Criticism of copyright

The symbol of Kopimi, an anti-copyright initiative developed by the Piratbyrån, a Swedish organisation actively opposing modern copyright law and practices, and the previous operators of BitTorrent tracker The Pirate Bay, before it was spun off as an independent organisation

Criticism of copyright, or anti-copyright sentiment, is a dissenting view of the current state of copyright law or copyright as a concept. Critics often discuss philosophical, economical, or social rationales of such laws and the laws' implementations, the benefits of which they claim do not justify the policy's costs to society. They advocate for changing the current system, though different groups have different ideas of what that change should be. Some call for remission of the policies to a previous state—copyright once covered few categories of things and had shorter term limits—or they may seek to expand concepts like fair use that allow permissionless copying. Others seek the abolition of copyright itself.

Opposition to copyright is often a portion of platforms advocating for broader social reform. For example, Lawrence Lessig, a free-culture movement speaker, advocates for loosening copyright law as a means of making sharing information easier or addressing the orphan works issue[1] and the Swedish Pirate Party has advocated for limiting copyright to five year terms.[2]

  1. ^ Larry Lessig (March 1, 2007). "Larry Lessig says the law is strangling creativity". ted.com. Archived from the original on October 21, 2019. Retrieved February 26, 2016.
  2. ^ "Swedish "Pirates'" Call for IP Reform Spurs Global Interest". Intellectual Property Watch. September 4, 2006. Archived from the original on September 3, 2018. Retrieved September 3, 2018.