Archive for August, 2010

Stopping People From Illegally Sharing Your Work

The other day, I realized that one of my main books had been shared illegally on the Internet. Anyone could just search for it and find it the first page of Google, and download it without paying.

Luckily, I was able to contact the owner of the website and sort out the situation.

But some other times, I’m not so lucky and there’s not much I can do to prevent some unscrupulous people from sharing my copyrighted material.

If you’re thinking of writing and selling your own ebooks, you’ve probably wondered about this issue. How can you prevent people from illegally sharing your work?

Before I answer this question, let me give you my point of view on copyright issues.

I am 100% behind the strict enforcement of copyright issues, which applies for any work an artist has created, including music, patents, software, movies, entertainment, books, etc.

These works represent the sweat of many, many hard-working people who deserve to get paid for what they do.

Over the last decade, there’s been a strong movement against copyrights, by Internet “Pirates” who have encouraged and enabled the illegal sharing of copyrighted material under the guise of humanitarian motives.

These anti-copyrights bums believe that copyrights have never been any benefit to “society” and serve to enrich a few at the expense of creativity.

To that I say: Complete nonsense!

The profit motive is an important factor in what drives human innovation and creativity. If artists and thinkers cannot make a living at what they do, they will go back to a boring job and never get to fully express the range of their abilities.

When an artist or innovator creates something that didn’t exist before — and that something can enjoyed in any form by many people in a way that improves and enhances their lives, they should be able to charge WHATEVER PRICE they want for it. And they should be able to be in total control over the distribution of their work.

People who complain that a certain book costs “too much”, that a company is “robbing” people by selling an item at a certain price, or that they shouldn’t have to pay for it, have a complete false of entitlement.

They live in a world where that “something” did not exist. Suddenly someone creates it, and wants to charge them X amount for it. No one is forcing them to buy it. If they don’t want it, they can say no. They can go back to the world they lived in before, in which that “something” did not exist.

If they want to enjoy it however, and enhance their lives, even if it’s just for a brief moment, why is that too much to ask that they pay their toll to the artist/innovator, who made it all possible in the first place?

Because of the law of competition, prices never can stay too high that their true worth, as long as other people are coming along to offer their own answer to the same problem.

All of that to say that it is 100% moral to protect copyrights, and 100% immoral to advocate the destruction of the copyright system.

If people enjoy the instant gratification of downloading something immediately, there are now plenty of options to do so legally. For example, I’m a big fan of Amazon’s Kindle for eBooks, or Apple’s iTunes for movies and TV Shows.

That being said, should you fear for your eBooks and products?

I’m actually not as worried as some people are when they first get started.

While you do not want your eBooks to be made available on file-sharing websites, there’s nothing you can do about people making copies and/or sending it to their friends.

Some people want to control everything by creating password-protected versions of their eBooks, or lock it in a special kind of software that can only be read using a key that can be disabled at anytime.

I find those restrictions too much of a hassle to create the type of experience your clients are after. If you try to make it too difficult, you’ll make the same mistakes the music industry made when they first started selling music, and actually encourage people to download your programs illegally.

I suggest selling your eBooks as simple, unprotected PDFs.

However, make sure that your download page does not show up in the search engines. There’s a simple line of code you can add to any download page that will make it “invisible” to Google. Most webmasters can do this for you.

Do not worry too much about protecting your work, since it’s not going to be a concern of yours until you become much more popular.
Once you’re well-known enough to be shared all over the web, it’s actually a good sign!

I personally don’t try very hard to protect my front-end products (by that I mean the entry-level eBooks that I sell), since they are just an entry point to the rest of my product line. Even if someone downloads them illegally, they can still be interested in the other products I have for sell!

However, if I see my books being distributed without my permission, I will intervene by contacting the owners of the website and getting the files pulled down, which has always worked.

At some point, I even had someone selling my eBooks on eBay, keeping all the profits and without my permission of course!

There’s also a big problem with file-sharing websites like Pirate’s Bay, that enjoy undeserved support from the public and who will probably remain unpunished for a long time. Of course, when one website closes down, a new one opens up the next week!

The best strategy for BitTorrents and similar unstoppable file-sharing schemes is to ignore them. The people who download (steal) your programs there wouldn’t have been your customers anyway.

If you’d like to know more on protect yourself from illegal downloads, make sure you subscribe to the Do What You Love Success Group, where next month I will be sending out a complete report on the subject, filled with tips and ideas to be ahead of the curve, but more importantly to know where to spend your attention, and where it’s a waste of time.

