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Janis Ian claimed quite the opposite in an article from all the way back in 2002: It's the "biggest selling artists", if anyone, who are to be concerned about sharing - the "average" band/artist hardly receives money from their label but gets a lot more exposure (and thus income) from shared music.

Then again, that is more-or-less also the argument behind the existence of the Baen Free Library in the first place, where this article is hosted. Go check it out if you like SF.

Go over to the Baen Free Library http://www.baen.com/library/ and read Eric Flint's take on book piracy and free books. Quite interesting and well thought out. His idea is that what little book piracy there is actually creates a bigger audience for the author's work - from which he will profit. For this reason they give away free electronic versions of many of their books, hoping to tempt you to buy more.

It's worked on me! I now look specifically for Baen books when I shop my local bookstores.

I can tell you one thing, the number of books that have come back into print (after years in some cases) is definitely greater than zero. In fact, if you go over to Baen.com you'll find that they have actively been purchasing the rights to science fiction classics to republish them.

Of course, it's basically impossible to argue that violating the author's copyright is ethical, and it certainly isn't legal. It is often a lot more convenient, however. For some people' that's the most important factor in their decision.

Perhaps, along with the books you could include a CD which would have similar books by current authors...

I look up to these guys due to the fact that realize that the problem with content creators is they are not known. Trading(piracy- damn those libraries) and being popular is a good problem to have.

What I do know is I have a fair selection of books and many novels are baen. The only time I would have qualms about "stealing books" are the damned college books and eleventy-billion editions to thwart re-using books. Last I checked, differential calculus didnt change and the math is still good. grr.

I've been reading books with my iPhone and its great at bed time. read with the lights off so I don't disturb my wife, and it powers off if I fall asleep and stop flipping pages. I also have it with me everywhere, so I 've got thought books faster as I can read it anytime.

I've been using my old Clie (PalmOS based Sony handheld) that way for the past 8 years. :)

But content, I cant just loan a copy to my friend, and I cant just mail them a link to the book as hey need the software I use.

E-books need a common format with tags for meta data like MP3s and work on all platforms.
I'd like an e-copy with every paper copy I buy, but copy protection will never allow this freedom.

Check out http://www.webscriptions.net/. Baen has pioneered eBooks as far as I'm concerned. They were one of the first SciFi/Fantasy plublishing houses to release them, and they offer every one of their books in several electronic formats with no DRM (as well as offer a large "Free Library" of older books and their famous "CDs" which are usually chock full of the rest of a given author's backlog of books.

The mobi-book format is supported on both the iPhone and Kindle and the iPhone even has a "BookShelf" app that will let you buy and download books wirelessly.

Granted, its a small portion of the market (SciFi and Fantasy books), but I'd imagine that, for Slashdot readers at least, its a large-ish portion of the books they buy/read. :)

The best part (to me), is that they provide the books both in mobi-book format (for an eReader), as well as .rtf, and html. Heck, with a little bit of knowledge you can even use the plain HTML version to turn a PSP (or any other hand-held device that can retrieve locally stored html), into an eBook reader, just fine. :)

There Will Be Dragons by John Ringo?

Now the DRM issue. You can in fact get open formats onto the Kindle, its just that there's not as much legal and open stuff out there, and you cant exactly 'rip' a book as easily as a CD. It just sucks.

Well ... there is at least SOME stuff out there if you look in the Mobibook format (and like SciFi/Fantasy).

From Kindle's Tech Specs

Content Formats Supported: Kindle (AZW), TXT, Audible (formats 2, 3 and 4), MP3, unprotected MOBI, PRC natively; HTML, DOC, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP through conversion

(emphesis mine)

Baen has devoted a whole page to using the Kindle with their eBooks http://www.webscription.net/t-kindle.aspx

And then has both a free library as well as release a fair amount of their older catalog in a Freely distributable format on "bonus CDs" you can even find online (the first fix is free :) ).

