Stealing eBooks is Good for Book Sales, Says Author

A common argument used by opponents of sharing copyrighted materials online is that it hurts sales of physical products, but that wisdom is being challenged by the author of "The Alchemist", who experienced increased sales of his books by distributing them free online.

At the Digital Life Conference in Munich, Paulo Coehlo made the unconventional argument that sharing ebooks for free actually helps authors. For example, he cited that sales of "The Alchemist" in Russia soared from 1,000 copies sold to 100,000 (then 1 million) after the Russian translation was released online.

Pirate Coehlho is the unofficial blog where readers can find links for books like "The Alchemist", "Witch of Portobello", and "Eleven Minutes". You can download these books in 7 different languages through ED2K (P2P) and Box.net (online file storage).

You can also watch his entire keynote speech below:

Labels: Technology