Little Brother

We need to be having this conversation all over the planet.

Like I said, the UK edition goes on sale on November 17 (ISBN: 9780007288427).

There'll even be a limited edition, signed hardcover for people who like their books all artifacty.

If you want to be notified when the book goes on sale, just drop me an email at [email protected] with the subject line

LITTLE BROTHER UK EDITION.

OTHER EDITIONS

My agent, Russell Galen (and his subagent Danny Baror) did an amazing job of preselling rights to Little Brother in many languages and formats. Here's the list as of today (May 4, 2008).

I'll be updating it as more editions are sold, so feel free to grab another copy of this file (http://craphound.com/littlebrother/download) if there's an edition you're hoping to see, or see http://craphound.com/littlebrother/buy/ for links to buy all the currently shipping editions.

. Audiobook from Random House: http://www.randomhouse.com/audio/littlebrotheraudiobo ok A condition of my deal with Random House is that

they're not allowed to release this on services that use

Cory Doctorow/Little Brother/3 "DRM" (Digital Rights Management) systems intended to control use and copying. That means that you won't find this book on Audible or iTunes, because Audible refuses to sell books without DRM (even if the author and publisher don't want DRM), and iTunes only carries Audible audiobooks. However, you can buy the MP3 file direct from RandomHouse or many other fine etailers, or through this widget: http://www.zipidee.com/zipidAudioPreview.aspx? aid=c5a8e946fd2c4b9ea748f297bba17de8

My foreign rights agent, Danny Baror, has presold a number of foreign editions:

.

Greece: Pataki

.

Russia: AST Publishing

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France: Universe Poche

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Norway: Det Norske Samlaget

No publication dates yet for these, but I'll keep updating this file as more information is available. You can also subscribe to my mailing list for more info.

THE COPYRIGHT THING

The Creative Commons license at the top of this file probably tipped you off to the fact that I've got some pretty unorthodox views about copyright. Here's what I think of it, in a nutshell: a little goes a long way, and more than that is too much.

I like the fact that copyright lets me sell rights to my publishers and film studios and so on. It's nice that they can't just take my stuff without permission and get rich on it without cutting me in for a piece of the action. I'm in a pretty good position when it comes to negotiating with these companies: I've got a great agent and a decade's experience with copyright law and licensing (including a stint as a delegate at WIPO, the UN agency that makes the world's copyright treaties). What's more, there's just not that many of these negotiations even if I sell fifty or a hundred different editions of Little Brother (which would put it in top millionth of a percentile for fiction), that's still only a hundred negotiations, which I could just about manage.

I

hate the fact that fans who want to do what readers have

Cory Doctorow/Little Brother/4

always done are expected to play in the same system as all these hotshot agents and lawyers. It's just stupid to say that an elementary school classroom should have to talk to a lawyer at a giant global publisher before they put on a play based on one of my books. It's ridiculous to say that people who want to "loan" their electronic copy of my book to a friend need to get a license to do so. Loaning books has been around longer than any publisher on Earth, and it's a fine thing.

I recently saw Neil Gaiman give a talk at which someone asked him how he felt about piracy of his books. He said, "Hands up in the audience if you discovered your favorite writer for free because someone loaned you a copy, or because someone gave it to you? Now, hands up if you found your favorite writer by walking into a store and plunking down cash." Overwhelmingly, the audience said that they'd discovered their favorite writers for free, on a loan or as a gift. When it comes to my favorite writers, there's no boundaries: I'll buy every book they publish, just to own it (sometimes I buy two or three, to give away to friends who must read those books). I pay to see them live. I buy tshirts with their bookcovers on them. I'm a customer for life.

Neil went on to say that he was part of the tribe of readers, the tiny minority of people in the world who read for pleasure, buying books because they love them. One thing he knows about everyone who downloads his books on the Internet without permission is that they're readers, they're people who love books.