I think you have to ask this question: Should we even accept copyright in the
first place? It's taking away what is otherwise peoples rights to free
expression. The justification for copyright was the benefit of the arts and
sciences. However it was always intended to be "limited". That was originally
7 years. Now I don't see how you can argue that today those original claims
hold true. It's not a "limited right" (it's an extreme length of time which
means nothing you write today will likely ever be in the public domain in
your lifetime- short of someone explicitly putting it there- or government
works).
I think it's also utterly ridicules to try and enforce copyright in the
environment that exists today. It's a fruitless battle that can only destroy
the democratic institution. I don't think you can justify censorship and
copyright as the cost of freedom. Yet this is what is going on.
The internet is global and the world doesn't agree on copyright no matter how
much the entertainment industry wants to argue otherwise. There are
international agreements on copyright, but it's far from globally enforced.
There are dozens of countries which have sign none of the half dozen
international agreements in the last 150 years.
Where has copyright led us? It has led to censorship, violence against the
people, and unjustly benefited a small minority of absurdly rich individuals.
I don't think the elimination of copyright would necessarily be a bad thing.
The people doing the core work are not the ones benefiting from it, and I'm
coming at this from a perspective of being one of the people who have
benefits financially from my own creative works. It didn't take digital
restrictions, threats, or violence to profit off my labor. All it took was
merely a sane business model.
For example an author producing creative works can provide there works via
subscription. Those works may get copied, but the end result is those who
want those works *now* and continued access to new works from the same author
need to subscribe.
There are other totally doable models as well. The news industry survived off
advertising for the last 100 years. While it may be a failing industry today
it's not because of copyright infringement. It's because the newspapers have
failed to adapt to the ever changing environment and competition from other
outlets utilizing the advertising model.
There are certainly successful news outlets now that are even specialized and
successful. One need only look around. One such example is: torrentfreak.com.
While small they put out a consistent 2-3 articles a day on a topic that
attracts a niche readership. If they can succeed with a niche certainly
others can too with a wider audience.
