Another quote for Jamie Kellner Who, as you’ll remember, is the TBS chairman who claims that TV viewers who skip commercials are committing “theft”:

“There has grown up in the minds of certain groups in this country the notion that because a man or a corporation has made a profit out of the public for a number of years, the government and the courts are charged with the duty of guaranteeing such profit in the future, even in the face of changing circumstances and contrary public interest. This strange doctrine is not supported by statute nor common law. Neither individuals nor corporations have any right to come into court and ask that the clock of history be stopped, or turned back, for their private benefit.

It’s spoken by the judge in Robert A. Heinlein’s first published story, “Life-Line” (1939). Remembered by Sal Manzo, a poster to Steven den Beste’s U.S.S. Clueless. (Den Beste has some good comments of his own here.) [09:51 PM]