Are the creative works that we make owed to the collective?
This is a topic that I've thought about on and off and there was recently a post by Michael Harley where he mentioned Emily Dickinson who had died without publishing most of her work, and that it was her sister who found the poems and had them published. Should the sister have done that? I think the world is a better place thanks to it.
A closer example is I read the Minus! comics a long time ago and one day the site disappeared. I had looked out for news about the author and did some research every couple years and eventually found that someone had a copy of the comics and they have put it back online.
KiwiByBeats was the original site and I think someone has bought the domain and lovingly brought back everything they could. Specifically Minus! and it is a joy to go through the comic again.
On the other hand I feel a bit of guilt that even though attribution is everywhere and I can see that the website was rebuilt with care, the original author isn't the one putting it out.
Minus! may go on to inspire others but is that inspiration owed to us by the creator so much so that we can ignore their wishes or lack thereof.
There is a github repo that wants to make the comic last.
His comics were pretty important to me as a teenager (especially minus!) and I think it would be sad to let them fade from cultural history.
This is the same feeling I feel but is it right - does it matter?
People pass and we learn that they made massive creative works that never saw the light of day. We share them and they could become popular. They are gone so they don't care but it isn't ours to take.
I'm not sure what I'm getting at but there is some discomfort in all this.