Copyright will permit the copyright holder a greater opportunity to profit,
yes. But show me anywhere in copyright law where a right to profit is granted.
Please, show me. All I find is a right to be the only one allowed to make copies
of a work. Of course if you're the only source you're going to be in a better
position to profit, but it's not a guaranteed right. If nobody wants to buy your
works, you're out of luck. If nobody wants to pay enough to cover the cost of
production, you're out of luck. If the first few people to buy and read it start
telling everyone "This thing's a worthless pile, don't bother wasting your money
on it.", and everybody takes their advice, you're out of luck. And if you're
willing to sell copies of your work to me, and I can turn around and sell them
for 10x what I paid for them, well, you're out of luck. You misjudged what
people were willing to pay, and unless I signed a contract with you saying
otherwise the law doesn't give you any recourse.
The right to be the sole
source of new copies doesn't extend to a right to control copies after you've
made and sold them. If you want that, you need to sign agreements with the
people buying the copies. Which you're entitled to do, BTW. You're just not
allowed to unilaterally set the terms without getting the other party's
agreement. [ Reply to This | Parent | # ]
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