[TheOtherHobbes]

That's because there's no such thing as the free and open flow of art if there's little or no art - or at least high quality art - being made, because creators aren't being rewarded.

It's odd how rarely there's no apparent understanding that the flow needs to go both ways - and if it doesn't go both ways, there is no flow.

[FeepingCreature]

I have an unusual perspective on this because 90% of the music I listen to is remixes and 90% of the literature I read is fanfiction.

Which are works of art where a good fraction of the work is done by unpaid amateurs who are at risk of being sued by the "original artists" (or rather their labels/publishers).

The point is, from that perspective, copyright is an existential threat to a very large fraction of the art I consume.

[bborud]

If artists don't get paid directly by sales to consumers absolutely nothing bad will happen. Society will have an abundance of artistic output and artists will find ways to monetise their art anyway. Don't pretend otherwise.

Sure, some middle layers become obsolete, but the point of art wasn't to provide food for its one time symbiotic parasites.