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Cory Doctorow's "Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom" tells a gripping,
fast-paced story that hinges on thought-provoking extrapolation from
today's technical realities. This is the sort of book that captures and
defines the spirit of a turning point in human history when our tools
remake ourselves and our world.
Mitch Kapor Founder, Lotus, Inc., co-founder Electronic Frontier
Foundation
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======================= A note about this book: =======================
"Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom" is my first novel. It's an actual,
no-foolin' words-on-paper book, published by the good people at Tor
Books in New York City. You can buy this book in stores or online, by
following links like this one:
http://www.craphound.com/down/buy.php
So, what's with this file? Good question.
I'm releasing the entire text of this book as a free, freely
redistributable e-book. You can download it, put it on a P2P net, put it
on your site, email it to a friend, and, if you're addicted to dead
trees, you can even print it.
Why am I doing this thing? Well, it's a long story, but to shorten it
up: first-time novelists have a tough row to hoe. Our publishers don't
have a lot of promotional budget to throw at unknown factors like us.
Mostly, we rise and fall based on word-of-mouth. I'm not bad at word-of-
mouth. I have a blog, Boing Boing (http://boingboing.net), where I do a
*lot* of word-of-mouthing. I compulsively tell friends and strangers
about things that I like.
And telling people about stuff I like is *way*, *way* easier if I can
just send it to 'em. Way easier.
What's more, P2P nets kick all kinds of ass. Most of the books, music
and movies ever released are not available for sale, anywhere in the
world. In the brief time that P2P nets have flourished, the ad-hoc
masses of the Internet have managed to put just about *everything*
online. What's more, they've done it for cheaper than any other
archiving/revival effort ever. I'm a stone infovore and this kinda
Internet mishegas gives me a serious frisson of futurosity.
Yeah, there are legal problems. Yeah, it's hard to figure out how people
are gonna make money doing it. Yeah, there is a lot of social upheaval
and a serious threat to innovation, freedom, business, and whatnot. It's
your basic end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it scenario, and as a science
fiction writer, end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it scenaria are my stock-in-
trade.
I'm especially grateful to my publisher, Tor Books (http://www.tor.com)
and my editor, Patrick Nielsen Hayden
(http://nielsenhayden.com/electrolite) for being hep enough to let me
try out this experiment.
All that said, here's the deal: I'm releasing this book under a license
developed by the Creative Commons project (http://creativecommons.org/).
This is a project that lets people like me roll our own license
agreements for the distribution of our creative work under terms similar
to those employed by the Free/Open Source Software movement. It's a
great project, and I'm proud to be a part of it.
Here's a summary of the license:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd-nc/1.0
Attribution. The licensor permits others to copy, distribute, display,
and perform the work. In return, licensees must give the original author
credit.
No Derivative Works. The licensor permits others to copy, distribute,
display and perform only unaltered copies of the work -- not derivative
works based on it.
Noncommercial. The licensor permits others to copy, distribute, display,
and perform the work. In return, licensees may not use the work for
commercial purposes -- unless they get the licensor's permission.
And here's the license itself:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd-nc/1.0-legalcode
THE WORK (AS DEFINED BELOW) IS PROVIDED UNDER THE TERMS OF THIS CREATIVE
COMMONS PUBLIC LICENSE ("CCPL" OR "LICENSE"). THE WORK IS PROTECTED BY
COPYRIGHT AND/OR OTHER APPLICABLE LAW. ANY USE OF THE WORK OTHER THAN AS
AUTHORIZED UNDER THIS LICENSE IS PROHIBITED.
BY EXERCISING ANY RIGHTS TO THE WORK PROVIDED HERE, YOU ACCEPT AND AGREE
TO BE BOUND BY THE TERMS OF THIS LICENSE. THE LICENSOR GRANTS YOU THE
RIGHTS CONTAINED HERE IN CONSIDERATION OF YOUR ACCEPTANCE OF SUCH TERMS
AND CONDITIONS.