Andy Ngo is free to simply publish the text of his book. It sounds like he wants money, though, and society is not compelled to pay him just because he put a lo

Andy Ngo is free to simply publish the text of his book. It sounds like he wants money, though, and society is not compelled to pay him just because he put a lot of effort into arranging the text of his book. (Surprise: Copyright, being a regulatory and artificial right, only exists when the government is big enough to interfere in the actions of publishers. Otherwise, we'd just pirate anything of value.) Also, have you ever been to Portland? Powell's is not going to waste shelf space on books which won't sell.