How do you defend your intellectual property rights when technology makes it so easy for just about anyone to copy and distribute your creative work online?
The music industry, the publishing industry and now, even the TV industry have to grapple with this question.
Some musicians, most notably Radiohead, is allowing fans to buy direct on the Web at a price they see fit. Others think the answer is to give it away online FREE.
I have been fascinated by the creative commons movement and what Cory Doctorow science fiction writer and BoingBoing.net founder has achieved by giving away his e-books free.
Kotkke.org has this interview with Doctorow.
http://www.kottke.org/07/11/cory-doctorow
I particularly like what he says about the role of serendipity in this new way of distributing: “So for one thing, the free online distribution of my work has created new opportunities—it’s like dandelion seeds blowing around that find all the cracks in the sidewalk that I never would have been able to find just by walking around and planting them.”
The idea of dandelion seeds blowing in the wind is almost poetic.
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