I'll admit that most of what I read is SciFi/Fantasy. Having said that, at least 80-90% of what I've read in the past few years could have been gotten in eBook form (and ~50% of it has been). I'd imagine that the number is probably higher, but I still prefer "dead tree" books some of the time. (Haven't tried to get an author to sign an eReader yet :) )

"The New Zealand Labour government - ostensibly centre-left in political leaning - finds itself somewhat out of touch with its constituency, having furthered some very sinister policies (believe it or not, it is now actually illegal to smack your child for discipline in NZ). "

The far reaching implications are indeed scary. I frequently joke about getting spankings as a child like vitamins: One A Day (tm). But I would also acknowledge the fact that I never received one undeserved-I worked hard for every one of them! I have also 'officially' thanked my mother for my upbringing...she has had quite a few unknown compliments over the years. Gotta pass it on!

*nix fans should know this instinctively, as it is all a matter of acknowledging the source code. :-)

If you are a 'SciFi" fan, Keith Laumer wrote a series of stories about advanced AI in armored vehicles ('tanks' to us). The tanks were labeled 'Bolo'.
After Keith died, several authors continued the series.(by way of Baen Free Library http://www.baen.com/library/
One of the books:"The Road to Damascus"
'by John Ringo and
Linda Evans,
created by Keith Laumer', addresses this very thing by way of a political party that gains power that goes by the moniker of 'P.O.P.P.A.'

"The New Zealand Labour government - ostensibly centre-left in political leaning - finds itself somewhat out of touch with its constituency, having furthered some very sinister policies (believe it or not, it is now actually illegal to smack your child for discipline in NZ). "

The far reaching implications are indeed scary. I frequently joke about getting spankings as a child like vitamins: One A Day (tm). But I would also acknowledge the fact that I never received one undeserved-I worked hard for every one of them! I have also 'officially' thanked my mother for my upbringing...she has had quite a few unknown compliments over the years. Gotta pass it on!

*nix fans should know this instinctively, as it is all a matter of acknowledging the source code. :-)

If you are a 'SciFi" fan, Keith Laumer wrote a series of stories about advanced AI in armored vehicles ('tanks' to us). The tanks were labeled 'Bolo'.
After Keith died, several authors continued the series.(by way of Baen Free Library http://www.baen.com/library/
One of the books:"The Road to Damascus"
'by John Ringo and
Linda Evans,
created by Keith Laumer', addresses this very thing by way of a political party that gains power that goes by the moniker of 'P.O.P.P.A.'

Yeah Baen has really done it right. And their free program lead directly to me making purchases from them. In fact the only digital book purchases I have ever made.

Amen. I've discovered a few books that I bought in dead tree form to read on the beach. Browsing and ordering from Amazon is a nice complement to browsing at B&N.

See for example http://www.baen.com/library/ and http://baencd.thefifthimperium.com/.

Particularly loved the comment that books are hard to digitize...

http://www.baen.com/library/ (author's commentary, who's made a lot of sells off of free distribution)

www.webscription.net -- no DRM at all, ebooks in choice of formats as often as you want. Still making profits.

Freeware distro cds... (search for baen cds) ... and Baen's making money just fine! :-)

Music isn't at the forefront... ebooks are, and the problem seems to already have a good solution.

I wrote Cliff a rather long letter, explaining how and why I got started pirating things. Somewhere along the way, I explained how and why I have been converted to Open Source and Linux. I finished by suggesting that the very business model under which software writers work is all wrong, and suggested that he take a look at http://www.baen.com/library/ where he MIGHT stimulate his mind to explore alternative business models. I hope that a lot of other serious minded people take the time to explain politely why piracy canÂt be beaten, and why he should join the community, instead of fighting it.

You accidentily inserted the word "quality" in there.

Nope, it was entirely intentional.

No doubt there are some gems, but I've yet to read/find them.

Keep looking, they're in there.

Of course, I grew up on pulp sci-fi, so my standards may be different from yours. There's definitely a lack of truly "hard" sci-fi, but there are many entertaining stories, and that's most of what I'm after, nowadays. There's no Asimov or Dickson in there, I'll admit. I like stories, not textbooks. If I wanted to actually learn about quantum physics, I'd go google up a textbook, or something.

