Quote:
Originally Posted by Sparrow
I wonder how things are going to develop in the next few decades as the amount of material in the public domain grows and grows.
There'll be so much wonderful ebook fiction available for free, living authors may struggle to get any paying custom at all.
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Sparrow, they already are. Anybody who's reading P.D. works is
ipso facto not reading a "for pay" (still in copyright) work. That's one of the hidden reasons for the copyright extensions. If I'm reading Dicken or Twain or Wells, I'm not reading Niven or Steinbeck
et al. There's only so much time.
Imagine that here is the US, we had never passed the 1976 copyright extension and its later add-ons. The PD date would be 1953. Think of all the movies books and music that would be in the P.D. You could read all the golden age S/F. Think of all the classic movie titles that would be available. You could listen to all the early jazz, for free, legally. That's some tough competition for new creators.
(Plug time.) Read my chapter on Hemmingway Redux in
And The World Changed available here at MR for free, for a more in-depth discussion.