Transcript version, for everyone who might need it (I've fixed it to make it flow better in written form): When the web started, I used to get really grumpy with people. Because they put my poems up, they put my stories up, they put my stuff up on the web. And I had this belief - which was completely erroneous - that if people put your stuff up on the web and you didn't tell them to take it down you would lose your copyright. Which, actually, is simply not true. And I also got very grumpy because I felt like they were pirating my stuff, that it was bad. And then I started to notice [...] things that seemed much more significant. One of which was: in places where I was being pirated - particularly Russia, where people were translating my stuff in Russian and spreading it out in the world - I was selling more and more books. People were discovering me... through being pirated! And then they were going out and buying the real books. And when a new book came out in Russia it would sell more and more copies. I was fascinated, and I tried a few experiments. Some of them are quite hard! You know, persuading my publisher [...] to take one of my books and put it out for free. And we took American Gods - a book that was still selling, and selling very well - and for a month they put it up completely free on their website. You could read it, and you could download it. And what happened was: sales of my books (through independent bookstores, because that was all we were measuring it through) went up the following month 300%. And I started to realize that, actually, you're not losing sales by having stuff out there. And when I give a big talk now on these kind of subjects, and people say "Well, what about the sales that you're losing through having stuff copied, through having stuff floating out there?" I start asking audiences to just raise their hands for one question: "Okay, do you have a favorite author?" And they say "yes". And I say "Good. What I want is: everybody who discovered their favorite author by being lent a book, put up your hands" And then "Anybody who discovered your favorite author by walking into a bookstore and buying a book: raise your hands". And it's probably about 5-10% of the people that actually discovered their favorite author, who is the person they [now] buy everything of, and they buy the hardbacks etc. Very few of them bought the book! They were lent it, they were given it, they did not pay for it... and that's how they found their favorite author. And I thought, you know, that's really all this is. It's people lending books. And you can't look on that as a lost sale. It's not a lost sale, nobody who would have bought your book is not buying it [only] because they can find it for free. What you're actually doing is advertising. You're reaching more people, you're raising awareness. And understanding that gave me a whole new idea of the shape of copyright, and what the web was doing. Because the biggest thing the web is doing is allowing people to hear things, allowing people to read things, allowing people to see things they might never have otherwise seen. And I think, basically, that it's an incredibly good thing.
This guy is totally right. I pirated Dark Souls, and fell so in love with it I bought the game on PS3. Without piracy I would have never ever even played it.
I would never have read Neil’s work without piracy. Wouldn’t know who he is. But I can say he’s 100% right, since that book I downloaded I have purchased almost every one of his books, it turned me on to his writing, and because I loved what I was reading I bought them! So glad at least one writer sees the potential that piracy can have on authors. And I’m glad that he’s down to earth and polite about it too!
Neil Gaiman…you wonderful man who co-wrote Good Omens and episodes of Doctor Who like the “Doctor’s Wife”. May you live on forever as the wonderful man you are. Thank you. Thank you so much for supporting this. And your words…Your words are wisdom. We can do nothing but thank you. Thank you so much~!
I do feel like spreading content online for free drastically helps advertise someones work. But there is a fine line when someone is trying to profit off of someone else's work. That's debatable issue in my opinion. But shows like Game of Thrones or Breaking Bad get WAY more attention because people watch it pirated and as a result the shows get more of a buzz surrounding it.
Dino Suric My dad is a photographer and there have been times when someone produces a calendar using one of his pictures without his permission. The company was profiting off of his work and my father didn't see any royalties what so ever. It's the type of product that isn't as accessible as the internet so the amount of publicity gained was practically nothing while the company was the only one who benefited. In a sense it's almost like plagiarism. Like I said, it's a fine line
smiley17 Indeed if you take a copy of something, but do nothing with it but view it yourself it's no more harm than looking at something that someone has bought, or borrowing, it's when you attempt to use it for something other than personal use that it becomes detrimental to the creator.
smiley17 I think you are confusing plagiarism and piracy, because with plagiarism, you don't really know who the original author was because someone else has wrongly claimed credit for the content. In piracy, the content itself is copied, but the original author is recognized for creating the said content, and in that case, also benefits his exposure.
Dino Suric "the person who spreads it is almost always making profit from it. Its unavoidable" This is not true. Please state a reason for your claim. HOW is it unavoidable to profit from making copies of something available to others? It feels like you have an urge to polarize this for some reason. It is perfectly possible (and ordinary) to distribute copies on a non-profit basis. Among other things, I would be very interested to hear how you figure that copies of media distributed via torrents would bring any income to the uploader. Keep in mind that the notion that someone automatically would have bought something if they didn't copy it is a complete fallacy. Additionally, keep in mind that it has been statistically proven that people who copy actually purchase more media (by legitimate means) than those who do not.
What seems to never get mentioned in the sharing debate is the fact that many of us don't have the money to go buy books, records, movies, new or used.
Spaneen Oomlong it’s not mentioned because it’s illegal, plain and simple. Downloading a book to check out an author is one thing, being too cheap (because let’s be honest $10-15 for a paperback a month or a trip to the public library really isn’t that hard) and turning to piracy is illegal and does hurt sales. If you’re never buying and giving back to your favorite writer, that is a loss of sale
Gaiman is correct. A friend sent me American Gods PDF. After the 20th page I went like "screw this" and asked a friend to lend me it. I read the paperback and returned it. Next paycheck I went out and bought the hardcover version for me, a paperback for my friend who was skeptical of anything not by Mercedes Lackey, and a copy for my mum. As soon as Anasasi Boys came out, I bought it. All of this because someone gave me a PDF.
Neil Gaiman is one of my favourite authors, after a friend loaned me some sandman comics funnily enough. After hearing this talk my estimation of him just went up. Another issue many copyright holders forget is this: piracy does not mean losing a sale, because the "pirater" never had any intention of buying the thing anyway. So the copyright holder has really lost nothing. However as Gaiman points out, it might mean further sales, as seen in his example of Russia. Piracy = net gain.
Readers, I encourage you to share my books. Lend them to friends. Share the file (especially those unencrypted Eastward Dragons epub files over on Smashwords). Tell everyone you know where to get the files. I only ask two things: Leave me a review on Amazon or GoodReads. Don't sell them (or access to them), because _that_ is piracy. #free #ebooks #sharing #openculture #copyright
*Eastward Dragons free edition:* www.smashwords.com/books/view/536765 *All of my books on Amazon (DRM free and sharing from Kindle enabled):* www.amazon.com/Andrew-Linke/e/B009YN1WGA
This is so true. While I don't read a lot of books, I did discover all of my favorite bands through the internet. I would've never bought any albums of them or even heard about most of them if it wasn't for the fact that I heard a couple of their songs on TH-cam first and ended up liking them a lot.
