4 ms·

So the publisher just gets to keep the author’s share of their joint contribution to the economy simply because it hasn’t been realized yet? If you want to sto

• roenxi 7y ago
  No, because the idea is that the right to a special monopoly would disappear. So the price of a book would drop from print costs + copyright to print cost only via the magical hand of the market. The "authors share" is a wholly legal idea that exists because everyone agrees the authors should get something for their work. There is a reason my fiction bookshelf is 60% 1700s/1800s classics like Wilde or or Austin instead of authors I prefer like Tolkien or Mervyn Peake. Books out of copyright are cheaper (less margin to be extracted) and more easily available from a local bookshop, so I've bought more of them over the years.
• nothrabannosir 7y ago
  Not if copyright expires at the author's death; then it transfers to society at large because the publisher doesn't have the sole right to publish it anymore. (Not advocating for this per se, just pointing out copyright expiration doens't necessarily transfer wealth to the publisher)