 Down and Out relicensed todayJust over a year ago, I released my first novel, Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, as an experiment in what would happen if I allowed my precious copyright to be slightly eroded by one of the Creative Commons licenses. I chose the most restrictive CC license available to me, staying cautious, and I waited to see if the sky would fall. It didn’t. So here we are, just a little over a year later, and I am currently, at this moment, standing on a stage at the O’Reilly Emerging Technology Conference, delivering a talk called Ebooks: Neither E, Nor Books, in which I lay out the case for what I’ve done and explain the myraid ways in which the sky has not fallen on me, and just about now, I’m announcing what’ sin this blog post: That I am re-licensing Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, effective today, under the terms of one of the least restrictive Creative Commons licenses, the Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license, which explicitly allows anyone in the world to make any non-commercial adaptation of my book s/he can think of: translations, radio plays, movies, sequels, fanfic, slashfic…you get the picture. I can’t wait to see what you-all make of this. Surprise me, please! 3 Responses to “Down and Out relicensed today”Leave a Reply
|
As knowledgeable about computers as he is about flea markets, Doctorow uses science fiction as a kind of cultural WD-40, loosening hinges and dissolving adhesions to peer into some of society’s unlighted corners. His best known story, ”Craphound,” tells of a competitive friendship between two junk collectors, one human and one alien; what it says about the uses of the past is no more mysterious than the prices paid for a vintage Coke bottle or an early Barbie doll. Not every attempt to wrest truth from cliche works — but you won’t want to miss Doctorow’s satiric glance at co-opted dissent among the grade-school set or the insidious horror of his updated Pinocchio tale.
[Read more quotes about the book] [Introduction by Bruce Sterling] [FAQ] [Get a signed copy shipped to your door]  ISBN: 1568582862 |
|
A Place So Foreign and Eight More is proudly powered by
WordPress
|
|
Personally, I think you’re crazy like a fox. You are following in the footsteps of the corporate enslaver who says your works are of no value: give them to me and then who turns around, zips up some legal copyright mumbo-jumbo around your original works and steals a fortune right out from under you.
Who am I kidding? You and Sterling and Gibson (there I put you in sum company, didn’t I?) can get away with this sort of stuff. Oh, and that other guy with the thinking cap on who wrote Digital Fortress gets away with it because he presents us with, if not explicitly original thought, then some somnombulent tribute or distillation of what the rest of us ordinary people with no time on their hands can’t get a hold of. Time. Well, time and inclination.
So… if you think this is a backhanded compliment with a bit of vehemence of a more subjective nature, you’re probably right.
What I don’t get is why I am buying into this whole thing? Everybody and his dog is writing something today. The information overload is … and overload. Everybody is so busy writing nobody gets down to acting on the thoughts they’ve put down in words (probably another subjective viewpoint from the end of an RSS/ATOM aggregator).
Keep writing. Someone is going to pay you, especially if you can keep a publisher in your back pocket. Then you can make your money as the pundit who does speaking engagements.
No disrespect intended but your generosity makes me feel “Down and Out”.
Ta.
– tim
http://softpath.blogspot.com
– queuing up makes me nervous to the point of babblestalking –
strange, paste the entire copy of the hobbit on your site. That would be wicked cool. In like an hour if you could. If you care.
Personally I greatly appreciate those who have made their “material” into e-books or freely available. I am totally handicapped as is my husband and we spend almost 90% of our time online reading…no not junk mail or span..but books. Before we became handicapped we were both very active in our library association, as well as doing all we could to aid those who could not read. Now we find, we can no longer get out to buy books or to the library to borrow them.
Again, I greatly appreciate those who have made their “material” into e-books or freely available….just goes to show that not ALL people are in it just for the money. Thank you for listening to one who dearly loves to read.