I think piracy is ultimately what you make of it. The ethics of it can be bad if you don't go and support the author of the book that you enjoyed reading for free, but if you do ultimately buy the book... who are you really hurting? When people try to argue against piracy, saying that "you can use libraries instead, use project gutenberg etc." they are unaware that this possibility isn't open to everybody in the world. Like Gaiman pointed out, there are places in the world where it's hard to find books, and people can't afford them. What is restricting piracy doing? It is restricting knowledge to those people, who for reasons beyond their control can't access the books they would like to access. You can only read so many classics on project gutenberg before you get bored.
This! This right here! Thank you Neil so much for being one of the VERY FEW individuals to figure this out on your own and then ACTUALLY SAY SOMETHING ABOUT IT!
You are so right, someone lent me one of your books and i just loved it, so i went and bought another one, and then another. Same with many other books i've really loved. I heard about an author from a friend, i downloaded the audiobook, listened to it and then i went and bought a copy and then another.. and another! I wish everyone could understand this process as well as you do Neil.
"You can't look at it as a lost sale. It's not a lost sale. Nobody who would have bought your book is NOT buying it because you can find it for free." This is what I've been saying for years when it comes to books, movies, music, and many other forms of digital entertainment. I cannot explain how many times I've "pirated" something, whether it's a song, an album, a movie, a book, and then enjoyed it SO much that not only did I buy a copy for myself to help support the artist, but I also told all of my friends and family how good it was so that they would go check it out, too. So they technically gained a sale from me that they NEVER would have had if i hadn't pirated it to begin with. And maybe they gained a bunch of other sales from people I told to check it out, too.
I had never heard of Neil Gaiman before his commencement address, and now I've found this. Mr. Gaiman's right: word-of-mouth marketing on the internet is very effective, because now I'm going to get one of his books and see if he writes as awesomely as he speaks.
One thing that is cooler than hearing your favourite author talk about things, is hearing him talk about things that go against the opinions of the majority and you also happen to fully agree with. Mr Gaiman, I salute you!
I have never read anything Neil Gaiman, but I am a fan. I heard a commencement speech by him. I read the quotes. Watch the interviews. Rarely read his blog but I do. I don't even remember the first time I heard of him. Every time I try to remember I get this weird feeling that I always knew of him or something about him.
I discovered Gaiman in the library shelves. Graveyard Book caught my eye. I read it within a week, bought it within a month, and have since lent it three times to friends
Well if its good more people would buy the stuff that was being pirated. And Neils work is absolutely amazing. Can we also talk about how amazing his voice is
I enjoy how insightful and clear Gaimen went over this. I'm sending this to the next person who wonders if putting up a book for free is foolish. Not that self published authors aren't coming up with plenty of evidence but this is something I can share with non-writers.
The reason the music industry is going down the toilet is not because of piracy. It's because it's shit music. Yeah, I'm so looking forward to the newest Lil Wayne Record...
Just on a technical level, the music produce today is shit. It's brickwalled garbage that creates physical pain when you try to listen to it. If you get an old CD (or a newly released album that's been properly mixed, which is rare) and blast it on a good soundsystem, it's an amazing experience unlike anything else. If you try to do the same thing with a modern CD you can literally damage the speakers from all the constant clipping, if you can even tolerate playing it at a loud volume. Now just imagine what that does to your eardrum, and now we're suppose to fork over $15 for a whole disc of this crap? I guess young people listening to music on their phones using low-quality ear buds or built-in laptop speakers don't mind paying .99 cents to enjoy a song on the go, but I can't imagine physical media sells anymore because the people with the hardware to properly enjoy it are physically repulsed by the low-quality diarrhea that's the new production standard. Look up the CD version of "Death Magnetic" compared to the Guitar Hero rips if you think I'm being too picky. But my biggest pet peeve is when they "remaster" classic albums, as they just boost everything until it clips and remove high frequency ranges to reduce the "undesirable" background noises microphones picked up back then. So now we get to buy the same album a second time, except now it's a hollow and lifeless shell of itself that sounds like everything modern. Music studios are riding a cash-cow and they don't give a shit as long as people keep buying their product, and the irony is when people stop buying it they'll blame piracy and every else except themselves.
No... The reason the music industry is eating so much shit is because anybody can make good music anywhere for everybody to see. Take Eminem for example, when he was trying to make it, he had to send mix tapes out to all the major producers, pay for a studio to record in and all the other bullshit. Now, any talented rapper can record a song on there computer, produce a good studio quality beat for it and upload that shit for free to TH-cam and have millions upon millions of people find it. TLDR: Musicians no longer need anybody to help them, They can do everything beyonce' can do, but sat on there sofa infront of a macbook.
I discovered my favorite music artists by piracy. I go to their concerts now which I would NEVER have done before because I have never heard them on the radio.
Now this is a guy who gets it! People posting copyrighted works online for free is really advertising for the creators. We all heard the: "Only the creators have the right to say who advertises and where" speech, which is legally true. But, why would creators adhere to that? It's like saying: I made this awesome thing, but I don't want you to see it unless you pay. What creator would say such a thing? I'd want my stuff spread so I could make as many people happy as I possibly can.
[continues] even though on the web an insane number of people requested the reprint because they wanted to buy it/give it as a gift. They said they would made another reprint in 2009, but in 2010 the book - reprinted or not - was still nowhere to be found. That year was when I found a pirated version of Good Omens in Italian. I fell in love with it. I UTTERLY fell in love with it. [continues]
Wonderful arguments. I very much like the comparison to libraries and lending things out to see if you like it. Or to get it before you have the option to buy it in your place of living. The ones who would have bought it before will still buy it, And the ones in other countries who might not have ever heard of you otherwise will now know your name and will bug their local stores or search for international selling stores to get them.
Fantastic to hear an artist realising that fans sharing your work is a positive and beneficial action. The artists work becomes more widely know and their influence increases, allowing them to set up "name your price" direct sales (aka donations), make money from touring/speaking, merchandise (such as physical copies), etc. Current copyright legislation and unscrupulous IP trawling lawsuits from industry bodies like the RIAA is out of touch with reality. Art wants to be free.
And I have heard music thru napster limewire and such and then bought the CD that I never would have if I hadn't heard them on a share network first. He is absolutely right!
Also, look at the Nine Inch Nails record, The Slip. It had been downloaded 1.4 million times from the official Nine Inch Nails website. By the time the physical version was released two months later, that number had grown beyond 2 million. The physical release of the album has sold more than 98,000 copies. This was because a free download was offered by the band.
