As Walled Culture the book (free digital versions) details, for decades the copyright industry has lobbied consistently (and successfully) for more and harsher laws targeting alleged infringement. Against that background, it is hardly uprising that these laws are used on a massive scale every day. But some companies take this to extremes. Here, for example, …
As a published author, I have to say that yes, indeed, copyright laws have turned corporations into participants in a “copyright industry.” It’s true that a creator’s livelihood relies on people buying their work. It’s also true that a creator’s livelihood depends on the dissemination of their creations. The more you’re in circulation, the better off you will be. Corporate greed and defending the bottom line under copyright law is getting ridiculous. It really puts limits on the scope of a creator’s success. This is why there are creators out there like me who do not mind piracy. When I’m dead, if I wrote something important, I hope future people will be able to see it. I’m pretty sure that whatever I wrote isn’t all that significant, but who knows? Maybe it will be. What I’m getting at: It’s becoming a real problem for documenting the history of human material culture, when you think about it. Corporations are controlling and guarding the human material culture. Their goals work contrary to the goal of the historians and archaeologists of the future. Corporate greed is preventing future people from understanding their past.