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JM
justin maurer dot dev at #WCUS
@justinmaurer.dev
full-stack web dev | publishing | WordPress | a/anti-theism | good music
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JMjustinmaurer.dev

Moral? I'm with Brian Frye on this one. "There is nothing wrong with being a landlord, and there is nothing wrong with collecting rent. But there is nothing particularly special or morally compelling about it, either. "

Excerpt from Brian Frye's 2020 article, "Libraries Are Not Crimes".
"Ultimately, this entire episode exposes copyright owners for what they really are: literary landlords. By their own insistence, copyright is a form of property. They make money by selling or renting copies of their literary property to people who want to read it. And they want to extract every penny of rent they possibly can.

There is nothing wrong with being a landlord, and there is nothing wrong with collecting rent. But there is nothing particularly special or morally compelling about it, either. If copyright owners want to complain about the NEL, let them do it as landlords, and let us see their arguments as landlord arguments. After all, unlike real landlords, they aren’t even objecting to the loss of actual income on a property they are maintaining. Literary landlords object to the possibility they might not collect every possible rent on a literary property they created or purchased long ago. ..."
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CQchrisquixote.bsky.social

In particular, I see no moral right to inheritance. It might be practical, It might be worthwhile, for any number of reasons. It might be nice! But I don't see what Bradbury's kids did to gain a moral right to his royalties, any more than I think Elmo had a moral right to an emerald mine.

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JM
justin maurer dot dev at #WCUS
@justinmaurer.dev
full-stack web dev | publishing | WordPress | a/anti-theism | good music
39 followers133 following432 posts