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Originally Posted by MikeB1972
The problem is that it is so easy to copy digital files that it is impossible to try selling them without legal protection against copying, donationware works in very few circumstances.
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I think you're making the same mistake that some traditional publishers (including RIAA and MPAA) keep making. The best way to make a profit from digital content isn't by selling digital content. It's by selling everything else around it.
My go-to example is web comics. Web comic artists give away what traditional publishers would consider to be their products. Instead, web comic artists make their incomes from merchandise related to their comics and, more recently, on-site advertising and, more recently still, crowd-funding services like Patreon.
My second example is Netflix. They clearly don't sell content. They sell delivery of content, originally DVD rentals and now mostly streaming content over the Internet. That is to say, they sell convenience.
My third example is Baen Books. Baen, through the Baen Free Library and the Baen CDs, operates a hybrid model: give some content away with few restrictions and encouragement to redistribute, and traditionally sell the rest.
So yes, you can make a profit by giving content away, but it requires a different view of what content is in order to do it.