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Say an author dies, having just finished a book for which they were paid a large advance; perhaps the publisher has already spent money to advertise the book as well - it's only fair if the publisher has exclusive rights to the book for a while, isn't it?
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Heaven forbid that the publisher has to face any risk. Are authors who are paid large advances dying immediately after that payment very often?
We already have someone who had eternal copyright in mind, strongly based on his conception of property according to which he should be paid for every reproduction of his work: the name is
Andrew Galambos. In the unwittingly and brutally ironic words of the amous libertarian Harry Browne:
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"He was an Astrophysicist exclusivly, but I refer to him as 'the unknown libertarian' because he never wrote a book or appeared on national radio or TV. His renown will be limited mostly to those who came in personal contact with him. But he had a profound effect on thousands of individuals who took his courses—who in turn affected others. Undoubtedly the ripples from the stones he dropped eventually touched some of today's leading libertarians."
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Fortunately, Browne's prophecy didn't materialize and perpetual copyright is rightly seen even by mainstream libertarianism as the intellectual equivalent of a rubber room. Galambos only has a Wikipedia entry because he made friends with prominent people.