I can’t really figure out why you think public domain shouldn’t be something people can profit from. A whole bunch of stuff never gets done unless someone profits from it. Rigorously blocking people from profiting by use of public domain material would really mess up our economy.
Which still leaves the question of whether the readers are the best place to externalize the costs of the endeavour. That is what I’m opposed to, not someone profiting off something.
We had a patronage system in the past, we have Kickstarter today, we probably have a bunch of brilliant ideas lying around in areas of search space we haven’t explored yet.
Of course, I can’t expect HonoreDB to explore the Vast Uncharted Regions when all he wants to do is put out a play; but that’s my reply to your general point.
(In the specific case, I still doubt whether the prospect of prestige was really insufficiently motivating for HonoreDB, that is, whether the prospect of money increased the probability of his writing this play significantly. If that’s the case, I’d rather the work exist behind a paywall than not exist at all, but I don’t think that it is the case.)
I can’t really figure out why you think public domain shouldn’t be something people can profit from. A whole bunch of stuff never gets done unless someone profits from it. Rigorously blocking people from profiting by use of public domain material would really mess up our economy.
Which still leaves the question of whether the readers are the best place to externalize the costs of the endeavour. That is what I’m opposed to, not someone profiting off something.
We had a patronage system in the past, we have Kickstarter today, we probably have a bunch of brilliant ideas lying around in areas of search space we haven’t explored yet.
Of course, I can’t expect HonoreDB to explore the Vast Uncharted Regions when all he wants to do is put out a play; but that’s my reply to your general point.
(In the specific case, I still doubt whether the prospect of prestige was really insufficiently motivating for HonoreDB, that is, whether the prospect of money increased the probability of his writing this play significantly. If that’s the case, I’d rather the work exist behind a paywall than not exist at all, but I don’t think that it is the case.)