[macns]

The real issue here is not small time artists that want to make a living. Its not about millionaire actors or giant corps that cant afford a 5th house.

Its about freedom of information. The internet makes that possible. Information should be accessible to anyone, for free.

Copyright breaks that. It breaks the internet, and it causes a lot more problems than the one that was meant to fix.

With respect to copyright holders, if you dont want your work shared, internet is not a full proof solution, and (hopefully) will never be. It was designed for sharing.

[anigbrowl]

The real issue here is not small time artists that want to make a living.

How dare we! It's not like we have living expenses or aspire to any sort of financial stability.

Information should be accessible to anyone, for free.

I love how you assert that without any supporting arguments. Please send me the information on how to help myself to a portion of whatever is in your bank account. I know that anything you have accumulated there is the result of your skill and labor, but I appreciate your generosity and determination to make this accessible to me and will limit my consumption of your bank balance to an amount I consider reasonable.

[macns]

Okay, excuse my poor choice of phrasing (not a native english speaker), and let me explain:

The threat we're currently facing from associations like MPAA is a lot bigger than any of us. Today we talk about artistic content, tomorrow it's science and cure for cancer (and that might be already happening - recently a doctor told me how he was trying to re-gain access to the university's private for students only library). That's the kind of information I was talking about, obviously not personal ones. That's what the internet made a reality and copyright breaks it.

You argue that your work has value and really, I agree with you. But we're using the world's first medium to gain popularity or whatever, and IMO we just have to accept its drawbacks, that our work (if it's good) will be shared. Many programmers for instance, they publish for free, and some may accept donations (others live by them).

I'm not saying that you should publish for free, but many individuals make this choice daily for their own reasons. I'm only hoping that as internet mentality matures, better and fairer means to compensate for intellectual work will be invented, but for now the way you're advocating copyright you're only helping the ones that already made millions off of it. If it wasn't for them, your work would probably be a lot more valuable and we would be enjoying better, genuine content.

[waterlesscloud]

"Information should be accessible to anyone, for free."

Just not your information, of course.