Sunday, October 21, 2007

Mark Twain's plans to compete with copyright "pirates" (in 1906)
Mark Twain was a brilliant author, philosopher, and humorist, but he was also a man made quite nervous by copyright. Copyright didn't bother him in principle, of course. It benefited him greatly as one of the leading writers of his day. What bothered him about copyright was the fact that it would eventually expire, leaving his heirs without a way to make an easy buck. Twain didn't want perpetual copyright, only something that would cover his children's lives. He noted on more than one occasion that the grandkids should fend for themselves, but for Twain and his daughters, he sought to combat "the pirates."

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