Tuesday 1 November 2016

The Power of UNcopyright by Leo Babauta

Nicki Edgell
Does anyone remember those anti-piracy skull and cross bone messages you used to see on the inside sleeves of records - "home taping is killing music!"? I always thought to the contrary it actually helped spread music. I discovered so many bands via home made C90 cassettes spread around school - many of whom I would never have heard otherwise, and many of which I went on to legitimately buy their official output. Of course today the "problem" is a lot worse with the proliferation of digital copies and the general expectation that what is on the internet is free (aside from piracy I am actually constantly amazed at how much great stuff is actually legitimately free on the internet - this blog service for example provided by Google's Blogger, many other online services and softwares free to download and use, such as the excellent photo editing program I used to manipulate the photo below (pixlr.com).

Writer and zen guru Leo Babauta, the author behind the excellent Zenhabits website, has such a refreshing attitude towards copyright which I believe is all wrapped up in sharing and karma. What you give out comes back - the size of the pie increases and your absolute share does too.

How nice it is to read the article below instead of the sometimes threatening warnings about reproducing digital property, and dare I say on a wider global scale, the "batten down the hatches" protectionist and xenophobic attitudes purveying UK and US politics at the moment.

In the spirit and irony of the subject matter I reproduce Leo's article in full below, and hope, like the bands on the cassettes I used to share, it actually increases his reach and even his revenues by introducing readers who otherwise may not have found him.

Uncopyright by Leo Babauta

This entire blog, and all my ebooks, are uncopyrighted (since January 2008).
That means I’ve put them in the public domain, and released my copyright on all these works.
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. Change it around, put in a bunch of swear words and attribute them to me. It’s OK.
Attribution is appreciated but not required.
I’d prefer people buy my ebooks, but if they want to share with friends, they have every right to do so.

Why I’m releasing copyright

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.
Copyrights are often said to protect the artist, but in most cases the artist gets very little while the corporations make most of the money. In the 4+ years I’ve done this experiment, releasing copyright has not hurt me, the creator of the content, a single bit.
I think, in most cases, the protectionism that is touted by “anti-piracy” campaigns and lawsuits and lobbying actually hurts the artist. Limiting distribution to protect profits isn’t a good thing.
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. It’s never hurt Shakespeare. I doubt that it’s ever really hurt any artist (although I might just be ignorant here).
And while I’m certainly not da Vinci or Shakespeare, copyright hasn’t helped me, and uncopyright hasn’t hurt 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. If someone wanted to share my ebook with 100 friends, I don’t see how that hurts me. My work is being spread to many more people than I could do myself. That’s something to celebrate, as I see it.
And 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. 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. The creative community only benefits from derivations and inspirations.
This isn’t a new concept, of course, and I’m freely ripping ideas off here. Which is kinda the point.

Counter arguments

There are a number of objects that will likely be brought up to this idea, and here are a few of my responses:
1. Google rank will go down. My understanding is that Google penalizes pages that have exact duplicates on other sites, when it comes to PageRank. But in 4+ years of uncopyright, I have had no loss in PageRank. Anyway, SEO isn’t important to me.
2. You’ll lose ebook revenues. 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. Perhaps. That’s if you agree with the assumption that all those people would have bought the ebook if it hadn’t been freely distributed. I don’t buy that. In this example, thousands of people are reading my work (and learning about Zen Habits) who wouldn’t have otherwise. That’s good for any content creator. Also: I’ve made more money since releasing copyright, by far, than when I had copyright.
3. 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. They could translate it with all kinds of errors. They could … well, they could do just about anything. 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. 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. People are wonderful, creative creatures. Let’s see what they can do.
4. 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. And my deepest desire is that they give some of that money to a good cause.
5. But … they’re stealing from you! You can’t steal what is given freely. I call this sharing, not piracy.

Leo's website can be found at http://zenhabits.net where you can sign up to his mailings at the bottom of the page.

To sign up to my mailings please use the following link: http://eepurl.com/cl-5pn

Please, of course, feel free to share this post by using the links below.

About the Author

Nicki Edgell

I am a clinical Psycho-neuro-immunologist, Metabolic Balance Coach, Natural Nutritionist and Independent Nikken Consultant. I practice in Brighton in the South of England, helping individuals and groups towards the health, vitality and the life they want for themselves. I work under the principle that wellness depends on a balanced holistic approach to living, in all areas of your life: your body, mind, family, community and financial health all have an impact on your wellbeing.

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