(CAUTION: Some foul language in video)

Every comedian in North America has an eye on Louis C.K. right now because of an internet experiment that went spectacularly right. Louis C.K. is a veteran standup comedian and writer for film and TV who current stars in the FX Network television show Louie. But what's attracted so much attention is that he wrote, performed, recorded and produced his own comedy special, Louis C.K. Live at the Beacon Theater, and offered it as a streaming download at a cost of $5 US, without digital management software.

And against conventional wisdom, people bought it. Four days after he started selling online, he's sold more than 110,000 copies and raised a total of over $500,000, the comedian says in a blog post. Although there was illegal file-sharing, it was minimal, he said. After his production costs and the costs of creating and supporting a website, that leaves him a profit of $200,000, less than he'd be paid by a TV network, but then, he was spared the effort of convincing a broadcaster to offer him a TV special.

Louis C.K. approached the audience with an honour system, pointing out in a letter to the fans that he was taking a gamble in putting it on the internet DRM free. "The risks were thus: every new generation of material I create is my income, it's like a farmer's annual crop. The time and effort on my part was far more than if I'd done it with a big company," he said, pointing out that any big company would have charged consumers $20 for the download.

Comedians complain bitterly when some guy with a cellphone tapes their live act surreptitiously and puts it on the web. It takes time to create comedy material, and no one can create new jokes for every performance, nor does any comedian want a competitor to steal their best lines. Now Louis has plowed a new field and found it yields a bountiful crop - at least for comedians with his international reputation and the deep pockets to fund their own production. It's a tempting prospect for other comedians.