"While I agree that schools and other institutions should not be unreasonably charged for the use of books and other published material, or find it unnecessarily difficult to obtain permissions, I maintain that it's essential that the originators of such material should be fairly paid for it".
Pullman was joined in his protests by other noted children's authors such as Anne Fine and Julia Donaldson, along with thousands of other writers whose works are widely used in schools, all fearing that the government's proposals to expand educational copyright exception will undermine the incentive for writers to provide valuable materials for children. Science textbook writer Ian Graham expressed this concern most clearly, telling The Independent:
"I don't understand why inventors, musicians and software writers can protect their ideas and work but the value of an educational writer is now so low that we [cannot] protect our ... creative work. Or is the Government planning to tell Microsoft that schools can pirate as many copies of Microsoft Office as they like?"
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