If I may preface my post:
"It is a fault which can be ovserved in most disputes, that, truth being mid-way between the two opinions that are held, each side departs the further from it the greater his passion for contradiction.
- René Descartes, in a letter.
First of all, I would like to make a living publishing things, if not as an author than as a professor. That said, I feel that current copyright laws are extremely excessive. I feel like current duration of copyright could be halved with no ill affects.
Let's look at the good and bad of it.
Good:Strong copyright laws enable authors AND their families, sometimes for several generations with US copyright law (but more often publishers than authors) to control and benefit from the work for a very long period of time.
Strong copyright laws specifically also:
a) prevent others from using or benefitting from the copyrighted material in ways the copyright owner dislikes (ie, free).
Bad:Strong copyright laws prevent others from:
a) sharing out-of-print texts easily with others
b) using works for educational purposes if the copyright owner is difficult to find
c) making derivatory works to further art or education
Strong copyright laws also enables:
a) the rich (who can afford IP lawyers) to bully the poor (who can not), legally.
b) rich copyright holders to shut down competition and stifle innovation (by threatening law suits, etc., particularly with the new "expanded" interpretation of copyright recently going through Congress)
c) government agencies to cause damage to smaller companies during "piracy" raids, regardless of whether the raid is justified legally, all with relative impunity. (Ã la Steve Jackson Games)
Feel free to add anything you feel I may have missed.
In addition, strong copyright (and especially patent) laws internationally hinder developing nations who need a chance to allow local innovators the freedom to create and express themselves without fear of legal action. The stronger the copyright laws, the harder it is for poor nations to pick themselves up.
I am pro-copyright, mind you. But I think it has been taken too far, and needs to be scaled back.
I have put my money where my mouth is, and donated to Creative Commons, the EFF, and Public Knowledge. Of these three, Public Knowledge is the organisation I am most supportive of (
www.publicknowledge.org).
If any of you have not yet, you really should read
Free Culture by Lawrence Lessig. It's licensed under a Creative Commons license, and so is freely available (online and elsewhere). He really looks at these issues in detail. If you do not have the patience to read a book, then watch a presentation:
http://lessig.org/freeculture/free.html