Quote:
Originally Posted by petrucci
I would not condone any authors distributing books for free. It took time and effort to write the book and they should be compensated for their work.
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Not all compensation is monetary. Some authors are happy to get recognition. Fanfic takes time and effort to write, and nobody's insisting those authors should get paid. Many of those works are so obviously transformative there'd be no question of valid commercial use, especially the ones based on public domain works.
Are you saying that fanfic authors who write alternative endings to Pride and Prejudice or modernized Red Riding Hood stories, should sell them?
Why should an author have to charge readers if they've got enough money to not need that? If they're unemployed and retired, or supported by their family, why are they morally obligated to make strangers pay them money they don't need, to cut down on the amount and quality of free works available for people who don't have money?
And "took time and effort" doesn't translate to "is of a quality that's worth money." You're proposing that the public be required to pay for works regardless of their value or quality.
At what point does a work fall into the category of "this should cost money so that people have to pay to read something worth reading?"
I really don't get your arguments. How is society better off if quality books are kept from the poor, and authors are forbidden to share their art on their own terms?