Wie ‚Piraterie‘ einen Künstler vor dem Internet bekannt machte

Der Künstler Jonathan Akwue berichtet auf seinem Blog darüber, wie illegale Kopien seines Afrika-Bildes ihn bekannt gemacht haben. How Pre-Internet Piracy Made Me (Almost) Famous:

Among a certain set of people I became (almost) famous – or at least my picture did. Stan’s distribution network was far more extensive than I could have imagined. As a result the image cropped up in all sorts of places, from inner-city street corners to suburban offices. A friend spotted it on TV hanging on the wall of an architect’s home in New York. My brother found a reproduction in a street market in Switzerland.

The bootlegged copies didn’t entirely kill the market for the legitimate ones either. As the unauthorized prints were unsigned, the limited edition of 500 was sold to those who were willing to pay extra for a signed copy.

[..]

Although this episode took place before the widespread adoption of the Internet, you can see similar effects taking place on a much larger scale today. For example the number 1 book on the Amazon bestseller list ‘Go The F**k To Sleep’ was widely pirated before publication, something that the author attributes in part to its success.

Illegale, also nicht autorisierte, Distribution von Kulturgütern wie in diesem Fall oder bei unautorisiertem Filesharing von Musik, Filmen etc. können massiv dabei helfen, den Künstler bekannt zu machen und auf dieser besseren Basis wiederum nicht kopierbare Versionen, wie etwa signierte Ausgaben, in größerer Stückzahl zu verkaufen.

(via Techdirt)