A world of sharing and trust – why everything on Path With Paws is free and sharable
I believe that information that can help people or animals should be available for free. I believe that knowledge is powerful and that this should not be held by a few but available to anyone. The more people who can be helped by what I hold in my brain the better. I am one person; I can only share with a few of you if everything stays in my brain.
The internet is a powerful tool. It reaches out to people all over the world. Rich people, poor people, people who speak the same language as me, people who speak other languages. We are no longer a world where we must memorize knowledge but a world where we share knowledge. I want to be part of this sharing.
I believe in the fair exchange that happens naturally in life. As people, I believe we generally want to give for things that are of value to us but that we don’t like being forced to give. And if we receive a gift we want to be able to use it in whatever way we see fit and if we love it we want to share it with friends. What if someone gave you a beautiful cooking pan but told you that you could only make food in it for yourself?
We are delusional if we believe that when information or art is sold that people do not share it. As humans it is natural for us to share. Why not embrace that sharing instead of fighting it?
From Cory Doctorow:
Finally, let’s look at the moral case. Copying stuff is natural. It’s how we learn (copying our parents and the people around us). My first story, written when I was six, was an excited re-telling of Star Wars, which I’d just seen in the theater. Now that the Internet — the world’s most efficient copying machine — is pretty much everywhere, our copying instinct is just going to play out more and more. There’s no way I can stop my readers, and if I tried, I’d be a hypocrite: when I was 17, I was making mix-tapes, photocopying stories, and generally copying in every way I could imagine. If the Internet had been around then, I’d have been using it to copy as much as I possibly could.
So how do artists and writers survive in a world of sharing and giving? What if we let our readers and fans put a value on our art? What if you as the reader only gave what was possible and only if you were inspired to and it felt right? What if there was no requirement to give anything? How would that change the availability of art and information?
One of my favorite performers Amanda Palmer, in her recent TED talk said
A lot of people are confused by the idea of no hard sticker price. They see it as an unpredictable risk, but … I see it as trust.
“I think people have been obsessed with the wrong question, which is, ‘How do we make people pay for music?’ What if we started asking, ‘How do we LET people pay for music?”
The same holds true for my work. There is a donation button in the upper right hand corner. If my work speaks to you and you feel inspired to give something back I deeply appreciate it. If my work can help you or your animal companion that warms my heart.
Please share any of my information, pass it on to your friends, your family, anyone you know that could benefit from it.
Everything I write is licensed under creative commons noncommercial.
What does this mean?
Any of my work can be shared, translated, copied, given out in classes, put on your blog, passed on in anyway as long as it is not sold for money. The creative commons license must follow if you republish it. And I ask that you either link to Path With Paws or add in the website URL when you do use the material.
What if we could change our world to a system of trust? What if we didn’t cling so closely to mine but opened things up to make knowledge and art all of ours? I want to live in this world!
Related Links
- Amanda Palmer’s TED talk – I highly recommend watching this!
- Cory Doctorow on why to give away books
- All about creative commons licensing
