permaculture

[Marjory <forestgarden@gvtc.com>]

Hi Milton,

You are absolutely correct.  And let this story be a warning to anyone 
who thinks that just because they have done good work and have valuable 
info to offer that it will be properly respected and rewarded.  I /was/ 
naive. 

More workshops isn't appealing to me, although I appreciate your 
suggestion.  Actually, we made the DVD because I have been getting 
burned out on doing workshops.  I've offered about 120 different 
workshops in my neighborhood in the last decade - everything from full 
permaculture certification, to gardening, to wildfire preparedness, to 
herbal medicine, to home orchard kits - and all offered at low or no 
cost.  I only taught about a dozen - but I did all the work of 
organizing, promotions, etc for everything.  The experiment here has 
been to try and create a small sustainable rural community.  Sort of 
what the transition town movement is doing, except we have been about a 
decade ahead of them and more focused on solution than on awareness.  
There has been a lot of really good things that have come about in terms 
of connectedness, trade among neighbors, community spirit, more locally 
grown food, etc.  And, I learned tremendous amounts from every workshop, 
which was ultimately the birth and development of content of the DVD. 

But we can't go on doing what we were doing without getting some 
monetary compensation and we thought the sales would at least provide 
enough to keep the research and activities going.  My husbands 
consulting biz supported all the this community work and a great thank 
you needs to go to him.  I really don't mind that much about all the 
illegal copies as those folks would probably not have bought it anyway. 

But you know, we still have needs that have to be paid for.  And I am 
frankly quite tired of supporting a community. 

Anyway, we are still trying different things and maybe will come up with 
something.  But I offer this story for any of those of you who are 
thinking of trying to make a living out of some good.  And perhaps some 
insight from the other side for those of you who think everything should 
be free.  It's a bummer on the great spirit of sharing and giving.  But 
the truth is there are slouchers and smoochers.  It's a lesson many 
folks who have started ICs know about; there are plenty of folks who 
want to play guitar and eat free food, but do little work. 

Good luck to everyone.

Marjory






Milton Dixon wrote:
>  Marjory, I'm sorry that your DVD has not brought you as much income 
> as you had hoped.  I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I think 
> the problem was in your expectations and in planning on income from a 
> digital product.  I think that anyone that expects to make money 
> selling a product that can be infinitely and perfectly copied for 
> virtually no cost will be greatly disappointed.
>
> This is not the only occurrence of this that has appeared on this 
> mailing list.  Your problem is not unique to you alone, but is shared 
> by anyone who works hard to develop something, document it, and then 
> sell it.
>
> Unfortunately the laws that govern us and our past experiences give us 
> little indication that they have become irrelevant.  It is the nature 
> of the product itself and the culture that has grown around it.  Right 
> or wrong young people have been patterned to get things for free and 
> will continue to as long as they are able.
>
> I do however think it fabulous that your DVD has been distributed to 
> over 100,000 people.  It is probably far better result in terms of 
> eyeballs than you were hoping for.  Also I hope that it will help you 
> leverage more participants for your workshops, which I would be 
> attending if they were not so far away.  What other ways might you be 
> able to leverage this problem into a solution?
>
> We can look at the world of media as we wish it to be or as it really 
> exists.  This is the same problem facing our society in so many 
> different ways.  I think you already have some understanding of this 
> and I infer that this is the reason you are working hard to provide 
> your own food and make a real life for yourself outside of our current 
> cultural paradigm. I hope that you can gain clarity about how our 
> media system works and put your energy out in ways that both benefit 
> you and educate those that so desperately need it.
>
> -Milton
>
>
> On 8/23/2010 8:20 AM, Marjory wrote:
> > We've produced a DVD on food production, and are barely making our 
> > costs back having sold about 1,000 to date. I saw on the various 
> > copying websites that there have been over 100,000 illegal 
> > downloads.  Emails and letters of 'cease and desist' to the sites 
> > yield little results except feeding my frustration.
> > It is important to do good research and present important info for 
> > sustaianble living, but this sure has me discouraged.
> > To be honest, I think from reading the account names that some of the 
> > ones who uploaded the files and made them available were from this 
> > permie list.  sigh.
> >
> > Marjory
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