I am going to be a contrarian here. The significance of the issue is overblown.
Copyright does not meaningfully harm creativity. Sure, you can't publish your Harry Potter fanfiction. But you can borrow all the themes you want from it. Magic schools, mysterious back-stories, dark lords and flying brooms can't be copyrighted.
Moreover, Disney cannot prevent you from using Pinocchio, Little Mermaid and the rest of the public domain stuff they have used.
>Sure, you can't publish your Harry Potter fanfiction
There is an enormous amount of Harry Potter fanfiction. You're restricted from selling it though. But, as an author of twilight fanfiction proved, when you're ready to sell you can just find and replace some names and be good to go.
Copyright has distorted our culture since its inception. Artists subconsciously self-censor their work because in todays culture remixing, adapting and reusing other art is classified as theft. Whole industries which heavily depend on copyright would not be the same as they are today. Maybe copying and sharing would be seen as something natural, as something good.
Many TV shows in the 1990's and 2000's were iconic, here in the U.S. They didn't purchase the rights to include the music -- which had its own selection, err "casting" and was central to the shows -- in retail copies (VHS tapes, DVD's, etc.). And the eventual owners of the shows didn't want to pay to acquire those rights for those formats. Or for the streaming versions; I can think of at least one prime example on Netflix (yeah, a pun).
As a result, we can't view those shows in their original, and as I described, iconic, format -- or sometimes, at all -- except haphazardly on syndication or through piracy.
I mean, shows that e.g. everybody would sit down at home and watch on Monday evening.
Tell me that doesn't have a cultural impact. As just one example.
Copyright is in serious need of reform. You're granted a limited monopoly, not total, perpetual control -- nor the right to remove what were public, cultural objects from public discourse.
Something similar is at risk with regard to the news and other reporting. Watch copy vanish from the Web. At a minimum, there need to be modern libraries of such content where access is guaranteed. It represents the continuity of our history.
Copyright does not meaningfully harm creativity. Sure, you can't publish your Harry Potter fanfiction. But you can borrow all the themes you want from it. Magic schools, mysterious back-stories, dark lords and flying brooms can't be copyrighted.
Moreover, Disney cannot prevent you from using Pinocchio, Little Mermaid and the rest of the public domain stuff they have used.