According to this link, Paulo Coelho has a net worth of over $500 million and didn't get there by giving away books, so perhaps your example is not well-chosen.

https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/how-rich-are-jk-rowling-jame...

I’m not so sure about that.

“In part, he puts this success down to BitTorrent, as he saw a huge increase in sales when his books appeared on sites such as The Pirate Bay.” [1]

The fact that people wanted to buy his books, when they could have had them for free, does not negate his or anyone else’s beliefs.

[1] https://web.archive.org/web/20140422024114/https://torrentfr...