Tim O'Reilly On Copyrights

Tim O'Reilly is a powerhouse innovator in publishing, with books, courses, trade shows and endless other gigs.  And what does he have to say about copyrights?  When asked in April 11 Forbes, page 24, about why he dropped digital rights management on his media, and fear of piracy, he says:

"People who don't pay generally wouldn't have paid you anyway.  We are delighted when people who can't afford out books don't pay us for them, if they go out and do something useful with that information."

Just so, And here is a young author who has done well with online self-publishing, well worth a read...

NYTimes Faces Facts

Even the New York Times is not trying to get every dime...  sometimes you have to let people sneak into your classes for free... first, they are not your customers anyway... and 2nd, the cost of keeping them out is too expensive...  So, next question... if your customers can have it for free, but they will pay for it anyway... then why have copyrights?

Some readers will get around paywall: NY Times

March 24, 2011 - 3:20AM

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The publisher of The New York Times said Wednesday that some people will manage to find ways around paying for the newspaper online but they will mostly be teenagers and the unemployed.

"We did create something purposely porous," Arthur Sulzberger said of the system being implemented by the Times to begin charging readers next week for full access to NYTimes.com.

"Can people go around the system?" Sulzberger asked during an appearance at The Paley Center for Media here. "The answer is yes. There are going to be ways.

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"Just as if you run down Sixth Avenue right now and you pass a newsstand and grab the paper and keep running you can actually get the Times free," he said.

"We have to accept that. Is it going easy? No. Is it going to be done by the kind of people who buy the quality news and opinion of the New York Times?

"We don't think so," he said.

"It'll be mostly high school kids and people out of work," Sulzberger said, before adding "I can't believe I said that."

The Times will offer readers 20 free articles a month at NYTimes.com before they will be asked to sign on to one of three digital subscription plans that cost from $15 to $35 a month.

Web users who find articles through links from Internet search, blogs and social media like Facebook and Twitter will be able to read those articles even after reaching their monthly reading limit.

There will be a five-article a day limit of free links to articles to readers who visit NYTimes.com from Google or Microsoft's Bing.

Sulzberger said he believed the Times plan to charge online would work because "unfortunately quality journalism is less and less out there."

"There are fewer and fewer news organizations that have foreign correspondents," he said. "There are fewer and fewer that have national correspondents."

"We have more foreign bureaus than ever in our history," he said of the Times. "We have more national bureaus, probably, than ever in our history as well."

Sulzberger also said print was not going away anytime soon. "All of us think that print has very long legs, longer than people expect," he said.

© 2011 AFP
This story is sourced direct from an overseas news agency as an additional service to readers. Spelling follows North American usage, along with foreign currency and measurement units.

Free Sells Best

Hello Mr Spires
My name is Sean and I am starting my import export company. I really have enjoy all your you tube videos. I wanted to thank you so much for producing them. Do you have any other training that what's on your website? My goal is to have the best import export company. Thank you for your time
All my best
Sean

Not Uncommon Sentiment

Hi John,   Thanks a lot for your quick reply.  I read the chapter 8 online, but I want to read the real book.  For some reason, I understand the content much better if I read on paper.  I will email you after reading.  It was so encouraging to hear that you could help me develop a practical strategy.   I really appreciate your help!   Best wishes,   Jing

Blurb Bookmaker

I am not sure why FEDEX is promoting this publisher (printing association, fedex delivery?) but http://www.blurb.com/ seems to be offering what Apple does regarding putting out a quick book of your own composition, something akin to the old vanity press.  Prices seem competitive with Apple, which is to say high, but otherwise I am sure they doa  good job.

Staking Out Territory

A book needs a champion, and who better than the author.  Gary North has an excellent recommendation for a doctoral dissertation topic, and I would only add that whoever pursues it should at once organize a web presence to share and promote the topic.  It is rare for a doctoral dissertation to make it into publication, today there is no reason every one should not get published and widely distributed.

Doh! The New Publishing Model

It dawned on me during a conversation with a co-conspirator the other day that the the new book publishing model is the old music publishing model.  Recall the old days when music was free on the radio, and you paid for albums and concerts.  So now with google books and youtube, you writing is free on googlebooks and your teaching is free on youtube, and people pay for your albums (books) and pay for your concerts (seminars).

Here is the deal...  by giving my courses away free on youtube.com, I get very wide distribution worldwide, nd the distribution focusses on those who want the info on the topic... so far some 33,000 uploads.  I get nothing from most of those people, but I can track about $5000 a year in revenue from those who do subsequently buy the book or take the seminar.

So it is like radio which was free to the listener, but the closer you got to the artist, the more you paid (album, concert.)  Now Paul McCartney gets 5 cents everytime they play Yesterday on the radio, but I also get a few cents everytime someone clicks through on an ad google throws up at viewers watching my videos, so the analogy continues.

Payola was a pay to play scandal in radio, which was unfair because radio waves were limited by law (not by physics, the fact we limit who gets to use what part of the radio spectrum is bad law, economics and physics) and youtube.com has a sort of payola, where you can pay to be the top listing in a search for say my topic, videos on small biz int'l trade.  But who cares, it is open and transparent, so it is fair.  But I also get my own channel, like having my own radio station, on youtube.com.

You have to think differently, or maybe just old school, to thrive in the new publishing industry.