xkcd: ‚Ich verdiene Geld, weil ich meine Comics verschenke.‘

Auf der Startseite des populären Webcomics xkcd findet sich heute wie auf vielen Websites ein Hinweis auf das geplante US-Gesetz SOPA:

xkcd-Macher Randall Munroe ist klar als proffesioneller Kreativer zu verorten. Er lebt davon, ‚geistiges Eigentum‘ zu erschaffen. Im Gegensatz zu vielen anderen von Urheberschaft lebenden Menschen oder jene, die das versuchen, und Rechteverwertern hat er allerdings ein Geschäftsmodell gefunden, das den aktuellen technologischen Möglichkeiten nicht entgegen steht.

2009 kündigte Munroe ein Buch an, aufbauend auf die Reichweite, die er über den Webcomic erreicht hat. New York Times seinerzeit via Techdirt:

Publishing a book is an extension of the selling of items like T-shirts and posters, which pays the bills, he said, to a „free culture“ mind-set about the cartoons themselves. „We have been encouraging people to share things, saying that it is a good business decision,“ he said….
One trick in transferring the material from online to print has been how to recreate the „title text“ that comments on the strip when your cursor hovers over it.
„It’s not supposed to be a punch line, but hopefully if you didn’t laugh, you’ll laugh at this,“ he said. The title text will appear where the tiny copyright notice would appear on a traditional strip.
Does that mean that the book won’t carry a traditional copyright and instead take its lead from the online comic strip itself, which Mr. Munroe licenses under Creative Commons, allowing noncommercial re-use as long as credit is given?
„To anyone who wants to photocopy, bind, and give a copy of the book to their loved one — more power to them,“ he said. „He/She will likely be disappointed that you’re so cheap, though.“

(Hervorhebung von mir)

New York Times schlussfolgerte:

In fact, the xkcd story previews the much more likely future of books in which they are prized as artifacts, not as mechanisms for delivering written material to readers. This is print book as vinyl record — admired for its look and feel, its cover art, and relative permanence — but not so much for convenience.

Das xkcd-Buch kann man mittlerweile unter anderem auf Amazon (Affiliate-Link) kaufen.