"...copyright has gotten out of hand in general... It was supposed to encourage the creation of ideas, not let corporations and individuals 'own' ideas and keep a stranglehold on them forever. Greed has corrupted it and turned it into a tool that's used to silence the public rather than enrich it."
"Archaic copyright laws and short-sighted commercial practices are obliterating a growing human subculture."
Oh hoo hoo! Y'all just stepped into my favorite arena.
Corporations like the ones that own the major studios act to prevent even innocent infringement, like preschools using the Disney characters without authorization. Yet they prey upon individual artists' work without shame. Let me unveil some of the most grievous examples.
Disney, The Lion King. Such a blatant ripoff of Kimba the White Lion that some scenes are shot-for-shot matchups. "Fang" is renamed "Scar," "Kimba" is renamed "Simba." This is the work of perhaps Japan's most revered artist of the twentieth century, Osamu Tezuki. Stolen and not credited.
"Oh, but that happened almost two decades ago. Things have changed, right?" Wrong! Koushun Takami, Battle Royale. Published as a novel, made into a movie. Stolen outright and released this year as The Hunger Games.
"Ah, but those are foreigners. They wouldn't steal from an American." Wrong again. Jack Kirby, veteran, patriot, and revered American comics creator, publishes The New Gods. The adventures of Mark Moonrider, armed only with his connection with The Source, and his struggles against Darkseid, black-helmeted ruler of the urbanized planetoid Apokolips. Stolen and retitled Star Wars.
Corporations guard their copyrights like junkyard dogs while stealing whatever catches their fancy from every other artist on the planet with impunity. And they preach to us homilies about burning illegal DvDs and try to push the SOPA and PIPA bills through congress.
Provided the 'net reaches its fullest potential, we will inevitably enter the post-copyright era, wherein the moment something is published, it enters the public domain.
But if we allow greed and ruthlessness to strangle that potential, well... as a wiser man than me wrote, "free flow of information is the only safeguard against tyranny. The once-chained people whose leaders at last lose their grip on information flow will soon burst with freedom and vitality, but the free nation gradually constricting its grip on public discourse has begun its rapid slide into despotism. Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master."