Poll: Neil Gaiman on Piracy.

[Chairman Miaow]

DISCLAIMER: I am not advocating piracy. Please don't ban me?


Publishing his book 'American Gods' in full online for a month led to a 300% increase in sales for his books in independent bookstores. He compares online pirating to lending somebody a book, and just advertising.

Peoples' thoughts on this?

 

[Imeera]

I agree. It is like that, but isn't that what demos are for? OH WAIT they only show the best bits in demos. Nevermind.I AGREE.

 

[Rensenhito]

People of the intertubes, meet another reason why I love Neil Gaiman.
That reason being: he has the ability to get in the middle of a still-boiling debate and actually speak some sense, based on personal experience and hard facts.
Also: American Gods was free online for a month? WHY DID NO ONE TELL ME?!

 

[Chairman Miaow]

People of the intertubes, meet another reason why I love Neil Gaiman.
That reason being: he has the ability to get in the middle of a still-boiling debate and actually speak some sense, based on personal experience and hard facts.
Also: American Gods was free online for a month? WHY DID NO ONE TELL ME?!

I know, barely advertised, and it still increased sales 300%? Madness.

 

[Chairman Miaow]

He has a point, although it works to a much lesser extent when you move away from books and move into video game territory.

Any facts or thoughts why that might be?

 

[Bobic]

He has a point, although it works to a much lesser extent when you move away from books and move into video game territory.

Any facts or thoughts why that might be?

People prefer physical copies of books. With a pirated videogame the experience is identical.

 

[Chairman Miaow]

He has a point, although it works to a much lesser extent when you move away from books and move into video game territory.

Any facts or thoughts why that might be?

To me, and I assume to most people, as I have heard many make the case, are much more pleasurable to read in a physical form than in a physical one. Video games do not have this sort of duality to them. So that's one definite reason.

Although that is true to some extent, it can't be true completely, or things like kindle wouldn't exist.

 

[Chairman Miaow]

He has a point, although it works to a much lesser extent when you move away from books and move into video game territory.

Any facts or thoughts why that might be?

People prefer physical copies of books. With a pirated videogame the experience is identical.

Not identical. A lot of pirates are full of glitches or bugs and the like.

 

[Chairman Miaow]

snip

Hardly ever.

Hardly ever what?

 

[Jamboxdotcom]

i take this less as an argument in favor of piracy and more an argument in favor of Creative Commons and such. to me, piracy = entitled dicks just taking something because they don't feel the creator deserves anything. big difference from what NG is talking about.

 

[Chairman Miaow]

snip

Hardly ever whatever point you tried to make in the previous post. Don't make me spell it out for you, please.

I have made a lot of posts, I just want to be clear on what your saying, so I don't reply badly.

 

[MassiveGeek]

Ahh, Neil Gaiman. Why aren't I reading more of your books? Coraline was so amazingly fantabolous.

... Oh right, I'm broke.

Nevertheless, I see his point, but you should also understand that this doesn't work for every medium. And people all react differently - personally if I, say, borrow a game from a friend and enjoy it, I buy it. Or if I see a Let's Play or some clips of a game that really seems awesome, I will buy it. Because I want that for myself, you know? But everyone doesn't work like that, some people are fine with just a taste, and others want it all.

 

[Bobic]

He has a point, although it works to a much lesser extent when you move away from books and move into video game territory.

Any facts or thoughts why that might be?

People prefer physical copies of books. With a pirated videogame the experience is identical.

Not identical. A lot of pirates are full of glitches or bugs and the like.

Oh, I wouldn't know, not being a pirate and all. But still, it's a very similar experience. Similar enough to not spend £40. Whereas I don't think me and many others would contemplate sitting down and reading a novel on a laptop.

Also, the 300% increase in sales may not be because people just stumbled across the book, read a bit and decided to buy it. It could be that an artist giving out his work for free is a talking point and garners a lot of publicity, leading to more people looking him up, leading to more people buying the book.

 

[MikailCaboose]

There are points where piracy is...well...good.
An example being Touhou, where even in Japan it's damned impossible to actually get your hands on an actual copy.

 

[marsvin]

I think publishers of any media in the West are thieves of their own pocket. These draconian DRM and copyright laws are really putting off a lot of people. Disney suing some family for selling a home made costume that looks like Winny the Pooh or some kid for putting Disney pictures on their homepage, that harms your brand, it doesn't protect it.

Compare that to the Japanese market where companies with popular brands almost ENCOURAGE people to make their own comics, videos, music, home made resin kits, whatever featuring their characters. They end up creating a RABID fan base that will fall over themselves to buy anything that's "official" (and a lot of stuff that's not) and create a ton of free marketing and advertising for themselves.

Now who do you think has the more effective approach?