Alex Hudson home@alexhudson.com writes:
The end goal is to redistribute money, roughly from the consumer to the artist.
That's *not* the goal of copyright.
The goal of (USA) copyright is to promote "the Progress of Science and useful Arts". Redistributing money is only ever a means to this explicit end. A system that focusses on redistributing money to the detriment of progress in science and useful arts is *failing* at the stated goal of copyright.
I really don't buy into the "they don't have a right to earn a living unless they can make money on it on their own" arguments that some people have implied.
Again, I hold that everyone has the right to attempt to earn a living. If society does not value their specific activities enough to pay them a living income, though, then they fail; and that is not a violation of their rights.