This has nothing to do with copyright, and everything to do with people reading fewer books plus there being way more competition even within the novel space. Most Books sell way few copies than they used to. So if you’re not a mega hit, you’re unlikely to ever earn any royalties beyond your advance.
Copyright is built on a lie that most people seem to accept: artists can make a decent living from the current system of rewards that copyright provides.
Emphasis mine.
Seems to have everything to do with copyright to me. But then, I read the article, so perhaps it’s just that less people do that before commenting nowadays.
Mr. Moody is suggesting that copyright is not keeping up with the times, and that the lie that copyright exists so that struggling artists can survive (or any other reason than to make rights holders fat and rich at the expense of creators and the public alike) is probably false.
Changing copyright laws isn’t going to increase individual book sales. Removing it will mean they might not make ANY money from their work.
So I’ll repeat, this is not actually a copyright issue.
Does copyright need a change? Yes. It’s this the argument to make to inspire that change? No
