Re: Reporter faked the news.

[David Goodman <dgoodman@Princeton.EDU>]

Our obligation as librarians is different.  Once something has been
released to the public, our role is to do whatever is in our power to
ensure that public availability continues forever. I suggest that we have
this obligation regardless of the wishes of the author, the copyright
owner, or any governmental or private power. I am aware of the concept of
"droit de retraite", by which an author's "droit moral" is extended to
mean that the material can be literally retracted. An author may wish for
the right to have time move backwards, but regardless of legal codes, the
universe works otherwise.

Dr. David Goodman
Princeton University Library
and
Palmer School of Library & Information Science, Long Island University
dgoodman@princeton.edu

----- Original Message -----
From: Charles Oppenheim <C.Oppenheim@lboro.ac.uk>
Date: Thursday, May 15, 2003 6:11 pm
Subject: Re: Reporter faked the news.

> Surely anyone who owns copyright in a work has the right to destroy that
> copyright work.  They don't owe it to society to maintain it.  There have
> been many cases where famous literary figures have destroyed their own
> drafts or personal notes, or have requested that such documents be
> destroyed on their death.  I shudder to think how one can 
> introduce, let alone police a law that required that (say) everything I 
> ever wrote must never be destroyed.
> 
> Professor Charles Oppenheim