Quote:
Originally Posted by Fluribus
"You're all a bunch of greedy bastards who want everything without ever paying for anything."
versus
"You're all a bunch of greedy bastards who want to get paid for everything in perpetuity."
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This sums it up nicely. I keep hearing "If authors didn't get paid, they wouldn't have any inspiration to write". True....
Well, the reverse is true, too. If I got lucky and somehow, wrote one giant hit of a novel that everyone likes... and constantly made millions because people couldn't stop buying my one masterpiece, (guaranteed royalties until I died and beyond) why would I need to create more? I'd be rolling in money and could have retired and bought a nice house before reaching 25. That would be however if money were the *deciding* factor on whether or not I wrote.
In that novel by Nick Hornby "About a Boy" the lead character Will is a caricature of a man who has never had a job because "My dad wrote a Christmas Carol once and I live off the royalties". Now, that was a fiction (It's been a while since I read the book, but I own the movie on DVD) but illustrates a point.
I see people who work in real-time jobs who need to come up with creative ideas on a daily basis in order to get paid for their work. Their creativity has a shelf-life, and they need to keep producing to get more money.
This is only my opinion, because I'm on the "I wish I could afford to buy more books" end of things, and I am like a kid in a candy store at PG's library, saving the bought stuff for things I theoretically "can't live without".... so consider the source.
Having a shorter copyright would definitely be appreciated, but I've been able to read books thus far, so in the end, but business side of things isn't up to me.