Copyright? Copywrong?

Only one thing is impossible for God: To find any sense in any copyright law on the planet. - Mark Twain

Oxford Dictionary definition of copyright -

• the exclusive and assignable legal right, given to the originator for a fixed number of years, to print, publish, perform, film, or record literary, artistic, or musical material:  
  he issued a writ for breach of copyright making an unauthorised copy would infringe copyright [count noun]: works whose copyrights had lapsed
• [count noun] a particular literary, artistic, or musical work that is covered by copyright.
  
  As Mark Twain says, not even God can determine whether copyright is good or bad, or when copyright is overstepping the mark into controlled madness.
  Copyright has become more of a problem in more recent years due to how easy it is to share files through broadband and new modern interest into remixing original files. 
  
  Copyright policies need to not only secure artists wants but to also give enough 'breathing sapce' to encourage and flourish creativity. A good website i found http://copyright-debate.co.uk/
  has great articles written about copyright.
  
  Copyright on the one hand is a good way of preserving the rights of the owner. The owner can protect their work from being copied or re-used, otherwise all the work they've done, all their time committed to it, is in a way wasted. I can imagine if i took months maybe even years on a song, so many of my ideas and emotions put into it, for it to then to fall into someones hands to remix or re-release without my permission could be devastating. Therefore, i believe it is a necessary law. 
    
  However, as some people believe copyright can hold back creativity. Using others ideas and expanding can be a real step forward but with tight restrictions, it's not always possible. On the other hand, I do believe if people want to be creators or artists they must come up with their own original material. As in the music industry lately, there is so much money going into remixes of songs, that i find it is getting a tad monotonous. I'm in favour of old songs being brought back such as mine and a friend's favourite 'Show Me Love' by Robin S, made in 1993:

 Then in 2009 it was remixed and released by Steve Angello and Laidback Luke:

 

I'm all in favour of artists remixing and re-releasing old songs, as it's great that old songs can live on. However, there has to be some kind of clearer boundary with copyright. The amount of new artists remixes has grown into an overload, if you search for one song on YouTube or iTunes you'll find so many different variations of the song. What has happened to originality?

There has also been so much criticism about the laws of copyright with so many companies being sued over copying original material that there must be a clearer understanding. 

Film and music industries have reportedly been campaigning against websites such as PirateBay that share films and music, wanting them to be shut down. However, there hasn't been much progress as shockingly only 27% of BAFTA winning films are available online to rent or purchase, plus with 29% of the best British films and with the price of downloads higher than DVDs there is no wonder why people are still using pirate websites. www.openrightsgroup.org is great website for copyright articles, which is where i took these statistics from.

Due to the huge development of technology so much material can easily be accessed, used and abused. Despite many students in my group deciding they're against copyright, I am all up for it.