If Neil reads this, and I think he might.....I discovered you through Good Omens, which was lent by my mom, which she got as a gift from a friend. Since then I've took in, oh, lets see.....4 novels, two picture books, one movie you scripted, 2 movies based on your books, and an entire BBC series. AND subscribed to your TH-cam XD I think it caught my interest :P I think the only people who have to worry about piracy are mediocre writers. When you love a story enough, you want your own copy.
I discovered Gaiman because a friend let me borrow the complete set of The Sandman. I ended up becoming a fan and have bought 4 of his novels since. Trying to control material on the internet is as foolish as stopping the tide.
The music industry is pioneering the way for digital copyright solely based on the amount of content coming out these days, and IMO it's thriving more than ever because of the availability of all these tools. Thank you internet
Usually it is our norm that makes us want to buy their product because to me when I downloaded those FMAB episodes for free and loved the show, I told myself that I want to see more of these and I bought the complete set to help them bring more. That is my opinion.
I found Good Omens, and thus discovered Neil Gaiman, through piracy. Now they are respectively my favourite book ever and my favourite author ever. Right now, I'm owning seven other Neil Gaiman's books, PLUS an anthology about him, PLUS Good Omens both in English and in my native language. Now, there's a funny story about Good Omens in Italian (which is my native language, yeah). It was very unlucky. [continues]
@smaknp1 The same concept is occuring online. The point of this matter is: there are many people who wouldn't buy something without having first 'sampled' the wares. When you buy food, occasionally they give you samples. "Try our product, see if it tastes good." Then you buy it because you like the taste. When you want to buy a book/movie/cd, you might want to see if the creator is any good. "Sample" their talent. Decide if you like the product.
Universal library! :D My friend had pestered me for a year to read Neil Gaiman. Then Gaiman wrote The Doctor's Wife, a Doctor Who episode which prompted me to do some research on him. That was how I ended up reading The Graveyard book. Now I'm a big Neil Gaiman fan and I think he's marvelous. :D YAY Mr. Gaiman! For supporting people to read! :P
The Graveyard Book was free online, and that's when I decided to buy it for a friend and get the audiobook for myself from the library as a halloween gift. Such a brilliant truth, the sharing of "free" work.
he speaks the truth. and the problem is not that the huge record companies and game developers and publishers dont know this, they just either refuse to believe it or respond to it as such. because if nobody whines and threatens over piracy, then it could become a REAL problem. but in the current state of things, it changes little and helps most
This man is, quite possibly, the most creative mind that exists on this planet today. If piracy doesn't hurt him, there's no way it's hurting the little guy- unless they suck and nobody wants their stuff, even if it's free. As an artist, that is your own fault, and no anti-piracy law can help you.
THIS IS IT. Agree on every point. I watched the Naruto cartoons online, translated by fans, and then the COMPANY MAKING IT started putting it's work online. Free. I may not be able to afford the videos, but darn it, I buy the merchandise. This is what I can do, and it supports the people who make Naruto. I would NEVER have bought ANYTHING of Naruto if not for falling in love with the characters through the free stuff online. Hope a lot of people see this video :D
This makes me a little happier that I bought his book American Gods. An author who fully deserves it. His right as well. "Piracy" is just sharing and yes the majority of time when people like something that they see rather it was lent to them by a friend or they got it through the internet or however for free, it makes them want to buy it or at least buy more from the author. "Piracy" most of the time just better promotes a product to a much wider audience.
@livingspiral That's what makes it more complex than the simplified assertion that it's just good advertising. It doesn't just effect actual money in or out. It also effects the perceived value of something. And certain types of creations don't have an arbitrary value. They have actual tangible costs, many of them permanently ongoing long after the content has been put out there.
It all started when I was handed a book and commanded to READ IT! Just READ IT! It was weathered, water and coffee stained, dogeared, and the cover was held together with duct tape. Passages of text were highlighted and reactions were written in the margins. Good Omens. Several years and well over a hundred dollars later, Neil Gaiman is still my favorite author.
Very true, by pirating i start liking the games and found out what genres i enjoy. Now i support my favorite games and developers. Pirating made me a part of the industry. Well......constantly pirating also saved me a bunch of money by not buying shitty games xD Also cudos to CD Project RED no-DRM Witcher series!!
I agree with Neil. That is exactly how I discovered my favourite authors, learnt of music I came to love and even experience films, because someone, out of love for the thing: lent it to me so I could love it too. I then went on to buy my own copy and future books, cd's and dvd's, because I was exposed to them, for free.
There's also the fact that if you decide to advertise your work, you can choose where and how you advertise and how much you're willing to spend on it. No such luck with piracy. The ad agency walks in your door, says they're running ads on your behalf and taking a cut. They get to decide how much and they get their cut before you see dime. And you have to take their word that it's a fair deal.
I believe this applies to movies and music unlike many others on here but with the caveat: you have to put it in sensible fan perspective packaging. What I mean by this is SENSIBLE (make something that fits on the average shelf not some insane packaging that looks cool but is impossible to store in a home) and FAN PERSPECTIVE (make packaging that is obviously made by someone who is a fan of the work and shows it in every detail). If the packaging enhances people will buy.
FINALLY a copyright-holder who understands this. I had great respect for Neil Gaiman to begin with, but after watching this interview I have even more respect for him now.
therealredkite , he wasn't talking about borrowed books. He only used that example to support the truth of his primary observation, which was that he saw a clear increase in sales that coincided with people's downloading of free copies.
@TheXJ47 People do this quite often actually. It usually comes from wanting to support that developer or wanting to have the "easy" version of the software or program that can be updated, and used to its full advantage. Steam video games are a great example. Someone who downloads a video game will be able to play it but will not have the auto-updating, install on any device that uses your steam account, cloud storage for the games data, etc.
The funny thing is, people have been saying this for years, and we now have hard data to back it up. Places like Smashwords -- that distribute e-books -- have the ability to track sales on every title. When a title is free, it gets distributed 100x more than even a title that costs a dollar. But here's the really interesting bit: very often, when an author makes a book free, sales on all their other books spike almost immediately. Consistently. It's a statistically verifiable fact.
Completely agree. Tbh if the artist's writing/music/films are good enough then they cant consider web downloads to be piracy, but rather advertisement, because people who genuinely appreciate and enjoy the work will not only be more aware of that artist, but will also probably start to buy their work anyway.
