Copyright law and policy is of great interest to me. I took a class at FSU which included quite a bit about copyright and it's really amazing to me that more people are not getting sued for violations of copyrighted materials. For instance, we had an instructor who would bring in the DVD "Office Space" to show for his students on the last day of his class - not that he had any kind of license to broadcast it. Other people use different items they have "borrowed" from others out on the web - Disney characters, etc. - and create bumper stickers and window decals, seeing nothing wrong with doing this. It would seem that the prevailing attitude is one of "everyone else is doing it..." which always leads me to "... and if everyone else was jumping off a cliff..."
As far as DRM goes, I can understand why groups like RIAA would be in favor of it, as they see a need to protect their bottom line financially and to a lesser extent to protect the artists they claim to represent. However, having seen their absolutely absurd tactics for prosecution - the countless stories of people who cannot afford to fight back being targeted for alleged file sharing more details available here - as well as the issue of embedding spyware in the DRM code - as Sony has done - I would have to say I'm against DRM as it is currently used. While I don't disagree that the creator of the work should be protected. I do find it hard to believe there is a noticeable decrease in sales due to p2p file sharing as there is no firm data either way.
There has to be some sort of a happy medium where people can get the item they would like in a manner which least inconveniences them. On the other hand, the developer of a piece of music or a cartoon character should not have to worry about protecting rights or getting compensation for the creation.
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