Quote:
Originally Posted by Cinisajoy
Hmmm. Let's see I decide to write the ultimate guide to life.
Did the many tell me to write it? Now if I decide to publish it, I am guaranteed the right that no one else will copy it for profit for my entire life and probably almost the entire life of my grandson. If I want to actually protect this right, I do need to give our government $60.
Why would I need to pay more if I suddenly decide to pull it off the shelf?
Do you or Ralph or Shari have any rights to profit off of my hard work?
Maybe, I pulled it because the many were not buying it. Maybe I pulled it for financial reasons.
Now if for some reason in 100 years or so, Shari's descendants decide the advice is still relevant than they are more than welcome to it.
But as long as me or my descendants have the right to decide than the many don't have the right to profit off my work.
You want authors to make their works available no matter what, well then would you do your job for no pay?
You don't think authors should get paid for their work after a certain time. Would you work 40 hours a week but only get paid for 30? Same difference.
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I don't understand why you think anyone would have to pay more to "pull something off of the shelf"? (I assume that means you want to unpublish it, right?)
I never said that I wanted anything for free, or that I wanted to steal anything from an author. PLEASE stop putting words in my mouth.
The difference is that if your book is a marvelous bestseller (think Mark Twain's books or Jane Austen) your descendents could still have exclusive rights to produce/sell the book for as long as they want...all they have to do is pay $20 per year. If the book isn't making any more money, then nobody has to pay any money for it, they just stop selling it and paying the $20 per year and let the rights revert. If you create something, and decide that you don't want anyone to have access to it, then you can either *never publish it* or pay $20 per year so that nobody has the right to publish it ever. (or both, if you're really paranoid)
By the way...you do know that even after a book is in the public domain, it can still be sold, right? There are quite a few publishers making good money selling public domain books.
Shari