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Comment by serf | Hacker News Reader

your explanation as to why the book isn't 'free or open source' is an explanation that you need money to continue the endeavor while living life successfully.

This makes one feel like a broken record, but this compels me to mention that there are major differences between 'gratis' and 'libre'.[0]

Open-source/free and for-profit are not at odds with each other. They describe different ideas.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gratis_versus_libre

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This gets explained a lot; what doesn't get explained as much is how folks can continue to make money for their work in the "libre" world. It's certainly possible - dual licensing, services, premium editions, physical books, etc., and it's not a bad thing. But my guess is that a "libre" version of this guy's book would rapidly turn into a "gratis" version of it too - a "good enough" PDF would get passed around and ultimately be the main way most people would see his stuff.

I might add that 90% of the situations where I've thought about this in a software context as well have been "libre" -> "gratis" more or less inevitably. Again, there are exceptions, but it's surprising how many people are happy to take something and run with it, no support, no "enhanced edition", no training, etc.

I wouldn't say it's surprising at all.

Do we actually know this, for sure? Obviously, it seems like common sense, but there's a similar argument about piracy, and an opposing position that piracy never managed to kill the industries it was apparently a threat to — if anything (so the argument goes), it might have even boosted them. I've bought physical books in the past, even though they were open source. I might also spend money on a digital open source book for various reasons, some of which you mention. It's likely that an author won't make as much direct income from an open-sourced book, but they might make 'enough', even before you consider indirect income.

> Do we actually know this, for sure?

Pretty much, yes.

Are you familiar with the book, Grokking Bitcoin?

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