Hard weather for online publishing 

If the twentieth century opened up new spaces of freedom for written expression, the twenty-first is in the process of reducing them under the pretext of wanting to preserve them. We are witnessing the same phenomenon which followed the invention of printing and political power was already no stranger to it. In France, to fight against the proliferation of pamphlets castigating his action, Louis XIV established censorship through a royal right of reproduction granted to printers. During the revolution, on the initiative of Beaumarchais who created the first society of authors, copyright was granted and the first copyright measures were put in place. However, at the same time, we also witnessed the birth of the first publishing houses which would serve as intermediaries between the author and the printer. Publishers, they were called booksellers at the time, then became all-powerful, by creating literary prizes at the beginning of the twentieth century and selecting the works to be read. The future of an author often depends on their choices. They will remain masters of creation until the arrival of the Internet and the first online publishers-printers. They work on demand and by post. Amazon with Kindle is becoming the best-known representative. From now on, writing is no longer reserved for the small circle of fashionable writers. Every aspiring author gets access to publishing. The network of major publishers and traditional booksellers, which until now exercised undivided power, is seeing competition. Once again, political power comes to the rescue. To favor the network of booksellers themselves subject to the large publishing houses, it has just raised the minimum floor price of postal items to three euros for everything relating to the book trade. Authors who are self-published or distributed on demand will be the first to be affected and in-house authors will once again be able to reign supreme over th