"

When the web started, I used to get really grumpy with people because they put my poems up. They put my stories up. They put my stuff up on the web. I had this belief, which was completely erroneous, that if people put your stuff up on the web and you didn’t tell them to take it down, you would lose your copyright, which actually, is simply not true.

And I also got very grumpy because I felt like they were pirating my stuff, that it was bad. And then I started to notice that two things seemed much more significant. One of which was… places where I was being pirated, particularly Russia where people were translating my stuff into Russian and spreading around into the world, I was selling more and more books. People were discovering me through being pirated. Then they were going out and buying the real books, and when a new book would come out in Russia, it would sell more and more copies. I thought this was fascinating, and I tried a few experiments. Some of them are quite hard, you know, persuading my publisher for example to take one of my books and put it out for free. We took “American Gods,” a book that was still selling and selling very well, and for a month they put it up completely free on their website. You could read it and you could download it. What happened was sales of my books, through independent bookstores, because that’s all we were measuring it through, went up the following month three hundred percent

I started to realize that actually, you’re not losing books. You’re not losing sales by having stuff out there. When I give a big talk now on these kinds of subjects and people say, “Well, what about the sales that I’m losing through having stuff copied, through having stuff floating out there?” I started asking audiences to just raise their hands for one question. Which is, I’d say, “Okay, do you have a favorite author?” They’d say, “Yes.” and I’d say, “Good. What I want is for everybody who discovered their favorite author by being lent a book, put up your hands.” And then, “Anybody who discovered your favorite author by walking into a bookstore and buying a book raise your hands.” And it’s probably about five, ten percent of the people who actually discovered an author who’s their favorite author, who is the person who they buy everything of. They buy the hardbacks and they treasure the fact that they got this author. Very few of them bought the book. They were lent it. They were given it. They did not pay for it, and that’s how they found their favorite author. And I thought, “You know, that’s really all this is. It’s people lending books. And you can’t look on that as a loss of sale. It’s not a lost sale, nobody who would have bought your book is not buying it because they can find it for free.”

What you’re actually doing is advertising. You’re reaching more people, you’re raising awareness. Understanding that gave me a whole new idea of the shape of copyright and of what the web was doing. Because the biggest thing the web is doing is allowing people to hear things. Allowing people to read things. Allowing people to see things that they would never have otherwise seen. And I think, basically, that’s an incredibly good thing.

"

-Neil Gaiman on Copyright, Piracy, and the Commercial Value of the Web (X)

(Source: roominthecastle)

Posted on January 23rd at 10:33 PM
Tagged as: MPAA should get this through their thick skulls. neil gaiman.
Reblogged from: dallowayward
Originally posted by: roominthecastle

1. well-fourthings-andalestrade reblogged this from recallthename
2. tobonics reblogged this from faggotforsale
3. ch-se reblogged this from faggotforsale
4. trois-gymnopedies reblogged this from faggotforsale
5. trois-gymnopedies liked this
6. twalalaland reblogged this from emerlynpenn
7. faggotforsale reblogged this from prince-gloomy and added:

   “When the web started, I used to get really grumpy with people because they put my poems up. They put my stories up....

8. dora744 reblogged this from roominthecastle
9. 6reen4pples liked this
10. melyssarave reblogged this from frek
11. albidude liked this
12. kittensandporn reblogged this from riotclitshave
13. dora566 reblogged this from roominthecastle
14. gertrude227 reblogged this from roominthecastle
15. pointtheway reblogged this from savethe-clocktower
16. vodkaandcupcakes reblogged this from riotclitshave and added:

    SOPA - 90% of people who illegally download music are the very same people who make up 90% of music sales. same goes...

17. middlesavagery reblogged this from riotclitshave
18. kixboxer liked this
19. hurtpaincutsandbruises reblogged this from thegloriousnosebleed
20. flanoir reblogged this from andurrs
21. millicent100 reblogged this from roominthecastle
22. decoration-interieur reblogged this from jonesoobala
23. audraclaireh liked this
24. pagan-poetry reblogged this from loveyourchaos
25. somewhatvague liked this
26. pinkmind reblogged this from merrickraven
27. thegloriousnosebleed liked this
28. thegloriousnosebleed reblogged this from riotclitshave
29. merrickraven reblogged this from silverykua
30. silverykua reblogged this from shiverelectric
31. frek reblogged this from shiverelectric
32. taocom liked this
33. brooklynmonkey reblogged this from riotclitshave
34. fuzzyllamaedward reblogged this from thetabledidnothingwrong and added:

    Courtlyn. Manson.

35. unbridledrandomness reblogged this from thesmoofisonfire
36. thetabledidnothingwrong liked this
37. thetabledidnothingwrong reblogged this from thesmoofisonfire
38. thesmoofisonfire reblogged this from theconsultingfreak
39. toomanylamps reblogged this from theconsultingfreak
40. theconsultingfreak liked this
41. theconsultingfreak reblogged this from shiverelectric
42. shiverelectric reblogged this from prettybirdy979
43. kevinelliottchi liked this
44. boringmkadventures liked this
45. pikarilles liked this
46. jacqcoast reblogged this from ugmotaur
47. jacqcoast liked this
48. briarlathotep liked this
49. briarlathotep reblogged this from riotclitshave
50. beyondmetaphysics liked this
51. Show more notesLoading...