![]() ![]() You probably don’t want to become a Zen monk either, but you can live your life in a more Zen-like manner by following a few simple rules. However, I find great inspiration in the way they try to live their lives: the simplicity of their lives, the concentration and mindfulness of every activity, the calm and peace they find in their days. I’m not a Zen monk, nor will I ever become one. I call this sharing, not piracy.“We have more possibilities available in each moment than we realize.” – Thich Nhat Hanh By Leo Babauta But … they’re stealing from you! You can’t steal what is given freely. And my deepest desire is that they give some of that money to a good cause.ĥ. What if someone publishes a book with all your content and makes a million dollars off it? I hope they at least give me credit. People are wonderful, creative creatures. What if someone takes my work and turns it into something brilliant, and becomes the next James Joyce? Or more likely, what if they take the work and extend the concepts and make it even more useful, to even more people? Release control, and see what happens. But that kind of thinking stems from a mind that wants to control content … while I am of the opinion that you can’t control it, and even if you can, it’s not a good thing. They could … well, they could do just about anything. They could translate it with all kinds of errors. Who knows what people will do with your work? Someone could take my work, turn it into a piece of crap, and put my name on it. Also: I’ve made more money since releasing copyright, by far, than when I had copyright.ģ. In this example, thousands of people are reading my work (and learning about Zen Habits) who wouldn’t have otherwise. That’s if you agree with the assumption that all those people would have bought the ebook if it hadn’t been freely distributed. If people buy my ebook and then distribute it to 20 people, and each of those distributes it to 20 more, and those to 20 more … I’ve lost $76,000 in ebook revenues. But in 4+ years of uncopyright, I have had no loss in PageRank. My understanding is that Google penalizes pages that have exact duplicates on other sites, when it comes to PageRank. There are a number of objects that will likely be brought up to this idea, and here are a few of my responses:ġ. This isn’t a new concept, of course, and I’m freely ripping ideas off here. The creative community only benefits from derivations and inspirations. ![]() If they can take my favorite posts and make something funny or inspiring or thought-provoking or even sad … I say more power to them. That’s something to celebrate, as I see it.Īnd if someone wants to take my work and improve upon it, as artists have been doing for centuries, I think that’s a wonderful thing. My work is being spread to many more people than I could do myself. If someone wanted to share my ebook with 100 friends, I don’t see how that hurts me. If someone feels like sharing my content on their blog, or in any other form for that matter, that’s a good thing for me. I doubt that it’s ever really hurt any artist (although I might just be ignorant here).Īnd while I’m certainly not da Vinci or Shakespeare, copyright hasn’t helped me, and uncopyright hasn’t hurt me. The lack of copyright, and blatant copying by other artists and even businesses, never hurt Leonardo da Vinci when it comes to images such as the Mona Lisa, the Last Supper, or the Vitruvian Man. Limiting distribution to protect profits isn’t a good thing. I think, in most cases, the protectionism that is touted by “anti-piracy” campaigns and lawsuits and lobbying actually hurts the artist. In the 4+ years I’ve done this experiment, releasing copyright has not hurt me, the creator of the content, a single bit. I’m not a big fan of copyright laws, especially as they’re being applied by corporations, used to crack down on the little guys so they can continue their large profits.Ĭopyrights are often said to protect the artist, but in most cases the artist gets very little while the corporations make most of the money. I’d prefer people buy my ebooks, but if they want to share with friends, they have every right to do so. It’s OK.Īttribution is appreciated but not required. Change it around, put in a bunch of swear words and attribute them to me. There is no need to email me for permission - use my content however you want! Email it, share it, reprint it with or without credit. That means I’ve put them in the public domain, and released my copyright on all these works. ![]() This entire blog, and all my ebooks, are uncopyrighted (since January 2008). ![]()
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