In the legal policy debate on the amendment of the copyright are those positions that consider the actual situation realistically, so far in the minority. The incorrect identification of intellectual property and ownership on the one hand and the lobbying of a still influential recycling industry on the other hand, blind us to what is in the public interest, appropriate and necessary.
That the human mind works for centuries or even millennia copy for your own use and share with each other is just as much as negate the fact that an information and knowledge society is dependent on a possible unrestricted access to and flow of information. The current copyright law and its interpretation significantly impede science and education.
Because the policy of this knowledge and instead closes the lobbyist speaks the word, the law runs in the area of copyright according to prior anachronistic. The copyright is currently running in favor of an ailing industry – not in favor of creative people – and worse, at the expense of the public. This worldwide development will end sooner or later, and take an opposite course.
If you look at the current legal and political mainstream look, then does what EU Commissioner Neelie Kroes has just said on copyright , such as the much needed Breath Of Fresh Air .
Kroes has recognized that the current copyright law is often viewed only as a tool to punish and to revoke and not as a means to recognize and reward creative work. This is due partly to the fact that the age-old cultural technique of copying a nervous industry will only be presented as a violation of law, on the other hand, the actual creator, with certain exceptions, no longer be paid reasonably.
The current copyright law is in a crisis of legitimacy that can dissolve the legislature, or worse. So far he has chosen the second option. This development will sooner or later reach its endpoint. The fact that a number of intermediaries such as publishers and music labels will remain on the track, is an inevitable side effects of the Internet age. Old and new is created disappears. The industrial revolution was still in any way and will not be different this time. The policy will not be able to stop the development, but rather is called to create reasonable conditions. The reality check is in the width but still.
Update:
After I was asked several times today, as loud as my specific proposals to amend the copyright law, I would like to sketch out at least a rough line and some key points. The following ideas are not originally from me, nor do I claim that they are designed in detail to an end.
My basic assumption is that in a knowledge and information society is a fundamental need for knowledge and information as possible freely available and freely accessible. This goal is achievable with a similarly designed property monopoly, however.
You will need to separate from the idea of an absolute exclusive rights. Copyright laws should in future only be configured as a protected legal position, which is located in a permanent process of weighing other legal positions. It has a much greater extent than previously found that public interest consideration, which means that there is not an absolute priority to the interests of the author / rights holder more.
For purposes of education and science should be seen as yet, free access to intellectual works to enable and ensure a much higher extent. The legislature should also build on this idea of open access.
I also think it is basically necessary to extend the authorization of private copies, even to phenomena such as file sharing. Only the truly commercial reproduction should remain exempt. Especially in this area, I think the way is not that thereby the economic interests of authors compared to the current situation may be affected. For a number of studies suggest that those who share the music on the net, pay above-average frequency for music, whether through the purchase of a CD or by attending concerts.
Also a significant reduction of the amount currently 70 years protection period is an approach which I think is worth supporting.