Baen Free Library - Definition and Overview

The Baen Free Library is an online experiment by science fiction writer Eric Flint and publisher Jim Baen of the science fiction publishing house Baen Books to determine whether the availability of books for free on the World Wide Web encourages or discourages the sale of their paper books. Over 55 full text books are available for free download in a number of formats, without copy protection.

The Baen Free Library represents an interesting experiment in the field of intellectual property and copyright. Early evidence suggests that sales of both the books made available free and other books by the same author, even from a different publisher, increase when the electronic version is made available free of charge.[1] (http://www.baen.com/library/palaver6.htm)

Baen also operates webscription.net, a subscription-based web book program.

External links

• Baen Books Homepage (http://baen.com/)
• Baen Free Library (http://www.baen.com/library/)
• Baen Webscriptions (http://www.webscription.net/)
• Baens Bar - The Official Forum (http://bar.baen.com/)
• USENET post: Flint describes the inspiration for the Library (http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=tlEn9.47642%24xI5.9721%40sccrnsc02&output=gplain)