/lit/ - Literature

I have an idea for a murder mystery where someone's been killing off retired artists.

The detective considers the options: crazy fan who wanted them to keep creating, someone who hates the elderly, someone who hates an artistic movement they were a part of, Disney-style corporation who wants to buy off the rights of their less recalcitrant heirs.

The twist is that the murderer is some guy who really likes the public domain and believes that hurrying the expiry of the artists' copyrights by a few decades will provide such a great aggregate benefit to culture that it justifies the cost of cutting a few lives a little bit short (he is a utilitarian).

I have trouble coming up with red herrings for this story. It seems like all the other suspects' motives would also have to be really wacky, and that would reduce the impact of the reveal. Any ideas?

Pic related: Tom Lehrer (92 years old) recently released all of his works into the public domain, presumably because he has no children and wouldn't want his songs from the 50s to be copyrighted until the 22nd century.

I have an idea for a murder mystery where someone's been killing off retired artists.

The detective considers the options: crazy fan who wanted them to keep creating, someone who hates the elderly, someone who hates an artistic movement they were a part of, Disney-style corporation who wants to buy off the rights of their less recalcitrant heirs.

The twist is that the murderer is some guy who really likes the public domain and believes that hurrying the expiry of the artists' copyrights by a few decades will provide such a great aggregate benefit to culture that it justifies the cost of cutting a few lives a little bit short (he is a utilitarian).

I have trouble coming up with red herrings for this story. It seems like all the other suspects' motives would also have to be really wacky, and that would reduce the impact of the reveal. Any ideas?

Pic related: Tom Lehrer (92 years old) recently released all of his works into the public domain, presumably because he has no children and wouldn't want his songs from the 50s to be copyrighted until the 22nd century.