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eBooKs: Neither e, Nor BooKs
131
printing press, science fiction will certainly weather the advent
of bookwarez.
Lagniappe
[Lagniappe]
We’re almost done here, but there’s one more thing I’d like to do
before I get off the stage. [Lagniappe: an unexpected bonus or
extra] Think of it as a “lagniappe” — a little something extra to
thank you for your patience.
About a year ago, I released my first novel,
Down and Out in the
Magic Kingdom,
on the Net, under the terms of the most restric-
tive Creative Commons license available. All it allowed my readers
to do was send around copies of the book. I was cautiously dip-
ping my toe into the water, though at the time, it felt like I was
taking a plunge.
Now I’m going to take a plunge. Today, I will re-license the
text of
Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom
under a Creative
Commons
“Attribution-ShareAlike-Derivs-Noncommercial”
li-
cense [HUMAN READABLE LICENSE], which means that as of
today, you have my blessing to create derivative works from my
first book. You can make movies, audiobooks, translations, fan-
fiction, slash fiction (God help us) [GEEK HIERARCHY], furry
slash fiction [GEEK HIERARCHY DETAIL], poetry, translations,
T-shirts, you name it, with two provisos: that one, you have to
allow everyone else to rip, mix, and burn your creations in the
same way you’re hacking mine; and on the other hand, you’ve got
to do it noncommercially.
The sky didn’t fall when I dipped my toe in. Let’s see what hap-
pens when I get in up to my knees.
The text with the new license will be online before the end of
the day. Check craphound.com/down for details.
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