A Case for Piracy

I have been downloading a few classic novels from places like http://www.gutenberg.org and http://www.ebookee.com. Not surprisingly, I could not find books written in the past half a century. Putting up e-versions of these books on the net would amount to digital piracy. So, is such piracy as harmful as publishers would like us to believe? Popular writer Paulo Coelho thinks otherwise.

In 1999, after he had published "The Alchemist", Paulo Coelho was failing in Russia. That year he sold only about 1,000 books, and his Russian publisher dropped him. But after he found another, Coelho took a radical step. On his own Web site, launched in 1996, he posted a digital Russian copy of "The Alchemist."

With no additional promotion, print sales picked up immediately. Within a year he sold 10,000 copies; the next year around 100,000. By 2002 he was selling a total of a million copies of multiple titles. Today, Coelho's sales in Russian are over 10 million and growing. "I'm convinced it was putting it up for free on the Internet that made the difference," he said in an interview at this year's World Economic Forum in Davos.

Here's the full story.

A Twinge

And so I came back home feeling really good. I had done the day's worth of damage control. My mother had had a great day too. She was back from her weekly discussion (with other like-minded women, I guess) on saintly writings, where many a verse in Sanskrit are also translated and discussed. As we sat chatting, my mum quoted the subhashit which tells that contentment is man's biggest adornment. I reminisced about my 'rants' yesterday and wondered if I really want contentment. Maybe, but only a moment's contentment. I wouldn't expect myself to be content and still have the desire to live. Then came the twinge- what about those who never find contentment? Those, whose life is so full of worries that a moment's contentment is but an impossible dream- the farmer with a debt he can never repay, the refugee who doesn't know where he has to run next, the street urchin who struggles to earn his daily bread. And then I was back to the center of my world- me. I have to prepare for the mid-sems. And 'A' is waiting for me. Oh, what is life? Why do we live?

A Few Rants

The pallid gloom that had descended on my mind for the past two days culminated in a disastrous Valentine's Day. The gloom was not the effect of some loss or sadness, rather it was the vacuum in my mind. It's my biggest foe- the lack of passion, the lack of desire. My immediate concerns are:

1. The K gd/pi was not so good. I might not make it. With the A interview only 10 days away, it's time to pull up my socks.
2. Today, I lost my cellphone again or perhaps it was stolen. I'm tired of my clumsiness. I'm ashamed of losing stuff bought with my family's hard-earned money. I have to lodge a police complaint tomorrow and get a replacement SIM card soon. I know the process. Just did it last month. And a few months before that too.
3. The mid-semester test is coming up. Three days to go and I have barely started the preparations. I cannot afford to score badly this semester. And yes, there are assignments to be completed; one is to be submitted tomorrow. I'll start writing now.
4. My project guide was searching for our group today. We haven't seen her in more than 2 months. Worse, we haven't started work on the project. Shameful. We have to start in earnest now.
5. I haven't seen my driving instructor in quite a while. 6 more sessions to go, followed by the test. I wonder when I'm going to get a license.

Ah well, tough times are here again, though they are self-inflicted. I see an exciting month and a half ahead. As always, everything will fall into place. Yes, it will.