O'Reilly Marks 25 Years, Looks to Tech Future

Despite a tough technology economy and depressed computer book sales, Tim O'Reilly, technology guru and founder and president of computer book publisher O'Reilly & Associates, is optimistic about the future of technology in particular and computer book publishing in general.

"I'm guardedly optimistic. I think we've hit bottom in this market," said O'Reilly, who acknowledges that the IT sector has declined the last three years. But, he said, his company has held its own in a declining market. "We've been flat, while the computer book market has declined. We're able to find new technology topics and publish books on the newest trends."

It's also the 25th anniversary of O'Reilly & Associates, founded in 1978 as a technical writing company. It quickly evolved from a small group of tech experts and hands-on IT people into a publishing house that today publishes 150 titles a year and generates annual revenue of about $50 million.

"We follow the alphageeks," explained O'Reilly at an interview in PW's offices, referring to the legions of cutting-edge technologists who have long embraced his publishing house. O'Reilly is also known for its technology conferences, which feature the biggest and newest tech figures. "The conferences are strategic—they bring in people who shape the technology dialogue," said O'Reilly. And they are also one way the house finds new writers: "It makes us unique in the marketplace."

He pointed to O'Reilly's online services, which offershands-on technical and professional services, as a growth center. Online publishing is also a fast-growing sector for O'Reilly, as is Safari Books, a co-venture with Pearson Publishing that offers online subscription access to tech books from a number of publishers and is growing at the rate of 30% a month. "We're offering a form of e-book. You can search through all the content and you have access to a limited number of titles, five or 10, or an unlimited number, based on your subscription fee," O'Reilly explained.

O'Reilly is an activist publisher, and this is most apparent in the area of copyright. A copyright maverick, O'Reilly calls for less emphasis on piracy and rigid DRM. He's published a short manifesto on copyright, file-sharing and public domain called "Piracy Is Progressive Taxation" to back up his views. He publicly opposed the recent copyright extension and has begun publishing some books under "founders' copyright," a legal copyright option developed by the nonprofit Creative Commons (www.creativecommons.org) that lasts only for the 14-year period of protection originally cited in the U.S. Constitution. "It's a symbolic stand against copyright extension. There's a tradeoff to protecting Mickey Mouse," he said. "Public domain, our cultural heritage, has been stolen."

"Copy protection is over-blown," he added, asserting that the overwhelming majority of published works sell in insignificant numbers. "A few thousand books have measurable sales," said O'Reilly, who describes piracy as a "progressive tax" on the already well-off. His solution, in many though not all circumstances, is to offer content for free via the Web whenever possible. "A few well-known artists are affected by piracy," he said, "but the vast majority of artists would love to be known well enough to be a target of pirates. The biggest danger to an artist isn't piracy, it's not being noticed."

Shoplifting, claims O'Reilly, is a greater danger in the age of computerized inventory controls than digital piracy. "If a store has one copy of my book and it's stolen, the computer will say the book isn't selling and it may never be reordered. Organized piracy is real, but there are already legal mechanisms to deal with it," he said.

Despite the current computer book doldrums, O'Reilly points out that the technology market moves in 10-year cycles and a new wave—particularly wireless computing, the Linux OS and new Web-based applications—is just beginning. "We're just entering the Internet age, and we're on the verge of profound technology changes."

O'Reilly added: "With all the stuff that's happening, I'm extremely bullish on technology publishing."