I use to be against pirating/emulation till I realized we use to record our music on cassette tapes and our tv shows/movies on VHS tapes. You also have to think when was the last time you paid for a movie. TV companies do pay for the license of content so your monthly cable bill does pay for those licenses. But how our digital infrastructure is being controlled your being forced to pay to watch it instead of watching it freely somewhere. Netflix is great but movies and shows don't stay there forever. Most people who pirate films are pirating older movies and aren't interested in anything new. I watched Zootopia on Netflix recently and Id highly recommended it. Most people if they hear it's something good they will buy it. You would never buy something if the only reviews of something were written by fanboys.
Audio cassettes and VHS tapes were never able to instantly turn one copy into millions of perfect copies shared with millions of people across the world. Nobody has much more than 150 friends to share with, let alone 150,000+. And you'd need a garage or two full of cassettes to match the storage of a 2 TB HDD. It may be a similar concept, but the scale is completely different.
Mad agree If I've watched something or listened to something through a streaming service I'm more than willing to then pirate it, I've paid for a temporary licence as it is There's very few things I actually purchase, for example Battlestar Galactica on Blu Ray for the sheer fact I love it so much and want to be able to rewatch it when I like instead of trying to find a streaming platform to watch it on, in sub par quality Initially I had pirated BSG and after the first season I then bought the blu ray
I believe when the work you do - books, music, games, films - is great, then it's just like he says, internet will actually increase sales since more people will know you greatness...if on the hand your work is bad then it will decrease your sales, since people will try it and hate it, instead of buying it...that is why publishers hate internet, for them it's easier to churn out half-baked cheaply made stuff and sell that to the blind consumer who won't suspect its bad based on a pretty cover...
One reason why this can work on gaming as well is cause most games require a valid key to play online (unless its a private server), so if people actually like the game, they will buy it. I've done this on numerous ocassions myself. Pirated the game, loved it and wanted to play online so I brought the actual game.
Music may be harder but not impossible. A few years ago, I was in a forum that is basically a "downloadtopia" for movies, music, animes, etc. There is where I found Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood (TV show but same concept) I have downloaded episodes and watched it. I loved it. Then my norm started to kick in. "FUNimation seems a good company for licensing these animes. I would love to see more of what they can do." Later, I loved FMAB so much, I bought the complete set to support them.
He is right. Internetpiracy is not stealing, it is advertisement! Artists and writers sell more books and CD's because of the free publicity. If I discover something on the web and like it, I WILL buy it. But how can I want something if I don't know it? But the big media corporations prefer to view this on the very short term only. They call that penny wise, but pound foolish.
People actually do, especially the less experienced ones, I know few of those. Not everyone is like "I won't pay for my apps, ever". Some people even donate for freeware or open source programs they like. Even companies often "try" the full version just to see if it fits their needs, they simply can't get away with having pirated software.
Big companies get it too. Point is they want to have total control over the market so they can make controled investitions with controled income. And pirates are competition to them. It doesn´t make neither side good. That is just how it is.
@lephong PC piracy is a new form of viral advertisement in a sense. If an unknown game is getting pirated in huge numbers, its exposure is proliferated further and if people love the product enough, there is a high chance (not in crap countries now) that people will buy the product. If that happens its usually because it was a good quality game where the devs put great effort to it and worth its price tag. Note that with services like steam, PC games are also highly accessible.
For that matter, it wouldn't be unbelievable to see a rise in small independent firms for electronic publishing. You don't need large staffs or overhead, but there's a definite need for care and proper formatting. A similar niche is opening up for online audiobooks, now that narration and editing are the largest production expenses.
@ounouu It's also not just the movie itself... I expereinced Christopher Nolan first through a fake DVD of Memento & Daren Aranofsky through a download of Requim & I have been watching all their films in the cinema after. Just like Neil Gaiman giving away American Gods affected the sales of his new books. Piracy helps creative people who constantly create.
I have to agree. My wife, Shelia Chapman, was horrified to find her book 'Blood of the Rainbow' on newsservers. Sales of that book are very low. The rest of her books are selling well though and have done so since BOTR was pirated. We give away the first book in our co-authored 'A Vested Interest' series. It's a substantial book and takes the average reader 10 days to read. Invariably sales of the next book go up after that delay. Currently 8 books in the series. 1 giveaway is a good investment.
@ChurtleSnap What you said was. "When Neil Gaiman post what he writes on his web page, he still has control over his material. He can post exert of his story. He can take down his stuff whenever he pleases. I don’t think this is the same as someone posting Gaiman’s stuff without his permission. " And I just stated that people did spread his work without his permission. Derp.
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I do a lot of author discoveries in garage sales. When I love a book, I manage to find the writer's website (if not, I eventuallly, run into said writer at an event), then I give him/her the royalties equivalent for he book that I enjoyed.
I agree with him but that's I think, why a lot of authors hate their books being pirated. I personally, would download my book and if I like it than I'll go out and buy it. John Green for instance I didn't know who he was, I read a book by borrowing it and another by downloading some of it. I went out and bought the same exact books because I loved them and wanted to show my support I guess.
Fantastic - I wish more people thought like you. And you've persuaded me... I'm off to my website to make some of my music freely downloadable...! Cheers!
My comment said you can't just take a car. A test drive is when you get permission from the owner to try it out. Dealerships are not required to give you a test drive.
Transcript version, for everyone who might need it (I've fixed it to make it flow better in written form):
When the web started, I used to get really grumpy with people. Because they put my poems up, they put my stories up, they put my stuff up on the web. And I had this belief - which was completely erroneous - that if people put your stuff up on the web and you didn't tell them to take it down you would lose your copyright. Which, actually, is simply not true. And I also got very grumpy because I felt like they were pirating my stuff, that it was bad.
And then I started to notice [...] things that seemed much more significant. One of which was: in places where I was being pirated - particularly Russia, where people were translating my stuff in Russian and spreading it out in the world - I was selling more and more books. People were discovering me... through being pirated! And then they were going out and buying the real books. And when a new book came out in Russia it would sell more and more copies.
I was fascinated, and I tried a few experiments.
Some of them are quite hard! You know, persuading my publisher [...] to take one of my books and put it out for free. And we took American Gods - a book that was still selling, and selling very well - and for a month they put it up completely free on their website. You could read it, and you could download it. And what happened was: sales of my books (through independent bookstores, because that was all we were measuring it through) went up the following month 300%. And I started to realize that, actually, you're not losing sales by having stuff out there.
And when I give a big talk now on these kind of subjects, and people say "Well, what about the sales that you're losing through having stuff copied, through having stuff floating out there?" I start asking audiences to just raise their hands for one question:
"Okay, do you have a favorite author?"
And they say "yes".