To subscribe, go to: www.dowhatyouloveuniversity.com/new.html

I’ve never written ANYTHING about politics, and I don’t intend to start doing so. But since I’ve been traveling around the world, I’m inevitably brought to some interesting reflections about what it’s like to be an entrepreneur in this modern world, and which countries are the best places to do that.

I’ve spent a lot of time in Canada (where I’m from), and also in the United States. I’ve also traveled and studied to Europe and have been there over 10 times.

It seems to me that a lot of people in Europe are very skeptical about everything American, while Americans themselves tend to imagine that life is so much better in Europe and that they should be more like Europeans.

There’s also a lot of Europeans who have never been to North America and tend to have a very negative image of the United States, that is in my opinion quite incorrect.

There’s no doubt that the social climates in Europe and North America are completely different. The main source of that difference is that America was founded by Europeans we were fed up with the system, fed up with high taxes in their countries, fed up with the lack of opportunities, and decided to seek a better life somewhere else and brought their entrepreneurial spirit with them.

Europe is much older, with many more established traditions and therefore each country is much more homogenized and has its own distinct character.

It’s quite obvious that Europe (especially Northern Europe) is a much more organized, conformist society.

The social pressure to be like everybody else is much stronger, and generally most people don’t tend to try a different approach and would prefer stick with their expected role in society.

Overall, the governments of European countries and the general social climate in Europe doesn’t really encourage individuals to become entrepreneurs, to go their own way, to take risks and reap giant rewards if they succeed, or fail miserably if they don’t (and that being an “okay” thing).

There’s the absurdly high taxation that comes into play (in Denmark, there’s a Value-Added Tax of 25% on everything, including groceries, and that’s on top of a very high income tax!), but again it’s the general social climate that makes people less inclined to start their own businesses.

On the other hand, it’s true that it can “feel good” to live in Europe, because you can easily find your place in society and follow the established route that has been drawn for you.

The “American Spirit” (which I will apply to the entire North American continent), is much more one of risk-taking, entrepreneurship and innovation. Individualism and personal success is much more encouraged (or tolerated), and people view failure as more of a “personal learning experience” than a devastating event.

On the other hand, it’s also true that North Americans tend to feel more isolated, more lost and looking for answers.

When I say “American Spirit”, I really mean the spirit that the founders of America and the immigrants that came to the country, rather than the mediocrity mentality that some Americans now share. I’m talking about the driving force of the country, even though it’s being squashed and destroyed by the day.

If you want to get in touch with this “American Spirit” go to Los Angeles, where every other person you meet hopes to make it in Hollywood. They might not all succeed, but the “dream” is alive.

Go to San Francisco, where every other kid is starting a new social media site and hopes to become the next Facebook or Twitter.

You could even go to Toronto, and witness the entrepreneurial spirit of the many immigrants the city welcomes every year.

Even some countries in Europe have this entrepreneurial spirit, but overall you’ll find that most places in Europe don’t have a climate that is as friendly for entrepreneurs as North America.

If you want to succeed making a living doing what you love, you have to connect with this “American Spirit”.

Like I said, the American Spirit has nothing to do with American foreign policies, or even American culture and fast food, but rather the spirit of entrepreneurship that went into the fantastic creation of this country.

I’m not even American myself, but I’ve connected with this spirit and it’s what drives me every day.

When you want to make a living doing what you love, you don’t count on handouts from the state. You’re willing to take risks, and you’re willing to fail. And if you succeed fabulously, you should be able to enjoy the fruits of your efforts.

Beware! If you succeed, others are going to be mad at you. They’re going to call you a liar and a cheater, they’re going to be angry at your “sneaky” marketing techniques, and will even ask you to give away your best stuff for free, instead of selling it.

They will never be able to see all the hard work that went into your work. They will never be willing to take the risks that you took. Naturally, they will never be able to enjoy the life that you enjoy, and will resent you for it.

If you want to succeed making a living doing what you love, it’s imperative that you connect with this entrepreneurial spirit.

To do so, you have to spend time with other entrepreneurs, and visit places where you can feel that the “entrepreneurial energy” is just bubbling.

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So should America be more like Europe?

I love the best aspects of Europe, the culture, the people… but let’s not squash the Entrepreneurial spirit. There’s very little of it left in the world, and it would be a tragedy if it disappeared from America.