Comment by RamblingCTO
1 day ago
I know. But they're not banning libraries. They're banning access to an entity they can't enforce local laws for.
I think we need law changes around digital ownership for sure, but I don't think this applies here.
PS: big fan of the internet archive. I'm just arguing that we need to do things correctly. And we need to let the authors be able to make a living from their work.
Oh yes, “think of the authors.” That’s propaganda, an idyllic myth.
Literary output and quality have never been solely contingent on authors making a living from their work. The necessity of authors making their livelihood writing is the idyllic myth. Literature can, and has, bloomed from both the pen of the pauper and the privileged.
Jane Austen made perhaps £600 from her writing. Kafka kept a full-time day job and saw zero literary income in his lifetime.
Not to say there’s not people that haven’t made fortunes from those examples, but it sure wasn’t the author.