You're framing this as being harmful to the original creators of these works, but I'm not sure I can understand that, since the original creators have/had full control over their copyrights.
If a creator only desired widespread distribution, they could do it by explicitly putting their works into the public domain, or by only selling time-limited exclusive copyright licenses.
So why don't they do that?
(My take is that it's because they would rather try make a living by selling/leasing their copyrights, and perpetual copyrights are worth more money than limited ones.)
If a creator only desired widespread distribution, they could do it by explicitly putting their works into the public domain, or by only selling time-limited exclusive copyright licenses.
So why don't they do that?
(My take is that it's because they would rather try make a living by selling/leasing their copyrights, and perpetual copyrights are worth more money than limited ones.)