Releasing Copyright

A lot of people have written a lot of stuff about making money from intellectual property in general, and intellectual property on the internet in particular.  The intellectual property that attracts most attention is writing.  There is no doubt that the idea of making a living from writing is one that appeals to a lot of people.  After all we can all write.  And most of us find our own writing particularly compelling.  It does after all resonate very strongly with what we believe and hold dear.   And the idea of turning this stuff into an income stream is, well, how cool is that?

Some people take that idea one step further.  Dr Johnson famously said that nobody but a fool ever wrote anything except for money.  The idea that writing is purely a task one carries out for its monetary rewards is one end of the scale.  I suppose T.S.Eliot who wrote for no other reason than the beauty of his poetry and made a living from publishing other people's writing while living off a tidy sum made from banking would be the other.

Steve doesn't seem to fit into this scale at all conveniently.   His writing obviously comes from his heart and is not particularly designed to court popularity.  On the other hand he is quite aware of its commercial potential and openly makes clear that he expects to generate cash from what he writes.  And he has published a book following the absolutely standard publishing business model.  And now he has done something that is highly unconventional.  He has released a body of work that has a wide audience into the public domain for free.   What is he doing? 

I think the answer is that he doesn't know himself.  Will the extra interest generated by allowing people to use his stuff freely translate into extra book sales?  That seems like a good bet.  Will he achieve a higher profile and therefore be able to command higher speaking fees?  Again this is quite likely.  Will it lead to something that nobody could have predicted?  We can't know that (by definition) but I have a feeling that this is the outcome that is the real motivation behind the move.