Quote:
Originally Posted by Alanon
For some reason, there hasn't been much discussion about your second point, which I find by far the more interesting one, and it's been in the centre of some of my research. I beg forgiveness for the wall of text that is to follow, when I'm intrigued by something I find it difficult to stop.
...
cut out a bunch of stuff
...
.
|
I also find the second point the more interesting point and the point that has the greatest effect on society. It's also the point where aggressive copyright holders can make the most mischief. Who would risk writing about a boy wizard in wizard school if you know that J.K. Rowlings, inc is going to tie you up in court for the next decade, win or lose? In general, it's not happening at the moment, except in a few cases, such as Harland Ellison, but it will come. If I recall correctly, J.K. Rowlings had several people sue her claiming that they came up with the idea of a wizard school first. Now, there is a whole sub-genre based on wizard schools. As we have seen in the US with patent trolls, all it takes is a few sympathetic judges, or at least judges unwilling to simply throw the case out of court quickly and a law firm that goes out and buys the copyrights to a diverse group of books can have a pretty nice little business model.