A gift to the public Pt 2

I need to rephrase some things I said earlier. Not because they’re not true anymore, just because I had come to realize, that even though they’re true, they aren’t important to me.

Yesterday was the opening party of my OSGrid region Ever 01. I made a set of outfits (male/female) as a gift for that very event, and those were actually my very first attempt at making clothing at all. And just to see people wearing them, enjoying them, having a good time with the music I played, enjoying the place I created and saying thanks was more of a gratification than money could ever give. Yes, it’s that simple, and I probably should’ve known it all along, given the comments on the “gift to the public” article.

So, I am not in it to make business. I’m not in it to make any money at all. And so, what’s the point in trying then? What I want, what I really want, is to see people enjoy something I have made. That doesn’t make me a freebie advocate; anyone wanting to make business with their creations is very welcome to do so. However, I also have to object Rock Vacirca’s points on leaving OpenSim. As true as all his points are, they aren’t as relevant as they sound. Graphics, engine and tools are one thing, but they aren’t guaranteed to draw people to the latest fashion all the time. And also, while I agree that economy is important, it’s not the only point by far which will bring people to make good things.

In fact, what best summarizes my opinion is the brilliant article “Better Than Free” (which I paradoxically found after I came to these conclusions myself. Thank you, fate, but at times you need to speed up a bit.) At its core, there’s still the conclusion I drew a while ago: Creators want the public to enjoy what they’re doing, and the public wants the creators to make things for them to enjoy. We are actually all on the same level, and I believe that people are a lot nicer and less criminal than they are treated like with drm-tools and permission restrictions in place.

In fact, I don’t think the lack of DRM keeps people from making business, nor does its presence and enforcement help people making businesses. (“Better Than Free” does not bother about DRM at all and just assumes that all digital creations are distributed for free and can – and will – be copied as much as people would like to.) I rather believe that when we pay for something, we (mostly) do not pay for the actual item, but for intangible things, such as (like stated in the article) authenticity, patronage and immediability. I believe a lot of people really think about the person behind the creation and want to give that person a token of appreciation.

So to make this short: I don’t need to, and I don’t want to make a business. I want to create, and let people enjoy what I create. I’m very happy if someone credits me for that, or says thank you nicely. But I don’t want to feel like I’m doing a business and need to treat people as customers, trying to get them to make a purchase. I would like to treat people like friends, and would like them to feel easy and care free with having my creations.

And thus, I set them free.