Quote:
Originally Posted by Cinisajoy
Because they have no actual obligation to the public.
Heck, if I want to release "The adventures of Cinisajoy", that is my prerogative.
If I decide later to pull said book, that is also my choice. I have no obligation to the public to make sure the book, movie or cd is available for all eternity.
So now let me phrase it like this.
What gives the public the right to tell me what I should do with MY property?
Why should the public have that right?
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Ah but how can you be sure your heirs will see it the same way? Shakespeare never sought to get his plays into print for the public for example. It was friends and fellow players who did that after his death. They are responsible for the first folio. One reason I understand that they did it was to make sure that proper copies were in circulation. People had been passing off inferior copies of the plays with such quotes as "To be or not to be aye that's the point" instead of "To be or not to be that is the question." The public wanted the plays to be available first though. And normally most authors want their works to continue to be read even long after they're gone. We only know about the great authors of the past because their works have come down to us. Copyright protects the rights of the author during his/her lifetime and it also exists to protect the rights of the publisher who foots the bill of printing copies of said works. With ebooks we have the chance to preserve books that would otherwise be lost well into the far distant future. A laudable goal if ever I heard of one.