And I say "Good. What I want is: everybody who discovered their favorite author by being lent a book, put up your hands"
And then "Anybody who discovered your favorite author by walking into a bookstore and buying a book: raise your hands". And it's probably about 5-10% of the people that actually discovered their favorite author, who is the person they [now] buy everything of, and they buy the hardbacks etc.
Very few of them bought the book! They were lent it, they were given it, they did not pay for it... and that's how they found their favorite author.
And I thought, you know, that's really all this is. It's people lending books.
And you can't look on that as a lost sale. It's not a lost sale, nobody who would have bought your book is not buying it [only] because they can find it for free.
What you're actually doing is advertising. You're reaching more people, you're raising awareness.
And understanding that gave me a whole new idea of the shape of copyright, and what the web was doing.
Because the biggest thing the web is doing is allowing people to hear things, allowing people to read things, allowing people to see things they might never have otherwise seen.
And I think, basically, that it's an incredibly good thing.
MERCI POUR CETTE TRANSCRIPTION !!
This guy is totally right. I pirated Dark Souls, and fell so in love with it I bought the game on PS3.
Without piracy I would have never ever even played it.
Neil is a creative, articulate, and immensely talented man who IS IN TOUCH with his audience.
"Nobody who would have bought your book is not buying it because they can find it for free. What you are actually doing is advertising."
I would never have read Neil’s work without piracy. Wouldn’t know who he is. But I can say he’s 100% right, since that book I downloaded I have purchased almost every one of his books, it turned me on to his writing, and because I loved what I was reading I bought them! So glad at least one writer sees the potential that piracy can have on authors. And I’m glad that he’s down to earth and polite about it too!
Gaiman being brilliant as usual, it's nice to see an honest creative.
Neil Gaiman…you wonderful man who co-wrote Good Omens and episodes of Doctor Who like the “Doctor’s Wife”. May you live on forever as the wonderful man you are. Thank you. Thank you so much for supporting this. And your words…Your words are wisdom. We can do nothing but thank you. Thank you so much~!
I do feel like spreading content online for free drastically helps advertise someones work. But there is a fine line when someone is trying to profit off of someone else's work. That's debatable issue in my opinion.
But shows like Game of Thrones or Breaking Bad get WAY more attention because people watch it pirated and as a result the shows get more of a buzz surrounding it.
Dino Suric My dad is a photographer and there have been times when someone produces a calendar using one of his pictures without his permission. The company was profiting off of his work and my father didn't see any royalties what so ever. It's the type of product that isn't as accessible as the internet so the amount of publicity gained was practically nothing while the company was the only one who benefited. In a sense it's almost like plagiarism.
Like I said, it's a fine line
smiley17 Indeed if you take a copy of something, but do nothing with it but view it yourself it's no more harm than looking at something that someone has bought, or borrowing, it's when you attempt to use it for something other than personal use that it becomes detrimental to the creator.
Dino Suric No, people rip and distribute the content for free. No money is ever changing hands. You have no idea what you are talking about.
smiley17
I think you are confusing plagiarism and piracy, because with plagiarism, you don't really know who the original author was because someone else has wrongly claimed credit for the content.
In piracy, the content itself is copied, but the original author is recognized for creating the said content, and in that case, also benefits his exposure.
Dino Suric "the person who spreads it is almost always making profit from it. Its unavoidable"
This is not true. Please state a reason for your claim. HOW is it unavoidable to profit from making copies of something available to others? It feels like you have an urge to polarize this for some reason. It is perfectly possible (and ordinary) to distribute copies on a non-profit basis.
Among other things, I would be very interested to hear how you figure that copies of media distributed via torrents would bring any income to the uploader. Keep in mind that the notion that someone automatically would have bought something if they didn't copy it is a complete fallacy. Additionally, keep in mind that it has been statistically proven that people who copy actually purchase more media (by legitimate means) than those who do not.
What seems to never get mentioned in the sharing debate is the fact that many of us don't have the money to go buy books, records, movies, new or used.
Spaneen Oomlong it’s not mentioned because it’s illegal, plain and simple. Downloading a book to check out an author is one thing, being too cheap (because let’s be honest $10-15 for a paperback a month or a trip to the public library really isn’t that hard) and turning to piracy is illegal and does hurt sales. If you’re never buying and giving back to your favorite writer, that is a loss of sale
Gaiman is correct. A friend sent me American Gods PDF. After the 20th page I went like "screw this" and asked a friend to lend me it. I read the paperback and returned it. Next paycheck I went out and bought the hardcover version for me, a paperback for my friend who was skeptical of anything not by Mercedes Lackey, and a copy for my mum.
As soon as Anasasi Boys came out, I bought it.
All of this because someone gave me a PDF.
Neil Gaiman is one of my favourite authors, after a friend loaned me some sandman comics funnily enough. After hearing this talk my estimation of him just went up. Another issue many copyright holders forget is this: piracy does not mean losing a sale, because the "pirater" never had any intention of buying the thing anyway. So the copyright holder has really lost nothing. However as Gaiman points out, it might mean further sales, as seen in his example of Russia. Piracy = net gain.
Readers, I encourage you to share my books.
Lend them to friends.
Share the file (especially those unencrypted Eastward Dragons epub files over on Smashwords).
Tell everyone you know where to get the files.
I only ask two things:
Leave me a review on Amazon or GoodReads.
Don't sell them (or access to them), because _that_ is piracy.
#free #ebooks #sharing #openculture #copyright
*Eastward Dragons free edition:* www.smashwords.com/books/view/536765
*All of my books on Amazon (DRM free and sharing from Kindle enabled):* www.amazon.com/Andrew-Linke/e/B009YN1WGA
This is so true. While I don't read a lot of books, I did discover all of my favorite bands through the internet. I would've never bought any albums of them or even heard about most of them if it wasn't for the fact that I heard a couple of their songs on TH-cam first and ended up liking them a lot.
I love his way of speaking. It's so smooth.
I think piracy is ultimately what you make of it. The ethics of it can be bad if you don't go and support the author of the book that you enjoyed reading for free, but if you do ultimately buy the book... who are you really hurting? When people try to argue against piracy, saying that "you can use libraries instead, use project gutenberg etc." they are unaware that this possibility isn't open to everybody in the world. Like Gaiman pointed out, there are places in the world where it's hard to find books, and people can't afford them. What is restricting piracy doing? It is restricting knowledge to those people, who for reasons beyond their control can't access the books they would like to access. You can only read so many classics on project gutenberg before you get bored.
This! This right here!
Thank you Neil so much for being one of the VERY FEW individuals to figure this out on your own and then ACTUALLY SAY SOMETHING ABOUT IT!
