Kan man tjene penge på at forære sit arbejde væk? Tilsyneladende kan man godt, noterer Times Onlines Tech Blog:
Fed up with being “ripped off” by the hours of illegal clips of their shows on YouTube, they put up a selection of their classic clips.
In a launch video, the Monty Python team said: “We know who you are, we know where you live and we could come after you in ways too horrible to tell. But being the extraordinarily nice chaps we are, we’ve figured a better way to get our own back: We’ve launched our own Monty Python channel on YouTube.
“But we want something in return. None of your drivelling, mindless comments. Instead, we want you to click on the links, buy our movies & TV shows and soften our pain and disgust at being ripped off all these years.”
I know that Python, with its legion of passionate fans, may be an extreme case, but thousands of people did exactly what they were told, clicked on the link to Amazon and bought the videos. The YouTube blog noted:
“When Monty Python launched their channel in November, not only did their YouTube videos shoot to the top of the most viewed lists, but their DVDs also quickly climbed to No. 2 on Amazon’s Movies & TV bestsellers list, with increased sales of 23,000 per cent.”
In other words, Monty Python gave away some content for free and made a pile of money. Food for thought.