In case you don’t already know it, one idiot can ruin things for everyone. In this case, that idiot is Stephen James Joyce.
The New Yorker has a fascinating piece on the copyright controversy that has thrown Joyce studies, in particular, into turmoil. Stephen James Joyce has proved himself extraordinarily unwilling to allow scholars access to Joyce’s private letters and writings, and has even objected to their use of passages from his grandfather’s works. Using copyright as a basis for his claims, Stephen and his lawyers have threatened and sued academics in both Europe and North America, and Joyce himself has gone so far as to destroy some private family correspondence to keep it out of the hands of critics. He doesn’t draw the line at academics, either; anyone who wants to use Joyce’s material is fair game for Stephen’s wrath.
I tried reading a James Joyce novel once. Ugh.
The important issue here is copyright law, not Joyce’s body of work or his cantankerous and irritating descendant.