This entire blog, and all my ebooks, are uncopyrighted (since August 2021).
That means I’ve put them in the public domain and released my copyright on all these works.
There is no need to email me for permission – use my content however you want. Email it, share it, reprint it with or without credit. Just spread depression awareness and help people in getting out of depression…and in living a better useful life.
While attribution is appreciated and I would be grateful if you request other people to buy my ebooks directly from my site – it is not a necessity. You have Freedom 🙂
I’d prefer people buy my ebooks, but if they want to share with friends, they have every right to do so.
Why I’m releasing copyright?
I’m not a big fan of copyright laws, especially as they’re being applied by corporations, used to crack down on the little guys so they can continue their large profits.
Copyrights are often said to protect the artist/creator, but in most cases, the artist/creator gets very little while the corporations make most of the money. In the 2+ years I’ve done this experiment, releasing copyright has not hurt me, the creator of the content, a single bit.
I think, in most cases, the protectionism that is touted by “anti-piracy” campaigns, lawsuits, and lobbying actually hurts the artist/creator. Limiting distribution to protect profits isn’t a good thing.
The lack of copyright, and blatant copying by other artists and even businesses, never hurt Leonardo da Vinci when it comes to images such as the Mona Lisa, the Last Supper, or the Vitruvian Man. It’s never hurt Shakespeare. I doubt that it’s ever really hurt any artist (although I might just be ignorant here).
And while I’m certainly not da Vinci or Shakespeare, copyright hasn’t helped me, and uncopyright hasn’t hurt me. If someone feels like sharing my content on their blog, or in any other form for that matter, that’s a good thing for me. If someone wanted to share my ebook with 100 friends, I don’t see how that hurts me. My work is being spread to many more people than I could do myself. That’s something to celebrate, as I see it.
And if someone wants to take my work and improve upon it, as artists/creators have been doing for centuries, I think that’s a wonderful thing. If they can take my favorite posts and make something funny or inspiring or thought-provoking or even sad…I say more power to them. The creative community only benefits from derivations and inspirations.
Knowledge is power and I see instead of closing it in the clothes of copyright, it is better to let it free. Let knowledge move around freely without any copyright issues. Let the knowledge flow, remold, develop, nourish, and become even more powerful.
Personal Note: Knowledge is power and with every power comes responsibilities to use it wisely 😉
Some counter arguments?
There are a number of objections that will likely be brought up to this idea, and here are a few of my responses:
- Google rank will go down. My understanding is that Google penalizes pages that have exact duplicates on other sites, when it comes to PageRank. But you have to sacrifice something if you want knowledge to have that kind of freedom. Many things comes with comprimises my friend.
- You’ll lose ebook revenues. If people buy my ebook and then distribute it to 20 people, and each of those distributes it to 20 more, and those to 20 more … I’ve lost ₹80L in ebook revenues.
Perhaps. That’s if you agree with the assumption that all those people would have bought the ebook if it hadn’t been freely distributed. I don’t buy that. In this example, thousands of people are reading my work (and learning about it) who wouldn’t have otherwise. That’s good for any content creator. Also: I’ve made more money since releasing copyright, by far, than when I had copyright. - Who knows what people will do with your work? Someone could take my work, turn it into a piece of crap, and put my name on it. They could translate it with all kinds of errors. They could … well, they could do just about anything. But that kind of thinking stems from a mind that wants to control content…while I am of the opinion that you can’t control it, and even if you can, it’s not a good thing.
What if someone takes my work and turns it into something more extraordinary and helpful. What if the knowledge becomes more powerful and even more useful to this Universe, Or more likely, what if they take the work and extend the concepts and make it even more useful, to even more people? Release control, and see what happens. People are wonderful, creative creatures. Let’s see what they can do. - What if someone publishes a book with all your content and makes a million dollars off it? I hope they at least give me credit. And my deepest desire is that they give some of that money to a good cause.
- But … they’re stealing from you! You can’t steal what is given freely. I call this sharing, not piracy.
Personal Note: To gain something like “freedom of knowledge,” you have to do some compromises and sacrifices – be it financial, physical, or mental.
But in the end, what you are doing is, giving knowledge wings to fly and let it become even more powerful and useful over the period of time. That’s what really matters because the average human perishes in 71 years, but knowledge can live forever and forever until not destroyed or hidden away.
Meet you next time, my friend 🙂
