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> Our modern equivalents of the library are being purged

No, they aren't. Not in any way, shape, or form. Private companies don't have any obligation to continue showing anything. They don't have any such 'moral' obligations at all. They aren't going into libraries and purging books.

An actual purge would be something like systemically recalling, redacting, and deleting any remaining records of art that involve Cosby. Saying this is 'our libraries being purged' is completely alarmist and untrue.

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> No, they aren't. Not in any way, shape, or form. Private companies don't have any obligation to continue showing anything. They don't have any such 'moral' obligations at all. They aren't going into libraries and purging books.

What if the libraries are privatized?

> An actual purge would be something like systemically recalling, redacting, and deleting any remaining records of art that involve Cosby. Saying this is 'our libraries being purged' is completely alarmist and untrue.

No. An actual purge would consist of removing the work from circulation and locking the remaining copies in a restricted section in the library (a giftschrank). What you describe sounds like it's inspired by the fictional total censorship regime shown in 1984 [1] than by nonfictional examples.

[1] Which was probably lie even in the context of that fictional world; I wouldn't be surprised if the Inner Party actually had accurate archives kept in a giftschrank.

> What if the libraries are privatized?

Then there’s a serious issue with your society that needs to be resolved independent of anything else - libraries are a public good, not for the benefit of any individual entity.

Public libraries still exist. You're referring to a private company's catalogue. Thus, this entire argument is really moot.

You can still go to libraries and obtain things, there is no purge or anything remotely even close happening. It's absurd to expect a private company to always offer content from now until the end of time.

> Private companies don't have any obligation to continue showing anything.

Then they should relinquish their copyrights.

That is a completely absurd proposition and ignores the sheer amount of work that goes into making tv shows and the like. They have no obligation to do anything for anyone. The copyrights will expire anyway at some point in the future.

> > Our modern equivalents of the library are being purged

> No, they aren't. Not in any way, shape, or form. Private companies don't have any obligation to continue showing anything.

True, but in the world today the overwhelming majority of accesses to these things is via paying for access to it from private companies. If private companies refuse then it becomes non-available, for most practical purposes.

Which is still completely different from being purged.

Not having access to a private company's catalogue is a different issue altogether.

Private companies don't have any obligation to continue showing anything. They don't have any such 'moral' obligations at all.

Consider that We The People developed a legal framework for companies to exist as the existence of companies as a thing was deemed to be a net good. But what if it isn’t any more, if companies are purely focused on profits at the expense of the legal and social environment in which they exist? Then the law can be amended.

That's why laws are amended and why regulations and the like exist.

That is parallel to a company deciding to list or not list a tv show in their catalogue.

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