[A2k] FT Boyle:Text is free, we make our money on volume(s)

[Michelle Childs]

text is free, we make our money on volume(s)


By James Boyle

Published: January 22 2007 16:05 | Last updated: January 22 2007 16:05

The internet makes copying cheap. Businesses that see their livelihood
as dependent on the restriction of copying =96 concentrated in the
recording, film, publishing and software industries =96 are understandably
upset. Their goal is to have the same ability to control their content
as they had in an analog world but to keep all the benefits of
pervasiveness, cost saving, and viral marketing that a global digital
network brings. To that end, they have moved aggressively to change laws
worldwide, to introduce stiffer penalties, expand rights, mandate
technological locks, forbid reverse engineering, and increase
enforcement. It is not so much a case of wanting to have their cake and
eat it, as to have their cake and make your cake illegal.

Yet there are hints in each of these industries of a different business
model, one that aims to encourage, rather than to forbid copying. At the
moment, the hints are only that =96 a scattering of anecdotes suggesting
alternative ways of supporting creativity. It is not clear if they will
thrive or even survive, still less whether they can =93scale=94 to a broade=
r
audience. Still, if the alternative plan is to make the internet illegal
or sue grandmothers for downloading, it might be worth taking a look at
them. In my next few columns, that is what I will do =96 study
=93copy-friendly=94 businesses, beginning today with publishing.

Yochai Benkler is a prominent academic. His widely praised book about
the network economy, The Wealth of Networks, was published by Yale Press
=96 a publisher not known for its radicalism. Yet with his publisher=92s
approval Benkler=92s book is available for free online under a Creative
Commons license. Instead of paying $40 one can simply download the book.
Its sales are reportedly in the top rank of academic books. Benkler is
delighted with the additional 20,000 readers who have downloaded it.

Benkler is following in the footsteps of Larry Lessig, the founder of
Creative Commons and author of Free Culture. Lessig=92s work has been
central to the practice of making books available for free online under
licenses that make it legal for readers to copy, print and share them
with others. He stopped counting downloads of his own work once the
count hit 500,000. Yet his mass-market books continue to sell well.

Can this method work for authors =96 and publishers =96 who need to make
their living out of books? There are hints it might. Even before the
academics, Cory Doctorow, a brilliant young science fiction author, had
adopted the same system for his work. 700,000 copies of his first novel,
Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom have been downloaded for free. It is
also in its sixth print edition. In a recent article in Forbes, Doctorow
listed benefits from the exposure he gains, ranging from speaking
engagements, to magazine commissions, and professional advancement.
Presumably his publishers believe it attracts paying readers.

More generally, science fiction writers =96 with their delight in
counter-intuitive futurism =96 are conspicuous early adopters of
copy-friendly methods. One publishing house =96 Baen =96 has a free library
on its site in which authors put up their older books for free download;
in some cases directly competing with the publisher=92s own paperbacks.
The editor of the library reports a strong positive effect on sales.
Outside of sci-fi O=92Reilly, the software publishing house, does
something similar with its Open Books Project.

I have experimented too. My co-authors and I made our comic book about
filmmaking and intellectual property freely available digitally. In 9
months it has been downloaded by over 100,000 people from all over the
world. The license allows anyone to copy it or put it on P2P networks =96
provided the use is non-commercial =96 and this happened immediately. We
have no way of tracking those downloads, but they add to the total. We
have sold about 6000 paper copies, had two offers of translation and one
film channel approach us about animation =96 and the book will not even
reach brick and mortar bookstores until next month. I am trying the same
thing, chapter by chapter, with my new novel =96 a literary mystery about
the search for the true author of Shakespeare=92s works. Are readers of
historical detective stories as net-savvy as science fiction
aficionados? It will be interesting to find out.

Of course, these experiments are marginal. They are being tried by those
in non-traditional genres, or those who can afford to gamble. At the
moment, the numbers are small. But most innovation happens on the
margins. It would be just as wrong for us to conclude that these
experiments represent the future as to assume they do not.

Why might free digital availability make sense for parts of the
publishing industry? First, most people hate reading a book on a screen,
but like finding out if it is worth buying. I am sure I have lost some
sales, but my guess is that I have gained more new readers who otherwise
would be unaware of my work, and who treat the digital version as a
=93sampler,=94 to which they then introduce others. This is a leap of faith
but not an unreasonable one. Second, even professional authors make
money in multiple ways other than by royalties - ranging from options on
film production to commissions for magazine articles to consulting,
teaching and speaker fees. Most are aided by wider exposure. As Doctorow
says, =93my biggest fear as an author isn=92t illicit copying, it is
obscurity.=94 Third, digital distribution is almost free. The =93cost=94 is
the gamble over lost sales, not remaindered books with their covers torn
off. Some publishers are willing to take the risk to build current and
future demand.

Who is least likely to try free digital distribution? The blockbuster
author. Do not expect to see Harry Potter released this way. JK Rowling
does not have to struggle against obscurity, and, given market
saturation, it is unlikely that her publisher would see the method
working for her. But the next Rowling? That is another story. And
perhaps a free one.

James Boyle is professor of law at Duke University. His newest book is a
literary mystery called The Shakespeare Chronicles.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007