You are so right, someone lent me one of your books and i just loved it, so i went and bought another one, and then another. Same with many other books i've really loved. I heard about an author from a friend, i downloaded the audiobook, listened to it and then i went and bought a copy and then another.. and another!
I wish everyone could understand this process as well as you do Neil.
"You can't look at it as a lost sale. It's not a lost sale. Nobody who would have bought your book is NOT buying it because you can find it for free."
This is what I've been saying for years when it comes to books, movies, music, and many other forms of digital entertainment. I cannot explain how many times I've "pirated" something, whether it's a song, an album, a movie, a book, and then enjoyed it SO much that not only did I buy a copy for myself to help support the artist, but I also told all of my friends and family how good it was so that they would go check it out, too. So they technically gained a sale from me that they NEVER would have had if i hadn't pirated it to begin with. And maybe they gained a bunch of other sales from people I told to check it out, too.
The first time I read American Gods it was a copy I didn't pay for. The paperback I purchased now sits proudly with the rest of my book collection.
I had never heard of Neil Gaiman before his commencement address, and now I've found this.
Mr. Gaiman's right: word-of-mouth marketing on the internet is very effective, because now I'm going to get one of his books and see if he writes as awesomely as he speaks.
One thing that is cooler than hearing your favourite author talk about things, is hearing him talk about things that go against the opinions of the majority and you also happen to fully agree with.
Mr Gaiman, I salute you!
I have never read anything Neil Gaiman, but I am a fan. I heard a commencement speech by him. I read the quotes. Watch the interviews. Rarely read his blog but I do. I don't even remember the first time I heard of him. Every time I try to remember I get this weird feeling that I always knew of him or something about him.
Some great points. We're at a point where the old copyright models and laws just don't apply, no matter how hard people try.
Neil Gaiman is an absolute legend and a fantastic writer for kids and adults alike
I discovered Gaiman in the library shelves. Graveyard Book caught my eye. I read it within a week, bought it within a month, and have since lent it three times to friends
Well if its good more people would buy the stuff that was being pirated. And Neils work is absolutely amazing. Can we also talk about how amazing his voice is
I enjoy how insightful and clear Gaimen went over this. I'm sending this to the next person who wonders if putting up a book for free is foolish. Not that self published authors aren't coming up with plenty of evidence but this is something I can share with non-writers.
The reason the music industry is going down the toilet is not because of piracy.
It's because it's shit music.
Yeah, I'm so looking forward to the newest Lil Wayne Record...
oh my god your picture..
Just on a technical level, the music produce today is shit. It's brickwalled garbage that creates physical pain when you try to listen to it. If you get an old CD (or a newly released album that's been properly mixed, which is rare) and blast it on a good soundsystem, it's an amazing experience unlike anything else. If you try to do the same thing with a modern CD you can literally damage the speakers from all the constant clipping, if you can even tolerate playing it at a loud volume. Now just imagine what that does to your eardrum, and now we're suppose to fork over $15 for a whole disc of this crap?
I guess young people listening to music on their phones using low-quality ear buds or built-in laptop speakers don't mind paying .99 cents to enjoy a song on the go, but I can't imagine physical media sells anymore because the people with the hardware to properly enjoy it are physically repulsed by the low-quality diarrhea that's the new production standard. Look up the CD version of "Death Magnetic" compared to the Guitar Hero rips if you think I'm being too picky. But my biggest pet peeve is when they "remaster" classic albums, as they just boost everything until it clips and remove high frequency ranges to reduce the "undesirable" background noises microphones picked up back then. So now we get to buy the same album a second time, except now it's a hollow and lifeless shell of itself that sounds like everything modern.
Music studios are riding a cash-cow and they don't give a shit as long as people keep buying their product, and the irony is when people stop buying it they'll blame piracy and every else except themselves.
No... The reason the music industry is eating so much shit is because anybody can make good music anywhere for everybody to see.
Take Eminem for example, when he was trying to make it, he had to send mix tapes out to all the major producers, pay for a studio to record in and all the other bullshit.
Now, any talented rapper can record a song on there computer, produce a good studio quality beat for it and upload that shit for free to TH-cam and have millions upon millions of people find it.
TLDR: Musicians no longer need anybody to help them, They can do everything beyonce' can do, but sat on there sofa infront of a macbook.
The industry is making more money than ever, thanks to having control of the major spotify playlists. Big labels aren't going anywhere, unfortunately.
Another world class British author. Even many of the award winning fantacy writers in the US read his books and rate him as one of the best ever...
I discovered my favorite music artists by piracy. I go to their concerts now which I would NEVER have done before because I have never heard them on the radio.
Yes! I could relate to that, I was lent my first copy of Gaiman (and Terry Pratchett) and now they are a big part of my library (of real books)!!!
Now this is a guy who gets it! People posting copyrighted works online for free is really advertising for the creators. We all heard the: "Only the creators have the right to say who advertises and where" speech, which is legally true. But, why would creators adhere to that? It's like saying: I made this awesome thing, but I don't want you to see it unless you pay. What creator would say such a thing? I'd want my stuff spread so I could make as many people happy as I possibly can.
[continues] even though on the web an insane number of people requested the reprint because they wanted to buy it/give it as a gift.
They said they would made another reprint in 2009, but in 2010 the book - reprinted or not - was still nowhere to be found. That year was when I found a pirated version of Good Omens in Italian. I fell in love with it. I UTTERLY fell in love with it. [continues]
Wonderful arguments. I very much like the comparison to libraries and lending things out to see if you like it. Or to get it before you have the option to buy it in your place of living.
The ones who would have bought it before will still buy it, And the ones in other countries who might not have ever heard of you otherwise will now know your name and will bug their local stores or search for international selling stores to get them.
Fantastic to hear an artist realising that fans sharing your work is a positive and beneficial action. The artists work becomes more widely know and their influence increases, allowing them to set up "name your price" direct sales (aka donations), make money from touring/speaking, merchandise (such as physical copies), etc. Current copyright legislation and unscrupulous IP trawling lawsuits from industry bodies like the RIAA is out of touch with reality. Art wants to be free.
I was lent Neverwhere by a friend.. and THAT is how I became a Neil Gaiman fan.
And I have heard music thru napster limewire and such and then bought the CD that I never would have if I hadn't heard them on a share network first. He is absolutely right!
I love the way Neil Gaiman speaks. He always talks like he's saying something awesome.
Yes! That's why its called file "sharing", because that's what it is! I'm glad more people are realizing that.
Also, look at the Nine Inch Nails record, The Slip. It had been downloaded 1.4 million times from the official Nine Inch Nails website. By the time the physical version was released two months later, that number had grown beyond 2 million. The physical release of the album has sold more than 98,000 copies. This was because a free download was offered by the band.
i love gaiman. EVERYTHING YOU DO JUST ADDS MORE AND MORE RESPECT FOR YOU AND EVERYTHING YOU DO!
