Quote:
Originally Posted by Namekuseijin
Why, again? There's no copyright protection, so there's no profit to be made. Why would then he keep it all to himself or burn it down? Childish behaviour? Sadist revenge on mankind? "You made me suffer for lacking my father's talent and having had to go to medical school, now take that you lamers!"
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Well, actually, we might well have such cases of sadist revenge.
Or, without a profit motive, one just couldn't be bothered to sort through the papers. After all, one doesn't want to hand over all of one's parent's papers--there may be private stuff there that shouldn't be disclosed. So one has to sort through it. And that takes time. With no profit, one might decide to just burn it.
That said, even without copyright protection, profit could be made by means of carefully crafted contract protections. The market would find a way around it. You want to read the Tolkien papers? You file a bond for some large sum of money (perhaps underwritten by a bond company who has reviewed your personal history). You sign a non-disclosure agreement with the estate. You get watermarked versions of the Tolkien papers (maybe some carefully placed minor spelling or punctuation changes). If you break your non-disclosure agreement and the watermarked versions are found in the wild, your bond is forfeit, you're bankrupt (the bond amount can be set depending on your net worth and income to ensure this), and nobody signs such a contract with you again.
Or, for a fee, you are carefully searched and taken into a room with a screen where you can view the papers. If they're generous, they give you one 8.5x11 page and a blunt pencil for notes. (If it's too sharp, you might copy too much.)
Not an improvement over the status quo freedom-wise. But quite doable without any copyright law, unless one puts into place undue constraints on the freedom of individuals to enter into contracts.