To me, the Baen Free Library is mostly a repository of some fairly decent pop-sci-fi authors, that I can peruse at my leisure without having to track down that book from my stacks (I swear, they started out as shelves, but they keep gathering more books, and, well...). I like them because they don't require much thought to delve into, but often have good concepts.

"Freehold", for instance; A good read, with only a few obstacles to suspension of disbelief, describing a colony world based on anarchy, libertarianism and the free market, and the society's (obvious and obligatory) problems in its interactions with Earth because of its (lack of) societal structure. It has plenty of scenes where stuff blows up, and military drama abounds. It also makes some good points about our current society, and where it might be headed, as well as pointing out some of the good features of anarchy/libertarianism (it's not necessarily pandemonium, ya dig?). I've recommended it to several of my friends, and will continue to do so. Being able to recommend it by hitting someone with a link in an IM or forum post makes it that much easier.

Keep in mind that the Baen Free Library is more of a marketing push, so they're trying to appeal to the "lowest common denominator", rather than creating a free collective body-of-work like Project Gutenberg. On the other hand, Gutenberg doesn't make it easy to decide I like a series (or an author, or a single book), and drop a small chunk of change on a small stack of paperbacks.

Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with Baen in any way other than being a fan of some of their authors.

My point was simply that the baen free library is still selling the works in question, and will cheerfully ship you a printed copy of any item in the "free" catalog, for a reasonable fee, upon request.

This, therefore, does not qualify as "abandonware" in any form.

Good example of some high-quality free stuff, though. I got turned onto the Baen Free Library a couple years ago, and have loved having a mobile source of free, quality science fiction. Anywhere I have 'net, I have Baen.

It's also incredibly easy to pick up a whole series after reading a couple online. Sometimes, there's just nothing like curling up on the couch with the dead-tree edition.

Weber and Flint are two of my favorite authors, but I'm not sure how appropriate they are for pre-teens, due to the hard military Sci-Fi topics. They're probably OK for teens, but I'm not sure if pre-teens would really be interested in them.

And, yes, I'll second and third the recommendation for the Baen Free Library. There are a lot of good books and series there. Note, however, that not all books in a series are there. For example, you really need to have read H Beam Piper's, "Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen" (which is not in the library), before reading "Great King's War", or much will probably be confusing.

Aside from the majority of the Star Wars novels (especially the X-Wing series), my three favorite authors are Timothy Zahn, David Weber, and Eric Flint.

Zahn's stuff is a bit older than the other two (80's on up). His books are generally fast-paced, with enough action to keep a younger reader interested but they also almost always deal with themes or include moral dilemmas which keep even jaded college students such as myself thinking. Some of my personal favorites include The Icarus Hunt, the Cobra trilogy, and the Conqueror's trilogy.

Weber is almost a "Tom Clancy of Sci-Fi". He writes almost exclusively military sci-fi, almost hard sci-fi but with one or two "fantastic" technologies (usually some form of FTL travel and some form of artificial gravity, but no more). His language is a little coarser and his characters sometimes get into adult situations, but its pretty much PG-13. Some of his best work include the Honor Harrington series (which has been described as Horatio Hornblower in space) and the Empire From the Ashes trilogy.

Flint is the comedian of the group. In every one of his books I've read there has been at least one or two points where I've laughed out loud. In addition, he seems to be very adept at writing characters who younger Sci-Fi readers can relate well to. He writes mostly fantasy, with an emphasis on alternate history. He's probably best known for his 1632/Ring of Fire Series, in which a small West Virginian mining town from the late 20th Century gets sent back to Seventeenth century Germany, in the middle of the Hundred Years War. Flint's material is also generally PG-13.

If you're interested in trying out Weber or Flint, the Baen Free Library has much of their work available for free in about a half-dozen formats (including HTML and RTF).

