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Free software exists in a kind of “special trade zone” within the existing copyright system, defined by free copyleft licenses like the GNU General Public License (GPL). Free culture has created similar zones with tools like the Creative Commons’ licenses. We usually consider that to be sufficient. Yet we are often frustrated by the desire to interface with the rest of our culture, and sooner or later we’ll all have to face the big bugbear that is reforming the copyright system. Aside from a few vested interests in the entertainment industry, nearly everyone hates the system we’ve got — it’s clearly overreaching and ill-adapted to the electronic world of the internet. But what sort of system would we like? That’s much more contentious. Here’s a synthesis of a few prominent ideas of what real copyright reform might look like. Read the full article at Freesoftware Magazine.
Copyright is arbitrary. Any of the rules that are set up will always benefit some people to the detriment of others.
Change the rules, change the individuals in any particular group, but it doesn't change the fact that the rules are inherently arbitrary.
Having copyright has created a "target of opportunity", a single place to spend time and money, which has been utilized by the well connected to change those rules to favor their particular group.
See what happens after a while?
Until the fundamentally arbitrary nature of copyright is addressed, it's just rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.
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Change the rules, change the individuals in any particular group, but it doesn't change the fact that the rules are inherently arbitrary.
Having copyright has created a "target of opportunity", a single place to spend time and money, which has been utilized by the well connected to change those rules to favor their particular group.
See what happens after a while?
Until the fundamentally arbitrary nature of copyright is addressed, it's just rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.