Releasing My Copyrights (Blog)

[Savage]

Use this thread to discuss the following entry from Steve Pavlina's blog:

Releasing My Copyrights

[richardxthripp]

Releasing them into the public domain sounds like a bad idea... why not use a Creative Commons license requiring attribution so people don't put their name to your work?

[escapeplan]

Well savage,

What I actually think is that we are in the information age and you have just stepped ahead of the vast majority who think they can own and sell information. I know you won't agree but fundamentally it's why I think SBI! and the like is doomed to fail. Although I'm aware that with such sites you don't directly sell the information, you give it away for free- I don't see how this is a business model that can continue.

I suspect also that you recognise copyright is realistically almost impossible to enforce- especially given the amount of work you've produced. I do wonder how the economic model will continue as we plunge deeper into the information age. I would be glad of your input on this.

[gingerbaker]

Sweet! (Is it bad that my first impulse is to find ways to Rule 34 your work? )

[roxyruby]

wow, won't this negatively effect your income in any way?

hmm I will probably just use your content in twitter more!

I was tweeting some quotes from your content relevant to my twitter feed (saying they were by you ofcourse)

but i had been feeling a bit guilty about it

but now i could make a twitter feed all with bits from your articles content! how cool ^-^

a Steve Pavlina iphone app sounds like a great idea for anyone interested in making that

Thank,you

[escapeplan]

This need not affect Steve's income in a negative way. Don't lose sight of two things:

1/ He's an acute businessman
2 He has another project brewing and the extra publicity this could generate may not be a bad thing.

All things in life are a stepping stone, and that includes (for him) the articles he's written on this site.

[Angelique]

Cool! I wonder what's gonna happen? Hmm..maybe this will create new business models.

[richardxthripp]

Originally Posted by escapeplan

This need not affect Steve's income in a negative way. Don't lose sight of two things:

1/ He's an acute businessman
2 He has another project brewing and the extra publicity this could generate may not be a bad thing.

All things in life are a stepping stone, and that includes (for him) the articles he's written on this site.

Steve is asking for donations at the end of each article now... that should make up for any income lost from releasing his articles into the public domain.

[Savage]

Originally Posted by richardxthripp

Releasing them into the public domain sounds like a bad idea... why not use a Creative Commons license requiring attribution so people don't put their name to your work?

I want people to be free to make that choice for themselves without feeling they have an obligation to do so.

But as a practical concern, my work is already pretty well known. If people were to try to pass it off as their own, they'd probably end up with a negative reputation sooner or later. I think they should have the freedom to learn those lessons the hard way if that's what they need to grow. And they might even do some good.

[Savage]

Originally Posted by gingerbaker

Sweet! (Is it bad that my first impulse is to find ways to Rule 34 your work? )

That would be a fun project to participate in.

[richardxthripp]

Originally Posted by Savage

I want people to be free to make that choice for themselves without feeling they have an obligation to do so.

But as a practical concern, my work is already pretty well known. If people were to try to pass it off as their own, they'd probably end up with a negative reputation sooner or later. I think they should have the freedom to learn those lessons the hard way if that's what they need to grow. And they might even do some good.

That's true, people who have read your work would definitely recognize it. I release a lot of my work under the CC 3.0 Attribution license, but I've never had the guts to just make it public domain.

[James81]

Wow.

<--This is me being blown away. (that's a positive reaction)

Drink it in, because it doesn't happen too often.

[Tam9]

Interesting! Leo Babauta did this with his site about a year ago.

[Savage]

Originally Posted by roxyruby

wow, won't this negatively effect your income in any way?

I can't predict what will happen income-wise since I've never done anything like this before. I doubt I'll starve though.

[gingerbaker]

Originally Posted by Savage

That would be a fun project to participate in.

LOL! No, no, I know better than to ask you to participate in a project! At least not until after I've done the creative part, right?

[Savage]

Originally Posted by richardxthripp

Steve is asking for donations at the end of each article now... that should make up for any income lost from releasing his articles into the public domain.

Maybe... it would take a major boost in traffic or donations to have it become a substantial source of income though. At best the income from donations is around 5% of the monthly total.

I'd love to see donations become a bigger part of the whole, however, which is why I brought back the donation links recently. If I could make a donation-based site sustainable long-term, it would give me more freedom to do some other cool projects that aren't income-based.

Since I don't have any new workshops scheduled, most of my income is coming from JV deals at the moment.

[richardxthripp]

Originally Posted by Savage

Maybe... it would take a major boost in traffic or donations to have it become a substantial source of income though. At best the income from donations is around 5% of the monthly total.

