[bluedanieru]

How does restricting transfer of copyright affect this? Is it that hard to get around? An artist wouldn't be able to completely sell the 'rights' to his work but he could certainly work out an arrangement whereby some record label or studio or publisher, etc., agrees to distribute his work for him in exchange for a portion of the proceeds. The only difference is that after the deed is done, the artist still owns the work and can work out a similar arrangement with someone else, should he choose.

This isn't uncommon even now, actually, but especially with yet-unknown artists publishers will often push pretty hard against it, and usually get what they want. I think removing it as a possibility would be good for artists in most cases.