A) Sign up with a major publisher,which may include signing over a substantial percentage of royalties, and possible debt-financing?

B) Or release digital copies online and become a viral sensation?

The answer is B, at least it is if your book is called “Go the Fuck to Sleep”

The book, written by Adam Mansbach, and published by a little known publisher, has sold over 100,000 copies, pushing it to the number 1 spot. It’s so popular, that the publication date has been moved from October to mid-June.

Want more? How about the fact that film rights have already been sold to Fox2000. Or that publishers in the UK, Australia, South Africa, India and even China are also putting the book out simultaneously with the US release?

Some credit the sales to a pirate PDF of the book. The PDF went viral, with the pages spread via twitter and Facebook as well as other ‘new media’. The book began as a Facebook post between friends 11 months ago, so it’s only fitting it goes full circle.

Not everyone’s looking on the positive side, though. Business Insider insists it only works for ‘a picture book, not a novel, so the value of the physical object is higher than for a book which is just text.’ and that people will ‘buy the book, not for themselves, but for a friend. Again, this isn’t applicable for most books.’

Or, put another way, this book is something people not only want to own, but want others to own, and that it’s obscurity, not piracy that’s the real problem. What a surprise it’s sold so well then. Sounds like a novel way of dealing with piracy though – make stuff people want to buy, it might just catch on….

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

IFPI proudly announced their new campaign a few weeks ago, writing: “The campaign comes as millions of people take advantage of the explosion of new ways of accessing music digitally, but still lack clarity on safety and legal issues, on finding legitimate sites, on the basics of copyright and on how to unpick the jargon of digital music.”

IFPI has always been concerned with the safety of children, and on pro-music.org they maintain a list of download stores that are ‘safe’ to use. I was of course curious about these legal stores, and since i’m from the Netherlands, I decided to give the Dutch legal stores a try. This turned out to be an interesting experiment.

To my surprise, the first 4 sites on the list were all gone, some had quit, and others redirected to websites that didn’t sell any music. Even worse, commodore.nl -the first site on the list- served ads for a scam site that sells filesharing software.

I finally got something that looked like a music store when I got to the fifth link, dance-tunes. However, when I searched for the latest Radiohead album, nothing came up. The site only has a few mp3s, and nothing of my choice.

The journey continued, and with sixth site, download.nl, I finally found some good music. Interestingly however, the songs I found were not for sale. Instead, I was advised to download LimeWire, Shareaza and Kazaa Lite. This may indeed sound a little confusing, but the IFPI apparently wants kids to use filesharing software after all.

So, to sum up my legal music experiment. I tried the first 6 sites advised by IFPI, 4 didn’t sell any music, the fifth only listed a few songs, and the sixth website I tried advised me to install LimeWire or Kazaa. It gets even worse further down the list where the kids end up at sites that sell hardcore adult movies.

Viviane Reding, EU Commissioner for Information Society and Media said about the new campaign: “The new guide is a very good example of an initiative that offers simple, practical advice to parents and teachers to keep young people safe and legal while enjoying music on the Internet.

I guess she didn’t try it herself.

Screenshot of a music “store” promoted by IFPI

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.

A quote from the Wired article about how piracy divides Sweden:

Pirate Bay’s Peter is dining with a crew of pirates from all over Europe. Over tabbouleh and sausage, the talk turns to strategy: how to create media events, awareness campaigns, educational programs to let people know that piracy isn’t about free movies — it’s about clearing the way for culture to progress.

Peter talks about expanding the Pirate Bay beyond the current 25-language translation. He turns to me, with bright eyes: “We want to make a Pirate Bay for kids!”

Sebastian Gjerding of Denmark’s Piratgruppen warms to the idea, and starts talking about designing a poster to hang in schools, teaching children how to share files. The pirates bandy about names for the campaign and seem, for the moment, to settle on “iCopy.”

The article further covers the current situation is Sweden, the rise of the Pirate Party, abd the battle over piracy.

Wired quotes Attorney Monique Wadsted, the MPAA’s representative in Sweden:

“It’s become a copyright haven, a territory where you spread everything without fear of prosecution.” She continues: “Nobody has ever presented a good argument why this should be free…. They like to talk about music; they have a problem with (talking about) movies, because movies cost a lot to make.”

Great read.

Source: TorrentFreak, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing and anonymous VPN services.