I'd love to see donations become a bigger part of the whole, however, which is why I brought back the donation links recently. If I could make a donation-based site sustainable long-term, it would give me more freedom to do some other cool projects that aren't income-based.

Since I don't have any new workshops scheduled, most of my income is coming from JV deals at the moment.

Your donation revenue is definitely going to go up... just make sure to create two PayPal accounts: one for donations below $11.90 and one for donations above $11.90, linked to different bank accounts, with the account for smaller donations set to the PayPal Micropayments fee schedule ($0.05 + 5%) and the larger account set to the regular fee schedule ($0.30 + 2.9%), and then have the user set the donation amount before leaving your website and direct them with a PHP script to the appropriate PayPal account.

Or not.

[PolarBear]

I'm making an assumption but I'd like to see it confirmed:

The source for your website that the content is on is NOT explicitly public domain only the actual article words themselves.

[James81]

Originally Posted by richardxthripp

Your donation revenue is definitely going to go up... just make sure to create two PayPal accounts: one for donations below $11.90 and one for donations above $11.90, linked to different bank accounts, with the account for smaller donations set to the PayPal Micropayments fee schedule ($0.05 + 5%) and the larger account set to the regular fee schedule ($0.30 + 2.9%), and then have the user set the donation amount before leaving your website and direct them with a PHP script to the appropriate PayPal account.

Or not.

Can you see how "letting go of copyright" and "setting up two paypal accounts so that you can make every last penny you deserve" come from two different sets of values?

[richardxthripp]

Originally Posted by James81

Can you see how "letting go of copyright" and "setting up two paypal accounts so that you can make every last penny you deserve" come from two different sets of values?

Not at all... I think PayPal is an evil company so they should get as little money as possible.

[Savage]

Originally Posted by PolarBear

I'm making an assumption but I'd like to see it confirmed:

The source for your website that the content is on is NOT explicitly public domain only the actual article words themselves.

Right.

Most of the code is already open source since my blog uses WordPress and various plug-ins. The forum software (VBulletin) is licensed. I can't give away rights to the entire site's code because I don't own those rights. I only created a tiny portion of the underlying code.

I'd rather see people use their creativity to do their own visuals. It's not like my site is particularly fancy looking anyway.

[James81]

Originally Posted by richardxthripp

Not at all... I think PayPal is an evil company so they should get as little money as possible.

If you think PayPal is an evil company, then why are you using it? (If you say because "I have no choice" I'm going to beat you over the avatar with the capital letter "B" repeatedly. )

[richardxthripp]

Originally Posted by James81

If you think PayPal is an evil company, then why are you using it? (If you say because "I have no choice" I'm going to beat you over the avatar with the capital letter "B" repeatedly. )

Because they are the best option. I also think Google and the U.S. government do a lot of bad things, but that doesn't mean I'm going to stop using Google's services or move to Mexico.

[James81]

Originally Posted by richardxthripp

Because they are the best option. I also think Google and the U.S. government do a lot of bad things, but that doesn't mean I'm going to stop using Google's services or move to Mexico.

Aren't you the guy who got banned from adsense recently and then signed up for them under a psuedo account?

It kinda reminds me of a guy who has a bag of dirt over both his eyes pointing at the person with a speck in the corner of his eyes saying how blind he is for not washing that speck out of his eye.

[inverse Paranoid]

I can only imagine how freeing this must feel Steve! I love having you as a part of my world. My eyes are welling up with appreciation for the person you have become, the person you are becoming, and all that you've been in the past!

[richardxthripp]

Originally Posted by James81

Aren't you the guy who got banned from adsense recently and then signed up for them under a psuedo account?

It kinda reminds me of a guy who has a bag of dirt over both his eyes pointing at the person with a speck in the corner of his eyes saying how blind he is for not washing that speck out of his eye.

No, I signed up for a new account with the same name which Google approved, and I am strictly following the AdSense policies now. According to the AdSense policies, creating a second account is allowed if you were not banned for click fraud, and there was no fraud on my original account.

You are the only person who has taken issue with my PayPal micropayments suggestion, so I see no reason to entertain you any longer.

[James81]

Originally Posted by richardxthripp

so I see no reason to entertain you any longer.

Cool beans. Have a good one.

[richardxthripp]

Originally Posted by James81

Cool beans. Have a good one.

I will, see you around.

[Living2xcess]

I think that is amazing Steve. I think your articles are going to be all over the Internet and your name recognition will be along the likes of Anthony Robbins and Norman Vincent Peale. I already stole one of your articles. Thank you so much.

[vellebelle]

Are you not worried that your website will get penalized by the search engines when other people start to put your stuff online.. Google is not very happy about duplicate content you know...

But I gotta give it to you.. What a brave move Steve