The 1632 series by Eric Flint - alternate history - politics but a history lesson also - many in series can be can be downloaded for free fron Baen books http://www.baen.com/library/

Not sure what religion has to do with this economics question.

Then you didn't read my post. I was pointing out the flaw in your argument, where you said that Imaginary Property was something that we made up, and so it did not need to be "believed in" in order to be considered real. In case I didn't make myself clear:

I disagree.

As for your questions...

Do you have an alternate proposal for incentivizing content creators?

If not, do you believe that software/books/movies/songs/etc. will be created by individuals for no compensation? Or by companies for no compensation?

When I was growing up, artists and musicians did what they did for the love of the music/art. Metallica went on MTV and said they would never make a music video because they "weren't in it for the money." Now they've alienated their fanbase by suing them for giving away their music, and they're pissed off about the lack of money in the equation. Nevermind that they went on TV in front of millions of people and lied. Seems to me that the artists need to figure out which way they're trying to be, and stick to it once they've chosen. This, of course, is just anecdotal evidence and meandering ranting, and is also totally off topic. Get off my lawn!

Back to the issue at hand.

Yes, I have an "alternate proposal" for "incentivizing content creators". I like to call it "cut out the middlemen who do no work, maximize your profits without raking your customers over the coals, and stop pinching everyone's wallets while whining about how you don't make any money because you only get 1% of the profit of each CD sold". It involves content creators posting their content for the world to enjoy, and asking for (non-specific amounts of) money.
(As an aside, I'm typically insulted when people tell me I have to donate a specific amount of money. If I want to give you 50 cents for a single song, I should be able to. Don't tell me I have to give you $5 and take the whole disk!)

If this "economic model" seems surprising to you, then it would seem I need to point out to you that several big names are already doing it, as you can see with a little googling on the subject. To get you started, allow me to offer the following as potential search terms:
"Nine Inch Nails", "Radiohead", "donation", "free music"
It may interest you to learn that the results from these attempts have been successful (or at least, that's what I read). You may also be interested in Jonathan Coulton, who seems to be making quite a decent living by giving his stuff away for free.

Despite answering in the affirmative (and with proof!) and thus excusing myself from the "bonus questions", I will continue in this monologue, answering your second and third questions, too. Please note that the emphasis is mine.

The answers are simple and undeniable. Yes, I believe that software, books, movies, songs, etc. are being created by individuals for no direct financial compensation. Yes, I believe that software, books, movies, songs, etc. are being created by companies for no direct financial compensation. As proof, I offer up open source software (Linux, for example; The Apache Software Foundation, for another), free books (check out the Baen Free Library, or Project Gutenberg), free movies, free music, and the beginnings of an economic model that depends on having products and services that have more than just a financial value to the consumers and producers... which raises the questio

He is actively hurting his cause. The Bean Free Library proves it. http://www.baen.com/library/ I have actually purchased books I started reading free. And they keep adding books, so I would guess it is not driving them out of business.

As have I. In addition, I have bought Hardback editions of about 40 books as a result of reading some writer's works on the Baen Free Library.

So, a few dozen titles put up for free have generated at last $1000 revenue JUST FROM ME. So far. When those authors write more books, I'll buy them too.

And NONE of that revenue would have been garnered without the free titles - books cost enough that I don't spend money on new authors all that often. And I'd seen all the authors in question in bookstores and decided they didn't look interesting enough to spend money on before I discovered the Free Library.

He is actively hurting his cause. The Bean Free Library proves it. http://www.baen.com/library/ I have actually purchased books I started reading free. And they keep adding books, so I would guess it is not driving them out of business.

Baen Books is now making available â" for free â" a number of its titles in electronic format. We're calling it the Baen Free Library. Anyone who wishes can read these titles online â" no conditions, no strings attached. (Later we may ask for an extremely simple, name & email only, registration. ) Or, if you prefer, you can download the books in one of several formats. Again, with no conditions or strings attached. (URLs to sites which offer the readers for these format are also listed. )

Why are we doing this? Well, for two reasons.

