I propose we stifle this kind of legislation once and for all. I have two ideas.
1) Criminal penalties for violating the inalienable rights of other humans: acceptable. Criminal penalties for infringing on legislated rights (i.e. patent, trademark and copyright)? Unacceptable; may incur civil penalties, but only if the rights holder raises the objection. Such a system requires thought, discussion and planning because the Little Guy needs to be able to afford suing for damages.
2) Compulsory licensing for everything. As it stands, if you compose a song and publish the lyrics and music, no one may record the song without your permission. Once it's been recorded and made publicly available, the rights holder is compelled to license the song for other to record. The law provides for the royalties to be collected on your behalf and paid to you. Do the same for broadcast rights and distribution rights.
The one thing that simply cannot happen is trying to turn every administrator of a data pipe into copyright cop. There's no way for them to know who owns rights to what and what's been licensed to whom and for what purposes.
1) They do this already for compensation/punitive damages for infringing on Free Speech, assault, etc. You would need to prove it though.
2) Royalties are collected by private organisations like RIAA. You would need to prove that you own the royalties. How would you collect licence fees for copying IP say from music CD to USB?
Your 2) is fair use. Copying from CD that I own to a thumb drive that I own is fair use and does not entitle the original rights holder to additional royalties.
I'm also a firm believer in protections against commercial infringement. When I share a song with a friend, that's not an infringement that a court would particularly care about (and probably nor should the rights holder.) However, distributing many hundreds of copies on thumb drives should necessitate the compulsory fee. Still, you have to prove it in court...
1) Criminal penalties for violating the inalienable rights of other humans: acceptable. Criminal penalties for infringing on legislated rights (i.e. patent, trademark and copyright)? Unacceptable; may incur civil penalties, but only if the rights holder raises the objection. Such a system requires thought, discussion and planning because the Little Guy needs to be able to afford suing for damages.
2) Compulsory licensing for everything. As it stands, if you compose a song and publish the lyrics and music, no one may record the song without your permission. Once it's been recorded and made publicly available, the rights holder is compelled to license the song for other to record. The law provides for the royalties to be collected on your behalf and paid to you. Do the same for broadcast rights and distribution rights.
The one thing that simply cannot happen is trying to turn every administrator of a data pipe into copyright cop. There's no way for them to know who owns rights to what and what's been licensed to whom and for what purposes.