If Neil reads this, and I think he might.....I discovered you through Good Omens, which was lent by my mom, which she got as a gift from a friend. Since then I've took in, oh, lets see.....4 novels, two picture books, one movie you scripted, 2 movies based on your books, and an entire BBC series. AND subscribed to your TH-cam XD I think it caught my interest :P I think the only people who have to worry about piracy are mediocre writers. When you love a story enough, you want your own copy.
I discovered Gaiman because a friend let me borrow the complete set of The Sandman. I ended up becoming a fan and have bought 4 of his novels since. Trying to control material on the internet is as foolish as stopping the tide.
The music industry is pioneering the way for digital copyright solely based on the amount of content coming out these days, and IMO it's thriving more than ever because of the availability of all these tools. Thank you internet
Usually it is our norm that makes us want to buy their product because to me when I downloaded those FMAB episodes for free and loved the show, I told myself that I want to see more of these and I bought the complete set to help them bring more.
That is my opinion.
I found Good Omens, and thus discovered Neil Gaiman, through piracy. Now they are respectively my favourite book ever and my favourite author ever. Right now, I'm owning seven other Neil Gaiman's books, PLUS an anthology about him, PLUS Good Omens both in English and in my native language.
Now, there's a funny story about Good Omens in Italian (which is my native language, yeah). It was very unlucky. [continues]
@smaknp1 The same concept is occuring online. The point of this matter is: there are many people who wouldn't buy something without having first 'sampled' the wares. When you buy food, occasionally they give you samples. "Try our product, see if it tastes good." Then you buy it because you like the taste.
When you want to buy a book/movie/cd, you might want to see if the creator is any good. "Sample" their talent. Decide if you like the product.
Universal library! :D My friend had pestered me for a year to read Neil Gaiman. Then Gaiman wrote The Doctor's Wife, a Doctor Who episode which prompted me to do some research on him. That was how I ended up reading The Graveyard book. Now I'm a big Neil Gaiman fan and I think he's marvelous. :D YAY Mr. Gaiman! For supporting people to read! :P
The Graveyard Book was free online, and that's when I decided to buy it for a friend and get the audiobook for myself from the library as a halloween gift. Such a brilliant truth, the sharing of "free" work.
Dude the way you put it works.
I couldn't agree more, Neil Gaiman.
he speaks the truth. and the problem is not that the huge record companies and game developers and publishers dont know this, they just either refuse to believe it or respond to it as such.
because if nobody whines and threatens over piracy, then it could become a REAL problem. but in the current state of things, it changes little and helps most
This man is, quite possibly, the most creative mind that exists on this planet today. If piracy doesn't hurt him, there's no way it's hurting the little guy- unless they suck and nobody wants their stuff, even if it's free.
As an artist, that is your own fault, and no anti-piracy law can help you.
THIS IS IT. Agree on every point. I watched the Naruto cartoons online, translated by fans, and then the COMPANY MAKING IT started putting it's work online. Free. I may not be able to afford the videos, but darn it, I buy the merchandise. This is what I can do, and it supports the people who make Naruto. I would NEVER have bought ANYTHING of Naruto if not for falling in love with the characters through the free stuff online. Hope a lot of people see this video :D
Amazing Gaiman, amazing as ever :)
Do not miss "Good Omens", it's my fav. - written with Terry Pratchett.
YOU WOULDN'T LEND A CAR.
Yeah you would, to your girlfriend wife kids parents etc besides you drive other people around in your car anyway so the point is mute.
This makes me a little happier that I bought his book American Gods. An author who fully deserves it.
His right as well. "Piracy" is just sharing and yes the majority of time when people like something that they see rather it was lent to them by a friend or they got it through the internet or however for free, it makes them want to buy it or at least buy more from the author. "Piracy" most of the time just better promotes a product to a much wider audience.
Thank you. I will spread this.
Very cool Neil. I love your books and now I can say I think you're a decent bloke, as well.
@livingspiral That's what makes it more complex than the simplified assertion that it's just good advertising. It doesn't just effect actual money in or out. It also effects the perceived value of something. And certain types of creations don't have an arbitrary value. They have actual tangible costs, many of them permanently ongoing long after the content has been put out there.
It all started when I was handed a book and commanded to READ IT! Just READ IT! It was weathered, water and coffee stained, dogeared, and the cover was held together with duct tape. Passages of text were highlighted and reactions were written in the margins. Good Omens. Several years and well over a hundred dollars later, Neil Gaiman is still my favorite author.
I just keep running into more and more reasons to love this gentleman.
Very true, by pirating i start liking the games and found out what genres i enjoy. Now i support my favorite games and developers. Pirating made me a part of the industry.
Well......constantly pirating also saved me a bunch of money by not buying shitty games xD
Also cudos to CD Project RED no-DRM Witcher series!!
I agree with Neil. That is exactly how I discovered my favourite authors, learnt of music I came to love and even experience films, because someone, out of love for the thing: lent it to me so I could love it too.
I then went on to buy my own copy and future books, cd's and dvd's, because I was exposed to them, for free.
It takes courage and competence to promote Open Source.
There's also the fact that if you decide to advertise your work, you can choose where and how you advertise and how much you're willing to spend on it. No such luck with piracy. The ad agency walks in your door, says they're running ads on your behalf and taking a cut. They get to decide how much and they get their cut before you see dime. And you have to take their word that it's a fair deal.
I believe this applies to movies and music unlike many others on here but with the caveat: you have to put it in sensible fan perspective packaging. What I mean by this is SENSIBLE (make something that fits on the average shelf not some insane packaging that looks cool but is impossible to store in a home) and FAN PERSPECTIVE (make packaging that is obviously made by someone who is a fan of the work and shows it in every detail). If the packaging enhances people will buy.
FINALLY a copyright-holder who understands this. I had great respect for Neil Gaiman to begin with, but after watching this interview I have even more respect for him now.
therealredkite , he wasn't talking about borrowed books. He only used that example to support the truth of his primary observation, which was that he saw a clear increase in sales that coincided with people's downloading of free copies.
@TheXJ47 People do this quite often actually. It usually comes from wanting to support that developer or wanting to have the "easy" version of the software or program that can be updated, and used to its full advantage. Steam video games are a great example. Someone who downloads a video game will be able to play it but will not have the auto-updating, install on any device that uses your steam account, cloud storage for the games data, etc.
