Received the following from Ansgar Werner in Germany:
“This book is something you do” says Canadian Blogger & sci-fi author Cory Doctorow about his latest novel „Little Brother“. Like previous titles, the anti-DRM-activist had the electronic version published under a creative commons license, which lets you share it, remix it, and then share your remixes. Much like the novel’s digital guerilla of gamers and hackers fighting against a fictional police state, its readers have been taking action against the Big Brothers of cultural industry. There are now free e-books in dozens of formats, fan translations and fan audiobook readings. On the German market, cc-versions of „Little Brother“ coexist with a commercial print book published by Rowohlt Verlag. What’s more, for May 12th Argon Verlag has announced an abridged audiobook version, read by the prominent German voice-actor Oliver Rohrbeck. At the same time, Argon has promised to produce a free, unabridged audiobook of Doctorow’s novel
– given that they will raise enough funds from the online community. Altogether they’ll need 9000 Euros, 50% for royalties, 50% for making the audiobook. Fundraising began on April 26th, technically supported by SellYourRights.com, a startup that specializes in publishing via the so-called „street performer protocol“ (SPP). As soon as the threshold is reached, production starts and the full version of „Little Brother“ will be released as a free, cc-licensed MP3-Download. Eventually there could also be a CD-edition, however Argon would have to think about a fair way of pricing. If Argon fails in raising the critical mass of 9000 Euros, they’ll either refund all contributors or think about closing the gap with their own money. But for now, the project’s destiny lies in the hand of the community. If you want it more pathetically and in the words of Doctorow, the bigger question involved is, of course: „Does information society mean total control, or unheard-of liberty?“
I’ll record myself reading that book for 1600 Euros. Where can I get the German copy?