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I'm really gratified that the guy who once wrote, "Obscurity is a far greater threat to authors and creative artists than piracy" has built his business success

I'm really gratified that the guy who once wrote, "Obscurity is a far greater threat to authors and creative artists than piracy" has built his business successfully on this same principle.

jgrahamc 16y ago
I agree. I wrote a book for O'Reilly and it has sold well, but I know that there are people out there with pirate copies of the eBook (perhaps there are lots), and although I'm happy to receive money from people two factors play together: I make hardly anything from the book (author royalties are small and compared to the effort, 6 months full time work, insignificant) and I'm much happier when someone reads it and likes the book then when I receive money for the book. Initially, I was freaked out by all these copies on file sharing sites. Now, I just ignore it.
- TheAmazingIdiot 16y ago
  And sometimes, those ebooks dont exist for a physical copy. At least in the computer related fields, a physical book is good when the electricity is down, and a ebook is good for grep. Yes, I am a "pirate" if by that you mean I havent paid twice: one for physical and one for digital. And dont get me started on DRM....
GrandMasterBirt 16y ago
There was an article on HN a few weeks ago about a guy who was selling something I don't remember. But he used to sell books. And when talking about piracy he asked the audience who did not agree with him "how many of you are fanboys/fangirls of an author and will buy everything that person makes" which was followed by "how many of you bought the anything made by that author as your very first introduction to him/her as opposed to borrowing it from someone, reading it in a library, pirating it and reading it, etc...?" People understand the value of things. If you give people something they value and want more of, they will gladly pay for it (the value that they see it's worth) because they want you to keep producing. They know if they stop there will be nothing new. So the end-goal is to make people see the value you produce (even if its giving them that thing for free) because instead of instant-value you will get long-term customers.
- RyanMcGreal 16y ago
  That sounds like Neil Gaiman's take on piracy: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2351978 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2351978
  - pjscott 16y ago
    Or Eric Flint's take on it, which resulted in Baen Books putting a respectable number of their books online for free: http://www.baen.com/library/ http://www.baen.com/library/ It's been a good boost to sales.
- TheAmazingIdiot 16y ago
  The comment below this one mentions Gaiman, which is pro-customer. However, I believe the reference you are looking for was the comic author who was pirated on 4chan. Then he showed up and starting talking with them, and encouraging them. Of course "Pics or it didnt happen" occurred, so Steve Lieber (author/artist) posted the BoingBoing vs 4Chan chart. "If nothing else, I'm flattered someone thought enough of the book to take the time to scan and post it" - Steve Lieber. http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101021/10481211524/comic-book-pirated-on-4chan-author-joins-discussion-watches-sales-soar.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101021/10481211524/comic-...
chadgeidel 16y ago
It appears that musician Martin Atkins had the same opinion. "It's not a problem if 20,000 people 'illegally' download your music. It's a problem if they don't." http://leisureblogs.chicagotribune.com/turn_it_up/2011/03/sxsw-2011-martin-atkins-throws-blueberry-muffins-at-music-industry.html http://leisureblogs.chicagotribune.com/turn_it_up/2011/03/sx...
rakkhi 16y ago
Agreed nice to see someone walked the talk. Its interesting whether DRM is broken as a concept or just implementation. For books and songs I can see where people like Tim will accept that the people who were going to pay for his books will pay rather than go mucking through the torrent heap to find the free version. Quote on Techcrunch last month: "Most adults do not want to steal intellectual property if there’s an affordable alternative to doing so" http://tcrn.ch/eywL2E http://tcrn.ch/eywL2E Still though from a security perspective moving security from the network and infrastructure and to the information is highly desiarable. In this, DRM as a concept is not flawed but the implementation. I wrote some ways this could be fixed last year: http://rakkhi.blogspot.com/2010/08/making-drm-practical.html http://rakkhi.blogspot.com/2010/08/making-drm-practical.html
- almost 16y ago
  I'm sorry, but your blog post really and truly makes no sense whatsoever. You identify what you consider the "problems" with DRM (while omitting the actual problems) and your "solution" is just statement of the properties you'd like it to have, not any idea of how those properties could be achieved (they can't, at least not without draconian "trusted hardware" across the board)