The funny thing is, people have been saying this for years, and we now have hard data to back it up. Places like Smashwords -- that distribute e-books -- have the ability to track sales on every title. When a title is free, it gets distributed 100x more than even a title that costs a dollar.
But here's the really interesting bit: very often, when an author makes a book free, sales on all their other books spike almost immediately. Consistently. It's a statistically verifiable fact.
"copying - To make a reproduction"
" taking - To get into one's possession by force, skill, or artifice, especially: To capture physically; seize"
Completely agree. Tbh if the artist's writing/music/films are good enough then they cant consider web downloads to be piracy, but rather advertisement, because people who genuinely appreciate and enjoy the work will not only be more aware of that artist, but will also probably start to buy their work anyway.
I use to be against pirating/emulation till I realized we use to record our music on cassette tapes and our tv shows/movies on VHS tapes. You also have to think when was the last time you paid for a movie. TV companies do pay for the license of content so your monthly cable bill does pay for those licenses. But how our digital infrastructure is being controlled your being forced to pay to watch it instead of watching it freely somewhere. Netflix is great but movies and shows don't stay there forever. Most people who pirate films are pirating older movies and aren't interested in anything new. I watched Zootopia on Netflix recently and Id highly recommended it. Most people if they hear it's something good they will buy it. You would never buy something if the only reviews of something were written by fanboys.
Audio cassettes and VHS tapes were never able to instantly turn one copy into millions of perfect copies shared with millions of people across the world. Nobody has much more than 150 friends to share with, let alone 150,000+. And you'd need a garage or two full of cassettes to match the storage of a 2 TB HDD. It may be a similar concept, but the scale is completely different.
Mad agree
If I've watched something or listened to something through a streaming service I'm more than willing to then pirate it, I've paid for a temporary licence as it is
There's very few things I actually purchase, for example Battlestar Galactica on Blu Ray for the sheer fact I love it so much and want to be able to rewatch it when I like instead of trying to find a streaming platform to watch it on, in sub par quality
Initially I had pirated BSG and after the first season I then bought the blu ray
This is exactly how Neil Gaiman became my favorite writer. A professor loaned me Sandman: Preludes and Nocturnes. Talk about irony.
I believe when the work you do - books, music, games, films - is great, then it's just like he says, internet will actually increase sales since more people will know you greatness...if on the hand your work is bad then it will decrease your sales, since people will try it and hate it, instead of buying it...that is why publishers hate internet, for them it's easier to churn out half-baked cheaply made stuff and sell that to the blind consumer who won't suspect its bad based on a pretty cover...
Great watch. Thanks for the upload.
One reason why this can work on gaming as well is cause most games require a valid key to play online (unless its a private server), so if people actually like the game, they will buy it. I've done this on numerous ocassions myself. Pirated the game, loved it and wanted to play online so I brought the actual game.
Music may be harder but not impossible. A few years ago, I was in a forum that is basically a "downloadtopia" for movies, music, animes, etc. There is where I found Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood (TV show but same concept) I have downloaded episodes and watched it. I loved it. Then my norm started to kick in. "FUNimation seems a good company for licensing these animes. I would love to see more of what they can do." Later, I loved FMAB so much, I bought the complete set to support them.
He is right. Internetpiracy is not stealing, it is advertisement! Artists and writers sell more books and CD's because of the free publicity. If I discover something on the web and like it, I WILL buy it. But how can I want something if I don't know it?
But the big media corporations prefer to view this on the very short term only. They call that penny wise, but pound foolish.
People actually do, especially the less experienced ones, I know few of those. Not everyone is like "I won't pay for my apps, ever". Some people even donate for freeware or open source programs they like.
Even companies often "try" the full version just to see if it fits their needs, they simply can't get away with having pirated software.
Hell yes Neil Gaiman! I want you to give me sagely writing advice like that episode of Arthur!
He's saying it. Stuff that is WORTH buying GETS BOUGHT, so there is no loss there.
Big companies get it too. Point is they want to have total control over the market so they can make controled investitions with controled income. And pirates are competition to them. It doesn´t make neither side good. That is just how it is.
@lephong PC piracy is a new form of viral advertisement in a sense. If an unknown game is getting pirated in huge numbers, its exposure is proliferated further and if people love the product enough, there is a high chance (not in crap countries now) that people will buy the product. If that happens its usually because it was a good quality game where the devs put great effort to it and worth its price tag. Note that with services like steam, PC games are also highly accessible.
He's such a cool guy. So easy to listen to.
For that matter, it wouldn't be unbelievable to see a rise in small independent firms for electronic publishing. You don't need large staffs or overhead, but there's a definite need for care and proper formatting. A similar niche is opening up for online audiobooks, now that narration and editing are the largest production expenses.
bless this video.
@ounouu It's also not just the movie itself... I expereinced Christopher Nolan first through a fake DVD of Memento & Daren Aranofsky through a download of Requim & I have been watching all their films in the cinema after. Just like Neil Gaiman giving away American Gods affected the sales of his new books. Piracy helps creative people who constantly create.
I have to agree. My wife, Shelia Chapman, was horrified to find her book 'Blood of the Rainbow' on newsservers. Sales of that book are very low. The rest of her books are selling well though and have done so since BOTR was pirated. We give away the first book in our co-authored 'A Vested Interest' series. It's a substantial book and takes the average reader 10 days to read. Invariably sales of the next book go up after that delay. Currently 8 books in the series. 1 giveaway is a good investment.
@ChurtleSnap What you said was. "When Neil Gaiman post what he writes on his web page, he still has control over his material. He can post exert of his story. He can take down his stuff whenever he pleases. I don’t think this is the same as someone posting Gaiman’s stuff without his permission. "
And I just stated that people did spread his work without his permission. Derp.
I do a lot of author discoveries in garage sales.
When I love a book, I manage to find the writer's website (if not, I eventuallly, run into said writer at an event), then I give him/her the royalties equivalent for he book that I enjoyed.
Neil, say all this before the American Congress!
Godspeed You! PIPA Emperor
The beauty of access💜💜
I agree with him but that's I think, why a lot of authors hate their books being pirated. I personally, would download my book and if I like it than I'll go out and buy it. John Green for instance I didn't know who he was, I read a book by borrowing it and another by downloading some of it. I went out and bought the same exact books because I loved them and wanted to show my support I guess.
Fantastic - I wish more people thought like you.
And you've persuaded me... I'm off to my website to make some of my music freely downloadable...!
Cheers!
I just want to hug him! this is soo awesome!
My comment said you can't just take a car. A test drive is when you get permission from the owner to try it out. Dealerships are not required to give you a test drive.
Neil, you rock!
Also, very interesting to find out.
I'm in TOTAL agreement.