The symbol of copyright kind of says it all really, put a big safe barrier around my Content.

From my point of view copyright has gone a bit overboard. People that develop the latest and greatest technology get a maximum of 20 years of patent protection. And often shorter if the maintenance fees are not paid on the 4th, 8th & 12th anniversary of the patent (unless it's a design patent) and the patent is actively protected.

However copyright generally lasts the life of the last surviving major author / composer / director etc + 70 years. For the recording itself it lasts for 50 years after broadcast etc. Not to mention that there is also a 25 year publication copyright which means that even if the author has passed 70+ years ago and earlier unknown work gets published this publication is given an additional 25 years.

These numbers are insanely long if you ask me and really serve no purpose what so ever except moneyspinning. It's often said that musicians etc need these long terms for their pensions etc yet everyone else is expected to save up during their working life instead of being dependent on the yearly copyright cheque from the song you made when you where 21 years old.

With technology we as a community understand that a limited period is needed for inventors to monetise on their inventions but after a relatively short period their work becomes free for others to develop upon. This to the betterment of us all as we stand on the shoulders of giants.....

Why doesn't the same apply to artistic works? You need to be able to work upon existing works to create more cultural enrichment and long copyrights effectively block that even though exceptions for parody's etc are built in these rights are not guaranteed or exactly defined.

Overall copyright is important but we have gone completely overboard. These laws where made long before new media formats got developed every 5 - 10 years, meaning you have to pay over and over again for what is effectively the same thing.

In a digital age copyright should go hand in hand with regulation that ensured that media is made available to the public. In other words, you want us to crack down on piracy, first make sure there are sufficient ways for people to get the content in a legal manner at a reasonable cost. Sure we now have Spotify but where is our equivelant of Hulu? Also there should be considerably more exceptions for personal use as fight the big bad criminal organisations that breach copyright but if you can't properly enforce it leave the consumer alone.

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by Chambler
In other words, you want us to crack down on piracy, first make sure there are sufficient ways for people to get the content in a legal manner at a reasonable cost.

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That'd dynamite the Disney vault open!

If copyright became more like a trademark -- use it or lose it -- it'd stop blatant market rigging like Disney's. It might, though, be unfair on poorer authors who can't afford to keep their work commercially available. Perhaps the rule should be that if you deliberately withhold your work to increase its value, you loose copyright protection after, say, a year, and only regain it after a set period (say five years), and upon paying a fine.

I agree with giving the author control of the work for life, and perhaps for a set time after their death, but 70 years is an awful long time. Twenty or 30 would provide a nest-egg for the relatives, without undue restrictions on the work. If it goes for authors, it should go for software developers as well, though.