Conclusions and clips
Funny stuff, but many a truth too, we suspect. Well it seems to have worked. According to Web 2.0 website Mashable, Python DVD sales have increased an astonishing 23,000 percent since the YouTube channel was launched.
Hmm, you mean giving stuff away for free can actually increase your profits; why has nobody else thought of that?
Joking aside, the moral of the story appears to be that people who consume digital content for free may well go on to pay for it subsequently. Given that the demand for free content will only grow, and there doesn't seem to be an effective way to prevent it, Python has shown that a mature approach to the problem can pay dividends.
Because we couldn't resist, here are a couple of the YouTube clips. There are currently only 20 clips of original Python footage on the site, and there are notable absences like the parrot sketch, but top marks to Python nonetheless.
UPDATE - 12:25, 26th January 2009: A reader has notified us that you can access the parrot sketch after all.
