Copyright Laws...lack of innovation

Recently many countries are passing copyright laws like Canada and Sweden that allow the government to check on the users files and activities and if they watch or have any copyrighted material they will be found guilty of violating Copyright Laws. (http://www.canada.com/calgaryherald/news/story.html?id=4564a92a-a437-42d9-8688-dd16f501144d)

The truth is the world is changing, and with it our laws must change. Nowadays sharing files and content is virtually costless and also impossible to stop. The revolution of information or the Information Age are on their way already, but it seems some old school politicians or what some authors will call "Industrial Age Politicians" want to stop this revolution by making any kind of sharing and copying a crime.

I share files over the internet and i don't consider myself a criminal. Being raised on the pure information Age i believe sharing content is the way to do things and not the "outlaw exception" of it. Making a profit from any kind of work is definitely the right of the authors and creators of things online, but now the internet is showing us many ways in which people can actually earn money from their work, but still make it free or almost free for people to get the content. I feel the real truth behind this is that some companies and businesses that profited on the media content they distributed are seeing a major threat in this new ways of sharing media. Hence, when you see a threat the natural response is to protect themselves and act. They are acting by promoting laws that make any distribution channel that is different from what they use illegal.

What should the response be?

I think that this laws are showing the lack of innovation this companies have. And since there is a lack of innovation i believe there is a opportunity for innovators to kick in and start making new ways of making things. Naturally there are some already, since this has been happening for more than 5 years now. The way change things is for us to proof to politicians that Authors can benefit from new media channels such as the "Internet Channels" (Revision3 or NextNewNetworks, for example) or by using sites like Myspace to promote their bands. Or even post a blog with their music videos that profits from the ads on the site.

There are many ways of making money and still delivering free content to users. I think that this so called "copyright war" will end with the innovators winning. Maybe the same companies that are afraid now will become the key innovators in some time, maybe not. The truth is that the ones who innovate and also the ones that communicate this innovations to politicians will make a change once and for all.

I am fully conscious that change may hurt and that it is a problem that is not easy to solve. But, i also feel we have the capability of thinking of new ways to make the money get to the authors while the content goes around the world. I hope in the near future we can come out with far more innovations that will lead to all the content be released online for free or almost free, but that will still make the authors profit with it.

I also think maybe a good solution will be to ask people to pay the price they feel is the correct prize for a item or piece of information. At first this may seem like stupid, but this will actually take advantage of all the demand curve out there (to put it in economical terms) so people who can pay 1 dollar will do so, but also people that can pay 20 will do so, so the profits will maximize.

Well this subject is far from over, and this are just some thoughts on it.

The question is still open for the future of copyright laws . What's next?