Last weekend I put up a comment on Mark Helprin’s article in the New York Times called “A Great Idea Lives Forever Shouldn’t Its Copyright?” Today there seven letters in response.
I like these quotes from two of them:
“To publish is to make public. If an author seeks perpetual control over his writings, he should toss them on the fire, lest they be read.” Nick Sweeny
“Mark Helprin like Samuel Johnson before him, evidently believes that ‘no man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money.’ And yet this page of letters to the editor — to say nothing of the blogosphere — is filled by the work of those willing to create for no reward except the chance to be heard.” Joseph Bernstein