About 2:
It's funny you cite the DMCA of all things as an example of "good" copyright protection. The DMCA is almost as bad a clusterfuck of a legislation as SOPA, if on a much smaller scale. DMCA takedowns are often without due process either (just look at all the mistaken and automated takedowns on Youtube, or the fact that it's largely abused to try to gain an edge over competitors) and safe havens are a broken concept in the first place. Also, as far as I am aware the DMCA places the burden of proof on the receiver of the takedown notice to show that there was no infringement taking place (correct me if I should be wrong). That's ridiculous.
Additionally, the DMCA doesn't address the core problem of copyright either, which is that it's the core foundation of an outdated business model that needs to go the way of the dinosaur, and it needs to do so fast before it does any more incredibly difficult to to reverse damage on our future society.
We as a society need to find ways to rewards the creation of culture and art. Copyright isn't and will not ever be the solution. It probably never was.
A final remark:
>While copyright acts dating back hundreds of years to England were sometimes used as instruments of government oppression
That's a funny thing to say, especially the "sometimes". Oppression (censorship) was basically the reason copyright was invented in the advent of printing presses slowly becoming widely available in the middle of the 16th century.
It's funny you cite the DMCA of all things as an example of "good" copyright protection. The DMCA is almost as bad a clusterfuck of a legislation as SOPA, if on a much smaller scale. DMCA takedowns are often without due process either (just look at all the mistaken and automated takedowns on Youtube, or the fact that it's largely abused to try to gain an edge over competitors) and safe havens are a broken concept in the first place. Also, as far as I am aware the DMCA places the burden of proof on the receiver of the takedown notice to show that there was no infringement taking place (correct me if I should be wrong). That's ridiculous.
Additionally, the DMCA doesn't address the core problem of copyright either, which is that it's the core foundation of an outdated business model that needs to go the way of the dinosaur, and it needs to do so fast before it does any more incredibly difficult to to reverse damage on our future society.
We as a society need to find ways to rewards the creation of culture and art. Copyright isn't and will not ever be the solution. It probably never was.
A final remark:
>While copyright acts dating back hundreds of years to England were sometimes used as instruments of government oppression
That's a funny thing to say, especially the "sometimes". Oppression (censorship) was basically the reason copyright was invented in the advent of printing presses slowly becoming widely available in the middle of the 16th century.