I'm really gratified that the guy who once wrote, "Obscurity is a far greater threat to authors and creative artists than piracy" has built his business successfully on this same principle.

jgrahamc 16y ago

I agree. I wrote a book for O'Reilly and it has sold well, but I know that there are people out there with pirate copies of the eBook (perhaps there are lots), and although I'm happy to receive money from people two factors play together: I make hardly anything from the book (author royalties are small and compared to the effort, 6 months full time work, insignificant) and I'm much happier when someone reads it and likes the book then when I receive money for the book. Initially, I was freaked out by all these copies on file sharing sites. Now, I just ignore it.

TheAmazingIdiot 16y ago
And sometimes, those ebooks dont exist for a physical copy. At least in the computer related fields, a physical book is good when the electricity is down, and a ebook is good for grep. Yes, I am a "pirate" if by that you mean I havent paid twice: one for physical and one for digital. And dont get me started on DRM....

GrandMasterBirt 16y ago

There was an article on HN a few weeks ago about a guy who was selling something I don't remember. But he used to sell books. And when talking about piracy he asked the audience who did not agree with him "how many of you are fanboys/fangirls of an author and will buy everything that person makes" which was followed by "how many of you bought the anything made by that author as your very first introduction to him/her as opposed to borrowing it from someone, reading it in a library, pirating it and reading it, etc...?" People understand the value of things. If you give people something they value and want more of, they will gladly pay for it (the value that they see it's worth) because they want you to keep producing. They know if they stop there will be nothing new. So the end-goal is to make people see the value you produce (even if its giving them that thing for free) because instead of instant-value you will get long-term customers.

RyanMcGreal 16y ago
That sounds like Neil Gaiman's take on piracy: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2351978 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2351978
- pjscott 16y ago
  Or Eric Flint's take on it, which resulted in Baen Books putting a respectable number of their books online for free: http://www.baen.com/library/ http://www.baen.com/library/ It's been a good boost to sales.
TheAmazingIdiot 16y ago
The comment below this one mentions Gaiman, which is pro-customer. However, I believe the reference you are looking for was the comic author who was pirated on 4chan. Then he showed up and starting talking with them, and encouraging them. Of course "Pics or it didnt happen" occurred, so Steve Lieber (author/artist) posted the BoingBoing vs 4Chan chart. "If nothing else, I'm flattered someone thought enough of the book to take the time to scan and post it" - Steve Lieber. http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101021/10481211524/comic-book-pirated-on-4chan-author-joins-discussion-watches-sales-soar.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101021/10481211524/comic-...

chadgeidel 16y ago

It appears that musician Martin Atkins had the same opinion. "It's not a problem if 20,000 people 'illegally' download your music. It's a problem if they don't." http://leisureblogs.chicagotribune.com/turn_it_up/2011/03/sxsw-2011-martin-atkins-throws-blueberry-muffins-at-music-industry.html http://leisureblogs.chicagotribune.com/turn_it_up/2011/03/sx...

rakkhi 16y ago

Agreed nice to see someone walked the talk. Its interesting whether DRM is broken as a concept or just implementation. For books and songs I can see where people like Tim will accept that the people who were going to pay for his books will pay rather than go mucking through the torrent heap to find the free version. Quote on Techcrunch last month: "Most adults do not want to steal intellectual property if there’s an affordable alternative to doing so" http://tcrn.ch/eywL2E http://tcrn.ch/eywL2E Still though from a security perspective moving security from the network and infrastructure and to the information is highly desiarable. In this, DRM as a concept is not flawed but the implementation. I wrote some ways this could be fixed last year: http://rakkhi.blogspot.com/2010/08/making-drm-practical.html http://rakkhi.blogspot.com/2010/08/making-drm-practical.html

almost 16y ago
I'm sorry, but your blog post really and truly makes no sense whatsoever. You identify what you consider the "problems" with DRM (while omitting the actual problems) and your "solution" is just statement of the properties you'd like it to have, not any idea of how those properties could be achieved (they can't, at least not without draconian "trusted hardware" across the board)