Most of these writers are doing work they don't like. I have seen the letters, believe me. Their work is often being made use of by people who are far more secure than they are.

The struggle over copyright predates the emergence of the middle-class intellectual as a stereotype, though I don't remember the details; there was a landmark case in the late eighteenth century which set a precedent for authors maintaining a share in their work, as until then copyrights were bought outright (which remained a predominant pattern throughout the nineteenth century in some contexts) and if successful were then traded, often in shares, between the dominant printer-publishers without the creators benefiting further.