Your average slob doesn't really know a whole lot about how "intellectual property" works. Some people think they know something about it, but most of them are wrong. So I'm going to explain to you, in broad strokes, the intricacies of modern intellectual property law.

It's helpful to picture copyright and trademark law as a large, splintery two-by-four board with a rusty 6-inch nail sticking out of it. This board is wielded by powerful, monied interests to strike ordinary people like you and I in the face so that we learn to SHUT THE FUCK UP and only say things that don't offend the wealthy and the strong.

But perhaps that's too strong a metaphor.

Instead, let's picture intellectual property laws as the bars out of which powerful media and manufacturing companies can build an impenetrable cage. And in that cage, they can place the very culture that you and I helped create, the very culture that we live in and through which we express ourselves every day. And with our culture safely locked away in this cage, they can then charge us money to look at it, and we'll thank them for the privilege.

It reminds me of something a smart lady once said: "They cut down all the trees and put 'em in a tree museum. Then they charged all the people a dollar and a half just to see 'em."

[Irony Alert: because I didn't properly credit that last paragraph, I probably violated copyright just then...]

My point is, copyright has been highjacked by powerful commercial interests so that today, instead of being a series of protections aimed at fostering creativity, it's a way of placing ideas in jars and hiding them away from view. It's not only wrong, it's impossible. You can't put a leash on an idea any more than you can catch a person's soul in a cookie tin. Sadly, that won't stop The Powerful from wreaking havoc trying to do just that.

So today, while you still can, I invite you to visit a little art project called "Illegal Art."
illegal-art.org :: a project of Stay Free! magazine

Here are some other copyright resources. Edu-ma-cate yourself!
A Timeline of U.S. Copyright
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)
Lawrence Lessig, the Big Voice of copyright common sense
Creative Commons, a sensible and more responsible form of liscensing