This may ruffle some feathers, but I have to say it. We as a society have to get past this obsession we have with copyright. This business model is so far passed its sell-by date, but major publishers keep drinking this expired milk and trying to force the rest of us to drink it too. Aren’t you tired of it? Haven’t you heard enough about it? It’s just so pathetic. Can we please just give up on it, and let all of these lawyers go do something worthwhile with their time? Please?
I’ve touched on this topic before, but in recent years it has just gotten so much worse. As the music publishers, and the book publishers, and the movie studios get more and more desperate, they just keep flailing and lashing out at us, instead of directing their energy in a more productive direction. Like finding a new 21st century business model that doesn’t rely on 17th century law that can no longer be credibly enforced. I don’t know about you, but I want artists to be able to build on the work of other artists. I want to be able to check out e-books from the Internet Archive (because it is a library, despite what the Big 4 say). I want the number of works entering the public domain every year to increase, not decrease. This is the world I want to live in, because there are so many more opportunities for creativity without having to worry about who is suing who.
If you are a creator, you should want to live in that world too. And if you are a creator and you are currently leaning on the digital crutch known as copyright, shame on you. You are part of the problem. How about we all lawyer down a bit, and find a new way to make a living as artists?