like SlippyToad's post in a 22 May 2001 post (#33) on this Slashdot thread regarding the book "Digital Copyright":
Time once again to post my "black hole" meme, which I hope will propagate up to the people who need to hear it the most, and encourage them to vote with their work for the system that benefits them the most: I speak to the artists, authors, and creators of copyrighted material.
Current copyright laws are, in my opinion, going to put the 20th century's greatest artistic outpourings into a legally mandated black hole. Most artists and authors have an expectation that their work will immortalize them. Otherwise we wouldn't have such things as the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame (as biased and political an organization as it is) or the Grammys, or the Oscars, or any other prizes and awards for great contributions to the field.
The problem with this expectation is that in order for your work to be immortalized, it has to survive beyond the first generation of its fans. Just because the Baby Boomers put down in their book that Bob Dylan was somebody fuckin' great, doesn't mean that I will. And it is my generation that will be responsible for ensuring the longevity of art created by my parents' generation. In order for a work to survive past a generation, copies have to be made. Lots of them. Vinyl albums are incredibly fragile, and are easily scratched by careless children, and left on radiators or in attics and warp. CD's get dropped behind the sofa. Cassette tapes are left on the dashboard and melt. Boo.
Since copying all of these media is now illegal, I won't be making any copies of them. The only entity authorised to copy the media is the record company. They only make copies when they think they'll get a sale. Now, as the generation who popularized the work starts dropping off, sales of the work drop off as well. Fewer copies are made. But the copyright term still stands. Before the copyright expires, virtually every "consumer" of his work will have expired as well. Their collections will be sold at estate sales, thrown in the trash, or left in the attic to decay.
Finally, the copyright expires and people are now free to distribute their own copies of the work. But who cares anymore? The first generation that will be legally able to make free and clear copies of Bob Dylan's work, as I understand it, will be my own grandchildren, who will not be born for another twenty years.
The possibility exists that there will be few private copies after 75 years. The company that owns them may clear them out to make more room in their vault.
Put that in the wayforward machine and imagine any type of bleak orwellian culture you like. The results are in the long-term detrimental to that which most artists crave: their continued adulation by a rapt audience. It is the cheer of the crowd that keeps them going. Knowing that the cheer goes on after their funeral has to be a significant part of what they expect as their legacy. Over-restrictive copyright laws will cut that legacy short, and their life's work will be merely "product," to be disposed of immediately upon consumption.
Then puppet10 followed up with this post (#78) on the same thread:
You can see this now in all its glory in early silent era film.
I was recently looking into finding some early silent era films for which copyright has expired. I figured that since they had fallen into the public domain it would be possible to find copies on the web (although most DivX people are interested in only copying recent releases, I thought there might be a Project Gutenburg equivalent somewhere on the web for people interested in early film). However my search was short lived for a cheap source of copyright free film (although you can purchase DVD of some of the few remaining viable early silent film, for $20.00 a film). Then I thought, what prevents me from purchasing a DVD, and then copying it and setting up my own site (besides the obvious bandwidth costs) or posting DivX copies to newsgroups. Well it seems that the companies who restore the films do everything they can to prevent this. They add music which is still under copyright. They add hand done tinting (ruining the film experience in my opinion) to add creative effort to the work. They release versions of the film still under copyright (a German release of the Cabinet of Dr Caligari, rather than the public domain US version). They also try make the argument that their restoration work adds originality to the work (yes I understand that restoration is important and takes money but does that deserve another 90 year monopoly lease?). Etc…
Not only that, it is difficult to get access to original prints because of their fragility and rarity. Part of the reason for this is that the studios who owned the copyright had no incentive to preserve the work which they copyrighted for posterity. In fact there's more incentive for them to make a "modern" update of the story to "regenerate" their copyright in a new film.
I think that some percentage of the profits made by a copyright should be funnelled back into the preservation of the work for the public (this should only apply to registered copyrights) and again require a copy of the work which is released to the public after the expiration of the copyright. As it is now the sole remaining copies of the work can be locked up in one persons private collection or one studios vault and no one can access it.
Some of the preservation work needed for more recent films is already being done at taxpayer expense. However the parties who own this material (and were not properly taking care of it, or making an effort to restore it before it was unrecoverable) are the ones benefiting (For more info)
Simply they copyright holders in general aren't keeping their end of the bargin by keeping works flowing into the public domain to stimulate the arts and sciences. (This is not to say that we shouldn't hold up the public's end of the bargin and all go download the latest movies and music for free, its just understandable when it happens)