The day before last I encountered a man who is the son of a noteworthy Modernist poet. I had never met the man before, but I have certainly met his type: an amnesiac devotee of the doctrine of "self-interest," who has pitifully forgotten that "enlightened" is supposed to precede "self-interest."
Of course when I met him, I was not quite aware of his ignorance. My first impression of him was that he was an an articulate fellow and charmingly (but not obsessively) devoted to his mother. However, when I told a friend about my meeting with the son of a minor literary celebrity, I was surprised to see my friend's mouth crumple disgustedly. When I inquired, my friend directed me to a piece of writing produced by my acquaintance. I shall, for your convenience, provide a link to the piece of writing that so displeased my friend:
http://www.z-site.net/copyright-notice-by-pz/
In summary (for those of short attention spans and those confused by links and those who are very, very busy), my acquaintance wished to charge a fee for any and all quotation of his father's poetry and other writings:
"Despite what you may have been told, you may not use LZ’s words as you see fit, as if you owned them, while you hide behind the rubric of “fair use”. “Fair use” is a very-broadly defined doctrine, of which I take a very narrow interpretation, and I expect my views to be respected. We can therefore either more or less amicably work out the fees that I demand; you can remove all quotation; or we can turn the matter over to lawyers, this last solution being the worst of the three, but one which I will use if I need to enforce my rights.)"
Unlike my friend, I was not disgusted by my acquaintance's decision. I was, however, disappointed. This man, who does not seem to me to be inherently evil or even ill-intentioned, has neglected one of the most important tenets for any egotism hobbyist:
Only be a jerk to get what you want if it's more effective than not being a jerk.
In the case of my acquaintance, he would do better not to be a jerk. If my acquaintance were to allow students and others to quote from and study his father's writing, he would not only be getting free advertising, but it would mean that students would be buying his father's books in order to study them. And if one person studies something, it increases the probability that other people will study that thing, which means even more people will buy books. However, since few students (most of whom can barely afford their books, never mind extra fees for using the books) would be inclined to actually pay to quote the book, my acquaintance, by imposing quotation fees, has not only given up on free advertising and potentially increased book sales, but will probably not even get the quotation fees he desires.
If my acquaintance thinks his situation otherwise, then I am inclined to use his own words in reply: "you have been stupidly advised."
