I think that after reading quite a few of the very anti-copyright posts above, I took an overly negative reading of your post - which reading it again is not the case.

On most levels I think that we pretty much agree with each other, we're just coming at it from slightly different points of view. However, I think that you're confusing copyrights with patents to an extent.

Copyright isn't meant to help creators at all, except in an incidental manner. The goal of copyright is to promote the progress of science, which consists of 1) causing works to be created and published that otherwise would not have been, and 2) having any restrictions on the public with regard to those works be as minimal and as short-lived as possible.

The above is the purpose of patents - to ensure the progress of science by ensuring that works are created and published such that they end up in the public domain after a period of time. This, as it turns out, is in many ways the opposite of what copyright was designed to achieve.

Copyright law as we think of it now, came into being in 1710 in England. At that point, it was intended to protect an author's 'natural right' to benefit from his works first, and for the work to be placed into the public domain second. This came into being as both a reaction to the monopolistic practices of the Publisher's Guild (the Stationers' Company) at the time, and as a response to the unregulated copying of texts at a time when printing was seen as a threat to monarchy.

When the Statue of Anne was passed in 1710, the right to have exclusive control over the publication of a work was moved from the Guild to the Author, and a limit was placed (initially 14 years plus 14 years) on how long that right would last. There was no mention of the limit existing for the good of the public - it would seem that the view was that after that exclusive right had expired, other people should be able to make money from it as well.

None the less, I think that we're mostly on the same wavelength here - especially when it comes to the point of view that copyright as it stands is in sore need of reform.