This is a slightly modified repost from another thread about Paulo Coelho and his "piracy"
Quote:
Originally Posted by erwin
With all the due respect... are you kidding or what?
An ***author*** decide to distribute one of ***his*** books for free, and you call this piracy?
Again, no falme intended, but this level of "political correctness" seems to me plainly rudiculous...  |
Yes. It was piracy.
Well ... it was what is usually incorrectly called piracy.
Real piracy is a robbery committed at sea, or sometimes on the shore, by an agent without a commission from a sovereign nation [quote from Wikipedia]
It wasn't even a copyright infringement but it DEFINITELY was at least an "unauthorized distribution of the copyrighted work"
His publisher must have had a fit when he discovered the site.
It might seem strange, but even if he really DID write the books, he ... aehm ... "pirated" them by giving them away.
How can you ... aehm ... "pirate" *YOUR OWN* book? The very book you own the copyright on?
Simple and easy.
Step 1.
Write a book.
Step 2.
Sign a deal with publisher for publishing your books and get the money.
Step 3.
Give away the book you received the money for from your publisher.
Step 4.
Your publisher is ... displeased
In this particular case:
Step 5.
Your "piracy" has rekindled[*] a lot of interest in you, so people that wouldn't notice you otherwise suddenly find out they like your books. So the sales of your [paper] books [sold by your publisher] steeply rise.
Step 6.
Everyone is happy
The author
The pirate
The publisher
and, last but not least The readers.
See?
He even got nice free advertisement here on Mobileread and even on Slashdot.
[*] Paulo Coelho was alredy a very famous author.