tman37 t1_ja07ush wrote
Reply to comment by nsnyder in Roald Dahl threatened publisher with ‘enormous crocodile’ if they changed his words by Mighty_L_LORT
>he did make changes to the Oompa-Loompas
The key idea here is he made changes, which is his prerogative as the author. He had a problem with someone else changing his words. This leads me to believe that he would be appalled at what the publisher did but might have agreed to make changes if they were presented to him.
The big problem isn't the change (although the reasoning is stupid) it the fact that you don't get to change the author's words and pretend it is still written by the author. Some of the changes completely change the imagery in the book and we can't know if Dahl would been ok with changing those images.
nsnyder t1_ja0d27i wrote
If I had my way, then Dahl's books would be in the public domain by now and anyone could publish any version they wanted. But if we're going to have copyright extend for decades after the author's death then the copyright holders are going to be the ones deciding whether to make edits. Maybe they make good decisions, or maybe they make dumb ones (I think some of the edits here are pretty clumsy and pointless, and it seems likely if Dahl were alive he'd object to at least some of them), but since Dahl is dead the people who he left the rights to are going to have to make these calls much as Dahl did when he was alive. It's totally fine to criticize them, but the idea that books never get changed or that Dahl's books never got changed when he was alive is just not true.
tman37 t1_ja0pqr1 wrote
I think we have to make a distinction between legally entitled to do something and whether they should do something. Based on current copyright laws, the copywriter holders are absolutely entitled to change the work. As the owners of art, they shouldn't change it from what the artist did. If I owned the Mona Lisa, I would be able to draw a mustache on her but it would be disrespectful to Di Vinci and all his fans.
bonglicc420 t1_ja0u1d5 wrote
Unless we find out Mona Lisa had a moustache all along.....
bill4365 t1_ja2pfzy wrote
Was this a da vinci code reference?? If so I approve
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