Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
Doesn't "the right to commercial exploitation" include the right to choose NOT to commercially exploit it? Are you suggesting, for example, that anyone who keeps a private diary should be forced to publish it?
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As to your first question, I think it's certainly a matter for discussion. Keeping something off the market for a while can be part of a marketing plan. On the other hand, the purpose of copyright is not necessarily to allow the copyright owner to squeeze out his or her maximum profit, else there would be no "fair use." The purpose is to encourage the production of creative work, and to reward those who create it. If something is not made available to the public, it seems to me to be outside the purpose of copyright. My personal view is "use it or lose it." (But there may be no practical way to reach that result.)
As for private diaries - and personal letters - I would say that they are not the kind of material normally intended for commercial exploitation, and that they should be under permanent and total copyright - not even fair use - until the copyright owner either publishes or otherwise relinquishes their private status - as by giving his papers to a library.