Reddit reviews Rethinking Copyright: History, Theory, Language

I doubt you know what the original idea or intent was. Here's a hint, copyright was not created by the founding fathers and in fact none of them where alive when it all started.

If you're thinking about how it supposedly helps artists then you've been brainwashed by the constant bombardment of advertising (which started hundreds of years ago right along side copyright). Copyright is to help publishers not artists. It was never about artists. Copyright has always been about publishers and censorship (that's not hyperbole, it literally started as censorship).

If you want to learn more about copyright you could check out:

Against Intellectual Monopoly (which has an obvious bias, but factual history lessons)

Rethinking Copyright is a little less biased, but a good read.

Copyright in Historical Perspective is a fair historical work done in the late 60s. It's very informative and not biased.

I'd recommend reading any of them. The first is free on the website I linked and the others can easily be pirated if you don't like the price.