Pig and the Box anti-DRM kids book in a new edition

MCM, author of the fabulous anti-DRM kids' book "The Pig and the Box," sez,

Two years and a lot of learning later, I'm finally re-releasing my anti-DRM book "The Pig and the Box" in a snazzy Second Edition. The new version is more kid-friendly (at the suggestion of some teachers and librarians) as well as having a shinier cover. And even better, I finally figured out the whole "distribution" angle, so you can buy it practically anywhere in the world (even Japan!)

This is part of my "12 Books in 12 Months" project, where I'm launching a slate of Creative Commons-licensed titles throughout 2009. Next up is the third book in the SteamDuck series, and then the start of an "open source" action series called "TorrentBoy".

Oh, and as always, the books are all downloadable as free PDFs, so collect and trade 'em with your friends!

The Pig Book Returns (Thanks, MCM!)

• [Itsumishi]

  so the question is why does the farmer keep doing it if no one is paying for his food (except for the box owner? how does the farmer or box owner pay his bills?

  People came from far and wide to use his magic box. Whenever they got
  their copies, they always left him some, too. Pig especially liked the
  vegetables.
  After a while, Pig became an expert at cooking, and opened a family
  restaurant with booths and jukeboxes and chairs made out of upside-down
  buckets.

  Also he started a website where you could buy Lollipop Jones T-shirts via mail order.

  Much like the band that gives away music free, people come to the gigs because they’re awesome. Then they buy t-shirts and posters and such.

• [sciencejournalist]

  After reading the free PDF, I have just one question: am I missing some sort of Lollipop Jones reference, here? Who or what is Lollipop Jones?

• [SC_Wolf]

  So, anyone got a torrent of the new edition up anywhere?

• [Itsumishi]

  No they don’t “let” others sell t-shirts outside the gig. However people do (outside the gig) anyway, at half the price.

  However all the real fans spend money on the official ones because they like the band and want to support them.

  Unlike the kids that still like Metallica’s music but hate them for being shit heads that feel the need to earn every cent they possibly can by alienating their fans and thus actually reducing their overall profit.

• [Anonymous]

  So everyone eats for free, the farmer only needs to produce one fruit every spoilage cycle, unless the box takes care of that.

  so the question is why does the farmer keep doing it if no one is paying for his food (except for the box owner? how does the farmer or box owner pay his bills?

• [jmullan]

  One: Cut a hole in a box
  Two: Put a pig in that box
  Three: Make her open the box

• [TJ S]

  Sciencejournalist,

  I’m wondering the same thing. A google search led me to G.B. Jones’ film “The Lollipop Generation”, but not having seen the film (and being on a highly filtered connection @ work), I’m not sure where to go from there, or even if I’m on the wrong path entirely.

• [Rezpect]

  Sorry to be obtuse here but what does “Anti-DRM” mean?

• [Skep]

  @Rezpect:
  Well, fortunately the book can be read as a DRM-free PDF, so you can find out for yourself :)

• [MrWeeble]

  Anti-DRM means in opposition to Digital Rights Management (or as it is sometimes expanded Digital Restrictions Management)

  DRM means that if you buy an Music Track from a shop using DRM the shop has control over what you can do with it, they may say you can only play it on your computer or an MP3 player manufactured by the same company, or you can only play it once, or only play it before a certain time.

  They may say you can play it on any computer or device you like (provided you ask permission first) though obviously you can only do that as long as they are around to give permission.

  This person thinks that DRM is a bad idea (as many of us do) the reasons are in the book in an easy to understand way. Read it, it is very good. If you don’t get the metaphor I am sure someone will be willing to explain it.

• [godfathersoul]

  1) How do you scare someone right “Onto his eyeball”? what does that mean?

  2) No so sure I loved the overly Illustrator-ified images. I guess if you do it like that you can certainly crank out 12 books in 12 months. But are they any good? Quality or Quantity? Judging by the amount of 700kb torrents of 2 hour movies, i’d say the author is going for quantity over quality. Just my two cents tho…

  3) yeah, and, um, lollipop jones? i do not get it.

  4) So… a kids book? It’s a bit obtuse for a kids book. No offense to the author… A good idea but I suggest going more for quality over quantity. Just sayin.

• [ridl]

  Solution for the monkey problem at the end: throw a typewriter in the box.

  ¡Instant Shakespeare!

• [NihonGoose]

  @JMULLEN

  Glad I wasn’t the only one thinking that.

• [Brainspore]

  OK, let’s be nice just in case Rezpect doesn’t have time to read the book.

  In a nutshell: DRM = “Digital Rights Management,” a term used to describe artificial restrictions that attempt to limit how you can use digital media you already own. For example, ripping video off a DVD onto your iPod or copying a song from one computer to another.

  (y’all can nitpick my definition if you want, it’s open source.)

• [Jonathan Harford]

  Like many of the lines in this book, I think “Lolipop Jones” is just something you can shout in a funny voice while reading the book aloud. Kids love that much more than coherent characters or plots, I hear.

• [Anonymous]

  “Also he started a website where you could buy Lollipop Jones T-shirts via mail order.

  Much like the band that gives away music free, people come to the gigs because they’re awesome. Then they buy t-shirts and posters and such”

  but do the bands let others sell copies of their tshirts and posters at the shows?

  what happens when the pig puts the posters and tshirts in a magic box?

  poor farmer wanted to be a farmer and now he is running a restaurant. hopefully no one uses that box on his hottest selling item. someone standing outside the restaurant with a box full of his recipes is bound to put the restaurant out of business. what do i know.

• [MrAndrews]

  “Lolipop Jones” is pure silliness. It’s something my kids were saying for fun around the time I wrote this. When reading, say it as loudly and insanely as you can, and if someone asks you what it means, reply “What, you don’t KNOW?” Sighing is optional.

  And the Illustrator-ified images… yeah, I lost my ability to draw by hand about nine years ago, and now all I can do is mangle circles in Illustrator. The upside is that not too many of the 12 books will have illustrations, and most of those that will should have actual talented artists working on them.

  I’m sensitive to the quality-vs-quantity issue, but I think I can balance it nicely. Writing a dozen books in a year is certainly easier than writing 10 episodes of a TV show in three months, so this is almost like a vacation for me :)

• [Anonymous]

  I’m not sure the book makes a whole lot of sense to me. I see the analogy, but it doesn’t seem to really go anywhere with it. But you don’t necessarily pro-copying to be anti-drm. I think the copying aspect of the story really just confuses things more than anything.

  The thing with being anti-drm is that it doesn’t mean you think everything should be free, just that you don’t think your usage of things you purchase should be limited in ways that often restrict fair uses.

  A better example:

  Pig really likes apples, so he goes to the farmer to buy an apple.

  Farmer says, “Okay, everyone likes applesauce so, I’ll sell you this apple, but people have been throwing them and breaking windows on my barn, so this apple has a magic spell vast on it that will make it disappear if you use it for anything but applesauce.

  Pig goes home, and decides that he wants to make n apple pie. The apple disappears.