Baen Free Library

Posted by Jäger on 2005-11-05 15:29:42

World-readable

Let me take a moment to point out how cool it is that Baen is an enlightened publisher who believes in sharing as much as possible with his readers. The CDs that shipped with the last several Honorverse books contain the entire David Weber canon to date in something like four formats: HTML, Palm document, Word, and rich text format. (Of course, the Palm document isn't good enough for me; I have to run off and use Plucker instead.) All unencrypted, so I can read them in ways Jim Baen never thought possible. Unlike other publishers (and other media industries), Baen believes that treating his customers as criminals isn't a good idea. On the Baen Free Library page, where random Internet users can get, entirely free, complete unencrypted books in multiple formats, Baen-published author Eric Flint evangalizes the enlightened position that customers will give you more money if you give them what they want. Something the MPAA and RIAA are fighting every inch of the way.