Journey vs. Destination

“I think your book must be doing well, it certainly is well pirated.”

When C said this about Making Embedded Systems, I suppose I was pleased. I mean, it is true that there are many e-copies of my book on the major (and minor) pirate sites. I find it kind of irritating that people can get my book without paying me or O’Reilly. But I doubt anyone gets my book for free without understanding that they are doing something wrong.

Most of the people who would buy my book write software for a living. If they don’t understand how copyright impacts them in the long term, then they aren’t smart enough to write software for long.

So most of the readers who pirate my book are either too dumb to realize it is wrong or too broke to care. These people wouldn’t have bought my book anyway. I don’t feel like I’ve lost out much because of them. And if they get something out of my book, if they manage to get some smarts. solve a problem or find a better way to create embedded systems, well, hey, that is ok. It is ok with me and it is ok with my publisher.

I think there may be a few more folks out there, the ones who want to try it out, to sample the book. I bet they get the book to sample, use it and keep meaning to pay but fail out of laziness. Those are the only group of pirates that truly annoy me.

I knew when I went with O’Reilly that electronic copies of my book with be available without DRM. That was a little scary. I spent a long time writing this book.

People who write technical books don’t do it for the money. We do it because we want to share what we know and ignite the passion of other people (or just make it easier for others than it was for us). Still, almost any one who writes a technical book (especially for O’Reilly) could have made more money doing the work instead of writing about it. For me, it certainly would have been easier. And I didn’t need it as resume filler, my resume is fine, thanks.

So I wrote the book to share. now I just need to share nicely. Today is the Free Software Foundation’s Day against DRM. To celebrate, O’Reilly is offering all of the DRM free ebooks (and that is all of them) for 50% off. But let them tell you:

	In Celebration of *Day Against DRM*
	Save 50% on ALL Ebooks & Videos

	Having the ability to download files at your convenience, store them
	on all your devices, or share them with a friend or colleague as you would
	a print book, is liberating, and is how it should be. If you haven't tried
	a DRM-free ebook of video, we encourage you to do so now. And if you're
	already a fan, take advantage of our sale and add to your library.    

	For one day only, you can save 50% on all O'Reilly, No Starch, and Rocky Nook
	ebooks and videos. Use code: DRMFREE

	Ebooks from oreilly.com are DRM-free. You get free lifetime access,
	multiple file formats, free updates. Deal expires May 4, 2012 at
	11:59pm PT and cannot be combined with other offers.

Go buy my book. Go buy someone else’s. Have a ball! We really appreciate it when you buy our books. And we are happy to share our knowledge, experience and passion with you.