The first is what you might call a "matter of principle." This all started as a byproduct of an online "virtual brawl" I got into with a number of people, some of them professional SF authors, over the issue of online piracy of copyrighted works and what to do about it.

There was a school of thought, which seemed to be picking up steam, that the way to handle the problem was with handcuffs and brass knucks. Enforcement! Regulation! New regulations! Tighter regulations! All out for the campaign against piracy! No quarter! Build more prisons! Harsher sentences!

Alles in ordnung!

I, ah, disagreed. Rather vociferously and belligerently, in fact. And I can be a vociferous and belligerent fellow. My own opinion, summarized briefly, is as follows:

1. Online piracy â" while it is definitely illegal and immoral â" is, as a practical problem, nothing more than (at most) a nuisance. We're talking brats stealing chewing gum, here, not the Barbary Pirates.

2. Losses any author suffers from piracy are almost certainly offset by the additional publicity which, in practice, any kind of free copies of a book usually engender. Whatever the moral difference, which certainly exists, the practical effect of online piracy is no different from that of any existing method by which readers may obtain books for free or at reduced cost: public libraries, friends borrowing and loaning each other books, used book stores, promotional copies, etc.

3. Any cure which relies on tighter regulation of the market â" especially the kind of extreme measures being advocated by some people â" is far worse than the disease. As a widespread phenomenon rather than a nuisance, piracy occurs when artificial restrictions in the market jack up prices beyond what people think are reasonable. The "regulation-enforcement-more regulation" strategy is a bottomless pit which continually recreates (on a larger scale) the problem it supposedly solves. And that commercial effect is often compounded by the more general damage done to social and political freedom.

In the course of this debate, I mentioned it to my publisher Jim Baen. He more or less virtually snorted and expressed the opinion that if one of his authors â" how about you, Eric? â" were willing to put up a book for free online that the resulting publicity would more than offset any losses the author might suffer.

The minute he made the proposal, I realized he was right. After all, Dave Weber's On Basilisk Station has been available for free as a "loss leader" for Baen's for-pay experiment "Webscriptions" for months now. And â" hey, whaddaya know? â" over that time it's become Baen's most popular backlist title in paper!

And so I volunteered my first novel, Mother of Demons, to prove the case. And the next day Mother of Demons went up online, offered to the public for free.

Sure enough, within a day, I received at least half a dozen messages (some posted in public forums, others by private email) from people who told me that, based on hearing about the episode and checking out Mother of Demons, they either had or intended to buy the book. In one or two cases, t

Uh, look, the analysis is flawed.

First, books are an odd special case.

I can't fit the analysis in a slashdot post... if you haven't read McCauley on Copyright, and if you haven't read Eric Flint's analysis of copyright, piracy and e-books as they effect modern authors, do so.

Start here:
Spillage: or, The Way Fair Use Works in Favor of Authors and Publishers http://baens-universe.com/articles/salvos8

then go here and read _all_ the salvo's columns...
http://baens-universe.com/authors/Eric_Flint

Meanwhile, there's been very little said about copyright in the last century that McCauley didn't already address... http://www.baen.com/library/palaver4.htm

Macaulay on copyright law: http://www.baen.com/library/palaver4.htm

Eric Flint on making books available online: http://www.baen.com/library/palaver6.htm

nuff said.

Macaulay on copyright law: http://www.baen.com/library/palaver4.htm

Eric Flint on making books available online: http://www.baen.com/library/palaver6.htm

nuff said.

AHEM

http://www.baen.com/library/home.htm

YOU LOSE! Good DAY Sir!

http://www.baen.com/library/ has a nice collection of e-books in several formats, or read online.
Also there is a link to something they call 'webscriptios': http://www.webscription.net/
Free registration, then hang out in 'the Baen's Bar Forums'
: http://bar.baen.com/login.aspx?ReturnUrl=%2FDefault.aspx

A lot of good stuff is here at Baen's Library, with an online active community.

http://www.baen.com/library/ has a nice collection of e-books in several formats, or read online.
Also there is a link to something they call 'webscriptios': http://www.webscription.net/
Free registration, then hang out in 'the Baen's Bar Forums'
: http://bar.baen.com/login.aspx?ReturnUrl=%2FDefault.aspx

A lot of good stuff is here at Baen's Library, with an online active community.

