The biggest thing we expect from consumers is that the media doesn’t stop with them. Open source programmers want people to build and improve on their code. Authors of CC licensed fiction and music want the work to be passed on, to widen the exposure. Musicians who use Share Alike or the Remix CC license want their work remixed, and authors using the same license want to see fanfic.

In any open situation, at the very least, we want you to talk about it. Blog about it. Tweet about it. Do not download the media, consume the media, and sit there. See, the real trick is we do want payment for our work. It’s just that said payment is rarely monetary in nature.

What got me thinking about consumer responsibility was this fantastic post about science fiction ezines over at Bloggasm. The subscriber numbers of the classic magazines are dropping, and people are blaming the Internet. But are the ezines profiting? Most zines run on a donation model (two sites not mentioned in the article are Escape Pod and Pseudopod*, audio podcast magazines that work quite well on a donation model. I don’t know if they can be considered zines, though, and mean to get publisher Steve Eley to talk to me about his views) and seem to do OK that way. But can online publishing ever match the golden age of pulp?

Many consumers, I’ve found, do their part in this cycle of open media. It’s a thrill to see someone blogging about your work, or mentioning it on Twitter, or using your art as an avatar. But a lot of open media does include paypal donate button, and it’s been gratifying to see consumers use it. One of the best recent examples of this has been when author Matt Wallace’s computer recently died a horrible death. Besides being a full time working writer, Matt is also an open media creator, an award-winning author of works released via the short fiction podcast Variant Frequencies and Podiobooks.com.  Matt has delivered a novel and many short stories to his listeners, and when they found out his computer died, they began to donate, rewarding Matt for all the free content he’s given them (He’s nearly at his goal, click here if you want to help him out.)

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not one to follow this all the time. I’m always downloading new podcasts and it’s hard to keep track of what I should talk about at any one time. (That’s one of the reasons I started this blog!)  But think about what you’ve gotten recently that’s free, and think about if you can pass it on, blog about it, or throw a couple of bucks to the creator to keep them creating. You don’t need to spend $15 for that book you just downloaded – but I bet the creator would be thrilled to see $5.

*Full disclosure, I am a former co-editor of Pseudopod.

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