve. I think it has the potential to be one of those fortune-building ideas, if exploited right. (Pet Rocks and I Can Has Cheezburger? made their creators millionaires.) Consentbands.com is a for-profit company. And I like money.

However…

• It’s not an original idea. As I wrote, I’d seen Tyvek bands at parties for years and gay hanky codes go back decades. Here are some bands from recent play parties in San Francisco. (Thanks to stephthegeek!)
• I created them to scratch my own itch. Their benefit to the public (and to me, personally) is more important than the money.
• The Consentband system benefits from network effects. The more people who recognise the red/green/yellow, X/O/slash, Yes/No/Ask system, the more value they have to their wearers. So it’s in my interest to spread the idea, regardless of who makes the bands.
• If they’re successful, they’re going to be copied anyway. I’ve built in two defenses to this. First, I sell them as cheap as possible so there’s not much profit in underselling me. Second, the bands themselves are only part of the picture. Packaging, customer service, community connections, distribution networks, etc. all make it hard for someone else to replicate what I’m trying to create with Consentbands.com.
• I like the idea that others are taking the idea and running with it. Branded Consentbands are a great souvenir.
• Already people are using them in ways I didn’t imagine. Trying to control the concept, besides being doomed to fail, would stifle unexpected uses.

So — party on! (And by the way, you can make custom orders of at least 500 bands per colour through me. 🙂 )