Publisher Posts Mac Books on The Pirate Bay
Written by Ernesto on March 20, 2008No Starch Press and Wired’s news editor Leander Kahney have released free copies of “The Cult of Mac” and “The Cult of iPod” on the Pirate Bay. Publishing music, movies and books on BitTorrent seems to be becoming a trend, and there’s nothing wrong with that.
The success of the best selling author Paulo Coelho, who posted several of his books on BitTorrent, has inspired the publisher and Leander Kahney -the author of the two books- to do the same.
No Starch Press’ Bill Pollock uploaded the torrent to The Pirate Bay himself, as he writes: “I think that publishers (music and book) are spending too much time circling the wagons and not enough time thinking of ways that they can use technology to advantage.
“Certainly, our move here is a bit unusual, but someone has to take the plunge. May as well be us. After all, we were the first publishers in the United States to come out publicly against the DMCA. Time to put our money where our mouth is, as they say,” Pollock adds.
We applaud this move of course, and hope that many authors and publishers will do similar experiments. When Paulo Coelho, the best-selling author of “The Alchemist” made his Russian translation available, without consent from his publisher, the sales in Russia went from 1,000 books a year, to over 1,000,000. Who doesn’t want that?
Previously: Mininova to Launch BitTorrent Video Streaming
Next: German Court Decision Hands Big Win to File-Sharers
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Sweet.
I like what these artists and authors are doing..
Finally, some companies/people are catching on and looking towards the future..
awesome, bold move! I commend you guys!! way to go! congratulations!
sick way to go guys!!!
Certainly the way to go. The best free press an author can get is one where he flies the bird in the face of the DMCA
It sure is a great way to get more publicity. I just hope that now more and more artists/authors/etc are uploading their files they don’t EXPECT to get more sales. Their sales will probably go up if their work is in fact good but not if it’s a pile a shit. I can see artists/authors/etc saying: “damn, i took the effort to upload and share my work with others, yet they still don’t buy it. they just want to pirate after all”. Now then your product sucks, but they probably won’t understand that.
I met Bill at OSCON 06. He was a really cool guy and I thoroughly enjoyed chatting with him. He even gave me “the mug of vi” (a coffee bug with vi commands on it). It’s still my absolute favorite mug.
Way to step up and engage the pirate community! I for one will be purchasing at least one No Starch book because of your actions :)
That’s no apple, that’s Pac-Man. NAMCO to the rescue. Sue Apple to hell and back. kthxbye.
alas! i see the good old fashioned anti-piracy politics of enterteinmnent industries -we all know, grew up whit and got used to-
i see the good old clash
replaced eventually by the indulgent mirage of experiments and new strategies and plans -we know nothing or little or what flatteringly driven to know about- led by insiders with hidden agendas having a long head on marketing quibbles…
theres a problem with this model right now. currently the success of people like these artists, radiohead, and trent reznor are due to the fact that the pirate community is so happy to see free art that they are very generously donating to the artists. Think about it though. When every album every recorded is released free legally, you cant afford to donate money to every single artist in the way that money is being donated to Trent and Radiohead. It just won’t be able to sustain itself. The movement is great, but the results are a bit distorted as an indicator of what is to come.
you know with Comcast’s unwillingness to admit that blocking P2P specifc traffic is just dead wrong, I am wondering what excuses will be mustered when they are blocking the downloads of legitimate files such as this and NINs latest foray.
Disclaimer/reminders:
a. Opaquemurdock is not opposed to file sharing
b. Opaquemurdock is a 100% independent content creator (no record deals please)
c. Opaquemurdock has historically always shared full length high quality content with no DRM
d. Opaquemurdock is not your enemy
Sorry, about the disclaimer. After the harsh reception I got my last visit, I am just trying to cut down on the people assuming I am here to hate on the community. I am just here to discuss, understand the views of others and present concerns I have. Not looking to make war. : )
[quote comment="315270"]It sure is a great way to get more publicity. I just hope that now more and more artists/authors/etc are uploading their files they don’t EXPECT to get more sales. Their sales will probably go up if their work is in fact good but not if it’s a pile a shit. I can see artists/authors/etc saying: “damn, i took the effort to upload and share my work with others, yet they still don’t buy it. they just want to pirate after all”. Now then your product sucks, but they probably won’t understand that.[/quote]
Point taken, but respectfully, I also can see it working in reverse… “Hell no I didn’t buy that crap! Sure I read it. But it was nowhere as good as his last book!”…. “Yeah, I can’t wait for the next one either… maybe it will suck less!” I take it you see the subtle problem with that statement? The person is a fan, but even a minor dissatisfaction becomes an excuse to not contribute. Does that example seem far fetched to anyone? (real question) I really tried to be honest and I think that is well witting our cultures current level of respect for “artists”. We are quick to judge and find fault in even the things that entertain and inform us.
Also,
How would you address artists/authors/etc who are “good” or even “great” but have limited appeal? Being mainstream is only one measure of a works worth, and some would argue it is the least important. What concerns me is that attitudes about what deserves to be supported and what doesn’t will be based on new distorted sense of “worth”.
If the “value” of a self published digitally distributed book is $0-$4.99. And a Significant number of people that enjoyed it… even modestly are willing to pay something in that range, then having 10,000 dedicated fans may still make it worth your while to spend every waking moment writing your next novel, even though most people outside your fanbase would not know what the hell to make of your crazy crap. and in a future like this, everything would be cool and your girlfriend would probably not kick you out.
Thats sounds like a good thing to me. The world needs people outside of the mainstream, thats how new unique stuff that later becomes mainstream is born.
