nukchebi0 wrote:
Copyright law shouldn't make criminals out of more than 60 million Americans — tell Congress that it's time to stop the madness!
I laugh at this.
In defense of the petition, they probably want a reform of the copyright system. It seems that whenever Mickey Mouse is a few years away from public domain, copyright law gets extended. How does that aid creative works? In fact, copyrights can last for up to 120 years, which does not seem to benefit really anyone. The point of copyrights and patents is to make a state-granted monopoly for a short period of time as an incentive to develop new and innovative ideas. That does not happen anymore, as creative works seems to be protected for inordinate amounts of time.
In short, the copyright and patent laws of the USA need massive reform. I do not think that people should be able to download whatever they want for free, but I do think that copyright protections need to be far more limited than they are currently.
If I copy a DVD that I purchased for a personal backup, I am actually committing a crime since it is an encrypted work and I circumvented it. Is that fair? No.