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Comment by bachmeier | Hacker News Reader

That's actually pretty different. If you purchase a book, you pay for a copy with the expectation of both parties that you own that copy.

Putting someone else's work on a different website and serving it to others would be similar to printing copies of someone else's books. If the author changes his views, it wouldn't be acceptable for someone else to print new copies of the book. Making a copy of a website for your own personal use would be much closer. I don't think anyone disagrees that you should be able to do that.

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>If the author changes his views, it wouldn't be acceptable for someone else to print new copies of the book.

When the author burns their own book and forbids new ones from being made is the only time that it's acceptable to print new copies.

Need I remind you of the purpose of copyright?

>To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.

>When the author burns their own book and forbids new ones from being made is the only time that it's acceptable to print new copies.

Do you mean acceptable from a legal point of view? Because I seriously doubt that it is.

Without that view, we wouldn't have most of the works by Kafka.

No, the only issue raised by Kafka's request to burn his papers is whether or not the copyright passed to someone else on his death. All works eventually become public domain, regardless of the author's wishes, since people die and copyright has a time limit.

I don't understand your point. "securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right" means others cannot print copies of your books.

> for limited times

The author's exclusive rights are only intended to be temporary. Once they're no longer secured, the work can be used by anyone for any purpose.

>If the author changes his views, it wouldn't be acceptable for someone else to print new copies of the book.

That depends entirely on the publishing contract's rights reversion stipulations. An author deciding that they do not want their book to continue being printed, purely because they have changed their views, will often find that they have very little legal right to do so.

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