US Constitution Art I Sec 8 grants temporary rights to AUTHORS and INVENTORS, not to record labels. Many copyright claims are held by large companies that dictate terms to the artists. Moreover, the Constitutional purpose is to PROMOTE useful arts. Do the alleged infringements inhibit useful arts? How are the recent intellectual property claims primarily focused on protecting and promoting the actual inventors and artists, not just defending opportunists who don’t want free-license artists to put them out of business?
Yeah, don’t pirate. But, you can’t shut down all freedom just to protect an industry that may need to reinvent. If Steve Jobs were alive, he might offer us another solution, like he did with iTunes almost a decade ago.
If there’s a copyright claim, the artist needs to show his face in court. If there’s $50 million awarded for an infringement, the artist needs to get the lump of that, with the record label as his agent and attorney—not $49 million for the record company and $1 million to the artist.. · · · →