There is no balance; there never was a balance. Have you ever read any of the copyright "agreements" offered to artists and writers? There are for _all_ rights. That means, if you're a musician, and you sell a song to a record label, you _must_ pay for playing your song every time you do so. Yes, even though you created it, you can't play it without paying. If you are a writer and sell a story, you can't write a sequel, prequel, or or work using the any of the characters or settings without giving (that's correct, giving) it to the publisher. And in the US, you can be sued if you don't.
Copyright was never about balance. It's about creating a monopoly for the copyright holders, the big money companies. And by monopoly, it means that big money can force the creators to accept whatever pittance they're willing to give to the creators. Creators do _NOT_ benefit from copyright, only big money.
Copyright: just say no.
And people wonder why I'm against all forms of copyright. There is no way to fix[1] copyright to prevent insanity like this from happening. Copyright: Just Say No.
[1] Unless by fix, you mean neutered.
Get rid of patents. And get rid of copyright while you're at it.
Both patents and copyright create artificial monopolies and stifle any improvements. The sooner we are rid of them, the better off we'll all be.
Now all we have to do is get a world without copyrights and patents.
Fixed as in neutered or splayed? Sounds good to me. :D
The problem with patents is that they're relatively easy to get and difficult to get rid of. It is this simple fact that allows them to grow and encroach on areas that the legislators could not envision when they created the laws. Resetting patent law back to what it should be will not stop this behaviour. It will just come back sooner or later (most likely sooner). The only way to stop patents from stifling innovation is to get rid of it completely. Patents: just say no.
Don't forget the sewage cap. You can only flush a limit amount of crap every month. if you go over, you have to pay more, a lot more.
"It mostly involves user submissions of pictures of women, along with generally mean commentary from the user -- and then maybe a short comment from the site's owner."
The site's owner is responsible for his comments and they are not exempt under section 230.
True but if ratified, big content will use it as an excuse to reintroduce SOPA/PIPA-like legislation, claiming it is absolutely necessary to be compliant with ACTA.
With all the American sites protesting SOPA/PIPA, there are few which have figured out what they actually mean. If they get passed, then the US will be isolated from the rest of the internet. And for some strange reason, they think this will be a hardship for the rest of the world. Stop living in the 20th century. Since the crash of '08, the rest of the world has been trying to make up its mind whether the US is that important anymore. And most are thinking it's not. It would be ashamed if they were passed but if they are, say hello to backwater USA.
"It doesn't sound like things are that bad these days in Hollywood. So why do we need massive legal changes again?"
So the content providers can control the internet.
There is nothing wrong with DMCA. Currently it allows anyone in the US to remove any content from the web just by posting a notice, exactly what the big-content companies want. Well, not completely. It is still too reasonable priced; it allows little companies to take down big-content sites too but, don't worry, they going to change that soon. ;)
Putting the internet under the control of a small group just makes it easier for the 1% to get their greedy hands on it. The internet will better serve the People if it remains the way it is, distributed.
There are plenty on DRM-free music and videos available on the internet to fit any tastes (and some are exceeding tasteless for those who like bland :)). I haven't listen to music from the record labels in years. There is plenty of other selection.
DRM: just say no.
Why don't they just plea guilty and end it right there?
Everyone should do what they can to stop software piracy. Use only FLOSS. Since it's free, it can't be pirated.
If anyone refuses cash, then they forgive the debt.
Baen Free Library has been doing this for years. Jim Baen firmly believed offering free ebook downloads of popular books increased sales of real books.
See http://www.baen.com/library/
How can the US government be so stupid about the internet. At one time, DNS resided on servers because they were the only things big enough for it. But today, even a MP3 play has enough capacity to host DNS. There is nothing to stop everyone from downloading and running a personal DNS, with multiple sources from anywhere in the world. All this censorship does is put more power in the hands of the people.
Re: Just Say No
I find that many writers and artists completely ignore two markets: eBay and craigslist. They still want a middleman even with ebooks. In the new world of epublishing, you have to do your own sales or you're just as likely to get screwed as with traditional outlets. :(