Sharing Makes You Popular

In the past, physical constraints made sharing difficult. Access to books in the Middle Ages was limited due to troubles associated with production and distribution. In an age where everyone can produce (as opposed to just monks) and distribution incurs a minimal cost, sharing has become the norm for many. Corporate entities, however, have shied away from such egalitarian methods. Conventional wisdom says profits come from perfect control. Instead, burgeoning artists (and some established entertainers) are finding that perfect market saturation trumps perfect control.

John Perry Barlow, who would go on to found the EFF, was a writer for the Grateful Dead during their heyday. According to JPB,

In regard to my own soft product, rock 'n' roll songs, there is no question that the band I write them for, the Grateful Dead, has increased its popularity enormously by giving them away. We have been letting people tape our concerts since the early seventies, but instead of reducing the demand for our product, we are now the largest concert draw in America, a fact that is at least in part attributable to the popularity generated by those tapes.

A similar tone is enumerated by Cory Doctorow, who writes for BoingBoing. The award winning science fiction writer simultaneously releases a free online version of his book under a Creative Commons license and a traditional paper copy for sale in book stores. According to Cory,

“I’m generating more sales of my printed books. Sure, giving away eBooks displaces the occasional sale, when a downloader reads the book and decides not to buy it. But it’s far more common for a reader to download the book, read some or all of it, and decide to buy the print edition."

So, go ahead. Do what your mom told you to: share.