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Originally Posted by Ralph Sir Edward
You're looking through the wrong end of the telescope. The public domain is the natural state of creation.
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There is no "natural state of creation." Public domain is a legal construct, and as such it's every bit as "artificial" as copyright.
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Originally Posted by RSE
That creation was premised upon the good of the public, not the good of the creators.
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Here's the opening statement of the Statute of Anne:
Whereas printers, booksellers, and other persons have of late frequently taken the liberty of printing, reprinting, and publishing, or causing to be printed, reprinted, and published, books and other writings, without the consent of the authors or proprietors of such books and writings, to their very great detriment, and too often to the ruin of them and their families: for preventing therefore such practices for the future, and for the encouragement of learned men to compose and write useful books....
The origin of copyright was not to provide for the public good, but to protect authors and their families from getting ripped off. It was imposed by the monarchy, not graciously provided by the people.
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Originally Posted by RSE
In the end, though, you can make any law you want. People will only follow them if they are perceived to be fair and just.
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Unfortunately I can't respond fully to this, because that would veer way too much into P&R territory. That said....
People will pirate, period. Music has been available DRM-free, at reasonable prices, in open formats, by several vendors for years -- and it's only legal actions like shutting down Limewire that make small dents in piracy rates.
It's also screamingly obvious that most of the content that's pirated nowadays is far less than 28 years old. What do we see at the top of The Pirate Bay's charts? Adele, Bobby Ocean (a brand new release), Drake, Coldplay, Chris Brown, Linkin Park, LMFAO, the UK Top 40 for 17-06-2012. Almost nothing was published prior to 1984. All of it is available DRM-free at a reasonable price.
Is this what the protest against excessively long copyright terms looks like? Today's Top 40? What grand injustice are these people allegedly protesting, by downloading the entire Rihanna discography?