Go out to http://www.baen.com./ They have the Baen Free Library project, links to many Authors web-sites, a very good online "baens Bar" where you can interact with authors, and the right approach (IMO) on how to deal with free content.

Do some leg-work! As others have pointed out, go visit a local book-store, and not just one of the chains. Find a used book-store, or two.

I didn't see any mention of Baen in the first most-of-a-page of comments, so I'll just mention they have a great free e-library and reasonably priced ebook program, as well as a science fiction e-magazine.

The other site I'd like to recommend is one to bookmark and check back every month or so: Alexandria Digital Literature, or AlexLit, used to have a truly marvelous collaborative filtering engine, where you'd tell it what books you like and dislike, and it would tell you what books you haven't already read that you're likely to enjoy. I found some of what are now my most favorite books that way. But the site is down right now and they promise a revised version "sometime in 2008." So keep checking it.

(I interviewed Dave Howell, the guy behind AlexLit, on one of the episodes of my Biblio File podcast.)

You can always check out http://baen.com/ they have an online library of free books and sample chapters for new books. They also have the webscription site where you can read e-Arc (advance reader copy) books yet to be published and other books for a monthly fee.

Also, check out http://baencd.thefifthimperium.com/ which have all the CD's Baen has published. The CD's are free to copy for non-commercial use and contains alot of books in digital format.

None of the books you get in digital format from Baen is encumbered with DRM in any way.

Granted: Here's the full text of the novel East of the Sun and West of the Moon by John Ringo

Feel silly now, don't you?

I like the Pournelle Axes describing a political spectrum - http://www.baen.com/chapters/axes.htm

It's certainly better than a mere right/left, but I have a hard time fitting the 3 clowns left running in the 2 major political parties to any kind of scheme. They all stand for more war, bigger government, higher taxes and less freedom.

We need an EOI link, exterminate operator, that'd get their attention.

I miss Rich Cook, he's sick and can't write anymore. Here's a couple of his books given freely.
http://www.baen.com/library/rcook.htm

You want to see a scary prediction of the future, read Murray Leinster's "A Logic Named Joe". Written in 1946 and hit the internet nail square on the head.

http://www.baen.com/chapters/W200506/0743499107___2.htm

Depending on what genre you wish to publish, you may want to consider talking to Baen. They seem to have been doing pretty good with that model, though, the way that they expect donations is by you actually.... purchasing the book. They just don't put any electronic restrictions on the e-books. This is because people are more likely to buy books they have already read, or that are from an author they have already read. Oh, and obligatory Library Website and CD collection links

Depending on what genre you wish to publish, you may want to consider talking to Baen. They seem to have been doing pretty good with that model, though, the way that they expect donations is by you actually.... purchasing the book. They just don't put any electronic restrictions on the e-books. This is because people are more likely to buy books they have already read, or that are from an author they have already read. Oh, and obligatory Library Website and CD collection links

Baen books demonstrate clearly that DRM free downloads make authors more money, not less, because more people can buy and read the book anywhere on anything. Convenience trumps price for people who might be customers.

Baen books also demonstrate that making some books completely free increases sales of other books by the same author, and even paper versions of the same book. I know I personally have read some of the free ones, then gone on to buy paper versions of those and other books by the same author (I would buy ebooks, but I prefer old fashioned paper for the higher resolution at the moment, given the choice)

Publishers are losing out in the current world, because they've failed to grasp the change in reality, and are mostly engaged in making the online versions more difficult and expensive with less rights than physical distribution in a failing attempt to preserve their physical monopoly, and thus continue to make profit as a middleman at both the author's and audience's expense. Those days are coming to an end. There's still money to made connecting the producer of rare creative and clever work (the author) and the paying audience willing to see more creative and clever works created. Abusing both and keeping most of the money from both of them? That should die as a business model.

