Tuesday, October 14, 2008

The Future (Part 2)

So, if you want to know the future of publishing according to me, read below:

First off, copyright is going the way of the dodo with the digital domain becoming the main source for all information. There is no way to patrol the internet for theft of intellectual property. It just does not work, so there has to be an entirely new way of distributing information in its many forms. There has to be an alternative to copyright.

Enter Creative Commons. (http://creativecommons.org/)

This is a method made to help individuals distribute their material with ranging rights from "all rights reserved" to "some rights reserved." What does this mean? Well, it's an acceptance of the fact that we must allow some use of our work beyond what is allowed in copyright law and "fair use."

Some people release their work to the public to view via Creative Commons. Author Cory Doctorow recently released his new book "Little Brother" under creative commons, and allowed for people to distribute electronic copies of the book. He released in in a couple formats such as txt and pdf, and then a bunch of fans converted that text into other formats for every kind of electronic reading device you can think of. People even did fan translations into other languages, and there were even fan audio versions of the book. The trick was, that these fans were not allowed to make money off of the work. They were encouraged to spread the work and to get the words to as many people as possible.

Well, wouldn't this cut into sales? Nope, on the contrary. The book became a New York Times Bestseller, with a stint up there at number one I believe. You see, those fan versions wet people's whistles for the work, and more people than you would think went out and purchased the real, honest-to-goodness hard cover at the store, or more likely these days, through Amazon. Mr. Doctorow has released most or all of his works through Creative Commons, and has reaped the benefits of this. For more info on Little Brother and to download it in any number of formats go here http://craphound.com/littlebrother/download/ . If you want to read the blog which he and a few other technology, copyright, and general nerd-stuffs addicts write check out www.boingboing.net . Actually, you will find some of the best commentary on current copyright law by going through all of their posts tagged with "copyright."

More and more people are deciding to give up their iron fist control over their work to see it flourish by using Creative Commons and electronic distribution.

I want to write more, but my wife really wants to go grocery shopping. When I get back in a few hours I will write a blog on the devices that will further allow this change, and how that will in turn effect publishing from the viewpoint of the writer and how that will pretty much be the end of book publishing as we know it.

Later,

Jason

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