Fine. With copyright being in such a dysfunctional state at present something will have to give. I don't know what the final outcome will be but there's little

Fine. With copyright being in such a dysfunctional state at present something will have to give. I don't know what the final outcome will be but there's little doubt the middlemen will have a far lesser role to play in the future. Policing copyright in its current form will become such a burden that it will force change, and with coming AI advances even publisher's editors will become redundant. Technology will make publishers much less important. Authors ought to see the writing on the wall and start planning to deal directly with their readers. As you say, that would aid in creating books that people want to read. My personal opinion is that authors will have more to fear from AI than copyright violations. I'm not against writers being given their fair dues but I am against unfair copyright laws. What concerns me most is that if we're not careful we'll end up reading books and viewing videos created by AI—and I don't want that nor would author/creators. I'm defending human creators here, I don't want them replaced by machines. That's why it's more important than ever that authors and readers have a more solid and direct relationship—one that's much more than just a monetary alliance.