Comment Let Them Be Public Domain, But Public Beware (Score 1) 43
I think his works (and all author's works after a reasonable period of time) should be in the public domain world-wide, and it should be free to edit/remix/republish/share/and generally wreak havoc with however someone intends. However, this does bring up an interesting point we as a society will have to deal with. Notable works like 1984 are notable for a reason, and world famous, and referenced widely, and it is on nearly every recommended reading list ever. What if Amazon sells a copy of "1985 by Bob Smith", a word for word clone of the book? Not a big deal. But what if Amazon sells someone a copy of "1984 by George Orwall", that features the famous quote such as "Who controls the past controls a great deal on Tide with your next Amazon Purchase!", or copies of Roots where Kunta Kinte talks about how much he loved slavery, and so on. It's the Deep Fake Debate: Literature Edition. What if the editing is subtle? Yes, people should have the full right to use these old texts, but we have to make sure we educate ourselves that we are aware that this can & will be out there.