Copyright: Too strict or just right

All through the semester the idea of what it is to be an author has continually come up. The desire to find out what it does actually mean has led to many discussions about what plagiarism truly is and about the copyright laws that in my opinion plague this country. I do understand that for someone to produce a work, they have to be sure that that work stays their own and cannot simply be stolen and profited from by anyone out there. But where do these restrictions cause more problems than they solve? The strict copyright restrictions that are in place in the US are more of a hindrance than they are a protection. So many great things come from building off of the work of others. Whether these advances are in technology or music, sometimes the remix or advanced work is simply better. The works of those who sample are producing something very different and creative, although they are using the past work of well known artists. The work of these people do advance the music industry. But with the severe copyright laws out there, they either have to pay ridiculous amounts to artists to use their work, or have the fear that they will be sued for stealing the work of others. Also, when it comes to file sharing, I do not think that this is necessarily a bad thing. It allows the public to listen to and get a taste of music that they may never have thought of purchasing. And in the long run, do the already rich artists get hurt that much by the download of a few of their songs, or because a DJ has decided to remix their work. In a lot of cases I can’t help but feel that they do not get hurt by all of this as much as they at times claim to. My one thing is though, if they become too lax, would it hinder the production of new work because of lack of motivation?