What’s your take on copyright law?

Last week, I began talking about copyright law, what it is, generally how it works, and compared the intellectual property to other types of property so it would be clear that we are, in fact, talking property.

Now, I would like to explain why certain people dislike the length of time the copyright lasts:

1) They hate big corps like Disney who use their copyright to force people not to use their characters, their movies, etc. Companies as big as Disney are happy to tackle anyone who breathes near their copyright (if you try to sell T-shirts with Jiminiy Cricket on them, for example).

2) Many people presume all authors are rich

3) Many people presume books/words only make money in the first few years of being sold/published.

4) Some people just want free shit. They hate paying for anything and think they’re entitled to anything anyone else works hard on (like the “this is mine” meme)

Let me address each of these in turn. Continue reading →