Copyright and Alternatives

History of copyright law
Free Culture
Licensing and Creative Commons

The development of the copyright law started in the 18th century. At first copyright was a limited term of 14 years, then became a copyright forever and at the end of the 18th c. the situation was an unregulated creativity, free derivatives and 14 years copyright. Gradually these conditions changed to a controlled copyright system. Up to the present many creations are published, more and more is copied, be it written documents or other items as e.g. photographs or 3D objects.
Todays "controlled" situation could be described as having copyright wars, struggling with unproducible rules, having a manner of competitive behaviour, accepting the no fair use and watching wrong people having success on creators expends.

Lawrence Lessig is looking forward to clearify the copyright situation and said that we should have a transparent creativity, free sharing and "create like it's 1790". His examination with copyright has the conclusions:
1. Creativity and innovation always builds on the past
2. The past always tries to controll the creativity that builds on it
3. Free societies enable the future by limiting the past
4. Ours is less and less a free society

The copyright, as it was defined, exists not anymore because the real differentiation between constitutional law and exploitation right is lost.
The relation between creator & producer/seller and producer/seller & user is mistaken. The producer/seller pays a sum of money to the creator which is mostly under the value of the work. After that the production company duplicate e.g. digital music samples for almost no costs and sell it the client. The client pays for the exploitation right and not for the real value of the subject. Nowadays, in the age of a fast developing technology, the company becomes scared that they will loose their clients because duplication becomes easier than ever. But I would say that now the same happens to them (producer/seller) as they've done to the creators. Therefore they try to find solutions to stop this "negative" development by controlling the users' rights. The user is extradited by the producer/seller (no freedom) but not for a long time anymore. The producer/seller is an obstacle for the creator and the user. In future both won't need this kind of "big middleman" anymore - instead of there could be a "little middleman" which is just a real agent and just "hand over" the creation for the creators advantage.
Besides this system of Copyright there is been developing a young system as good alternative: Creative commons. The user is allowed to copy or copy and advance something with the duty to name the author of the original.
(All kind of systems, as e.g. OOE and the people being dependent on their own ambition and active participation, will maybe change the world of money to a life with less cashflow (as in earlier times (bartering))).