Why Burn Books When You Can Change Them? Dahl, Twain, God and Copyrights

A certain segment of the societal activists — a loathsome label for any good person — have learned there are better ways to destroy works of art than just burning them. Instead, alter their words forever if you can.

The rights holders of Roald Dahl’s books have decided that his writing will be more valuable to them if the books were different.  Which is peculiar because they’re valuable in the first place because people liked them already.  Matilda used to read Conrad, Hemingway, and Kipling; now she reads Austen, Hemingway, and Steinbeck.  A woman might have been a witch despite being a cashier or a typist for a businessman; now despite being a scientist or businesswoman.

Really, it’s just some small changes… they don’t even matter… not REALLY.

But then again, if they don’t matter why make changes?

I think there are things we’d all accept as reasons to change a text.  If I told you I was a farrier, would you need to look that up?  I certainly wouldn’t write an article if a children’s book was rewritten to say “man who shoes horses” instead of “farrier”.

Then again, some small changes do make a difference.  If Matilda reads regressive fiction about the clash between civilization and savagery then her actions might be viewed one way, but if she reads things that are class conscious and empowering then her actions could be viewed another way.  Or maybe the editors just don’t like those icky imperialist writers.  That a witch might be a clerk in a store or a secretary in an office indicates that they are a part of the everyday world, and anyone can be a witch.  When witches are scientists and business leaders that makes them more accomplished in our world and changes the perception of their power in our everyday lives.  Or maybe witches are women, and the editors think women shouldn’t do menial work.

It’s not just Roald Dahl.  Mark Twain has been edited for decades to reflect updated racial sensitivities.  The Chinese Communist Party has an approved version of the Bible.  Episodes of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Community, and who knows how many other TV shows have been removed from streaming platforms.  Of course, Twain and God’s work are in the public domain and you can pick up their books pretty cheap.

I’m going to lay down a marker here and say that someday soon artificial intelligence will be used to smooth out the rough spots so people will never know the difference.  Dirty Harry made a racist joke?  Nope, he made a joke about the Kardashians, let’s pull it up on HBOMax; I’ll show you.

Companies can do this to us because their copyrights are nearly 100 years long.

Ray Bradbury envisioned a future where books were burned to keep knowledge away from the people.  But book burning is an ugly brutish thing.  One doesn’t need to burn books when the people who object to the message went to the same schools and believe the same things as the people who run the publishing house that owns the exclusive rights to the book.

Let’s burn it all down.

The first American copyright was only 14 years let’s go back to that.  It would mean that and movie, book, game, or TV show released before 2009 would be in the public domain.

Too much for you? Fine!

Here’s my compromise.  Reduce copyright protections to 20 years but allow characters and settings to be protected for up to 20 years after the death of the original creators.

Like what does this brave new world look?

Well, Aldous Huxley died in in 1963, so anyone could reprint and sell a copy of Brave New World.  NBC’s Brave New World came out in 2020, so the Huxley estate would get no royalties for use of the story or characters and in 2040 anyone who wanted could broadcast, stream, or otherwise display the NBC series without paying NBCUniversal.

Just for fun let’s clarify here that if a new character or setting is introduced to embellish a public domain work then the new character or setting is automatically public domain as well.  We don’t want people to attempt extending their monopolies through the backdoor.

Since it was released in 1999 the original The Matrix movie would be in the public domain, but since the Wachowski brothers are still alive then only the rights holders can make new movies, series, games, or books.  Warner Brothers, or whomever, would continue to have the monopoly on those characters until 20 years after both Lana and Lilly are dead.

There is, I admit, a tension here.  Copyright protections promote the creation of new works by giving authors exclusive rights to their intellectual property.  Without strenuous long-term protection would a movie studio make a risky movie like the original Star Wars?    If I had to guess, I think yes, because I don’t think a single person said, “Look even if the neckbeard’s weird space movie flops at least we have the exclusive rights until 2052, and we’ll recoup the loss in the long-run.”

You might say, “But, Martin, businesses have made decisions based on the stability of America’s intellectual property laws.  To dramatically reduce those protections would cause the stock values of some major companies and even whole industries to collapse!”

Do you mean the same companies that edit beloved children’s books to insert their preferred political philosophies?

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