[layer8]

> Also, copyright isn't about compensating authors, but publishers.

That depends on the country. There are moral rights [0] which are usually non-transferable from the authors. That’s especially the case in the European tradition of copyright: “In most of Europe, it is not possible for authors to assign or even broadly waive their moral rights. This follows a tradition in European copyright itself, which is regarded as an item of property which cannot be sold, but only licensed.”

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_rights

[fluffybucktsnek]

Interesting for a later search, but moral rights aren't about compensation though:

> The moral rights include the right of attribution, the right to have a work published anonymously or pseudonymously, and the right to the integrity of the work. [...] Moral rights are distinct from any economic rights tied to copyrights.

Also from [0]