Is ACTA, the reprise of the Statute of Anne (to favour a beholden Stationers’ Company for the ulterior purpose of suppressing sedition), the proper future for mankind’s culture, or the last and futile reinforcement of an unethical 18th century anachronism, a cultural yoke?

Are we beginning to see a new enlightenment, a recognition of the corruption and injustice of copyright, or the last glimpses of the enlightenment that could have been but for new repressive laws that enable the censorship of dissident websites, and disconnection of dissidents, critical of, inducing infringement of, or infringing copyright – on accusation alone¹?

Just how powerful do you want corporations to get? To be at least equal to, and ideally superior to, human beings? To have control over mankind’s culture? To have control over mankind’s technology? To be so enriched and empowered that they have control over ‘democratically elected’ governments and tax funded infrastructure and services?

If you think that people should not only come first, but that legislatively created and privileged entities are an abomination, then a first step would be to at least stop believing in one of their unnatural powers, their privilege of copyright, to instead recognise our human and natural right to copy, as derogated by copyright from our cultural liberty. Once you’ve recognised the cultural liberty that copyright has taken from us you can then understand why it should be restored, in the interim by copyleft licensing, and ultimately by copyright abolition.

Some artists, even some lawyers, have begun to question copyright. Here’s a short video showing some of them, who’ve most recently dared to voice such questions:

Walking on Eggshells: Borrowing Culture in the Remix Age from Brendan Schlagel

From Maria Popova’s blog article Remix Culture Spotlight: Walking on Eggshells .

See also: Art Outlaws Without Lawful Reward.
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¹ It doesn’t even have to be copyright related. Given an evidence-free pretext these laws can be used to excommunicate any site or anyone, e.g. those facilitating the means to reveal the state’s corruption – ask Julian Assange of WikiLeaks.