Think the Reputation Economy is New? Think Again

What motivates the Wikipedia contributor or Linux programmer? It can't be financial since these endeavors are non-profit. A lot of recent scholarship has focused on non-fiscal returns including what has come to be known as the "reputation economy" where one's contributions become, in sum, reputation signals to peers, prospective employers and others.

Well, it turns out, this isn't a new phenomenon. A nice survey of both the historical and current copyright debate in the Globe and Mail shares the anecdote of the 18th Century British poet, Daniel Defoe. Mr. Defoe's satirical poem "A True-Born Englishman" netted him little profit due to the 80,000 "pirated" copies. However, the free distribution made him popular.

"This wide readership helped establish his literary reputation, making him one of the most famous men in England and assuring that his future works would find an audience. Even the King befriended him. For much of the rest of his life, Defoe would refer to himself simply as the author of The True-Born Englishman."

As Tim O'Reilly said, the greatest threat an artist faces is obscurity, not piracy.