I agree that copyright owners have rights. But what you're missing in your response is the fact that these rights are limited. And their limits are very specifi

I agree that copyright owners have rights. But what you're missing in your response is the fact that these rights are limited. And their limits are very specifically outlined by the law. When it comes to their works, copyright owners have the right to block reproduction (e.g. making a copy), adaptation (e.g. turning a book into a movie version), distribution (e.g. selling copies), public performance, and public display. That's it. And there are even some important exceptions for Fair Use, too. They can't block other things. There is no law granting them the power to do so. For example. they can't stop me from talking about a copy of their work. They can't stop me from analyzing the copy. They can't stop me from learning from it. From describing it. From memorizing it. From looking at it whenever I want. From extracting lessons from it, or extracting patterns from it. Or from hiring a friend or a company to do these things for me. Or from writing a computer program that does these things. Etc. It's perfectly legal for me to browse the web, look at copyrighted images that my browser has downloaded, study them, consider the patterns and techniques within them, and then re-use these same or similar techniques to create new art, so long as it's not so close to the original that it counts as a reproduction or adaptation. There is no power granted to copyright holders to limit my ability to do this, nor should their be. This kind of inspired learning is the engine of societal creativity. Copyright was not created to kill this. Copyright was created to help artists profit from their exact work and its likeness, not to capture, own, and profit from inspiration that springs forth from the rest of society. Yes, I get why it sucks for artists that the technology now exists for computers to also engage in the above process. But I still don't think we should be modifying or creating laws to stop that. Artists can adapt their business models, just like people in every other field when tech starts to compete. The world will be fine.