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I'm all for authors making money and I do buy the books I read. But I'm not going to worry that they might not make enough money.
In the USA (I don't know enough about other countries to comment) copyright was established in the Constitution and if I remember correctly the original term was 7 years with an option to renew for another 7 years. This was written by James Madison and I vaguely recall reading his communications with Thomas Jefferson, who had been expected to write the Constitution but he was out of the country so they consulted. Anyway what I recall, and this is from when I was in college decades ago, was that they discussed copyright as a short term arrangement to give creative people a head start. I hope I remember that correctly. I doubt I have the phrasing right but that was the idea.
That's been extended over and over by pressure from lobbyists representing publishers to ridiculous terms. Publishers think of ownership of intellectual property and that was never the intent.
I hope any author who writes a book that I enjoy, or that others enjoy, makes a pile of money on it. And that the publishers who make it available to me do the same. I'm perfectly willing to pay. But not forever. Copyrights should expire after a reasonable time and until they do we're all being cheated.
Barry
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