One of those rare news items that really makes you think rather than take sides by the second paragraph. London’s Great Ormond St Hospital was granted sales rights from ‘Peter Pan’ forever by its author, and the hospital’s done well out of it. Now Google’s publishing it online, and the sick kids are crying foul. (Of course it’s been on Project Gutenberg for a decade plus, but Google’s a lot brighter in the mediascape. )
On balance, I’m in favour of Google publishing the work. (Useless fact: the female name ‘Wendy’ was created for the book.) No matter how well-intentioned, you can’t make special cases in laws designed to have general application. Doing so always leads to unwelcome second-order effects. Look at the way government subsidies turn regional economies into grant-addicted money sinks and public works projects become the driving force of pork-hungry politicians.
I’m not sure it’ll affect GOSH’s funding too much; most people still pay for things even when they’re easy to steal, like software or ideas. But unfortunately, we have a copyright system that just doesn’t want to grow up.
Posted on November 4, 2005
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