[amanagnihotri]

Upon the progress of knowledge the whole progress of the human race is immediately dependent: he who retards that, hinders this also. And he who hinders this, — what character does he assume towards his age and posterity? Louder than with a thousand voices, by his actions he proclaims into the deafened ear of the world present and to come — 'As long as I live at least, the men around me shall not become wiser or better; — for in their progress I too, notwithstanding all my efforts to the contrary, should be dragged forward in some direction; and this I detest I will not become more enlightened, — I will not become nobler. Darkness and perversion are my elements, and I will summon all my powers together that I may not be dislodged from them.'

- Fichte, The Vocation of the Scholar.

[jfengel]

Which side are you supporting here? The ones who claiming they should be paid to support their work, or the ones claiming that everyone should work "for the progress of the whole human race" rather than for money?

[nosianu]

> The ones who claiming they should be paid to support their work,

It would be much easier if one side was the authors. The problem is it's "rights holders".

As a frequent reader on RoyalRoad and occasional Patreon supporter of one or the other author I am well aware that many authors indeed to have a problem of theft of their stories.

Examples:

- https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/7183/crashed-into-fantasy/...

- https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/33922/ashes-of-empires/cha...

I doubt though that any of those law suits are meant to protect those little guys.

In addition, I think we need something else. Digital copying is so very different from theft of tangible objects that I think society as a whole would be much better off if we manage to come up with a different method to pay authors, without the huge amount of effort and infrastructure to artificially limit distribution.

I mean, it kind of works for music? Far from ideal, but at least it's something. Okay, it works a tiny bit better. On second thought, maybe it "works" when I use a radio Yerevan kind of definition...