There are many things to answer to here, but let me pick at least a few > As for programming, maybe you don't care about your IP, but your company sure does.

There are many things to answer to here, but let me pick at least a few > As for programming, maybe you don't care about your IP, but your company sure does. I don't think they do. The software I write is used by workers in my company's warehouse. It's valuable because it makes their job easier. Sure, we don't give the software away, but we also don't sell it. We would lose very little if we released it for free. I know this doesn't apply to all software, but it applies to a sizable amount of it. It would be interesting to measure which fraction of time spent writing software is for projects like this, I don't know how to even begin estimating it. > Sure you could set up a book-writing company like you could now but where would the money for those salaries come from? Some ideas, in no particular order. Asa I said before, maybe reduces the amount of books that get written, but can't say for sure. -Preorders. The publisher commits to only releasing a book once it has received X orders for it. GMT does this for boardgames. -Patreon-like model, or plain subscriptions. Customers commit to paying for whatever is released, or just pay periodically and the publisher/author commits to releasing stuff that makes customers happy. -Making nice editions: this could get very competitive, but surely a publisher who makes nice editions would still sell them. The publisher would be incentivized to pay popular authors to create books so it has more stuff to sell, even if other people could make other editions.