The philosophy behind the baen free library sums up much that makes sense about the way forward for the distribution of copyrighted works.

"Option 3 - why would someone "buy" a "free" ebook?"

I will reword it then:

Option 3. Buy a Libre standards based formatted ebook for way less than the paper version.

"Option 4: There's certainly nothing stopping people going the "No Starch Press" route ... check out what they're doing with torrents."

Not what I am suggesting exactly, but not a problem per se. See what Baen are doing as well: http://www.baen.com/library/

all the best,

drew
http://packet-in.org/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page
Packet In - net band, libre music, some available gratis

I'm surprised that people keep thinking that this rental of our culture is something that is coming soon. Sadly, it is already here. What most people don't seem to realise is that encumbered ebooks guarantee that everybody will be locked out of all their encrypted books sooner or later. When you have to re-install your operating system or upgrade your computer your ebooks no longer recognise your system and refuse to open. I've had this happen to me on a couple of occasions, which stung me so badly that there have been a lot of books I've wanted very much to buy, but haven't. I have very little money and can't afford to throw it away on renting expensive books. Now the only ebooks I buy are unencumbered ones. Baen Books sell (and give away) a lot of ebooks by current top-ranking SF writers, all without locks of any kind, in a number of formats, including plain vanilla html. It has worked really well for them. Every time they give away a free book it boosts sales of their for-profit items. They are living proof that the dopey protectionist arguments that many publishers make are total hokum.

I know from his posts on Baen's bar that Eric Flint does contribute a lot to books that he co-writes with lesser known authors. Then again, he is shrewd enough to know he has a brand to protect, possibly for decades. I'm pretty sure that John Ringo does the same with the Posleen series.

I know from his posts on Baen's bar that Eric Flint does contribute a lot to books that he co-writes with lesser known authors. Then again, he is shrewd enough to know he has a brand to protect, possibly for decades. I'm pretty sure that John Ringo does the same with the Posleen series.

I'd like to point out that at least one book publisher gets it. Baen sells their titles as eBooks in plain, DRM-free HTML as well as a variety of eBook reader formats (with infinite downloads) for a somewhat reasonable price ($4-6 for a book, $15 for selected bundles of 4). In addition, a selection of their books are online for free at the Baen Free Library, in the same formats.

(I have no association with Baen beyond being a happy customer.)

I'd like to point out that at least one book publisher gets it. Baen sells their titles as eBooks in plain, DRM-free HTML as well as a variety of eBook reader formats (with infinite downloads) for a somewhat reasonable price ($4-6 for a book, $15 for selected bundles of 4). In addition, a selection of their books are online for free at the Baen Free Library, in the same formats.

(I have no association with Baen beyond being a happy customer.)

Baen Webscriptions, Baen free library

To see how to do on-line free books RIGHT, so that they're easy to read and help to pay the mortgage, look here.

...the fact that evolution is happening doesn't depend on whether the first life forms were created by abiogenesis, aliens, or even God.

See "Code of the Lifemaker", an SF book by James P. Hogan. You can read it for free here. Just read the prologue - it makes the point very, very well the difference between the origin of life and its subsequent evolution.

What? Dude! Everyone knows who rms is. He's the hacker character from Niven, Pournell and Barne's Fallen Angels

In addition to the points raised by others, may I point you to the Baen Publishing Company's Free Library? The front page includes an insightful essay with hard data as to why authors especially should be looking for ways to spread the word about their works.

The same thing Baen gets out of giving away free books. In this case, Tor is just giving away a few free now until their store opens. If they're smart, though, they'll follow Baen's example and set up a permanent free library that features one or two of the best books from each author.

The funny thing is that Tor has occasionally done this before. Baen also does this on an ongoing basis.

Turns out that people don't read books much and it's hard to get someone interested in a new writer, or in some cases, a new series by an existing writer. Once you get your foot in the door with free copies, though, you actually end up selling more than you would have if you didn't give stuff away. Weird, huh? :-)