> They don't have singular authors True, but that is true for everything before the press was invented, it's also true for music, before music notation was inv

> They don't have singular authors True, but that is true for everything before the press was invented, it's also true for music, before music notation was invented or for kitchen recipes... What we are talking about here is publishing the Grimm's fairy tales, that are the most popular adaption ever of German folklore (we know they are mostly not original, but we can almost say they saved them from oblivion) and republish a sanitized version using the original title and the original authors names. We still adapt fairy tales when we tell them in front of a campfire, that doesn't change the fact that for some of them the author exists and we know who that is. Charlie and the chocolate factory, for example, is partly inspired by the author's real life experience with confectionery manufacturing plant Cadbury, it also contains more than one timeless archetype, inspired by a long tradition of orally transmitted tales, but at the same time it's also a completely original story, written by a man named Roald Dahl. Disney chose those fairy tales exactly because there were no copyright fees involved, ironically today they refuse to let mickey mouse go... EDIT > the Grimms didn't think these stories child-friendly AFAIK this is not what happened, the book was criticized for its content not deemed suitable for kids, given that the title "Kinder- und Hausmärchen" made people think otherwise. They decided to change them and made a specific version for kids, that had an immense success and was re-published many times (I believe it was 10 editions). We know that, we can refer to the original stories, tha doesn't mean Disney's Cinderella is not a Cinderella story, it means it is based on the Grimm's story, but it's not a faithful adaptation. I don't see what difference it makes for the sake of the argument if the Grimms decided to edit their books.