The Anne Frank Foundation… argue[s] that they and they alone are qualified to serve as stewards of Anne Frank’s memories.
Why?
“Because we are the Anne Frank Foundation.”
Which means?
“It means we are the stewards of Anne Frank’s memories!”
A non-profit organization which existed to perpetuate the memory of one oppressed now exists to oppress the memory of one perpetually.
This one is tricky. Copy into perpetuity is bad. But, in the first edition, there was a note that the text is mostly written by Anne and some was written by Otto. But, does that make him an editor or an author? If he is an editor, then it cannot be extended as far as I know. If author, then is he considered a ghost author and what are the laws around an author whose name isn’t in the book?
To cliche the Foundation’s actions: The road to hell is paved with good intentions.
That, and another problem with getting angry over this is as copyfraud is that the original copyright registration in the US lists Otto Frank as the author:
http://collections.stanford.edu/copyrightrenewals/bin/detail?fileID=1710071022X
That short-circuits the fraud complaint, don’t you think?
The only people we hate more than the Romans are the fucking Judean People’s Front. And the Judean Popular People’s Front.
Do you really think the two are comparable?
More kindly: I assume (without looking into it) that the foundation does genuinely good work, using the remembrance of Anne Frank to promote tolerance. I can totally understand why they would want to perpetuate the revenue they receive from the Diary in order to promote such good work; also, given that they have acted for decades as the custodians of her memory, why they would want to preserve some control over it and to prevent misguided or even destructive uses.
I think there’s plenty of room to criticize what they are doing in prolonging copyright to an extreme without questioning the quality of their motives. The road to unreasonably long copyright can be paved with good intentions.
It seems to be depressingly common for the legacies of various culturally significant figures to devolve into either a morass of dubious claimants who see coattails large enough to be worth riding, or a single entity that establishes dominance and then starts to succumb to charity-rot and spend more time ensuring a continued supply of funding for the good works, and retention of the leadership necessary to execute them, than on the good works themselves.
After that runs out, they can say the Nazi’s were also co-authors. COPYRIGHT EXTENDED!!! WOOOOOOO!!! Now I’m off to go torrent her book just because I can.
The Nazi’s what?
Well, he co-created Anne Frank…
Given that, say, Cory basically makes his money off of his ability to sell his books without having them stolen, I don’t really think this is cool. We can call for the sensible reform of copyright laws without encouraging piracy just because the current laws could be better.
But is it actually “his money”? It’s got somebody else’s name on it.
All money is a loan, with the profits accumulated by the person who issues it. Like any other loan, it is cheaper not to borrow it in the first place.
Not to mention all the other people’s drugs on them. It’s only your money if it’s only your drugs on the money, if it’s someone else’s drugs on the money stand away from the money and yell I have never seen that money before in my life!
Money is a hell of a drug!
I don’t know how much money Cory has lost due to this asshole making downloads of his books available for free, but I hope he sues until he ends up with his entire life savings.
Another angle is that copyright protects the book, keeping it intact, as is.
Out of copyright, anyone could fiddle with the book, even to the extent of
changing the whole essence.
Do we really want a neo-nazi version of Anne Frank’s diary?
As an aside, so many copies have been printed, it’s almost free since most
libraries have it and there are endless copies available used.
One might also buy Miep Gies’ book about the time (made into a movie
with Mary Steenburgen), not the insight Anne’s book gives, but it
does provide the view from the outside. Miep Gies was one of the people
who helped Anne and her family hide. She lived until a few years ago,
getting to a hundred, a just reward for standing up to the nazis.