But, If the value of that same self published digitally distributed book is $0-$0.50 and even amongst your 10,000 hardcore dedicated uber fans only a few will donate unless it is friggin PERFECT, then unique content is in dire straights in the future. Maybe those fans read it… maybe they even enjoy it, but since expectations of value are so different in the economy of “free” they don’t feel like they want to donate. Sure its great to have 10,000 fans, but at that scale and percentage of support it means that you will probably need to take an extra shift at the Walmart to catch up on your bills and you may likely never write again… And your girlfriend will kick you out.
Hmmm. I was trying to stay on topic about books, which currently enjoy a bit of a sheltered life in my opinion. People still like to hold books, you hardly ever hear of someone reading an entire book on a laptop… but really in a few years I think the perfect reader will hit and Barnes and Noble will go the way of CD warehouse (to some extent). Some say books will always be with us… I don’t know, we are getting “greener” everyday and people used to feel the same way about vinyl. So music/print I think we are really talking about the same issues, maybe just down the road a bit. So I can’t help but respond to this…
[quote comment="315376"]currently the success of people like these artists, radiohead, and trent reznor are due to the fact that the pirate community is so happy to see free art that they are very generously donating to the artists. Think about it though. When every album every recorded is released free legally, you cant afford to donate money to every single artist in the way that money is being donated to Trent and Radiohead. It just won’t be able to sustain itself. The movement is great, but the results are a bit distorted as an indicator of what is to come.[/quote]
I find myself wondering this as well.
I would add something… in the early days of the (public) interwebs many of us thought the future of music and books would be in micro payments… .10 .15 .25 would buy you a chapter of a book or a song. You know, I would gladly pay .10 for “Kung Fu Fighting” especially if I could be sure a good chunk of that went to the people that wrote and performed the song. And I agree, .99 is too much. Hell, its 10x too much. It was supposed to be millions and millions of people owning every song they had any interest in… affordably. All we needed was smart people to work out the mechanics!
Well, you know the story, nothing happened. I hate greed. Greed and fear together make very little possible.
But its kinda strange the way things turned out. At least for the time being, we instead have the opposite, a few what I can only assume are very rich people who are either amazing fans or possibly dedicated people who understandably want to see a new model work, paying astronomically over the going rate and making the numbers good. It sure doesn’t strike me as the utopia we were shooting for.
We have traded the concept of “huge numbers of artists old and new supported by files so cheap as to be practicly free” for “a hand full of artist supported by wealthy patrons”
So, I have to also predict that dropping large donations and buying expensive exclusive sets will slow down considerably at the very least in the future.
btw, I paid much more for In Rainbows than I needed to, so I count myself as hopeful supporter. I am still trying to figure out if I want the NIN thing and if so, how much of it. My wife got the basic tracks but I am likely to purchase my own. I mention this so you don’t think I am someone wishing for these experiments to fail. Quite the opposite, I want them to succeed, I just don’t see them “trickling down” very far, to borrow a Raganomics term : ) I honestly don’t think they will work as well on a smaller scale. I think the curve will be sharp and harsh and dump a lot of good and worthwhile people on their ass. The business has always been brutal for artist it doesn’t need to be worse.
If I am wrong and talented creative people who work hard are honored and supported in the future by people that freely trade their music/books/films/photography. If people seek out and make a distinction between the genuine independent and the corporate constructed “art” that has treated them like crap for decades…
Nothing would make me happier. I am dying to be wrong.
now i’ll read it.. really.
unless the book is totally crap
true only useless book that make it through internet .
He forgets about merchandice, gigs, tours and sponsership when doing the tours. If an artist gets the fans (which means they’re are good in some way) then they can make the money. Also, you don’t have to donate to every artist you like, just do at least every now and then to something you found nice. I’m pretty sure a lot of people will donate money constantly, but less frequently. Oh, and well done for taking a big leap into the torrent world Leander Kahney.
*quote OpaqueMurdoc* But it was nowhere as good as his last book! */quote*
But basically that’s the same way as it’s working now, at least for me it is. I download everything that i might like, and if I do, i’ll definately buy it! On cd or vinyl, i don’t care.
But i understand your point that most probably lots of people won’t, and just go for it cause its free, and you dont HAVE to pay if you dont want to.
Ah well.. time will tell. :)
Wow, they had proper .nfos and everything. I seem to remember how there used to once be a publisher that was rather clued in to the Intarbutts of olde.
[quote comment="315677"]*quote OpaqueMurdoc* But it was nowhere as good as his last book! */quote*
But basically that’s the same way as it’s working now, at least for me it is. I download everything that i might like, and if I do, i’ll definately buy it! On cd or vinyl, i don’t care.
But i understand your point that most probably lots of people won’t, and just go for it cause its free, and you dont HAVE to pay if you dont want to.
Ah well.. time will tell. :)[/quote]
Kudos to you and many others who support what you enjoy. The world needs more of ya bud!
I see an under-discussed issue here… I think there is a significant body of “middle of the road” works that people still want, but because they don’t see them as “great” they think they are not worthy of support. Art has a range of quality that seems to be getting over looked in these discussions; it simply doesn’t jump from “suck” to “rock”.
It sometimes seems to me like people in these debates want to draw a hard line where everything below is deemed not worthy of survival, even though we all consume and to some degree enjoy all the content throughout the range. I just wonder if this is leading us down a bad path. We LIKE this content… but we just don’t value it enough to cough up a donation… are we really being fair? Or is it the system of value that is out of whack due to years of abuse by publishers record companies, advertisers etc…
Lets hope people don’t get more jaded then they are now and support even fewer content creators.
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