Quote:
Originally Posted by HansTWN
That is exactly the point -- copyright was not a contract between the author and society (the general public), as so many claim, because back before e-books the general public could not take advantage of PD books. Copyright was really designed to protect authors and their agents (printers/publishers), period.
|
If that was correct, copyright would have been eternal, rather than for limited times. Copyright was intended to give authors an incentive to create books. But it was not made et
You claim that the general public could not take advantage of public domain books before e-readers. This isn't true. The public took advantage of public domain books every time they read a book which was based on a public domain work.
The idea of copyright being a contract between the author and society goes back long before e-books were even an idea. Copyright goes hand in hand with patent, and patent is certainly a contract between the inventor and society. The inventor gets exclusive rights to a their invention for a limited time, and in exchange, the inventions is available to all when the patent expires. It is the same way with copyright, the author gets exclusive rights to the book in exchange for the book eventually becoming public domain.