When the automobile was invented, big cities got in trouble with the street sweepers unions because the new technology was wiping out their cash cow... horse manure cleanup.
EVERY TIME a new technology emerges, the old lines, the old technologies it threatens, try to come up with ways to assure their survival.
© used to mean no copying for commercial use. You could not copy someone else's materials for resale, as the originator's income was from the sale of that material. Fair use, like we practice here on free republic, has come under attack. Running a copy of a tape off for your mom to listen to was legal, as long as you did not sell her or your friends, for that matter the tape...
The idea that digital could be copied EXACTLY was supposedly the excuse for initiating the digital copyright act. Instead it is being used to attack sites like freerepublic, and folks who remix their own cd's into "compilations" for themselves or family members.
In a word, the old exceptions for fair use and enjoyment, (which is a part of the fair use doctrine) is NOW being deconstructed. Freerepublic is under attack over "reconstruction of the meaning of "fair use" by the powerful media companies who fear it's content, and the reviews that are parcel to that "fair use" of their articles.
As soon as everyone recognised that informaton was the currency of the emerging economy... they had to do something to restrict its flow... would not wan the unwashed masses to have "free access" to the hard currency of the next millenia now would we.
YOU used to be legally able to copy a portion of several recordings, from your albums to tape, for personal or friendly enjoyment. It was the law and established precedent. This digital copyright law, is designed to undo what has been established case law in the usa, under the guise of digital materials being more accurately and easily reproduced than the analogue albums of yesteryear.
Really its all about greed, and control of information and charging folks for access to what they need, and often the very thing they THOUGHT they purchased to begin with.
Shame on the old line media moguls. Shame on them all.