Doesn't he own the copyright anyway? He used it first :-)
I do think his arguments have merit, and I'm not convinced putting your entire work out there for free does anything except condition people to expect more entire works for free.
For purposes of discussion, the counter put to that was music: you hear 'free' music all around, but when there is something you like, you go out to buy it.
I don't have any statistics or even much anecdotal evidence either way, that is, the only people I hear about are those for whom it worked to put stuff out, and then came a crowd and so forth: but there is a whole lot more stuff out there than those examples, and are any of them having success? Dunno. But are they hurting other writers? That's the big question.
Well, as the RIAA crackdown and Harlan Ellison's own experiences point out, people are apt to steal instead of buy. The "free" music is also usually one or two songs, not the entire album.
I think the lack of statistics and analytical data is one reason it's hard to debate the topic. But why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free?
The availability of free ebooks has not made me buy one single book less. I hate reading novel-length texts on screens. I haven't even gotten around to downloading things I would otherwise have bought, because it's never been high enough on my priority list
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You will not ever resolve the technical issues I have with text-on-screen. For me, a book is a perfect device - it's portable, it doesn't need batteries, it will work - with appropriate light - under any lighting conditions, and I can read it in the bath. And the size of a MMPB is just perfect - the right amount of text, not too long, not too short, not too small, not too large. This is, of course, not coincidence
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Oh I wish you could have been, too. There was another discussion on writers reading books, mentioning favorites and not; Tim Pratt was talking up Elizabeth Bear, and people were busy writing that down. ("How do you spell that last name? Oh. Got it.")
I think they weren't sure they were hearing the name right. Like, "It can't really be the animal, can it? Oh. Yup. It can. Same spelling, even. Righto."
I keep remembering Delany's remark in About Writing that literary forms have finite lifespans; perhaps electronic media will be the end of the novel, and who knows what will replace it. By the way, have you seen Courtney Love's speech on electronic media is relevant, and Tom Smith's Different Kind of Survivor ("I want my music on Napster"). I would hate to see book publishing go the way of the recording industry. Maybe it is possible for authors to make a good living on tips?
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I do think his arguments have merit, and I'm not convinced putting your entire work out there for free does anything except condition people to expect more entire works for free.
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For purposes of discussion, the counter put to that was music: you hear 'free' music all around, but when there is something you like, you go out to buy it.
I don't have any statistics or even much anecdotal evidence either way, that is, the only people I hear about are those for whom it worked to put stuff out, and then came a crowd and so forth: but there is a whole lot more stuff out there than those examples, and are any of them having success? Dunno. But are they hurting other writers? That's the big question.
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I think the lack of statistics and analytical data is one reason it's hard to debate the topic. But why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free?
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But this is a technical issue that is probably going to be resolved eventually. How then?
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