Comment Re:Intractably horrible. (Score 1) 354
>How should copyright holders enforce their rights?
A sure way to avoid the enforcement of rights is not to produce the work that requires the enforcement.
Bear with me here for a second. The "Happy Birthday" song is under a copyright and any public performance of over 6 people requires a payment of royalties and expressed permission under the current copyright law. Now, your question is still valid, "how can a copyright holder enforce?" Guess what, technically the copyright holder can deploy agents at every playground at every restaurant to see if anyone sings Happy Birthday, or hums along (which requires a license for derivative work). That's the only way, but realistically it shows how broken the copyright law is. The copyright law is the reason why most restaurants ditched singing Happy Birthday song. Are we really better off with that? What benefit to the society was achieved? Someone may say that "the composition work performed requires compensation" but the reason why Happy Birthday became popular in the first place is BECAUSE sharing was possible without complications with a compensation. That's how all knowledge was spread.