Something disturbing about the way the copyright laws work is that the culture created since the laws were instituted is not open to adaptation to the new culture. Instead, the corporations who own those copyrights hold on to them and make fortunes by reusing their old creations over and over again. They even take the culture that is now open and usurp it into their repertoire of icons. So here’s the deal:
What will a new culture create when all creativity is stifled?
Some might say, wait, it’s not creativity if one takes something old and makes it new. I beg to differ. I agree with Lawrence Lessig that all culture builds upon the past. Everything new and innovative is only in relevance to something old and outdated. The car, the cell phone, all built upon technologies of the past. The thing is, the past culture is fenced off by the copyright laws that perpetuate with time. No longer are artists allowed to build upon the towers of the past, but they have to start from scratch: tiny cardboard houses competing with towering steel fortresses.
